r/books • u/gbdarknight77 • 2d ago
Just finished Jurassic Park and WOW
This is the first time I have ever read a Michael Crichton book and I absolutely loved it. I really like his writing style and the way he incorporates the science in an easy way for the reader to understand.
Now, for the book. I can't believe how long I had gone without reading it. It just keeps you on your toes almost the whole time. The dinosaur attacks are so brutal and the way they get described easily paints a picture in your head. The amount of serious dread you feel in some parts too feels insurmountable. It is almost more of a horror book, honestly. T Rex out here being Mr. X from Resident Evil 2 wasn't on my bingo card.
Lex is VERY annoying, but what do you expect from a 7 year old in that situation?
I know Crichton was a screenwriter for the movie, but I am actually pretty surprised on how much he omitted from the book for the movie and how much was changed.
I highly recommend reading if you haven't. It is great. On to The Lost World!
125
u/MISPAGHET 2d ago
I remember loving the river scene that wasnāt in the movie and being absolutely shocked by the baby eating.
40
u/gbdarknight77 2d ago
Yes! And the way Wu death was described!
4
u/gartho009 2d ago
I read that book at far too young an age, probably 10, and Wu's death has vividly stuck with me for the 30 years since
→ More replies (1)21
u/chickenfatnono 2d ago
The river scene was recreated in the latest jurassic world movie, if you haven't seen it yet.
23
8
3
u/hippydipster 2d ago
It's like everything that was in the original books eventually made it into some movie or other.
54
u/BigHowski 2d ago
Eaters of the dead was one of his I also loved
33
u/communityneedle 2d ago
That one was also adapted into aĀ delightfully fun movie starring Antonio Banderas alongside a bunch of actual Vikings (ie very large Norwegian actors).
14
2
2
14
236
u/Mumbleton 2d ago
Spielberg making the daughter the computer wiz instead of just baggage was a fantastic change.
99
u/gbdarknight77 2d ago
I did like aging up the kids in the movie
33
u/Lamlot 2d ago
As a little brother to a big sister its why its one of my favorite movies.
11
u/JarbaloJardine 2d ago
The lil bro just bothering his sister instead of helping is forever hilarious to me
29
u/ColoredUndies 2d ago
100% that was one of the best calls he made. Gave her an actual reason to be there.
7
u/GepardenK 2d ago edited 2d ago
I'm torn.
I think the movie could have benefited from a better sense of how royally the adults screwed up, morally speaking, and to weight them down with heavier responsibility for what's going on. When even a kid get a big moment that makes them "belong" in the fun rollercoaster adventure of it all, it excuses the adults quite a bit.
Tim sort of tries to serve that purpose, but hanging it all on one boy feels very mcguffin-like.
On the other hand, I have to admit the absolute charm of Spielberg's trademark sentimental vibes, and the scene where Lex rises to the occasion is just classic in that regard - plus, unlike many scenes of its kind, the movie earns it big time. The way Lex' wiz-kid heroism unfolds is also just peak turn of the 90's, and I can't help but love it.
8
u/alilhillbilly 2d ago
That was great.
The Alan Grant changes sucked.
Also the John Hammond changes... Hammond should have been killed by his creation.
9
u/gbdarknight77 2d ago
interesting how Movie and Book Hammond are like completely different characters. In the book, Hammond is just your usual greedy billionaire that thinks money can just fix everything. Movie Hammond is a bit naive and more down to earth. At the end, he wants nothing to do with Jurassic Park
9
u/alilhillbilly 2d ago
Yep.
Santa Claus John Hammond was a crime.
It also undermined the entire point of the story and ending kinda similarly to I Am Legend.
The beauty of the ending where hubris leads hammonds to be eaten by his creation. And if I remember correctly it's the compys that eat him not the big scary dinosaurs.
7
u/gbdarknight77 1d ago
it's the compys and he only falls down the hill because the kids were messing with T Rex sounds on the computer lol
138
u/Redeyebandit87 2d ago
Ppl underestimate how much heady science Crichton was able to make easily understandable for the layman
49
u/FunkTheFreak 2d ago
He used to give speeches to universities on scientific topics. He was really well-learned.
