Jurassic Park

I like many others was obsessed with dinosaurs as a kid, while Walking with Dinosaurs was my #1 dinosaur show to watch, Jurassic Park was definitely the second. So it was surprising to realize I had never actually read the book the movie was based on.

I think if I had read this book when I was younger I would have been very annoyed with the slow burn aspect of the setup. Something about the corporate maneuverings and the critiques of corporate and scientific cultures just hit right. The opening paragraphs on how bio-tech is going to change the world is still super relevant, just replace bio-tech with AI. My favorite part was obviously the dinosaur-horror in the middle of the book as the park breaks down. The last act of the book lost some momentum as the dinosaurs revert from horror movie slashers to more animal like behaviour. It was interesting enough to read but I totally understand why it was cut for the movie.

Character-wise the book was a bit hit or miss for me. I enjoyed Hammond as the corporate villain more than his counter part in the movie. The relationship between him and his employees and how each one justifies continuing the project was some of the most interesting parts of the book. Ellie as a character was much more background then I would have guessed. She gets three moments she gets to shine, one paleo botany and two action sequences, but beyond that she is relegated to a secondary character. Her character has a lot of misogyny and objectification turned towards her, if it was intended to be a commentary on sexism it needed to be undercut more by actions in the story. Grant gets a bit less to do in the book but I really liked how his internal monologue showed how he reaches conclusions. In the movie he just knows Trex's vision is based on movement while in the book he is able to piece together from his knowledge, observations and luck. Not much to say about Malcolm, still a really fun character.

Overall I really enjoyed my read, you can go into for just the thriller-adventure aspect and or the deeper themes explored in the book.