“Jurassic Park” is a science fiction novel written by Michael Crichton and published in 1990. Since its publication, it has taken the world by storm and has spawned a sequel novel, several animated television shows, numerous videogames, as well as seven movies with the newest one released in July.
The story follows paleontologists Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler as they are brought to an island off the coast of Costa Rica. John Hammond is a very wealthy man and with his company InGen, he has built a theme park with actual living dinosaurs.
Hammond’s grandchildren Tim and Lex accompany Alan, Ellie and a few others on a tour of the park. While on the tour a disgruntled employee turns off the security system and the dinosaurs escape from their enclosures.
The vicious dinosaurs rampage through the park and several people are killed. Most staff evacuate the island, but the main group is left behind. They have a final showdown with some of the dinosaurs as they await rescue.
The last survivors are rescued by the Costa Rican military as the island is bombed. As they recover, reports of strange animals come in from Costa Rica revealing that at least some of the dinosaurs managed to escape the island.
“Jurassic Park” was one of the first novels I read that wasn’t a requirement for a class. When I read it for the first time a few years ago I loved it. I had already seen the movie, but I got interested in the novel because I heard it was much scarier.
The novel certainly lives up to its reputation, as there are some seriously scary scenes and gross deaths here. I won’t get into too much detail, but the first death in the novel would shock even the most hardcore horror lover.
Without a doubt, “Jurassic Park” is my favorite novel. The dinosaurs feel more like a threat than they do in the movie. In the movie it usually cuts away from the deaths, but the novel describes them with all the gory details.
As a nerd, one of my favorite things about the novel is the use of graphs. Throughout “Jurassic Park” there are data tables, graphs and spreadsheet sections that allow the reader to see the data like the characters in the book are seeing it.
A specific example of this is when the characters use the computers to find out how many dinosaurs are on the island. There should only be a certain number, but the reader and the character feel the dread rising as they discover that there are far more dinosaurs than there should be on the island.
I really enjoyed “Jurassic Park” and I’m so thankful that it exists. Without it I don’t think people would have the same appreciation and understanding of dinosaurs.