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: #10354 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

From the Publisher
In the future there are dinosaurs

From the Back Cover
On a remote jungle island, genetic engineers have created a dinosaur game park.

An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now one of mankind’s most thrilling fantasies has come true and the first dinosaurs that the Earth has seen in the time of man emerge.

But, as always, there is a dark side to the fantasy and after a catastrophe destroys the park’s defence systems, the scientists and tourists are left fighting for survival…

'Crichton's most compulsive novel to date'
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

'Breathtaking adventure... a book that is as hard to put down as it is to forget'
TIME OUT

'Wondeful... powerful' WASHINGTON POST

'Full of suspense' NEW YORK TIMES

Customer Reviews

Better than the Film
I can't watch Jurassic Park without feeling like we have missed out. And the reason is that, having read Michael Crichton's original book, the two simply don't compare.

The novel is a much darker, gruelling experience than what you've seen. John Hammond is not a nice guy, like Richard Attenborough's Hammond: he's a selfish, scheming shyster out to make a fast buck with a spectacular new show, and the consequences be damned. Not only is the mood different, half the content never made it to screen. The early foreboding where the dino numbers don't add up, who Lou Dodgson really is, what lurked on the boat heading for the mainland, Muldoon's efforts to tranquilise the T-Rex as it roams loose in the park. The journey made by Alan Grant and the kids is much longer and far more hazardous; a river journey (subsequently used in Jurassic Park 3) has the T-Rex stalking them from the opposite bank, and it is only Muldoon and Satlers' unknowing intervention that keeps them from being devoured in the shallows. Also missing is the aviary, under which the river runs and where the Pterodactyls have been causing havoc for the beleaguered construction crews employed by the park (used later in JP3). Presumably the film was stretched for time, but it would have been nice, all the same...

That's not all that's "new". The ensemble cast of characters is much more comprehensive, notably with Doctor Harding and Muldoon playing a larger part, as well as geneticist Henry Wu; and their actions in the story are sorely lacking on celluloid. Even the lawyer Genarro has far much more to offer and he is actually one of the heroes of the piece, not just another legal blood-sucker. Usually thrillers are too short to bond with characters much, but these people have depth, and you actually start to care what happens to them.

On its own merit this is a ripping tale of science, human failing and the power of nature, and ultimately of endurance and sacrifice. It is definitely recommended for holiday reading and is also pretty good for when those winter nights start to close in. So look for that loose change down the side of the sofa and pick up a copy; because this book will give you hours of enjoyable reading.

There's something scary in the bushes...
...and it's hungry! First of all, forget the saccharine, sanised Spielberg film as the book is very, very different. I read this book soon after it came out and was my first Crichton novel and it knocked me over backwards with a blast of stale air from T-Rex's bloodied maw! A heart-thumping, roller-coaster ride where mankind gets a real whipping thanks to his meddling and arrogance. And that is the moral of the story: don't mess with Mother Nature or she will kick your backside and ruin your day.

Sounds like the film? Don't fool yourself as there are two T-rexes and not 3 or 4 velociraptors as in the film but over 40. More importantly, more people get mashed and the pace is unrelenting and the book has a more claustrophobic feeling about it that is so utterly lacking in the film.

As with all Crichton books, there is the boring science bit at the beginning, but in this book the science is more accessible and he does a grand job of explaining evolution and the remarkable circumstances that gave rise to life in the first place. However, once the boffin bit is out of the way we can get down to the real blood and guts yarn of escape from an island infested with hungry monsters. This is real primeval nightmare stuff brought horribly to life and crashing through the undergrowth into the modern world.

Super Cool!
I really enjoyed this book. i read it after the 3rd film came out, and started my obssession with dinosaurs. The science is a little more complex than in the film and, although hard to understand, very informative. It also looks alot more closely at the relationships between the characters, esp ellie and grant, which was not at all portrayed in the film. Plus it gives you loads of info on dinosaurs. Definitely read it, and don't give up if you don't like it at first. Some books take a little time to get into. I'm just about to start on the Lost World!