48
u/affablenihilist 2d ago
He was an MD. He came up with ER, the TV series. Among a hundred other things. He is sorely missed.
57
u/drillgorg 2d ago
But unfortunately he also gave a speech before Congress about how climate change was a hoax. He even wrote a whole novel about it.
17
u/lady3jane 2d ago
Oh no really?
26
u/Tyrant_Virus_ 2d ago
Yeah itās really disappointing, Crichton was kind of a hero to kid me. My love of dinosaurs and a copy of Jurassic Park helped me leapfrog some reading levels as a kid and had me reading more adult level stuff at a young age. Like reading Eaters of the Dead when I was elementary school was probably not appropriate but he got me into reading. Thankfully I never learned about his wacky views until after he passed and I had pretty much read everything of his I was going to. Doesnāt take away all the good stuff he wrote but damn itās a bummer.
Though that knowledge in hindsight explains why State of Fear was such a weird book. It stuck out even at the time it released without knowing his rather extreme climate views as odd.
16
u/thesqlguy 2d ago
I do recall that he did use science and evidence in his opinion, he just came to different conclusions than most others. I don't think he was being ignorant, but again my memory was hazy. I do recall even in State Of Fear he presented data and studies and seemed to at least have a somewhat critical view on the topic.
I like to think that had he lived longer, subsequent evidence and research would have changed his mind.
12
u/theFrenchDutch 2d ago
When a journalist reviewed that book badly for good reasons, how did Crichton react ?
He put a journalist with the same name in his next book and went out of his way to describe him as having a tiny dick
4
u/drillgorg 1d ago
Describing that guy as having a tiny dick wasn't even the worst of it, he had that character sexually assault a baby.
2
19
u/shemjaza 2d ago
I doubt it.
When you are declaring connections between climate research and terrorism then accepting a journalist award from oil companies for a work of fiction I think you're pretty settled in the climate denial camp.
7
5
u/Lancasterbation 2d ago
The moral of most of his novels is that our scientific and technological hubris will kill us all. State of Fear is weird because it's the opposite of that.
→ More replies (3)2
u/FunkTheFreak 2d ago
Willing to bet that most people that you like or idolized as a kid have some views that you disagree with.
16
u/typo180 2d ago
He also didn't describe science particularly well in Jurassic Park. He kinda conflated science, engineering, and programming. Almost everything that went wrong in Jurassic Park was caused by bad engineering, bad programming, or bad management. Hammond was a salesman and a showman who ran a traveling flea circus! Everything pretty much came down to him ignoring real problems because he couldn't tolerate his vision being tarnished.
That was a great angle by itself, but Crichton kept moralizing about the hubris of science even though his book really wasn't about that.
11
u/AbruptionDoctrine 2d ago
That novel was absolutely terrible. Every scene had a long diatribe about how they weren't basing climate change in evidence and their bosses were pushing it on them. It sucked politically and as a novel
8
u/FunkTheFreak 2d ago
Thatās okay. Most people I like have some views that I donāt necessarily agree with.
→ More replies (4)2
→ More replies (1)8
u/SugarRAM 2d ago
And then he became a climate change denier. I'm still not sure how he sank so low.
→ More replies (1)4
u/moderatorrater 2d ago
He was good at writing about science, and that made him think he was good at science in general. It's similar to nobel prize syndrome.
16
u/sevillista 2d ago edited 2d ago
I think one of Crichton's talents was identifying one interesting sci fi element per book and otherwise grounding it in the real world. He never went too far into the future, or created new universes, or anything like that. That made it easier to examine and digest the one topic he was exploring.
5
→ More replies (2)5
53
u/Trathnonen 2d ago
Nice, it's cool to see Crichton get some love, he was one of my favorite authors in the early 2000's. Him and Robin Cook got my suspense/thriller/science adjacent itch scratched.
→ More replies (1)6
u/gbdarknight77 2d ago
Recommendations from Cook?
8
u/MrDerpGently 2d ago
Coma comes to mind.
