Saturday, August 30, 2014

Book Review--Jurassic Park, Volume 1: Redemption


Jurassic Park Vol. 1: Redemption takes place 13 years after the original Jurassic Park movie.

Tim and Lex Murphy, (the two kids in the movie), are grown up, and are running various remnants of their grandfather's corporation. Lex wants to keep the dinosaur island quarantined. However, Tim enters into a deal with a shady businessman and attempts to clear their grandfather's name--by re-opening a similar park, deep in the heart of Texas.

Predictably, carnage ensues.



Fortunately, Doctors Saddler and Grant show up in the nick of time to help out.

Jurassic Park: Redemption is a valiant attempt an re-igniting interest in the series, long after the last movie was made. Keep in mind, the novel's storyline follows the movies and not Michael Crichton's books.

While I liked seeing all four of the main characters re-united, Jurassic Park: Redemption falls flat in a few key areas.

The artwork is okay at best. I agree with the other commentators, that it's often hard to tell the characters apart. One even said Doctors Saddler and Grant look younger than they did in the original movie.
 (Although both Laura Dern and Sam Neill looked great during last year's media blitz over the release of Jurassic Park 3-D).
The plot seems to be merely an excuse to see dinosaurs go on a rampage--again. Transitions sequences are choppy, or non-existent, making the story even harder to follow.

Since this is the proposed first volume of a series, readers are hoping the quality improves.

Overall, I think the book was okay, probably because I found my copy at a used book store. I'd probably feel less charitable if I paid full price.

Jurassic Park: Redemption has earned just over 2.5 stars on Amazon.com.  The two raters who give the book over 2-stars liked it because their young sons loved it.  Adult readers are less than impressed.

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