Thriller: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Book Information:

Crichton, M. (1990). Jurassic Park. New York, NY. Alfred A. Knopf. 

ISBN: 0-394-58816-9

Synopsis: Paleontologist Alan Grant and his paleobotanist graduate student Ellie Sattler, along with a consulting team made up of a cynical mathematician and a lawyer are invited by billionare and CEO of International Genetic Technologies or InGen to his private island off the coast of Costa Rica to visit and experience a new “biological preserve”. The team soon discovers the wonders of this mysterious island, but due to catastrophic circumstances and a bad storm they find themselves trying to simply survive the night, let alone avoid a global disaster.

Characteristics of Thriller:

·         Fast Pace
The entire 400 page book covers the span of a short twenty four hours, with a few short chapters in the beginning a couple days prior to set up the scenario. From there, it’s non-stop action and suspense. (I’ve seen the movie so I kinda knew what was going to happen, but it was still a page-turner)

·         Extreme detail and technical language
The scientific detail is impressive. I’m not sure what lengths of research Crichton did to create such believable geneticists, paleontologists, not to mention the mathematical theories (Chaos theory) and computer coding in this book.  That being said, there are pages and pages of details, graphs, and charts strewn throughout the text. Some of the science is surely fictional given that these scientists can clone dinosaurs, but the theory in essence likely came from legitimate scientific research on genetics and cloning. It wasn’t too technical; as a reader who knew practically nothing on any of these topics, I could follow along.

·         National/International ramifications Dinosaurs. Smart, fast, lethal, carnivorous dinosaurs that somehow are breeding when they aren’t supposed to, getting loose and might have even found a way off the island? Yes, I think that would justify an international crisis.

·         Strong, loner-type protagonists

The main characters in this book, Alan Grant (paleontologist), Ian Malcolm (Mathematician) and Timmy (child) fit this description pretty well. Not much is known about Malcolm and his cynical, “I told you so” personality makes him pretty unlikeable to most of the gang except for Grant and Timmy, who are the other intelligent main characters. Grant, with the most expertise on dinosaurs is definitely the loner-type who would rather be out digging for fossils than teaching classes at a university, which he only does the bare minimum for. Timmy is a dino-obsessed kid who would rather read books than play sports. He’s able to keep up with the adults and is smart enough to protect his sister.  It’s almost hard to believe how calm this kid gets when facing a Velociraptor or a T-Rex.

·         Weak secondary characters

These are most of the people that die.  A few of these secondary characters are likeable, and some make it out alive with a few scratches. Others are not so lucky, and quite frankly, most of them are so annoying that they deserve their fate. A common situation for these secondary characters is that there is only one person who knows how to do a particular thing, who ends up going missing, leaving all the other weak secondary characters to stand around being clueless.

One secondary character who is an exception to this rule is Ellie Sattler, who is almost a main character but doesn’t get enough page-time as the three male main characters above. She’s brave, smart, and puts up with a lot of sexist comments from all the male characters in the book (except Grant, who already knows she’s awesome). Unfortunately she spends most of the book taking care of wounded people and doesn’t get to say a lot. When she is given the opportunity to take action (after insisting that she do so despite male protests), she is marvelous.

·         Dark tone

The secrecy, illegal, unethical genetic research and shady business transactions that happen with InGen and other genetic companies the book describes create a very dark tone.

·         Focus on a profession

The main focus is on the Genetics and Science profession, however, this book does highlight several professions, including Paleontology, Mathematics, and Computer Science.

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Saricks, J. G. (2009). The Reader's Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. Chicago, IL. American Library Association.