Book Reviews
I do tend to read rather frequently not enough but still, it's mostly because I was assigned a Kindle at the start of Highschool and proceeded to use the thing as a surogate phone reading the custom uploaded books to there unbeknowingly to the facuilty. Any potential spoilers will be behind redacted text
Jurassic Park ~ ~ ~ ~
Jurassic Park is probably the most infamous dinosaur book due to it's film and franchise adaptation. It took young me quite a bit of time before learning that the film originated from a novel mostly because people don't talk about the book that much because JP happens to be one of the movies of all time. Overall since the book is longer many scenes are greater elaborated on and overall I'd consider all the extra parts it provides are a plus even if Crichton tends to be over dramatic and have convoluted wrong science sometimes. For and this book and The Lost world I am going to assume you've seen their film adaptations. Anyways some of the major differences from the film are:
The Opening scene is of a man being flown in to a costa rican hospital for medical attention after a Velociraptor mauling. The film's opening scene is likely how it happened.
The Compsognathus on the beach opening scene of the Lost World film was from this. In the novel a family goes for vacation by car to the beach the girl wanders out of sight and 1 Compsognathus mauls her causing her to be admitted to a hospital for an allergic reaction due to the gamma-amino methionine hydro-lase in their saliva
Dinosaur designs are different, its Procompsognathus in the novels and Compsognathus in the movies. Dilophosaurus is it's accurate size with a red crest, yellow body with black stripes. Tyrannosaurus is red with black patterning and there are more dinosaurs listed on the island like Othnelia, Maisaura, Styracosaurus, etc
The sick dinosaur was a Stegosaurus instead of Triceratops
Grant and the Kids take a river raft on the way back where they are attacked by Tyrannosaurus and Dilophosaurus. This scene was later reimagined in Rebirth
There is an aviary on Isla nublar with a hotel inside for Ceradactylus viewing.
Even more Character deaths including John Hammond, Dr. Wu, Ed Regias, and 'Malcom'
Ed Regis who was kinda of a nothing character was with the kids during the Tyrannosaurus break out. The kids are also different with Tim being the oldest and Lex the youngest.
In the End the island is destroyed by the fictional Costa Rican government burning the thing till the ground leaving no room for sequals, untill...
The Lost World ~ ~ ~ ~
Inspired by Sir Arthur Conan doyle's book of the same name. Is a forced sequel that came to fruition due to Steven Spielburg wanting more money because Jp was his second biggest success ever, (you can't make a sequel to titanic). So Crichton got to work, retconning Malcom's Death and creating Las Cinco Muertes and focusing on Isla Sorna the breeding/holding site. Even Dinosaurs were bred on Nublar already. Jurassic Park was around an 80% faithful adaptation, I'd say the Lost World is only around 40%. I wasn't that big of a fan of the film, and reading the novel made me even less of one as there was so much potential lost in translation. A few differences from the film include:
Characters include Ian Malcom, Sarah Harding, Eddie Carr, Richard Levine, Jack Thorne, Arby Benton, Kelly Curtis, and Lewis Dodgeson. Only Malcom Harding and Carr are in the film as well as Arby and Kelly being merged into one person.
There is far more of a prologue to the book with about 25 being uncovering the existence of Isla Sorna as an explanation behind the abbherent forms (dinosaur carcasses) washing up on the beach.
There are camouflaging Carnotaurus on the island living in the abandoned research outpost as nocternal predators. As well as other dinosaurs not present in the film like Ornitholestes, Musasaursus, Dryosaurus, and Apatosaurus.
Dodgeson is the central antagonist, still at a loss after failing to retrieve the embryos at Jurassic Park, he discovers the island around the same time as the main cast and attempts to retrieve eggs for Biosyn
The Velociraptors are the main threat and have a lot more of a presence throughout the story, more rapacious then ever the raptors have some of my favorite scenes, particularly the one with Arby trapped in the cage as the raptors are savagely trying to pry him out
The Films final message is letting life thrive independently from human interference. Whilst the Novels is about extinction and how the dinosaurs were destined for failure because of something that couldn't be preserved within their fossils, their behavior
Dragon's Teeth ~ ~ ~ ~
Is another Crichton book that was released post mortem in 2017. It's historical fiction set during the Bone wars where a young man Johnathan sets out on an expedition to the then dangerous untamed Indian land of the midwest on a quest for fossils with renound Paleontologist Othneil Charles Marsh thought the West scavenging for fossils to get ahead of his rival Edward Drinker Cope. Journeying mostly through Montana Idaho and the Dakotahs. I don't own this one only renting it from the library.
There's not really much to spoil here, asides from the fact I lied, Jonathan sets out with Edward Drinker Cope Marsh's rival. This novel is pretty cliche and short all things considered, it's a western so there is at minimum one shootout on the city street, and many saloons. The margins are also pretty wide, so even though it's around 280 pages it's still rather short. It also isn't as educational as his other works, not going into as much detail as I would like about things like fossil excavation.
Cows ~ ~ ~ ~
It is surprisingly about cows and typically placed under the 'Extreme horror" genera. DISCLAIMER: I wouldn't read this if you are uncomfortable with animal abuse, assault, gore, bestiality, dissection, endoscopes, feces, blood, urine, or something that rhymes with crepe and grape, I wouldn't read this book.
Plot Synopsis Our main character is Steven 25 scrawny with pale skin living with his mother that goes by several names such as Gargantua, Hagbeast, the beast. Hagbeast despises Steven and frequently tries show how worthless he is, and is the most unmotherly figure ever. Steven's usual day consists of having his mother force some disgusting congelield meat down his gullet, go to work at the Meat factory where wacky hyjinx ensue that go home and watch Tv as his only form of escapism looking at the happy commercial families.This book is gross it's clearly trying to be and it is. Too gross for most people, but I find the absurdity hilarious. Like the description of the Hagbeast a mountain of flesh oozing with period blood. Or just one of the cows randomly calling Steven the hard R. Not to mention the writing is confusing and kinda retarded. The only kind of theme within this book is 'mental darkness' which Steven and Lucy believe is a poison festering and preventing them from entering society. My friend recommended me this book and he is a b*stard for doing so, so make sure to recommend this book to others (●'◡'●) ^____^
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya series ~ ~ ~ ~
There are a total of 13 Haruhi Books I've read 12/13 i've just found a digital copy of the 13th. The stories are about 'Kyon' we don't know his real name. An ordinary Highschool student enrolled at North High. That is until he meets the Tititular Haruhi Suzumiya whose introduction goes "I’m Haruhi Suzumiya, from East Junior High. First off, I’m not interested in ordinary people. But if any of you are aliens, time-travelers or espers, please come see me. That is all." Kyon tries to comunicate with Haruhi but she is only intrested in the extrordinary or unatural, this leads to Kyon accidentally giving her the idea to start her own club in the defuct literature club room. This leads to the creation of the SOS brigade whose members are Yuki Nagato, Mikuru Asahina, and Itsuki Koizumi who happen to be a Alien Time traveler and Esper in that order. They all have their different beliefs but all were given their powers by Haruhi who has the miraculous ability to change reality sub-conciously. This leads to the group being dragged on a whim on expiditions to discover supernatural lead by Haruhi all while odd phenomina happens around them which they must keep Haruhi Unaware. If you want to read them they are
Here These are the books ordered from Favorite to Least Favorite
Other Books I plan to read and disscus on this page are Frankenstien, Invisible man, Old Thot Next Door, House of Leaves, and Andromeda Strain.