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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
I know if I want a good read I look to Crichton. Now going into this book I already knew the plot, the setting, literally everything since it was a childhood favorite movie. I DO love this book but at the same time I think watching the movie first killed the first half of the book for me. I LOVE the way Crichton writes, but I found myself bored in the beginning with all the small details of how and why they were going to the Congo. I do know it is essential to the story, so I don’t blame him. I blame me.
I will say sometimes reading for a bit confusing. Like where it would skip to past tense but also be in the moment. It would throw me off from time to time.
All together it’s a classic and I always enjoy a classic.
I will say sometimes reading for a bit confusing. Like where it would skip to past tense but also be in the moment. It would throw me off from time to time.
All together it’s a classic and I always enjoy a classic.
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I know he's probably written some good books, but all I can think after books like this is, "Is Michael Crichton a hack or what?"
slow-paced
I've never seen the movie, and I thought I had a vague idea of what this was about but this wasn't what I thought it was going to be at all. And I'm not sure how I feel about that. It wasn't a good thing, but it wasn't a bad thing either. I've read enough Crichton to know how 'sciencey' he can get and how he likes to put a lot of focus on that, which I don't mind usually. There was just a lot of science/explanation in this and not a ton of action. The entire premise of these 'killer gorillas' seemed like it should/would be the main focus, but they really felt like a side plot. I guess when you open with the entire ERTS expedition being killed by them, I thought there would be more emphasis on them but they didn't show up for about another 200 pages, and they still got hardly any airtime.
I get this was written in 1980; but I didn't care for the overt and covert racism towards the Congolese people and native tribes - especially knowing that the people of Congo have suffered many genocides and have been exploited over their entire history due to the mineral rich land they live on. It was rather unappealing to have any sort of sympathy towards King Leopold II when he was a vile human being and killed millions of Congolese people.
I also did not like Ross's cavalier attitude toward getting these diamonds to create weapons of war that would make nuclear weapons obsolete. Clearly people learn nothing from history. "If I don't make it, someone else will." Make/Take.. seems like all terrible people have this logic in their head - that if they aren't evil, someone else will be so it excuses them being evil first. Yeah, Oppenheimer created the atomic bomb (well, was the scientist who figured it out first), and the regret he had when it was used on a bunch of innocent people after Japan had already surrendered/were in the process of doing so tore him apart. He vehemently spoke out about 'just because we can, doesn't mean we should' so I did not care for Ross's attitude of indifference towards creating some terrible weapon from these diamonds. I'm so over this world of war and ravaging - it doesn't have to be like this and people need to stop feeding into it.
I get this was written in 1980; but I didn't care for the overt and covert racism towards the Congolese people and native tribes - especially knowing that the people of Congo have suffered many genocides and have been exploited over their entire history due to the mineral rich land they live on. It was rather unappealing to have any sort of sympathy towards King Leopold II when he was a vile human being and killed millions of Congolese people.
I also did not like Ross's cavalier attitude toward getting these diamonds to create weapons of war that would make nuclear weapons obsolete. Clearly people learn nothing from history. "If I don't make it, someone else will." Make/Take.. seems like all terrible people have this logic in their head - that if they aren't evil, someone else will be so it excuses them being evil first. Yeah, Oppenheimer created the atomic bomb (well, was the scientist who figured it out first), and the regret he had when it was used on a bunch of innocent people after Japan had already surrendered/were in the process of doing so tore him apart. He vehemently spoke out about 'just because we can, doesn't mean we should' so I did not care for Ross's attitude of indifference towards creating some terrible weapon from these diamonds. I'm so over this world of war and ravaging - it doesn't have to be like this and people need to stop feeding into it.
Congo was one of Crichton's books which went a bit unnoticed. It tells the story of a research team going into the deep Congo forest to encounter, among other things, an ape capable of sign language, but does not really impress the reader, so it is a weak offering from the author.
Geez, Michael Crichton must do (or rather, have done *cries*) more research than any other author. It is IMPOSSIBLE to tell where fact ends and fiction begins. Masterful.
For the most part I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was a great adventure story with all sorts of action and various life-threatening problems to overcome. I liked how each of the three main characters had their own motivations of going to the rain forest and each one was kept close to the chest. Amy was by far the best character and her presence in the novel consistently made me smile. However, I didn’t like the ending. All of the human characters (except Munro surprisingly) got too self-absorbed and ended up almost killing everyone. Amy had the only real happy end story of the main characters. Although I think the 3 main human characters had kind of “sad” endings because all of them were kind of scummy for their own reasons.
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Why the fuck did I read this? If you want insane gorillas fucking shit up (which is awesome) and hackneyed prose worthy of a junior high English class (which is not), this is the book for you.