every Thanksgiving. I'm not sure if that's completely true or a memory lapse, but I seem to remember that, and it works for purposes of this review. I've always loved dinosaur movies. I'd watch the cheesiest stop-action animation over the best "big lizards" in make-up any day.Michael Crichton's novel, "Jurassic Park," takes me back to those days. The dinosaurs in Crichton's books are not just animals, they are CHARACTERS. Characters with personality, with wit, with style, and you don't forget them easily. Especially in your nightmares, do you not forget them easily!
Crichton has been criticized, and somewhat rightly so, for his cardboard people characters, but in "Jurassic Park," you know each character; human and saurian alike!
It's a fast read. You can't help but wait to see what's going to happen on the next page! Yet, the book makes the thoughtful reader think a little more. When Ian Malcom discusses the theory of Chaos, the reader begins to think about the madness of life in this day and age, where random chance and inexplicable events seem to shape the fabric of existance. . .
Then Jurassic Park, in the story, comes apart. . .not unlike real life so often comes apart. . .and the reader is swept along on this roller-coaster ride of exquisite story-telling!
BUY IT. READ IT. CONSIDER THE IMPLICATIONS. . . just remember the words of the poet. . .
"there be tigyeres here. . ."
Rating: 
Summary: After all these years...
Review: This is still one of Crichton's best. We all know about the plot to Jurassic Park (if you seen the movie, then you know), but if you don't....then where have you been in the past 11 years?! Jurassic Park is about how cloning Dinosaur DNA (the construction of life itself) from mosquoties trapped in amber. So now Hammond; a rich successful man then comes up with an idea to bring back the dinosaurs and have them in a theme park for the world to see. It sounds nice, but as Dr. Grant, his associate Ellen both palenotiogist (excuse the spelling), Ian Malcom; a math wizard who tell's Hammond and the crew about Chaos Theory and how the park is going to fail. Now you also have the lawyer Mr. Gammond (in the movie he dies, but in the book he lives), and Hammond's grandkids Tim and Lex. We then meet Dennis Nerdy; a programmer who works in the control room constructing the security in the park, Mr. Arnold, another programmer who is overseeing the park itself. Then Mr. Wu; a scientist who clones the animals. Now the thing is that Mr. Wu tells the crowd that all of the dinosaurs are female so they cannot bread. But then Dennis Nerdy is the man in to grab the dino embroys to sell them to a man named Donson; both of them will be billionaries by selling the embroyos to coporations and so forth. With this Nerdy then SHUTS DOWN ALL THE POWER to the park so he can go in there and get the embroyo's which Dr. Grant, Tim, Lex, Dr. Malcom out there in the park looking at it. Then the T-Rex comes out and sideswipes one of the cars which Lex and Timmy are in. Dr. Grant then get's thrown in with them. So now they are in the park with the dinosaurs.
Nerdy then grabs the embroyos and tries to get to the docks with Dondon is. Except he is killed by one of the free animals.
So while the whole crew is trying to find him, they are stuck with no power! Now in the park, Dr. Grant, Lex, and Tim are trying to get back to the visiting center which is not a easy feat. They come across the T-Rex and raptors along the way. So now, Ian Malcom's Chaos theory is right. These animals are living in a different world, and they cannot be house-trained because that is not how God created them. Man brought back animals that were dead for 65 million years, and man didn't know how to contain them. That is pretty much the whole book in a nutshell. The action is GREAT! There is more scenes in which the movie didn't have, but just read the book and trust me it is worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: "Linden approved"
Review: Having been the first book I read by Michael Crichton, I must say I could only hope the rest of his books are on par with Jurassic Park.
Crichton truly wrote a page-turner having kept me thoroughly entertained from start to finish even having seen the movie. Unless you were born yesterday you have seen Jurassic park, and liked it. In short, a diverse group of inspectors travel to ambitious Dr. Hammond's island where they find the doctor decided to play god and take dinosaurs off the extinct species list. On the island they find themselves and Hammond's grandchildren in a slight predicament when Ian Malcolm's chaos theory takes effect, and the dinosaurs break free. Crichton devises plenty of colorful and outright brutal ways to bite the dust as the group encounters troubles in their efforts to get off the island to safety.
Unlike the book, the movie leaves many of the juicy details/entrails out for the practicality of viewer friendliness. With that said, the book Jurassic Park is delightfully gory, and more explicit. Several pages into the book you'll notice stronger plot and character building. In effort to not divulge all details I'll say that several major scenes are omitted from the movie such as baby-eating, chicken-sized dinosaurs found on another island other than the doctor's "Isla Nublar" subtly hinting at a sequel from the start of the book.
