Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton | 1990 | Ballantine Books | Paperback $ 9.99
An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now, one of mankind’s most thrilling fantasies has come true. Creatures extinct for eons now roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them — for a price.
Until something goes wrong….
My spouse is a big fan of Michael Crichton, and Jurassic Park is THE Dinosaur Story. So, of course this one had to go on my list for Classics Club. It’s one of the most recent titles on the list, first published in 1990.
This was a quick, fun read. I’ve seen the movie based on this book several times, and I was pleasantly surprised by how closely the film follows the original storyline. There are a few differences — mainly character deaths — but I think the changes were made mostly for cinematic storytelling reasons. The exception to this is the improvement of the single main female character; Ellie Sattler is barely-there two-dimensional eye candy in the book except for a single action scene and a couple of plot-furthering statements about plants, so her promotion to fully developed character with important shit to do and say in the movie is a big plus, IMHO.
But I do think the book is worth reading, even if you have seen the movie, mainly for the somewhat deeper exploration of the primary point-of-view characters’ unspoken motivations and the philosophical themes (e.g. idiot billionaires are bad; fucking with nature for funsies is bad).
I think we have a few other titles on our shelves by Michael Crichton; I’ll be adding them to my to-read list now, too.
Links:
- Official website of Michael Crichton
- Review at Kirkus
- Review at Publishers Weekly
- Obituary of author from NYT
Publication information: Crichton, Michael. Jurassic Park. New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1991. Print.
Source: Personal library.
Disclaimer: I am not compensated, monetarily or otherwise, for reviews of books or other products.
I’m glad you enjoyed the book. At the time I read the book, I didn’t really notice Ellie’s two-dimensional character. I wasn’t much of a reader back then, but I loved the movie so much (saw it in the theater 7 times) that I had to read the book. I do like the detail the book goes into and showing that dinosaurs were getting off the island via the ferry and swimming.
The movie still holds up so well after all these years; the practical effects were just brilliant.