Re-living Jurassic Park: A book review and comparison with the 1993 film

This week I decided to do a book review of Jurassic park by Michael Crichton. I know reading may not seem an obvious creative venture, but I think it is. When you read an amazing book, you are creating a personal movie within your head. Depending on story and genre you can be transported into a different time, a different world or even a differing perspective. Yet the wonderful thing about reading is that even if we read the same book, we all create differing images. That is why reading is such an amazing journey, it’s personal and yet still can be a shared experience with other people.

So… Jurassic park. Most people will have seen the films. Which are still some of my favourites, despite the first one being released the year I was born! However, regardless of my love for the films, I haven’t always been an avid dinosaur lover. In fact, it’s only been the last few years that I’ve been able to walk through the dinosaur section at the natural history museum without terror. Yes, a little childish, but ironically, I think I watched Jurassic Park a little young and it scared me for that long. Hilarious now that I think about it!
Anyway, I have been trying to read different genres for my own book and about 2 weeks ago I randomly found Michael Crichton’s book in Waterstones. I thought, ‘why not’ and wow I was in for a happy surprise. It was like watching the films for the first time, but better and with more information. There are much more dinosaurs, attacks, science and tension. Overall, I would highly recommend it.

Spoilers below, stop if you don’t want to know some outcomes from the book.

     

The book starts with a family finding a secluded beach in Costa Rica, where unknown to them, small dinosaurs (compy’s) have taken up home. Their daughter gets attacked and the ball starts rolling from there. This is very similar to the start of the second film: The Lost World. At the same time we follow a doctor in Costa Rica who is getting suspicious about the number of animal attacks occuring, offshore and inland.
After this the science jumps in with a small dino sample (compy) being sent to labs for identification. No-one knows what it is and so finally the x-ray gets faxed to Palaeontologist, Dr Alan Grant and palaeobotanist graduate student Ellie Sattler. This links directly to a call from Hammond who lures them into visiting the park. If you’ve seen the film this is very similar, but within the book it is more in-depth and it’s interesting to be within Grant and Sattler’s excited heads.

Once they all arrive at the park, everything goes smoothly for the first 1/3 of the book. However, despite the relative peace, there is a constant undertone of tension. The waves of warning that something is coming.
The first thing that really caught my attention was the variation in how the park was perceived. With the book being able to explore a lot more characters in depth, you get to understand the perspectives of the workers, the scientists, the owners, and the visitors. Hammond (owner) and Wu (geneticist) view the park and its animals as commodities. Wu even admits to upgrading the animals like software, each new batch with a different number code (e.g. version 4.0, 4.1, 4.2). This is surprisingly uncomfortable as they are fictional animals. Alongside this, the human arrogance is even more extreme in the book. It’s not that the workers are arrogant jerks, it’s the fact that they are 100% confident the park won’t fail. Particularly John Arnold within the control room. And when you don’t comprehend risks, you don’t put any decent contingency plan’s in place. For example, they assume all the dino’s are female and thus can’t breed, as such they only count the animals they should have, not even thinking there could be more, running around invisibly. This is all revealed wonderfully in the book – I will let you discover this yourself.  
This is also why the corrupt computer expert, Dennis Nedry is such a brilliant character. You know early on that he is planning something, but you don’t know exactly how or when he will execute it.  The not knowing, combined with reading the confidence of the other workers, makes each page tense. Speaking of Nedry his death was much more gruesome and descriptive in the book. Whether this is better, that can be up to you, but I certainly thought it added more tension.  

When the death blow does happen, and the park starts to go haywire this is where the real fun happens. The T-Rex attack on the tour cars is the first major action of the safety breakdown. But, what’s interesting is that the book follows an adult and a juvenile T-Rex, both of whom have a part in the bloodshed.  
Then we follow Grant, Tim and Lex’s journey through the park, where they try to get back to the visitor centre, completely unaware that madness is ensuing at the so-called safe haven that they want to reach. There is no power. No protection. No way to keep the raptors in.
As they trek through the park, they encounter many different animals, herbivorous and carnivorous alike, all of whom they have to sneak past. However, their constant enemy is the adult T-Rex. Who tracks them across the park and pops up at random times (he can even swim!). This makes for a fun journey. Especially as the kids really act like kids; mainly the 7-year-old Lex who plays-up when dangerous dino’s are close.

Grant is great, just like the films. He’s interesting, cautious and intelligent all rolled in one, however the big difference is that he likes the kids from the start.
Ellie Sattler and Ian Malcolm in the book are equally great, however Malcolm is more obnoxious and rants about a lot more science. Which I love!
Whilst Hammond, who meets his end at some point in the book, isn’t as lovable as you’d expect. He is blinded by his vision and blames everyone else for any failure, he even begins to resent the kiddies. Not the grandfather figure you see from the films.

The story ebbs and flows wonderfully and when it all seems like the park is safe once more, hell breaks loose again. The multiple raptor attacks are particularly fun and tense to read. You really get the sense that they are prime hunters and terrifying; I even had to make sure my bedroom door was closed before I continued with those pages. I wont spoil it all, but Grant has a particularly great encounter with a raptor hunting party in the hatchery; I don’t know how he could be so calm.
The end of the book is satisfying and yet still leaves you with a level of wonder and questions that I hope will lead into the second book: The lost world.
Overall, this is a fantastic book. It is by no means simple, but because of Crichton’s genius, you flow over the page making it an easy read.

Thank you for reading, I hope this inspires you to pick up that book you’ve been meaning to read or to have a go at a story you wouldn’t usually go for like I did. You may be happily surprised.

Happy Reading!