Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1) by Michael Crichton-448 pages (mass market paperback)
Hammond and InGen, Inc. have secretly created a theme park/zoo full of dinosaurs. Strange animal attacks are happening all across Costa Rica by what are suspected to be lizards, but actually might be small predatorial dinosaurs that have escaped from Jurassic Park. An EPA agent shows up at a dig site where Dr. Alan Grant and Ph.D. student Ellie Sattler are uncovering a juvenile velociraptor fossil. He says he's investigating Hammond and his island off the coast of Costa Rica. Hammond and InGen plan to open Jurassic Park to the public in a year, but the EPA agent (and investors who send Gennaro) believe that there could be inherent danger lurking. Grant, Sattler, Malcolm (a mathematician who subscribes to chaos theory and is extremely arrogant), and Gennaro travel to Isla Nublar to investigate Jurassic Park. Hammond and his employees, especially Wu (the geneticist responsible for creating the dinosaurs) and Arnold (the chief engineer) believe the island and park to be totally under control. However, they turn out to be very, very wrong after another employee, Dennis Nedry, intentionally shuts down the security systems and power during a storm. Nedry created the computer systems for Jurassic Park and is disgruntled over his compensation, so he conspires with Dodgson (an exec at a competitor who wants to make their own dinosaurs) to steal some dinosaur DNA samples and smuggle them off the island. The dinosaurs break loose from their paddocks when the electric fences are no longer electrified and wreak havoc, especially the predators (velociraptors, tyrannosaurs, dilophosaurs, etc.). Things go very awry and Hammond and his employees are far from in control. Can they get the island back under control before it's too late? How many will die and/or get eaten by the dinosaurs? I really liked the book and I'm leaning towards liking it more than the movie based on it. I really like the movie, though, also.
No comments:
Post a Comment