.jpg) First edition cover | |
| Author | Michael Crichton |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Chip Kidd |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
Publication date | October 1990 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover andpaperback) |
| Pages | 399 |
| ISBN | 0-394-58816-9 |
| OCLC | 22511027 |
| 813/.54 20 | |
| LC Class | PS3553.R48 J87 1990 |
| Followed by | The Lost World |
Jurassic Park is a 1990science fiction novel written byMichael Crichton;[1] it is acautionary tale aboutgenetic engineering that presents the collapse of azoological park which showcasesgenetically recreateddinosaurs to illustrate the mathematical concept ofchaos theory[2] and its real-world implications. A sequel titledThe Lost World, also written by Crichton, was published in 1995. Two years later, both novels were republished as a single book titledMichael Crichton's Jurassic World, which has no relation to theJurassic World film series (the later films in theJurassic Park franchise.)
Jurassic Park received a1993 film adaptation directed bySteven Spielberg. The film was a critical and commercial success, becomingthe highest-grossing film ever at the time and spawning theJurassic Park franchise, including multiple film sequels.
In 1989, strange animal attacks occur throughoutCosta Rica. Evidence collected from the attacks points toProcompsognathus, an extinctdinosaur. PaleontologistAlan Grant and his paleobotanist colleagueEllie Sattler meet with anEPA official to discuss the attacks, but are abruptly whisked away by billionaireJohn Hammond, the founder of bioengineering firmInGen, for a weekend visit to a "biological preserve" he has established on the remote island ofIsla Nublar.
The "preserve" is a cover for the construction of "Jurassic Park", a theme park showcasing living dinosaurs recreated usingancient DNA found in the blood insideinsects that were fossilized and preserved inamber. Gaps in the genetic code werefilled in with reptilian, avian, or amphibian DNA. To control breeding, all of the park's specimens are raised as females with a genetic flaw that makes themlysine deficient and unable to survive outside captivity.
The recent attacks have made Hammond's investors skittish. Hammond requests that Grant and Sattler tour the park and endorse it ahead of the park's opening. They are joined by mathematician andchaos theoristIan Malcolm, and a lawyer representing the investors,Donald Gennaro, both of whom are pessimistic about the park. Malcolm, consulted before the park's creation, is emphatic that it will collapse. Hammond also invites his grandchildren,Tim andAlexis 'Lex' Murphy, to join the tour. The park staff present comprise senior engineerJohn Arnold, biotechnologistHenry Wu, game wardenRobert Muldoon, PR directorEd Regis, chief programmerDennis Nedry, veterinarianHarding, and several laborers.
While touring the park, Grant finds aVelociraptor eggshell, seemingly proving Malcolm's assertion that the dinosaurs are breeding against the geneticists' design. Grant deduces that using frog DNA to fill gaps in the dinosaurs' genetic code resulted in an environment that was conducive todichogamy, causing some of the female dinosaurs to become males and establish a breeding population. The park's automated tally system failed to account for the newborns, having been programmed to allow operators to input theexpected number of dinosaurs.
Nedry, angered by Hammond refusing to pay him for months of overwork, commitscorporate espionage forLewis Dodgson, an employee of InGen's rival,Biosyn. Activating abackdoor he wrote into the park's software, he disables the security systems and steals frozen embryos for the park's fifteen dinosaur species. Attempting to rendezvous with Dodgson's agent, he becomes lost due to a tropical storm. Nedry's sabotage disables theelectric fences around the park's enclosures, allowing most of the dinosaurs to escape. He is killed by aDilophosaurus during his attempted escape.
Meanwhile, the tour group, on their way back to the main lodge, discovers that dinosaurs have been escaping the island by stowing away on the supply boats. When the power is turned off, the tour group is left stranded next to theTyrannosaurus rex enclosure due to the tour cars being powered by underground wires connected to the main power grid. ATyrannosaurus rex breaks through the depowered electric fence and attacks the tour group. Grant rescues Tim and Lex, but Malcolm is severely injured and left behind, while Regis is killed and eaten. Muldoon and Gennaro, while searching for the tour group, find Malcolm and leave him in Harding's care.
Arnold tries to reboot the control room's systems and undo Nedry's meddling while repair crews begin patching up the park. However, the staff does not realize that a flaw in the rebooting process has left the main generators turned off, leaving only the overtaxed auxiliary generator operational. It quickly breaks down, disabling the entire island's power. The park's dangerous and untamedVelociraptors escape their enclosure and kill Arnold and Wu. Grant and the children make their way back to the island's control complex by rafting down a river on aninflatable boat, narrowly escaping multiple dinosaur attacks.