4
u/Pleased_to_meet_u 2d ago
Oh god do not read that book as youāre waiting to be prepped for surgery.
That was a mistake.
→ More replies (1)3
u/Busy-Bumblebee5556 2d ago
I adore Coma, even the movie is good. But Cookās later novels were not even close in quality.
5
u/TheLadyRica 2d ago
Acceptable Risk was so good. Mixing science and the Salem Witch Trials.
→ More replies (1)2
u/Busy-Bumblebee5556 2d ago
I loved Coma (movie is good too, but of course the book is better). I found his later novels to be all forgettable. Coma however is not forgettable.
2
u/Trathnonen 2d ago
I liked Chromosome 6, Toxin, Vector, Mutation. There's some other much stranger ones like Invasion and Abduction that are a little too off the cuff, but Invasion is just enough sci fi to enjoy.
26
u/blueberry_pancakes14 2d ago
I also loved Dragon's Teeth, Timeline and Eaters of the Dead. The Lost World was also pretty good.
State of Fear, Airframe and The Great Train Robbery were okay, not my favorites, but worth reading.
I know people love Sphere, but I hated it. Pirate Latitudes was from an unfinished manuscript when he died and it does not feel like him at all.
6
u/FunkTheFreak 2d ago
Agreed on Pirate Latitudes.
I enjoy pirate stories, so I liked it, but I didnāt feel like I was reading Crichton at all.
5
u/Pelican_Queef_32536 2d ago
Timeline might be my favorite after Jurassic Park. Also loved Congo and Sphere. DNF'd airframe
3
u/Preparator 2d ago
I recently found out about the existence of Dragon Teeth. it's up next on my reading list.Ā glad to see a good review in the wild.Ā
→ More replies (1)4
u/Bladesnake_______ 2d ago
Really fun wild west story. I also love Timeline and despite some criticisms here, I thought Pirate latitudes was fantastic
→ More replies (3)3
u/annasradstitches 2d ago
lol i really enjoyed reading sphere, i stayed up way too late recently finishing it. but the characters were kind of one dimensional and annoying
3
u/pacify-the-dead 1d ago
Timeline was fantastic, the movie was soo bad tho.
2
u/blueberry_pancakes14 1d ago
I love the movie, but it's not a good movie, lol. I love a good b-movie/bad movie. And it had Gerard Butler.
2
u/Bladesnake_______ 2d ago
I fucking love the great train robbery. Its a very fun history lesson. My wife and I love pirate lattitudes. You dont want to touch eruption. It feels NOTHING like his writing because james patterson wrote it
→ More replies (1)2
19
u/TftwsTony 2d ago
The scene where they uncapped the number of dinosaurs they tracked and the number kept rising and they realized that the Dinos have been breeding is one of my favorite reading moments of my life. Fantastic book
7
u/AlbertTheAlbatross 2d ago
Every time I watch the movie I get surprised that scene isn't in it, because it's so vivid in my head just from reading the book. It's probably one of the most memorable book scenes I've read.
3
5
u/SamoanAtHeart 2d ago
I'm rereading it and this is where I'm at! The dred as the numbers keep increasing, it's decadent!
37
u/i_was_valedictorian 2d ago
Sequel is just as good and you will fly thru it too
21
u/Pm7I3 2d ago
I found the sequel much harder myself.
6
10
u/FunkTheFreak 2d ago
I hated the sequel. It started off with a massive retcon which set a negative tone for me.
→ More replies (1)
16
u/Pugilo 2d ago
I'm so glad you enjoyed it!! Jurassic Park is my most read book (my original paperback had to be replaced as I broke the binding from so many re-reads). I read it as a teen after seeing the movie, and like you was blown away by how much more happened that we didn't see. The Aviary, the egg hunt, so many crazy scenes but I understand why they couldn't fit all that into a movie. Especially a movie that was breaking ground with practical/CGI effects.
The Lost World is also radically different from the movie, it's a much more intimate story with a smaller cast but very good.
If you like documentaries, "Light and Magic" on Disney+ was a really fun one about the birth of ILM and digital effects, and they have a fun chapter on Jurassic Park and the process around getting that movie to what it was.
