Congo

Rating:
Summary: quite decent
Review: I enjoy how Micheal mixes tech. info and action, this novel is nothing like the movie, but it's quite good-Artman

Rating:
Summary: Ugh, so predictable. It's okay.
Review: The only reason I picked up Congo was because my friend and I and another friend were reading different books. The friend who was reading Crichton was being driven insane when my other friend and I were talking about our books, so we agreed to read each other's books. The deal included reading Congo, so I borrowed it. I liked Jurassic Park and the Lost World seemed okay, so I had expected an excellent read. And instead it's too predictable about the characters: pride goeth before a fall for Ross, Munro ends up making a profit even if he's a criminal, Amy goes wild, the expedition fails. I already figured out the fact that the people used gorilla guards, and that the gorillas used stone paddles. Some elements present in Jurassic Park and Lost World were here. Enough about the predictability. The book is full of suspense and mystery, and I even enjoyed the pages of prejudice about animals.(No exclamations of wonder, please, all you scientific-book-extract haters.) The book makes me feel as if Crichton is trying to tell us to wake up, animals are far more intelligent than you give them credit for. All in all, a good read, although not excellent.

Rating:
Summary: The best book i have ever read!
Review: I am 13 years old and I have read all of Michael Crichton's book's in the past year. He is without a doubt in my mind the best author whose book i have ever read. In the book Congo the suspense never ends, with every turn of the page you keep wandering what is going to happen next. Tanner Cook

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books ever
Review: I thought that Congo was one of the best books I have ever read. I think Crichton is the best author ever (Stephen King's the second). the book was exciting and I read it in one day. ijust couldn't put the book down it was so good. i think that Amy was an awesome character. I like how Crichton always blends science and heart-pounding suspence in one book.

Rating:
Summary: Unintentionally Funny
Review: As I was reading this ludicrous book, I actually burst out laughing at the description of the hybrid apes bashing people's heads using the implements as described in the book. Images of the 3 Stooges actually crept into my head. One of Crichton's worst; in fact, one of the worst books I have ever read in my life. I kept finding elements that were later to appear in Jurassic Park (the book), so it's almost like he was practicing in this one. The movie was a complete turkey; the best part is listening to Tim Curry's accent changing throughout the movie. Tim can do much better; he must have needed the money to agree to appear in that piece of garbage.....

Rating:
Summary: I thought the book was exciting, and very good to read.
Review: Only prejudice and a trick of the mercator projection prevents us from recognizing the enormity of the African continent." That is the opening line in the book Congo by Michael Crichton is about an eight person expedition to the Congo near the ruins of the lost city, where eight persons are brutally murdered by an unknown force. In Houston Karen is looking at the blurry images that the camera recorded trying to add some sunlight to the mystery. Amy a gorilla is being thought sign language by Elliot has started to draw strange drawings of an old forgotten city. Houston decides to send a new team to the Congo to investigate and find what the other team died trying to find before all heal brakes loose. I think that Michael, the author, wanted its readers to help save the rainforest because there are species of animals and plants that we haven't discovered. I also think that he wanted the readers to understand that there could be some other kind of energy source out there. I liked the way that the author filled every page of the book with mystery and action. Plus it was well written and it explained well what is happening in the story more completely.

Rating:
Summary: Thrilling technobabble
Review: This is one of the most technical books I've ever read. In fact, it is so technically written that I hesitate to recommend it--but I just can't help it. Chapters upon chapters of technobabble are hardly wasted because it just seems to be something blocking you from the good stuff--and this book has definitely got all the good stuff. Try as hard as you can to get into it and you'll be rewarded by an excellently written thriller that outdoes the movie in every way possible. If you like thrillers, you'll like Congo. If you like Michael Crichton thrillers, then you'll LOVE Congo.

Rating:
Summary: Michael's Best Book
Review: Having read all of Michael Crighton's work, Congo in my opinion is his best. Please do not compare Congo the book with Congo the movie - which was a hideous interpretation at best. I'm still scratching my head over Mr. Crighton's approval on that particular screenplay. The book is simply wonderful.

Rating:
Summary: Everything but the kitchen sink
Review: I found myself on vacation with no book...tragic. I remedied this with a copy of Congo.

As I read Congo, the story of diamond hunters in, yes, the Congo, I realized how much has changed since 1980. A cutting edge computer thriller, it has references pinball machines, five-inch floppies, 256Kmemory and portable cassette tape players. Yet it was also current, with its talk of DNA testing and the competitive threat of both the Japanese and Chinese in the world markets.

Congo has it all: competing international diamond hunters, the Congo, African pygmies, cannibalistic tribes, various warring countries and factions, lost cities of bygone centuries, active volcanoes, sign-language gorillas, geographic history, gorilla history, African and Congo history, a possible new species of gorilla with its own agenda, communications satellites, plane crashes, hot air balloons, and, well I'm sure I'm leaving something out. Michael Crichton's deft writing brings it all together for an enjoyable action romp that works....almost. If anything suffers in the book it is the characters. So much is packed into the story that the characters do not develop, and are almost relegated to following the action, which never ends. The author has to explain a lot to the reader so that we can follow along. He does this as the narrator and often includes it in character dialogue. So much information is presented as dialogue that I get the picture of very educated people, stuck in the Congo with killer gorillas and dead bodies, finally snapping and pummeling each other to the ground yelling, "Why are you being so redundant? I KNOW all this stuff!" The reader often won't, however, making it important but at times slowing the book down.

I wondered how this book could be made into a movie, and on a whim rented the 1995 thriller. The movie works by leaving a lot out (no cannibals, competing groups, and not even one African pygmy, among other things) and by breathing life into the characters and even introducing new ones. It does not do the book justice, but it does do what the book does not; it brings the characters to life.

Congo ends with a three-page reference of all the works Crichton studied and referenced in writing the book. It was impressive and shows his ability to take so much and make it work. Before this reference section was an epilogue explaining what happened to the books major characters when the adventure had ended. I found myself less interested in this and more interested in the reference list, as Karen, Peter, Munro and the rest never really impacted me, and were lost in a thriller that has everything but the kitchen sink.


Rating:
Summary: The movie did not do this book justice
Review: The film adaptation of this novel was criminal. Do not let that movie turn you off from this fantastic novel (my personal favorite from Crichton). The overall plot is the same: a research team disappears after an apparent attack by gorillas. A second team is dispatched to discover what happened and comes under attack from the same violent gorillas. Like other Crichton novels, this contains a lot of description and explanation of various sciences and technologies that surround the characters. Unfortunately, the technology is dated because of the 1980 publication date. Nevertheless, the action and suspense in this novel are first-rate. This was the first Crichton novel I ever read and it made me a fan instantly. I've read almost every Crichton novel since because of this book. This is one of those books you can't put down until you finish it. When you're done, you just want to read it again.