The Lost World (Jurassic Park #2) by Michael Crichton

 The Lost World (Jurassic Park #2) by Michael Crichton-400 pages

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It is now six years since the secret disaster at Jurassic Park, six years since the extraordinary dream of science and imagination came to a crashing end – the dinosaurs destroyed, the park dismantled, the island indefinitely closed to the public.

There are rumors that something has survived....

Thoughts: I read Jurassic Park a few years ago and I've seen all of the Jurassic movies, including The Lost World: Jurassic Park. The movie is very different from this book, though. The first one was somewhat different, but this one is very different. Some of the characters have the same name and are similar such as Ian Malcolm, Sarah Harding, Kelly, and Eddie Carr. However, in the book Kelly is a friend of Richard Levine and Dr. Thorne (2 characters not in the movie), but in the movie she's Malcolm's daughter. In the movie, Sarah Harding is already on Isla Sorna, but in the book she decides to travel to the island later after an invitation from Ian Malcolm. Another similarity is that there's a scene where Eddie takes an infant Tyrannosaur that's leg is broken. Eddie and Sara try to make a cast for it in both the book and movie. In both, chaos ensues as the Tyrannosaur parents come for the infant. The scenes aren't exactly the same, but they're similar. In both the book and movie, Ian Malcolm travels to Isla Sorna to rescue someone. In the movie, it's Sarah Harding. In the book, it's Richard Levine. That's about where the similarities end. One scene from the movie that's iconic (and not included in the book) is the Tyrannosaur getting loose in San Diego. This scene is not in the book, but it's such an iconic scene. It seems like they took inspiration from different parts of this book for scenes from other movies in the Jurassic series, though. Overall, I like both the book and the movie, even though their vastly different. 

Ender's Game (Ender's Saga, #1) by Orson Scott Card

 Ender's Game (Ender's Saga, #1) by Orson Scott Card-324 pages

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Synopsis: In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.

Ender's Game is the winner of the 1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Thoughts: I watched the movie a few years ago, but hadn't read the book before this. The book is a good, fast-paced read. I'm interested to watch the movie again and see how it compares with the book. 

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

 I, Robot by Isaac Asimov-273 pages (Mass Market Paperback)

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This is more a collection of somewhat related/connected short stories than a novel, at least in the strictest sense. I found some of the stories amusing and others thought-provoking. There are the 3 Laws of Robotics and robots can't directly disobey these Laws. The book is presented as flashbacks on Dr. Susan Calvin's (a renowned robopsychologist) long career at U.S.R. I liked this book and it's pretty good. This is the first book in a series on robots by Asimov. 

11/22/63 by Stephen King

 11/22/63 by Stephen King - 849 pages

Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.

Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time. 

This was definitely an interesting book. This isn't the style of book I would usually read, but I had a family member talk me into reading it. I was glad I read it by the end of the book. It was slow around the middle of the book for me, but picked back up and made up for it by the end.