ericbuscemi 's review for:

Congo by Michael Crichton

3.0

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This was a thrilling adventure, and Crichton gave the story a deal of credibility by interjecting so much scientific and technological detail into it

Spoiler

Remember, this is a story with a skydiving gorilla in it.

. Additionally, the characters tasked with finding the lost city of Zinj -- expedition leader Karen Ross, mercenary Charles Munro, gorilla expert Peter Elliot, and of course, female gorilla Amy -- were very well developed considering how fast the story moved and the length of the novel.

However, while I really do like the directness of Crichton's prose, the novel was a bit too frenetic to build the tension that Crichton seemed to desire, and the deus ex machina ending

Spoiler

The remaining team members escaping in a hot air balloon found inside the crashed plane.

seemed rather convenient considering the difficulties the characters had travelling to that point. Overall, while not Crichton's finest work, which is a high bar indeed, this is easily worth a read.