• Title: Jurassic Park
• Author: Michael Crichton
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publishing year: 1990
• Number of Pages: 400
• ISBN: 0-345-37077-5
• My rating: 5/5

My thoughts:

A little over 26 years ago (feels like 65.000.000 years) I read Jurassic Park for the very first time! And I remember loving it! I was (sorry am!) a huge fan of the Jurassic Park movie franchise (okay, the third one was full of mistakes and not the best but I love it anyway) so these books (I’m counting The Lost World as well in this review, it’s my next book btw!) only prove to me how elaborate Michael Crichton was when writing these. The books differ entirely, but the are a fun source material! Elements from the first book are found in the movie sequels (T-Rex and waterfall, the aviary, the compys) so the first book remains the best inspiration for the movies!

As I said, the book differs completely so I will try from here on not to compare with the movie and I recommend, if you have seen the movie, to read the books as if they are stand-alones!!!

What I always like about Jurassic Park, which Crichton already did when writing Westworld) is how human arrogance always leads to disaster. Who in his right mind would create a park filled with the most dangerous animals, never before mixed with humans, and then put complete idiots in charge of it? Well, money buys everything, until everything goes upside down!
The first part of the book is a lot of talking about the science of how they created the dinosaurs, and I know not everyone will like this part because it is quite technical. Crichton did base his theory on papers written about the subject and in theory(!) the science can be done! (But finding dino-DNA and then filling gaps might not prove to be very successful at all)
I like this part and I find it necessary (and typical Crichton) for the book to build its momentum. And then when the sh*t hits the fan, we sit at the edge of our seat and see how mayhem unfolds!
I think it’s time I start reading its sequel and then rewatching the movies! A JP/JW-binge marathon 🦕 🦖

• Title: The Lost World, Jurassic Park 2
• Author: Michael Crichton
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publishing year: 1995
• Number of pages: 430
• ISBN: 0-345-40288-X
• My rating: 5/5

My thoughts:

‼️ Spoilers ahead ‼️

Another reread, again dinos! Yes, I’m a dino-freak! I admit it!

Something has survived, was the tagline for this book (and movie) which is definitely true in a few ways.

Richard Levine thinks there’s a lost world somewhere on an island off the coast of Costa Rica. And he is determined to prove it. He enlists a lot of people for this cause: an animal behaviourist, Sarah Harding, Thorne and Eddie Carr, engineers that develop a high-tech trailer where they can live in when on the island and an unexpected survivor of the Jurassic Park debacle six years before, Ian Malcolm. But only Ian knows what to expect. And the Levine departs for the lost world alone and it suddenly becomes a rescue mission. In the meantime Biosyn, the firm that has Dodgson on their payroll, are up to anything to get dino-DNA, after they lost a lot of money on Nedry and never got what they paid for!

This is another exciting chapter (and a fun reread) in Crichton’s dino saga! I’m sure there will be people that will be less a fan of this book but for me this just completes the storyline.
Now I’m going to have to read my other dino-books 😅

One last tip: do not read this and then compare it to the second movie! There just are not enough similarities!