Jurassic Park was a great book that I would recommend to anyone looking for a culmination of action, suspense, and stunning realism.
Rating:
Summary: Jurassic Park is Just Perfect
Review: Jurassic Park is an exciting, fast paced novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Its descriptions along with its insightful information make this book a must-read book for people of all ages. Author Michael Crichton does yet another great job with what is now a bestseller.
How do you create an amusement park that promises a unique experience for all? Mr. John Hammond created a park that is beyond the dreams of every paleontologist. The park offers a glimpse at dinosaurs from the Mesozoic, Crustaceous, and Jurassic period. Ironically, this time it is the park that can't withstand the test of time. Dr. Alan Grant, famous paleontologist, his assistant, Ellie Sattler, and world-renowned mathematician Ian Malcolm are the first tourists to visit this amazing phenomenon. The park's intent was to provide a wild tour of extinct animals, but sand un-tethered. The three sometimes found themselves running for their lives rather than reveling in the splendor. With the dinosaurs roaming through the park, untamed, the group was in real danger, especially after encountering carnivorous dinosaurs like the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Velociraptor.
The plot of Jurassic Park is original and well thought out. Using the concept of DNA being preserved in mosquitoes, Crichton uncovers scientific theory like a literary puzzle. This book has twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat, as well as moments that will make you look under the bed for raptors. This book stirs up dinosauric curiosity for all who read it, adults or children.
The Jurassic Park plot, although the scientific detail is extremely in-depth, is tremendously written. Crichton describes these animals to us almost as if he has seen them himself. He also incorporates interesting mathematical and biological concepts that help the development of the story. You can tell by this story that Crichton is a dinosaur lover; knowing all about their habits and their habitat. He brings an extensive understanding of these extinct animals to the book, making it both interesting and informational at the same time. Is it possible to create a dinosaur world from mosquitoes trapped in ancient tree sap? Crichton makes believers of his audience.
This book gives the reader a passion for dinosaurs that has not been uncovered since childhood. Once this review is finished, it's time to begin the follow up sequel, The Lost World.
Rating:
Summary: As always people fail to see the point.....
Review: In the 15 years or so since the book and the movie were released, Jurassic Park as come under a lot of critisism for the weak story, CGI effects, and almost everything else that book and film critics seem to conjuire up out of shallow ness. The reviewers fail to see the point, and that is their problem, From the point of view of both scientists and people who like to see science explored more fully in movies and in books, Jurassic Park was a huge success, The kind of credible and yet intelligent look at how science can be used for the right or wrong reasons. I think if people just looked at the movie and read the book with a more open mind then they might see how good a story it is. Not look at five seconds of footage and then say Oh it's a terrible movie", or the book is boring. But in this age of the Internet/MTV and Video games, you are perhaps better off just watching this movie on PBS, where it's strongest support is now.
Rating:
Summary: As good as movie.
Review:
"Jurassic Park" takes place on Isla Nublar, an island off the coast of Costa Rica. This island is a mountainous region with jungles, large fields, rivers and rocky coasts. The actual Jurassic theme park is located on Isla Nublar.
There are a plethora of important characters in the book and Michael Crichton does a wonderful job in bringing them to life. John Hammond is a billionaire entrepreneur who comes up with the idea of creating a sort of dinosaur safari zoo. He then hires a group of scientists to develop a cloning technique that would bring dinosaurs back to life.After the park is complete and nearing its opening, John Hammond invites two dinosaur experts, Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler, and a mathematician named Ian Malcolm to take a tour of "Jurassic Park." Hammond also invites his grandchildren, eleven year old Tim and seven year old Lex. Dr. Grant is most likely the Protagonist The Antagonist character that creates havoc and eventually ruins the park is Dennis Nedry. He was the creator of Jurassic Park's high-tech security system, and he is payed by InGen's rival ,Biosyn, to steal some dinosaur DNA.
This book's conflict is Person Vs Nature. In order to escape the island, the characters must fend off prehistoric dinosaurs and over come daunting obstacles after Nedry turns off the electrical system to steal some DNA. This makes for an exciting action packed book.
The central idea of "Jurassic Park" is the Ian Malcolms prediction that the park would fail because nobody could control an extinct species that hasn't been on earth in millions of years.