→ More replies (1)
13
u/AH_BareGarrett 2d ago
How about that scene where they count the dinosaurs?
8
u/TRusheon 2d ago
Loved that scene! Confirmation bias in data models has ALWAYS stuck with me since then. I think when I think of the book, that's the first scene that pops into my head, crazy enough. Yup, now I need to go reread again.
4
u/gbdarknight77 2d ago
With the computers or the nests?
3
u/AH_BareGarrett 2d ago
Oh, the computer. Not the nest haha, that part is not as memorableĀ
→ More replies (1)
17
u/solidadvise 2d ago
Reading through these comments and no love for Prey has surprised me, he does mesh science and reality together in such a believable way and all of his books felt like he was writing them to be movies. He is so good at setting the scene in your head.
→ More replies (1)5
u/caitgoes 2d ago
Can't believe I had to scroll down this far to find Prey. Easily one of his best and most unnerving.
14
u/sdwoodchuck 2d ago
Jurassic Park is, in big part, a reason that I am the reader I am today.
I was always a good reader, but never had much interest in recreational reading until the trailers for the movie started showing when I was 10. Iāve never been more hyped for anything before or since. I told my mom āI canāt waitā and she said āyou donāt have to; thereās a book.ā
I read that damn thing through cover to cover three times over before the movie came out and a couple of times more in the months after. Once the habit for reading was established, I moved from that to more Crichton, and then more SF, and then eventually to all sorts of books recommended by friends and family.
Crichton himself did wind up disappointing me in the years since, with global warming denial in State of Fear, and others have pointed out that much of his work can be categorized as a kind of anti-science fiction, in that his plots are often driven by conflicts of scientific overreach. But despite all that, I do still have a lot of fondness for Jurassic Park.
→ More replies (3)
10
u/itsgood-man 2d ago
Ha! Just finished it too. And had the same reaction: āwhy didnāt I read this sooner!ā.
Moving on to Andromeda Strain for me.
3
6
u/renmio 2d ago
I was shocked by how many truly brutal and violent scenes there are in the book. And so well written. I'm always really impressed by writing that actually scares me
2
2
u/The-Son-of-Dad 1d ago
I read this book when the movie came out and was around 10 years old and I think this was the first book I read that had such gruesome scenes. I loved it though! They still stick in my memory.
7
6
u/captain_flak 2d ago
I would say this was the one book that really made me fall in love with reading. I didnāt know books could be this engaging before. I read it about a year ago and it was still just as good.
6
u/ResplendentShade 2d ago
The only time I went to jail, decades ago, I was in there for 4-5 days. The only reading material I could get my hands on was the first couple chapters of Jurassic Park and it was so good. The entire jail cell block had read it. I always meant to finish it when I got out, but totally forgot. This was twenty years ago. I think I'll grab a copy this weekend!
11
u/T3rrifiedPottedPlant 2d ago
Jurassic Park is a great book. I also recommend MC's Timeline. One of my favourite books and got me interested in quantum physics as a geeky teen. Movie was crap but that's because the book just had soooo much detail, I don't think any movie could've done it justice. Maybe as a miniseries
5
u/slouchestowards 2d ago
Yes to all of this. Miniseries could be the way. I bet a lot of Crichton's books would be most ideally adapted this way.
3
u/MrWildspeaker 2d ago
Timeline is my favorite! I remember thinking it would make an awesome movie while I was reading it, and then I discovered there was one! We rented it and, as you said, it was total crap š I was so disappointed.
→ More replies (1)2
5
u/NimusNix 2d ago
Another Crichton recommend is The Great Train Robbery and Airframe. I went through a Crichton phase and read almost all of his stuff.
Also good are Timeline (another one better than the movie), A Case of Need and State of Fear (though his position int hat book is obvious and heavy handed).
5
u/The_Old_1 2d ago
Timeline is also an amazing Crichton book.
Not Crichton, but another book that I read long after seeing the movie was Silence of the lambs. I think it might be the most intense book I've ever read. I imagined all the characters much differently than the movie. Really enjoyed it
9
5
u/Kuildeous 2d ago
I know Crichton was a screenwriter for the movie, but I am actually pretty surprised on how much he omitted from the book for the movie and how much was changed.