Grant and Tim restart the main generators and regain control of the park's systems. Warned by Grant that raptors are aboard, Gennaro contacts the island's departing supply ship and recalls it seconds before it makes landfall. Hammond, walking outdoors while contemplating InGen's future, is killed by a pack ofProcompsognathus after he falls down a hill and breaks his ankle. Grant, Sattler, Muldoon, and Gennaro search for the surviving raptors and discover a vast nest hidden in the park's waterworks.
Malcolm seemingly dies from his injuries. Everyone is evacuated by theAir Vigilance Service, which declares the dinosaurs hazardous and razes the island withnapalm. The survivors are detained in a Costa Rican hotel. Weeks later, Grant is visited byDr. Martin Gutierrez, an American doctor who lives in Costa Rica. Gutierrez informs Grant that an unknown pack of animals has been migrating through the Costa Rican jungle, implying that the surviving dinosaurs have been reintroduced into Earth's ecosystem.
Crichton began working on the project in 1981, but soon set it aside because there "seemed to be an enormous mania about dinosaurs" at the time, and he was hesitant to "ride a current fashion". He eventually proceeded after concluding that the public's fascination with dinosaurs "was permanent."[3] The novel began as ascreenplay, completed by Crichton in 1983, about a graduate student who recreates apterosaur.[3][4] According to Crichton, "It was a very different story. It was about the person who did the cloning, operating alone and in secret. It just wasn't satisfactory."[5] He said further, "I just waited to see if I could ever figure out how to make it work. It took quite a few years."[5] He struggled, in part, to make the story believable from a scientific perspective.[6]
Crichton revived the idea around 1988.[7] Given his reasoning that genetic research is expensive and "there is no pressing need to create a dinosaur", Crichton concluded that it would emerge from a "desire to entertain", leading to awildlife park of extinct animals.[8] Crichton initially avoided the park idea, finding it too similar to his 1973 filmWestworld.[7] Once he accepted it, Crichton chose to proceed with the story as a novel rather than a screenplay, later explaining "it wasn't clear that anyone would ever make this story into a movie, because it would be very expensive."[5] He sought to avoid certain ideas that had already been done in media, such as dinosaurs in a city, instead setting the story on a tropical island.[5]
The novel was originally told from the perspective of Hammond's grandchildren, who are present at the park as the dinosaurs escape.[7] Crichton had a handful of people whom he relied upon to give opinions on his early drafts; the group unanimously "hated" his first draft ofJurassic Park but could not pinpoint why. Crichton wrote two more drafts, which also failed to impress the group. One of the readers then realized that the story would function better if it were told from an adult point of view. Crichton followed this advice and eventually won over the group.[3] He also added "a tremendous amount of material" on chaos theory that would come from Malcolm, who had been only a minor character up to that point in development.[7]
In May 1990, Crichton submitted hismanuscript to publisherAlfred A. Knopf.[7]Chip Kidd, then a junior designer at Knopf, was told to create a cover that would suggest live dinosaurs without actually featuring a flesh and blood animal in it. After going by unsuccessful ideas like shadows, footprints, and close-ups of dinosaur skin, Kidd eventually sought inspiration visiting the dinosaur exhibit of theAmerican Museum of Natural History. He concluded that "You’ve got all different kinds of animals represented, but theT. rex sort of commands the room." He made a sketch of its skeleton and bought a textbook on dinosaurs at the gift shop, where he found an illustration of theTyrannosaurus byHenry Fairfield Osborn that served as the basis for the final product. Kidd noted that his option for the silhouette of a skeleton "brings to mind somewhere in between the remains of the animal and the animal itself." That concept saw approval along with the suggestion that it would be a wraparound image that extended to the spine and back cover, to "get a sense that it’s big, that it can’t be contained on one surface. It has to be free to roam around the entire jacket. Not just the front." The font aimed to be as utilitarian as the signage in an actual amusement park.[9][10]
Jurassic Park was released in October 1990.[11][12][13] For the novel's 30th anniversary, theFolio Society published a special edition in 2020, featuring six illustrations based on scenes in the book.[14][15]
Jurassic Park critiques the dystopian potentialities of modern science. Ian Malcolm is the conscience that reminds John Hammond of the immoral and unnatural path that has been taken. The final condition of the park is epitomized by the word "hell" which highlights the sacrilegious nature of Hammond's attempt.[16]
