By Cynthia Ayala

“A billionaire has created a technique to clone dinosaurs. From the DNA that his crack team of scientists extract, he is able to grow the dinosaurs in his laboratories and lock them away on an island behind electric fences, creating a sort of theme park. He asks a group of scientists from several different fields to come and view the park, but something goes terribly wrong when a worker on the island turns traitor and shuts down the power.” (Goodreads)

Published December 1991 by Ballantine Books Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton is the classic novel that spawned a franchise about dinosaurs and the will of man.

Jurassic Park has come to be a classic novel, a warning about dangers of genetically engineered animals, long extinct by the ego of man who plays at god. If you’ve seen the movie then you already know the premise of the novel. However, there are significant differences between the novel and the film, as there always are.

But back to the book. First, there is a strong and brutal nature to the novel that captures the reader by surprise. These are dinosaurs that were not meant to roam Earth in today’s day and age. Too much has changed for them to survive on their own. Crichton capitalizes on that aspect to bring out the darker sides of the novel. The deaths in the novel are brutal and they are bloody but not without meaning. There’s a lot of detail that could get lost in the novel, so much explanation that shows who the character are deep down. Many of them are ruthless, they are driven by ambition, greed, and power. The novel is a warning against falling into those traps that could lead to corruption. Some of the characters are downright ruthless and horrible that when their demise comes, it’s gratifying. But at least that means that the characters are well rounded and worth following on this adventure. Readers get to see what the characters stand for amid manmade “monsters”.

Admittedly, this is a slow read. There is so much explanation that it takes a while for the novel to pick up and draw the reader into the story. It’s not an adventure novel, although it has the adventure in it. It is a survival novel, it’s a teaching novel, thus making It slow. This is quite a difficult novel to get into, especially for the average reader. That’s probably the only issue in the novel, all that detail, some of which is repeated later. Some parts do sound repetitious, other parts just don’t seem important to the novel, important enough to keep the reader engaged. Some moments drag on and do risk alienating the reader from the story. But at the end, it’s an excellent novel. (★★★★☆ | B)

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