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Jurassic Park
by Michael Crichton
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Ballantine Books (1991-11-13)
ISBN: 0345370775
EAN: 9780345370778
Dewey Decimal #: 813.54
Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
Release Date: 1991-11-13
SKU: 6
Condition: Very Good
Comments: Binding: Softcover. Condition: Very Good. Slightly creased binding.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Creatures once extinct now roam Jurassic Park, soon-to-be opened as a theme park. Until something goes wrong...and science proves a dangerous toy....
"Wonderful...Powerful."
THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
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Amazon.com Review
Unless your species evolved sometime after 1993 when Jurassic Park hit theaters, you're no doubt familiar with this dinosaur-bites-man disaster tale set on an island theme park gone terribly wrong. But if Speilberg's amped-up CGI creation left you longing for more scientific background and ... well, character development, check out the original Michael Crichton novel. Although not his best book (get ahold of sci-fi classic The Andromeda Strain for that), Jurassic Park fills out the film version's kinetic story line with additional scenes, dialogue, and explanations while still maintaining Crichton's trademark thrills-'n'-chills pacing. As ever, the book really is better than the movie. --Paul Hughes
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Customer Reviews
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Dino thrill ride
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-11-09
John Hammond is a billionaire who purchases an island off the coast of Costa Rica and sets about cloning dinosaurs. Hammond's goal is to open the world's greatest, and most expensive, amusement park. When his investors get nervous they demand an inspection, and so a cast is assembled to go to the island that includes Alan Grant, a dinosaur expert, Ian Malcolm, a mathematician, and Donald Genarro, the sleazy attorney. Alas, the group arrives just as things go horribly wrong at the park and learn just how dangerous dinosaurs such as T-Rex and velociraptor can be.
While the book was a major bestseller it's probably fair to say that most people are familiar with Jurassic Park (Widescreen Collector's Edition) from movie rather than the novel. Since Michael Crichton wrote the screenplay for the film, it won't come as a surprise that the two are fairly consistent. Still, there are differences and most work to give the book a bit more depth. Among the tidbits lost for the movie are a pteradactyl attack, encounters with both raptors and T-Rex, interesting details on the system flaws in the park, etc. So even if you've seen the film, there is definitely new material here that will surprise you.
Jurassic Park is easily one of Crichton's best-written books. It moves along at a strong pace from the beginning and the suspense builds pretty consistently until the climax. While I sometimes find the discussions of the science involved a bit overpowering in Crichton's books, they're mostly held to an appropriate level here.
The only flaw in the book is that Ian Malcolm is used as a none-too-subtle mouthpiece for the author's reservations about technology. It isn't even that I disagreed with most of what he says, it's the sledgehammer approach of making sure that even the most dense reader gets the point that science has become a very bad thing that got old pretty quickly. I found myself starting to skim over Malcolm's dialog more and more as the book progressed.
Jurassic Park is an easy book to recommend. It's exciting, interesting, and suspenseful when it tries to be. I had read it once many years ago, and after Michael Crichton's recent death I was moved to re-read it and see if it was as good as I remembered. Fortunately, it held up very well over the ensuing years.
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Clever And Suspenseful
Rating (4)
Date: 2008-10-29
This book combines drama and suspense with science and a certain amount of moralizing. The book's major premise-using the DNA of long extinct species-is clever because it is so believable and thus frightening. The book plays upon the idea that if one tampers with Nature's most sacred mechanisms, there will be a price to pay and dangers that one can neither anticipate nor accomodate. The idea of a Caribbean park featuring such resurrected creatures provides a macabre and riveting fascination. The book and movie have been out for a while but nevertheless, if you haven't read this, it is still a good read.
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A true classic
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-10-21
Ok so finally aftering seeing the movies so many times, I finally found a copy of the book in the one of the bedrooms upstairs.
I have to say, the beginning of this book is very drab,
Yadda yadda yadda, let me see some blood.
and after the fun started I couldnt put the book down.
But let me tell you for any of the young readers out there.
It is a goery book.
There is blood on almost every page once they get to Isle Nubar.
But overall it is a great book and I highly recommend it for anyone who has an intrest in sci-fi, paleontology < think that is wrong, or the movies.
Have to admit though... The first movie does in fact differ from the novel so don't expect it to be verbadum. but really what book made movie is?
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Go Dinosuars!
Rating  (3)
Date: 2008-10-19
Have you ever read a book after the movie and actully liked the book better. It rarely happens but for this read the movie impressed me more. The beginning of the book is very different from the Speilberg blockbuster. It started out with some very good action and suspence but went downhill from that. After Alan Grant gets to a mysterious island filled with man-eating dinosaurs its almost too predictable what will happen, but hey that reason better be why you read the book, to see dinosaurs rip off peoples heads and slice open their stomach. After the dinos escape its a life or death race to get off the island. I definetly would suggest this book to a dino freak but no one else. The settings are hard to picture and leave you confused in the later chapters. The island is a prehistic landscape and is hard to picture since we don't know what it looks like. Another reason a thought it was bad was because it didn't describe the dinos well enough. It would be very helpful if Micheal included pictures of the dinos instead of just telling you it was a pretyhuioptyresasaurous. The only reason I like the book is because is has creature violence, which is my favorite, and it has many action sequences. The end is filled with action and has you guess who rein supreme, the humans or dinosaurs. So over all it had a good story line, hard to understand settings, unpictureable dinos, but a good action twist at the end. I definetly suggest it to sci-fi readers, but anyone else just stay away.
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Jurassic Park
Rating (4)
Date: 2008-09-23
Jurassic Park is one of my favorite books! It has a lot of action and a lot of descriptions. The story is very similar to the ever famous Jurassic Park movie by Stephen Spielberg { sp? sorry } The terror and action the Crichton creates with the dinosaur chases is very thrilling. There are some parts where you think, what just happend? And then you have to reread it again. But all in all it's a very great book and I would recommend that you would read Lost World Jurassic Park and that you watch all three of the Jurassics because their all great!
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