Author: Micheal Crichton
Plot:
A series of mysterious injuries and attacks begin to crop up in the little island paradise of Costa Rica. Amber, fossilized tree sap, is being bought up across the globe by a private collector. A secretive high tech theme park is under construction on a privately owned island. The man at the center of these suspiciously coincidental events is John Hammond, an eccentric millionaire, and CEO of InGen. a bio-genetics engineering company. These events come to a head when renowned paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, along with his colleague Ellie Sattler, a paleobotonist, are offered an exorbitant stipend by Hammond in exchange for their opinions on his new park.
Dr. Grant and Sattler, having no idea what is in store for them, take the offer, and are flown to the island with no delay. On the way, they meet two others who will also be reviewing the theme park: Ian Malcolm, a mathematician who specializes in chaos theory, and Donald Gennaro, a lawyer representing the theme parks principal investors.
Arriving on the island, everyone is in for a surprise when they discover the entire island has been converted into a high tech zoo- for living, breathing, dinosaurs. InGen scientist Henry Wu explains that he was able to extract DNA from prehistoric mosquitoes which fed on dinosaurs blood, but were then trapped and preserved in tree sap. Ian Malcolm predicts the park cannot be either controlled or safe, claiming that according to chaos theory, it is impossible to predict how a complex system, such as the park, will behave.
When everyone embarks on an automated tour, joined by Hammond's grandchildren, it becomes clear that Malcolm was all too right, as the park plunges into chaos, and everyone must struggle to survive in a land once again ruled by dinosaurs.
Opinion:
Easily one of my favorite books of all time, by one of my favorite authors. You've probably watched the movie- if not, I think the movie is a must see, just as this book is a must read. Crichton does an amazing job, as always, doing his homework before writing the book, so the science is believable and immersive. The characters are deep and varied, something that is hard to put into a movie. There are characters you will love to root for, and characters you'll love to hate. On top of all this, there are dinosaurs! The book is a momentous page turning thrill ride, and after reading it, you'll want to watch the movie again, so you can see the dinosaurs, and hear Muldoon (the game keeper) growl about the raptors "They should all be destroyed"
Who would like it:
This book does prose on about various aspects of science at times, so I would recommend that readers have at least some interest in science- that said, I believe a wide range of readers should enjoy this book as it also has genuine characters, smooth writing, and action.
Buy on:
Amazon Kindle
Amazon Paperback
Or the Movie (one of my favorite movies- I've probably seen it about 8 times)
DVD
BlueRay
The door locks, the door locks!
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