Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[RokofAges75]

Who else has read it?

I just read it this week and loved it.  Definitely a page turner!

It was interesting to watch the movie again after reading the book, which I did tonight.  I have always loved the movie; it's one of my favorites.  Comparing the two, I think it's a case where they are both really good and can stand alone apart from each other.  I thought it was interesting how the movie followed the book very closely in some respects, and obviously the basic plot was the same, but it also changed a lot.  I was surprised by how many parts were left out of the movie that would have been cool to see on-screen (though it seems like some of those parts were modified and worked into the sequels - like the young T-Rex and the aviary scene).

That said, this is just the kind of book that is well-suited to be made into a movie, because I think actually seeing and hearing the dinosaurs on screen is scarier than trying to picture them and the action in your head as you're reading.  It was easy to do that as I was reading the book, but partly because I was just imagining the dinosaurs from the movie LOL.  The movie is such a good adaptation because of the special effects, and also the casting.  Certain characters from the book, like Malcolm and Nedry especially, are even better on screen because of the actors playing them - Jeff Goldblum, and Newman from Seinfeld LOL.  I also like the kids in the movie version better... they were too precocious in the book, and Lex was kind of annoying LOL.  I think they did a better job at making them act their age in the movie, and split their roles a bit so it wasn't just Tim running the show and Lex being annoying LOL.

Back to the book, though, I was impressed by how much scientific research Michael Crichton must have put into it.  Even though it's science fiction, the premise seems so believable, the way he writes it.  This is actually the first Crichton book I've read, but now I definitely want to read more by him.  What other books by him have you guys read and enjoyed?

[mare]

It's been a long time since i've read the book, but I agree with all that you said. The movie version of this book is one of the few for me that was as good as the book. A perfect example of when you can kind of leave things out or change plots a little without killing the integrity of the author's vision. I wish I could really remember a lot of the solid differences. I know some deaths were different and I LOVED the ending of the book because it was so unresolved.

I have read a few others by him but this one is the one that stood out for me. The Andromeda Strain was pretty good too. Probably my second favorite of his books.

[RokofAges75]

Yeah, a lot of the deaths were different... like Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) dies in the book but not in the movie, and Muldoon (the gamekeeper guy) dies in the movie but not the book, and in the book there was a guy named Ed Regis who was the one who left the kids in the Jeep when the T-Rex came and then got eaten... but in the movie, they replace him with the lawyer, but the lawyer lives in the book.  Oh, and Hammond dies in the book too.  It was a lot different, but that actually made it more fun to read in a way, because I didn't know for sure what was going to happen.  The ending was way different and more realistic than having the T-Rex crash into the lodge just in the nick of time and fight the raptors LOL.  Though you gotta love that in the movie.

I was thinking of getting the Andromeda Strain next.

[mare]

I remembered Hammond dying in the book but had forgotten about Malcolm.

They made Andromeda Strain into a miniseries on A&E I heard but I never watched it.

[RokofAges75]

^ I watched that one; it was really bad LOL.  I'm sure the book is much better though.  You know how miniseries can be... it was really cheesy, poor acting, the works.

[mare]

LOL I figured as much

[Kentuckychickrk]

Yeah, a lot of the deaths were different... like Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) dies in the book but not in the movie

Actually -- if you read The Lost World he technically didn't die in the book either.  I can't remember exactly what Creighton made up that happened (I think maybe they were supposed to have found him injured but alive after the fact), but it somehow he was definitely okay again.  

And I agree with pretty much what everyone has said.  This is one of very few novels where the producers did a great job on the film without having to keep every single detail, of which there were SO many, from the book.  I know I personally greatly enjoyed both -- and still do!!

[RokofAges75]

Oh really?  Weird LOL.  I guess they don't come right out and say he died, but they mention burying him, so it seemed pretty straightforwar d LOL.  But that does make sense, now that I think of it... cause he's the star of the movie version of The Lost World LOL.  Without reading the book, I always kinda wondered if that was the case in the movie because they couldn't get Sam Neill and Laura Dern back LOL.

[mare]

I don't remember if Lost World the book was written before they decided to make a movie. That might have made a difference as well. I don't think I read The Lost World, if I did I don't remember lol Probably not a good sign.

[Kentuckychickrk]

I don't remember if Lost World the book was written before they decided to make a movie. That might have made a difference as well. I don't think I read The Lost World, if I did I don't remember lol Probably not a good sign.

Jurrasic Park, the novel, was released in 1990, the movie came out in 1993 and The Lost World was released in 1995 (the movie 1997 - I didn't realize they were that far apart).

Apparently the main reason Creighton wrote The Lost World was because of the pressure from fans and producers to write a sequel.  So you're right, I'm sure it did have influence on a number of things.  Perhaps Jeff Goldblum's character was so well liked in the first movie that Creighton felt he needed to bring him back in the second, or perhaps it was easy to just do so because they never technically said he was dead. 

The last we see of Ian Malcolm in the novel Jurassic park is when he's talking with Harding when he's fading in and out of consciouness and talking about "the other side."  After that the only mention is that they were all stuck at a hotel in San Jose and couldn't even bury Malcolm and Hammond.

The next we see him is in the very beginning of The Lost World - Here is the excerpt from the book (I had to go look it up just to make sure I wasn't losing my mind... lol)

Malcolm was forty years old, and a familiar figure at the Institute.  He had been one of the early pioneers in chaos theory, but his promising career had been disrupted by a severe injury during a trip to Costa Rica;  Malcolm had, in fact, been reported dead in several newscasts....
"but as it turned out I was only slightly dead..."

[Purpura Lipstick]

I read Jurassic Park and loved it though I could live with or without the movie. *shrugs*   

I heard he wrote The Lost World based off the ending of the movie Jurassic Park and not the book ... eh well I never read that one suffice to say because I knew he would not be able to write another "Jurassic Park" with being pressured to write it and such .. I was working at a library when The Lost World came out so I heard all the rumors about it and how it came to be but that was lots of years ago now and I can't remember them all, too busy staring at the cute co-worker who was telling me to hear it all I suppose.