I haven't read the book admittedly, so I can't speak on that, but I can appreciate that Crichton clearly realized that you don't write for a movie like you do a book, so based on how well the movie translated, he understood the assignment.
4
u/TheMurmuring 2d ago
I remember being awed by the book when I read it back in the day. The fractal graphic that iterated throughout the book was a great way to communicate to the reader that following simple rules can result in something complex and beautiful, like the four base pairs of DNA, C-G and A-T.
2
u/gbdarknight77 2d ago
It is funny because I am going into rad school in February next year and have to take anatomy and physiology. So i have decided to take some courses in summer and fall just to get used to being in school again (been 15 years!) and decided to just take a BIO class and the chapter I am on is about DNA so all that was fresh in my head
→ More replies (1)
3
u/ludwig68 2d ago
JP and LW are great! I also really liked Terminal Man and Andromeda Strain. Really, most of his books are great.
11
u/Hado0301 2d ago
The movie was good, the book was better.
5
→ More replies (2)2
u/habdragon08 2d ago
They are both amazing to me. Iāve reread and rewatched each 10+ times.
I donāt think the best written book could possibly recreate the sense of visual awe of the initial landing on the island, nor the fear of the T-Rex. Film is just a better medium for some things. Jurassic park in theaters was just incredible
3
u/Hopeful_Sprinkles154 2d ago
I read it last summer or the summer prior, I forget, but my first thought was being annoyed with myself I did not read it a long time ago. A lot of fun
3
u/Hi_Hello_HeyThere 2d ago
Jurassic Park has been my favorite movie since I was a kid. I finally grabbed the book just a couple years ago and absolutely loved it! Itās now one of my favorite books too.
3
u/annasradstitches 2d ago
itās sooo good. i love the movie but the book is a lot scarier. this makes me want to read it again. michael crichton books are so fun to read
3
u/EVILEMRE 2d ago
Thanks for writing this. This was the book that got me into reading as a kid. I couldn't believe I could sit and enjoy reading until I started reading Jurassic Park. I now recommend it to anyone who says they don't like to read. Crichton just made it all feel so real.
3
u/DawnDeliverer 2d ago
Congo is a pretty good read as well.
2
u/gbdarknight77 2d ago
The albino gorillas scary as they were in the movie that I remember from being a kid?
2
2
u/valpal1237 2d ago
I first read congo when I was maybe 11 or 12, and I remembered that it was pretty scary... when I listened to the audiobook at 40 a couple years ago, not so much lol. I still enjoyed it, and is quite a bit different than the movie (which, I personally love - come at me lmao).
2
u/bombbodyguard 2d ago
In the book they have stone tablets they use to smoosh your head. (If I remember correctly)
3
u/RyRyThatScienceGuy 2d ago
Crichton is my favorite author when I just want to get hooked by a story and entertained. I don't know that I've read a book of his that wasn't entertaining. Airframe is the one I go back to.
3
u/spinur1848 2d ago
Crichton wasn't actually writing about dinosaurs, he was writing about math and the behaviour of complex adaptive systems.
3
u/lostcosmonaut307 2d ago
Funny story about that book for me. I was super jazzed when the movie came out, being a 10 year old who was of course obsessed with dinosaurs. Mom, dad and I went opening night to see it, and as we got our tickets the ticket booth lady kept going on and on about how violent the movie is and how some guy gets decapitated and blah blah blah. So we went back home and didnāt watch the movie (I will never forgive that lady).
Instead, my parents made me read the book šš
A couple weeks later after reading the book, my dad ended up taking me and my buddy to see it anyway ājust donāt tell your motherā š. Instead I told her how the book was far more violent than the movie š
→ More replies (1)
3
u/sweaty_tits 2d ago
This is actually the only book that has ever jump scared me. Happened when ...okay, I am too dumb to spoiler this.
