May 06, 2011 12:07 PM
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(Updated May 06, 2011 07:51 PM)
An expert of martial arts would never use his skill for wrongdoing. But one who has newly acquired the skill would exploit it to harass everyone around.
Michael Crichton – The master of techno thrillers, medical thrillers and science fiction wrote his largest selling book Jurassic Park in 1990. It was later made into a film in 1993. The Lost World is a sequel to this book. An M.D. by profession, he wrote his first book in 1966.He backed up all his stories with exhaustive research in varied fields, just as the current book mentions DNA replication for creating dinosaurs. He has received acclaim as well as criticism in his life due to his presentations of "fiction as fact" in science fiction novels. His heights of imagination scaled as much as his own unusual height of 6 feet 9 inches!
The book starts with an introduction of how Biotechnology started and how it progressed. The scientists who invented it strongly felt that it would serve as a utility for human benefit. But over years, it became a weapon to mint money. Those who had the privileges could get anything done from doctors willing to dance to their tunes. It was interesting to note that scented cells could be injected into human body so that the person would smell of his favourite perfume the whole day!
Story – A genetic engineering organization Ingen plans to start an amusement park and a theme zoo on the Isla Nublar Island called Jurassic Park. This is a zoo of genetically created animal species called dinosaurs that had become extinct 65 million years ago. This would mean huge business in the form of entry tickets and merchandise like theme caps, T shirts, etc. Ingen would also offer to create little dinosaurs as pets for children (whose parents could afford the sky-high prices). The park houses 238 animals of 15 species. Motion sensors have been installed at different places to track the position of animals and high-tech security systems are in place. All dinosaurs are enclosed in highly electrified fences so that no animal can escape. The animals are all female so that they don’t breed. The owner of the island and Ingen organization Mr. Hammond is wildly enthusiastic that all efforts and investments of 5 years would finally pay off.
Hammond invites a mathematician Ian Malcolm, legal consultant Gennaro, paleontologists Grant and Ellie and 2 kids Tim and Lexto his island to get their opinion on his park. Truly speaking, he just wants to see their awed faces! However, there are some glitches to be tackled. There is little or no information on how to take care of dinosaurs and maintain them. The dinosaurs are quick and aggressive and Hammond will not wait till a more docile ‘version’ emerges from the labs! The earth’s behaviour has changed manifold since there were dinosaurs. Has the behavior of dinos also changed?
Skeptical Malcolm is a strong believer on the repercussions of a mathematical concept called chaos theory. It states that for any system, small differences in initial conditions are capable of providing unpredictable outcomes in the future. He opines that even though the park seems to be well designed and safe, it exhibited all characteristics of being unpredictable in future. He yells that all genetic engineers were narrowly thinking (with no foresight) and proudly called themselves focused.
A competing organization Biosyn has placed a spy in the midst of the engineers at Ingen. This chap is ready to sell all secrets of creating dinosaurs and is the highly intelligent security systems in-charge.
An automated tour is arranged for the invited group in electric cars. While touring, a few hatched egg-shells are observed by Dr. Grant; this throws in the possibility of a wrong count of dinosaurs on the island! How could the dinosaurs breed? They were not designed that way! Now, no one could find this out before since the security systems were programmed to sound an alarm only when the number of animals had decreased. Meanwhile, the traitor plans his treacherous transaction with Biosyn. He would have to switch the power off on the island for just 5 minutes so that, in the chaos, he could deliver some embryos to a waiting boat. Hell breaks loose when power is switched off. The powerful dinosaurs realize that the fences are no more electrified; phones and security alarms stop working. The guests are stranded in their electric cars in the midst of ferocious dinosaurs. The traitor is killed by one of the animals before he could deliver the embryos. Can the skilled engineers find out what happened and restore everything back to normal? Will the 24 people on the Jurassic Park survive? Can humans actually control nature?
I liked- I have not seen the movie yet, but many have suggested that the book is far better. So all techno-freaks and thriller fans, this one’s for you. The book teases the reader when, at a highly dramatic moment, the scene shifts off to something trivial. There comes a point where the chapters juggle with all the parallel stories/scenes that are equally thrilling and fascinating. The story has enough detail (there are maps, tables and actual print-outs of graphs from computer screens), thrill, technology, suspense, imagination and above all, larger than life dinosaurs that we’ll find in just a handful of books! Can fiction get any more real?
I hated- There were a few things without which I felt the book would have been much better. I hated the gory details of dinosaurs killing and eating people- a severed leg here, an ear found there, the intestines oozing out, claws tearing through flesh and so on. Yuck! Malcolm, who started off very well with all his mathematical principles and foresight, gets immensely irritating with his jargons as the story progresses. When dinosaurs break loose, people run helter-skelter, he sits back and says, "I already told you so!" and starts off with his jargons again without contributing to help. The kid Lex was the most ridiculous character in this novel, shouting, feeling hungry and jumping around at the wrong times.
Jurassic Park is worth a read, at least once. 3.5 out of 5