I think that the author Michael Crichton wrote a magnificent book and that ,when reading the book, I noticed that he presented a powerful and interesting central idea fairly well. As I said, Crichton's central idea was very interesting and fascinating, but I had to think a bit before I realized the theme.This book was a very great book and I will most likely read it again. I was intrigued by the Chaos Theory section of the book.
This book is obviously the quintessential dinosaur book and for that reason alone, I believe it will be popular in years to come but this book was also well written and it impacted me in many ways. For one I have a lot more knowledge about dinosaurs, and I now know what Chaos Theory is and I think that it is very cool. This book was awsome.
PS. Read Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's "Relic" if you liked this book.
Rating:
Summary: Pure Genius
Review: I absolutely LOVED this book. It is easily in my top 10 books of all time. Why? Jurassic Park took a science fiction concept and made it almost nofiction. By that I mean, in order to read this book and COMPREHEND this book I had to read other books that were relevant to the subjects of genetics, animal behavior, biology, psychology, philosophy, etc. Incredible. Not often in this day and age can you read something that is suspenseful, entertaining as well as "up to date."
The movie, though great, does not give the book justice. The dinosaurs seemed more alive in the book than in the movie to me. The ONLY problem I had with the book was the "Ewok-Factor" concerning the main characters befriending a baby raptor. I personally cannot stand the raptors so the fact that I had to put up with a baby one for a few pages upset me. VIVA BARYONX!!!
Rating:
Summary: The thrill is never gone
Review: I have read this book at least 5 times, and I still love it. At the beginning of each reading, I feel as if I'm about to get on a favorite roller coaster: I have the same expectancy of excitement and the same confidence it will be a thoroughly satisfying ride.
John Hammond is a rich dinosaur enthusiast, with the ambition to create an amusement park featuring live dinosaurs. This incredibly persuasive man has managed to convine investors to give him a billion dollars, and he has enlisted the aid of scores of experts to help make his dream a reality.
Against all odds he succeeds and his Isla Nublar Resort is nearly ready to open. But he is behind schedule, his investors are nervous about rumors, and an EPA investigation has begun. Hammond is told he has to have independent site investigations of the island resort before he gets clearance to open.
For the first inspection he invites four people. Three of them: Dr. Alan Grant, paleontologist; Dr. Ellie Satler, paleobotanist; and Dr. Ian Malcolm, mathematician, were Hammond's consultants, but only worked on the edges of the project and do not know what Hammond has accomplished. The fourth visitor is the resort's computer system analyst, Dennis Nedry.
Hammond expects the experts to give his project a clean bill of health, but he hasn't counted on the lethal combination of arrogance, greed, and the deadly residents of his resort.
As thrilling a story as Jurassic Park is, it is more than a great ride. It has a brilliant theme, which is stunningly expressed in the story, and is even verbalized at one point by Dr. Malcolm.
Jurassic Park is a wonderful book to be enjoyed over and over again.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Read
Review: The movie was entertaining, but I never thought much about reading the book. The movie just never compelled me enough to hunt the book down. However, my friend loved it, and she shares reading interests similar to my own. I have a cold and didn't actually think I would finish with this book soon. Fooled myself. I fought the effects of cold medicine to finish this book. Dinosaurs still don't fascinate me, but the characters in this book did. The science behind creating something like Jurassic Park was interesting as well. But mainly, I really liked the characters and how they interacted with each other.
Each character only coincides with his or her book counterpart in the basest of ways. Hammond being the rich eccentric, Grant being the famed paleontologist, Malcolm being the pessimistic mathematician (he was a mathematician in the movie, too, right?) etc. The book presents new sides of the characters that make me see the characters in a different light. I believe that Hammond was foolish, almost to the point of idiocy, and early in the book, I could tell that I wasn't going to feel bad that his project was going to fail. In fact, I felt it was only right that his project DID fail. Hammond lacked common sense. He carelessly disregarded the warnings that his staff-notably Wu, Muldoon, and Arnold-constantly tried to get him to understand. No one had seen the likes of these creatures for millions of years, and yet, Hammond treated them like common animals, which proved to be his downfall (along with other non-dino related problems).
The story itself was compelling, intellengent, and even for someone who doesn't have an avid interest in things such as dinosaurs, this story pulls them in. In fact, sometimes, the dinos themselves aren't the main focus of the book (I know they weren't for me). I actually would rate this a 4.5, but it's definitely better than a four.