The plot of Crichton's novel has similarities toMary Shelley's 1818 novelFrankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, where humanity creates something without truly knowing anything about it. Henry Wu is unable to name the things that he creates, which alludes toVictor Frankenstein not knowing what to call his flawed imitation of God's creation. The immorality of these actions lead to human destruction, echoing the creature's vengeance on his creator.[17]
As Dale Speirs notes at p. 18 of "Vanished Worlds: Part 6" inOpuntia 483 (Sept. 2020),[18]Jurassic Park resembles Katharine Metcalf Roof's November 1930Weird Tales story "A Million Years After", about dinosaurs hatching from millions-of-years-old eggs.[19]
Similar to how his other novels represent science and technology as both hazardous and life-changing, Crichton's novel highlights the hypocrisy and superiority complex of the scientific community that inspired John Hammond to re-create dinosaurs and treat them as commodities, which only lead to eventual catastrophe. Crichton uses the opening of the book to highlight the shift of scientific research from occurring in universities for the betterment of all mankind, to private labs where research is conducted "...in secret...in haste, and for-profit". The similar fears of atomic power from the Cold War are adapted by Crichton onto the anxieties evoked by genetic manipulation.[20]
The book became a bestseller and Crichton's signature novel, with largely favorable reviews by critics. In a review forThe New York Times,Christopher Lehmann-Haupt described it as "a superior specimen of the [Frankenstein] myth" and "easily the best of Mr. Crichton's novels to date".[21] Writing forEntertainment Weekly,Gene Lyons held that the book was "hard to beat for sheer intellectual entertainment" largely because it was "[f]illed with diverting, up-to-date information in easily digestible form".[22] Both Lyons'Entertainment Weekly piece andAndrew Ferguson's review in theLos Angeles Times, however, criticized Crichton'scharacterization as heavy-handed and his characters as clichéd. Ferguson further complained about Ian Malcolm's "dime-store philosophizing" and predicted that the film adaptation of the book would be "undoubtedly trashy". He conceded that the book's "only real virtue" was "its genuinely interesting discussions of dinosaurs, DNA research, paleontology and chaos theory".[23]
Jurassic Park had sold nine million copies as of 1993.[24] Three years later, it was awarded the SecondaryBILBY Award.[25]
Sean Guynes, writing forTor.com in 2022, felt thatJurassic Park overlooked the dinosaurs as mere plot devices, and was critical of the prose and character development. He simultaneously praised the book for posing questions about the impact of scientific advancements on society, calling it Crichton's "smartest novel" for this reason. He wrote thatJurassic Park "was a bestseller, but it was never acclaimed and isn't remembered with much fondness. It was, for all intents and purposes, a mediocre thriller novel. But it asked big questions and it started something even bigger—a franchise". He went on to call the novel "an important look at scientific ethics and possibility that deserves to be reconsidered as a masterpiece" of the science fiction genre.[26]
The novel eventually led to theJurassic Park franchise, starting witha 1993 film adaptation directed bySteven Spielberg. It was distributed byUniversal Pictures, which acquired the film rights to the novel in 1990. Crichton performed early work on the film's screenplay, withDavid Koepp eventually taking over.[5]
The film adaptation excised much of the scientific dialogue, with Crichton saying, "I feel very strongly that books should be the best books they can be, and you should not worry about what the movie will do. In movies, a little bit of that kind of dialogue goes a long way. A movie likeJurassic Park is not the format to have extended discussions on the scientific paradigm."[5] Crichton had also included explicit violence in his novel, including evisceration, believing that it worked well to immerse the reader by establishing the dinosaurs as serious threats. However, he considered film to be a poor format for such violence, believing that it distracts audiences and breaks viewer immersion.[5][27]
The film was a critical and commercial success,[28] leading to a sequel novel by Crichton, titledThe Lost World and published in 1995. Spielberg returned to direct the 1997 film adaptation, titledThe Lost World: Jurassic Park. No further novels were written by Crichton, although the film series would continue, with Spielberg involved as executive producer.Jurassic Park III was released in 2001, and theJurassic World series began in 2015. Although not based directly on the novels, these films do include elements from the novel that were unused in the first film.[29]
Due out soon are Cold Fire, by writer Dean Koontz, and the thriller Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. Each has been released in floods of about 350,000 copies.
Michael Crichton's novel was published by Alfred A. Knopf in October 1990.
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