Customer Reviews

Jurassic Park

5 star:		(409)
4 star:		(98)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

This is an excellent story that combines very well science with action/adventure. The science involved is truly awe-inspiring and is easily understood, without being boring. The action scenes are harrowing and very thrilling. The characters are quite interesting (especially mathematician Ian Malcolm). It's probably my all-time favourite novel. Strongly recommended!

Very rarely, a bad book is written which is made into a better movie. Jurassic Park is such a book.

Science fiction is not a genre noted for strong characterization; usually, the science comes first, a workable plot comes second, and everything else is a distant third. Even by that standard, Crichton's characters are annoying at best. The computer genius is a total nerd, the attorney is an amoral lizard, and the industrialist could be easily replaced by a parrot which simply squawks "Bottom line" every 30 seconds. The scientists are, of course, merely humble, reverent seekers of knowledge and truth. With the exception of "Ian Malcolm", whose role in the book seems to be The Designated Smartass. Simply ignoring the flaws and getting on with the book is not an option - the personalities are so hollow, one dimensional, and stereotypical that enjoying any other aspects of the book is impossible.

The book is not totally without merit - the initial premise is interesting, and portions of the plot are somewhat imaginative. Nowhere nearly enough to save the book, however.

In short, an interesting situation, an unremarkable plot which has a few interesting twists, all of which is eclipsed by really *bad* characters.

This book combines drama and suspense with science and a certain amount of moralizing. The book's major premise-using the DNA of long extinct species-is clever because it is so believable and thus frightening. The book plays upon the idea that if one tampers with Nature's most sacred mechanisms, there will be a price to pay and dangers that one can neither anticipate nor accommodate. The idea of a Caribbean park featuring such resurrected creatures provides a macabre and riveting fascination. The book and movie have been out for a while but nevertheless, if you haven't read this, it is still a good read.

Great book- far superior to the movies. Has fun adventure and interesting science. No matter what you think of the movies, you should still read this book. My only problem with this book is Ian Malcolm: he goes on such long, annoying an pointless rants that I wish he would've been killed by a raptor in the opening chapter of the book.

This is a wonderful book. One of the best that I've ever read. As most people know, this book stayed on the bestseller charts for three months, one of the longest times in book history.
I saw the movie before I read the book, so it was hard to adjust to all the changes from the movie and the book. Almost everything is different. Lex is younger than Tim, the Dilophosaurus was 10 feet tall, there was a scene in the book with Pterodactyls, etc. All in know is, the book is better than all three movies combined.
One more word, the book has so much more interesting parts than the movie, so much more action, so much more fun, so much more enjoyment! :) Five well deserved stars!

A fabulous book. The movie was good, the book is better. Brilliantly written and his attention to detail is excellent. Recommend it to anybody. I actually understood DNA from reading it.

Sometimes, in reading science fiction books, readers get lost in the scientific mumbo-jumbo of it all. Other times, the story is the predominant feature and the scientific parts of the book are overlooked. Jurassic Park is one of the rare books that pleases both perspectives. While some of the ideas are far-fetched (what sci-fi book doesn't have those?), the story makes it all believable and entertaining at the same time. The book was so well-written that it puts the movie version to shame! Even Steven Spielberg (in my opinion) could not capture all the book had to offer. This is a quick read that could be completed in a weekend or over a few nights. This made me a Michael Crichton fan!

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.

I have always enjoyed reading books by Michael Crichton, and this one is no different. He does a great job of keeping the reader involved.
When agroup of scientists are invited to an island, they did not know the adventure that they would soon embark. When they arrived, they found a park full of creatures that were thought to be extinct. Yes..... they were dinosours. Created by an old millionaire, with a love for the monsterous creatures, the park was designed in hopes of eventually becoming a high tech zoo. The scientists loved the park, until everything started to go wrong.
All in all, this is a great science fiction book that is enjoyable for people of all ages. It's a great read that makes you want to keep going. You can never anticipate what happens next. This is, in my opinion one of Crichton's best works.

The read was better than sitting thru hours of the read!!!