Product Description

On a remote jungle island, genetic engineers have created a dinosaur game park. Drawing on all his bestselling talent and scientific brilliance, Michael Crichton has, in "Jurassic Park", written the most electrifying techno-thriller of our time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7390 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Unless your species evolved sometime after 1993, when Jurassic Park hit theatres, you're no doubt familiar with this dinosaur-bites-man disaster tale set on an island theme park gone terribly wrong. But if Speilberg's amped-up CGI creation left you longing for more scientific background and ... well, character development, check out the original Michael Crichton novel. Although not his best book (get a hold of sci-fi classic The Andromeda Strain for that), Jurassic Park fills out the film version's kinetic storyline with additional scenes, dialogue and explanations while still maintaining Crichton's trademark thrills-'n'-chills pacing. As ever, the book really is better than the movie. --Paul Hughes, Amazon.com

Review
The author of The Andromeda Strain again combined thorough scientific research with the thriller genre to comment on an issue that will soon affect everyone's life. Jurassic Park takes place on a remote jungle island over 24 hours, in which an unprecedented emergency threatens the world. The crisis is the result of genetic engineering and 'the headlong rush to commercialize' this dangerous area of science which sees the potentially devastating recreation of the dinosaur. A highly imaginative thriller. Was the inspiration for the blockbuster film by Steven Spielberg. (Kirkus UK)

Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone - a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research - it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and - most spectacularly - 15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters - who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power - and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos - ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs - stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980) - and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller. (Kirkus Reviews)

From the Publisher
In the future there are dinosaurs