Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park books are masterpieces. Undoubtedly.
I've been reading Jurassic Park and The Lost World since the beginning of the year. I did a presentation about the novel Jurassic Park at school, where I compared some scenes in the book with the film's realizations. The differences are grave, very, even. I came to the conclusion that they are actually incomparable. Maybe one can compare some scenes with each other, for example the kitchen scene, because the differences there were really exciting, but you can't lump the novel together with the film.
If you would make a film of the book exactly one-to-one, it would probably become boring and lengthy. Especially the scene where you see a longneck for the first time is completely unspectacular in the book.
If, on the other hand, one would rewrite the film directly into a book, exactly those things would miss which constitute a book, namely feelings and thoughts, because these can very often be represented better by a book than by a film.
My conclusion is that both the novel and the film succeeded in their very own way.
I have just finished reading The Lost World, and it has made me do what all good books get me to do and should get me to do. It made me think. It gave me the feeling that I had achieved something, that I had used my time more than meaningfully.
Although The Lost World is described as "film template", it is a completely different story. The beginning is vaguely kept at the book and some names as well as the island are identical. But the story in the film proceeds completely different from in the novel. Not only does it proceed differently, the story itself is completely different.
What I particularly like about both novels are the many things you learn about biology, chaos theory and evolution. Theories about the causes of the extinction of species, about the way evolution is influenced. Why dinosaurs have such a special effect on many people and much more.
While Jurassic Park focuses more on genetics and dinosaurs, I noticed that The Lost World is more focused on theories and behavior, at least at those points where one sometimes unconsciously learns very interesting things. These two books never became boring from the beginning to the end. With this variety of excellent things that the books offer, one can sincerely accept that the dinosaurs are partly inaccurate. Most people know that the Raptors are wrong with their 2-meter bodies and their featherless skin. But also other interesting ideas can be found. In certain parts there are even dinosaurs who can shoot poison or who have chameleon abilities. One already knows while reading that these things probably weren't real and that such dinosaurs didn't exist, but it doesn't bother.
Although there is no Jurassic Park with its technology in reality, Michael Crichton manages it that everything seems real. The explanations of how the park works and how the dinosaurs are created are so good that one might think it's real. One forgets that it's science fiction. The boundary between reality and fantasy gets broken, which enormously improves the reading experience.
I can recommend the novels with a clear conscience. It doesn't matter whether you've seen the films or not.
When I started reading the novels in winter, I couldn't have even guessed how good they actually are. But one often recognizes such things only afterwards. Isn't that often the case in life?