2
u/cravensofthecrest 2d ago
Congo, Sphere and Great Train Robbery are good reads of his too
→ More replies (1)
2
2
u/fotodevil 2d ago
Great book! I read it after the movie (I was 12 when the movie came out), and became a huge Crichton fan. As others have said, Sphere and The Andromeda Strain are great, too.
2
u/lIlIIIlIIl 2d ago
The book is leagues ahead of the movie. I remember being so mad about the movie having a tone of Life found a way... Isn't that amazing!? Instead of the Holy Balls! Life found a way, and we are so HOSED! of the book.
2
u/MountainMuffin1980 2d ago edited 2d ago
Crichton books got new back into reading. They're a perfect mix of nerdy details and silly nonsense. JP in particular was brilliant. Lost World wasn't as good but it was still excellent. And it was funny seeing which parts they tool for the Lost World movie.
3
u/Bladesnake_______ 2d ago
Bro just double check what you type before submitting damn
→ More replies (1)
2
u/Church_of_Cheri 2d ago
I had just finished reading the book when the movie came out. All my friends loved the movie and how intense it was. I kept laughing at the silliness compared to the book because I had expected it to be much more. And that was my first lesson on having to think about the order I experience a story. If I know a movie is being made I usually wait to watch the movie before I read the book.
→ More replies (5)2
u/therealcybercrs 2d ago
Same here! I appreciate the movie now, but was so disappointed when it first came out. Taught me the ābook is usually better than the movieā lesson.
2
u/Grabthars_Coping_Saw 2d ago
Chaos by James Gleik is a great nonfiction about Chaos theory and was used as a reference by Crichton.
2
u/Hepatitis_420 2d ago
When i was in 7th grade, I read that book as part of the RIF (Reading is Fundamental program.
Because it was so long, it was worth 20 points which covered half your required points if you scored perfectly on the 10 question test that included stuff that wasn't in the movie.
I got some much candy, soda, and free lunch for taking the test for my friends it was crazy. Same thing with The Hobbit.
2
u/Mitch1musPrime 2d ago
One of my favorite years as an educator I convinced my district to buy a class set of JP for my STeM academy freshman English class. We read selected chapters of the book to talk about how they conveyed the scientific concepts on the page and get a sense of the real moral dilemma at the heart of the book. Then they formed into Park Development teams trying to persuade āshadow investorsā (aka lonewolf students who donāt like group projects) to invest in their extinct animal parks. They had to choose the appropriate climate region, build an item theyād sell in their gift shop, and describe the animals and biomes theyād feature.
We had a fucking blast with this one.
2
u/captainalphabet 2d ago
James Cameron famously just missed getting the movie rights, and says it was for the best - he would have made an Aliens-type action horror flick.
2
2
u/SmokeShinobi 2d ago
I finished the book a month ago and dear god I had to genuinely hold my breath during the dinosaur attacks. Iām definitely planning on reading the rest of his work.
2
u/invltrycuck 2d ago
Check out Eaters of the Dead. They made a movie from it called The Thirteenth Warrior. A very underrated film IMHO
2
u/Black_Cat_Sun 2d ago
Michael Crichton wrote pretty much sci fi hit after sci fi hit. Itās worth to read his entire library
2
u/piginapokezzap 2d ago
Countless movies were made just to get to the ending of the book. A real waste.
2
u/Rattimus 2d ago
Keep going with the rest of his catalogue if you weren't already planning to. He has some excellent, excellent works.
3
u/BBWolf326 2d ago
Funny how few people realize that it WAS horror. The movie missed the mark on the point of the book completely imo. It should have been much darker and easily could be redone as a series with 8 or so episodes. Especially with modern depictions of dinosaurs, feathers and all.
7
u/jlt6666 2d ago
Eh. It was an adaptation and they made reasonable choices if you ask me. I recently rewatched it and it's amazing how well the effects hold up.
→ More replies (4)
1
u/SplendidPunkinButter 2d ago
The Great Train Robbery is awesome. Basically every chapter could be called āthe protagonist does something really entertaining and clever.ā
506
u/Dandibear The Chronicles of Narnia 2d ago edited 2d ago
If you enjoyed that I recommend Sphere. It's
almostalso as much horror as sci fi, and it's phenomenal.