Jurassic Park

Hardcover, 401 pages

English language

Published Aug. 24, 1990 by Alfred A. Knopf.

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4 stars (19 reviews)

The dinosaur is back on earth—alive, now. in Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park.

The story, told with an almost documentary verisimilitude, is an account of the attempt, through a hair-raising twenty-four hours on a remote jungle island, to avert a global emergency—a crisis triggered by today's headlong rush (virtually unchecked by any government or scientific watchdogs) to commercialize genetic engineering.

In Jurassic Park, Crichton makes brilliant and mesmerizing use of the unique amalgam of suspense and informed science (this time paleontology, biotechnology, and chaos theory) that he originated in The Andromeda Strain. Of all his superb scientific thrillers— all of them best-sellers—Jurassic Park is in every way the strongest. It is certain to be his most widely read, talked about, and unreservedly enjoyed novel to date.

67 editions

Different enough from the movie to be exciting

5 stars

A really well thought out and written novel! I love the movie and I loved this book but it's different enough that I find it hard to compare the two, it's easier to think of them as two different stories with some similarities. That said, many of the movie gotchas are explained in the book. Hammond, the creator of the park, could be a modern tech bro, he gets involved in popular, up-and-coming technology he doesn't understand, cuts corners everywhere to make more money, abuses his staff, avoids responsibility, and doesn't waste a single minute thinking about ethics. The starting chapters were quite frightening and left an impression with me, and we don't even find out about the park until further in! The author includes a lot of details about the systems, sometimes even including diagrams, which I found delightful.

Better that one of my favorite movies

5 stars

I’ve loved Jurassic Park by Steven Spielberg for as long as I can remember. I’ve hesitated to read the book, since I misunderstood it to be written after the film and not vice versa. That’s not the case though. About the book then: it’s fantastic. The whole seconds half you’re on needles, turning page after page. I like the style of Michael’s writing too. The movie and book differs in a few way, but story- and character wise. Hammond, which is quite likable in the movie, is what I imagine the Tech Bros of this decade when they’re in their seventies. Malcom is a bit much in the book, but becomes excellent in conjunction with the movie. I’m super happy I actually gave it a shot. My best read of this year, so far.