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A review by tifftastic87
Congo by Michael Crichton
adventurous
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Peter Elliot studies gorillas and has a close relationship with Amy, a 7 year old female mountain gorilla who speaks sign language. When Amy starts having nightmares, she begins painting images that look a bit like a lost city. Karen Ross is interested in this lost city for its potentia diamonds and offers to take Peter and Amy to find it. What they discover is more deadly than they expected.
In the introduction, Crichton says he struggled with this book after he successfully pitched it. The struggle is pretty obvious, theres a lot of head hopping, plot points intentionally and obviously hidden from the reader and drug out for the sake of mystery rather than a story. There were a lot of info dumps and some weird cuts between scenes. It gets 3 stars from me solely because of the interactions with Amy.
I feel like Crichton made his distaste for academics here very clear. Munro, the guide who is every bit a 1980s adventur hero, was definitely his favorite character and I actually liked him more than I expected to. Munro was the only character who was seemed to have multiple interests. He was very self interested but also had the ability to think outside himself.
The characterization of Peter felt a little inconsistent throughout. Karen got more and more obsessed and single minded as the plot continued, which I suppose was foreshadowed a bit in the beginning. It felt weird though because the most selfish and greedy character was, other than Amy, the only woman.
Overall this felt like a pretty disjointed first draft.
In the introduction, Crichton says he struggled with this book after he successfully pitched it. The struggle is pretty obvious, theres a lot of head hopping, plot points intentionally and obviously hidden from the reader and drug out for the sake of mystery rather than a story. There were a lot of info dumps and some weird cuts between scenes. It gets 3 stars from me solely because of the interactions with Amy.
I feel like Crichton made his distaste for academics here very clear. Munro, the guide who is every bit a 1980s adventur hero, was definitely his favorite character and I actually liked him more than I expected to. Munro was the only character who was seemed to have multiple interests. He was very self interested but also had the ability to think outside himself.
The characterization of Peter felt a little inconsistent throughout. Karen got more and more obsessed and single minded as the plot continued, which I suppose was foreshadowed a bit in the beginning. It felt weird though because the most selfish and greedy character was, other than Amy, the only woman.
Overall this felt like a pretty disjointed first draft.