Crichton: King of Science Fiction (Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton)

Member Name: nicola21

Product:	Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton
Date:	27/03/01 (253 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A much better story than the film.

Disadvantages: The film may have put people off the idea of the book.

Everyone has heard of Steven Spielberg's film "Jurassic Park". The film was a huge success on both sides of the Atlantic, and pretty much all over the Western world. That was back in 1993, and the hype has died down now. Bigger and better movies have hit the big screen since, putting Jurassic Park in the shade as one of those films that most people own on video, but don't watch anymore.

However, little credit is given to author, Michael Crichton, the brains and inspiration behind this ground-breaking film that shaped the future generation of film-making. Had they made the film exactly to the original book "Jurassic Park", it would have been an incredible masterpiece, ten times better than the film version Spielberg produced. Production costs were already through the roof, so to recreate the book in its entirety would have been far too expensive, even for Hollywood.

So the secrets of the original version now only lie within the book. You probably already know the film storyline and these elements are mostly to the book, but there is so much more detail, and many more ideas, scenes, aspects, characters, and concepts that have been completely omitted that really make the book impossible to put down.

There is one particular key element to the book that was done differently in the film that totally changes what they reproduced on screen and in its screen sequel, "The Lost World". It involves one of the main characters, but if I were to tell you any of these missing links, scenes and storylines, it would ruin the enjoyment of reading the book for anyone who decides to look into it as a result of my recommendation.

All I will give away to prove the difference of this book to the film is, there is a whole set of scenes devoted to another part of the main attraction ride on the island, part of travelling around in those electrically-controlled Jeeps, and the characters go into a very large "aviar
y" on the island where they have genetically engineered flying dinosaurs such as Pteranadons and Pterydactyls amongst many. A whole new situation arises around this scene, none of which is even mentioned in the film. There is so much more to this book, it really is incredible.

All credit to Michael Crichton in creating this ingenious concept of pioneering genetic engineering. Crichton's other works include the television series "ER" and novels "Timeline" and "The Andromeda Strain", all of which are storylines heavily based on science and scientific research/study. His knowledge of science, everything from medicine to quantum physics is the key to the success and interest of his writing. But although he writes about situations created around modern science, he has a wonderful knack of explaining, even the most difficult concepts, in such a way so as everyone is able to understand. He simplifies everything and explains it so well. One element of "Jurassic Park" is the understanding of chaos theory (a complex scientific/mathematical principle) but Crichton provides such a simplified and sensible explanation for it, that even I understood it, and I am fairly terrible at maths!

There is so much more to this book than meets preconceptions of the storyline of the film. I, like most, saw the film before I read the book and I was shocked at the difference and how much better the quality of the novel was in comparison to the film. "Jurassic Park" is an excellent read and very easy to get into, so from the first few chapters you will realise the difference that I am explaining here.

My advice is, forget everything you thought you knew from the film and let yourself be transported in your imagination to a different world by the power of the original book. You will not be disappointed.

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