I finished the book; here are my final thoughts: Between the book and the movie, the main difference is the characterization of John Hammond. I prefer the book's characterization because it makes a lot more sense to me given what he's done. A man with his resources is definitely not doing this "for the children" and it's much more obvious in the books. In the movie, Hammond is more of a sympathetic old man, and I don't think it suits his behavior at all.
My favorite part of the book remains Ian Malcolm. He's obviously a self-insert for Crichton's perspectives on science, but they're pretty well-formulated and well-written.
For Crichton's writing overall, I've noticed quite a few people were not huge fans of the technical parts. Personally, the techno-thriller subgenre is one of my favorites, so I actually really enjoy the science-y and technical bits. I would give this book a 7/10. I like the genre a lot and the suspense is great, but it's definitely not my favorite Crichton work.
Return - Honestly, I am completely with Malcolm on his opinion of the park. Everything was kind of doomed to get out of control from the very beginning. The people who designed this should all be blacklisted from the scientific community given the lack of thorough thinking. To be honest, it kind of reminds me of some research my chemist friend has talked to me about; a lot of the time people don't really know what they're doing and miss seemingly obvious errors, even in published, peer-reviewed papers. I feel like this project was far too ambitious and risky to take on without the backing of multiple governments and the entire scientific community watching everything. This should not have been done secretly and in the dark.
Additional note (Spoiler for the second book): I love how Crichton retcons Malcolm's death for The Lost World. He literally says he was "partially" dead.
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