Amy good gorilla! Amy good gorilla! Yikes. The book is NOT that much more intelligent. The only thing worse was the movie. Starring Laura Linney. Go figure.

Congo is very well researched (which is clear from the bibliography alone). And while some of the information is outdated now (forty years after the book was written), it was certainly ahead of its time.

That being said, this might just be the last Michael Crichton book that I read. While his writing has certainly improved since reading The Terminal Man (published 1971), his archaic personality that he inputs into his narration unfortunately has not (though I held out hope).

His (obviously personal) negative opinions of women and other races are peppered throughout the narrated dialogue and this is hard to get past... even for me, a white man.

While we shouldn’t judge an artist for their art alone, in this instance, the distraction of Crichton’s obvious misogyny and racial ignorance affects the reading of this and so affects my rating. I love the premise of this book. The delivery fell short.

Some great action and fantastic characters are reeled in by chapters that leave the reader feeling short-changed by scenes that are under kneaded.

3 to 3.5 stars.

I loved this book. This is the second MC book I read after thee great JP. It was fast paced and filled with Tech jargon as well as a very descriptive environment.

EDIT 8/29/21- Just finished this reread and the book is staying at 4.5 to 5 stars. This is classic MC. filled with footnotes and references with a prologue and epilogue designed to make it seem this is a work of non-fiction. Crichtons research knows no bounds. We get anthropology, zoology, geography, African culture and history, cannibalism, technology, computer semiconductors , Chinese and russion and american commerical espionage.....all of this researched and embedded in one 313 page book.

I forogt how different this book was with the movie. the field team is mainly the same with no Tim Curry comedic character. The Lost City of Zinj scene and the volcanic eruption is very different. The human bred smaller vicious gorillas were well written and those scenes added good tension and action. Loved this one.

Relido após quase 30 anos, segue sendo meu segundo livro favorito do Crichton, logo depois de Jurassic Park. Uma releitura moderna e muito pulp de As Minas do Rei Salomão, com uma excelente sacada que moderniza o tropos do "povo-macaco" do Mundo Perdido de Conan Doyle, e precede os próprios filmes de Indiana Jones em dois anos.

This has not aged well.

This one really didn't work for me. It's an amazing hook, but quickly becomes mostly logistics. I needed more moments of WHAT-THE-HELL-IS-HAPPENING to sustain the middle. I needed government involvement in the stakes - "there's a spaceship from the future at the bottom of the ocean" and "this virus will eradicate humanity in days" just hit so much harder than "my company has to beat the Germans to the diamonds". I needed fewer scientific and historical lectures; I like them, but the book is a bit long. There was never really a twist - the payoff turned out to be what the evidence was building to, it was entertaining but expected.

I like the style where the author pretends he's reporting on real events from declassified files and secondhand witnesses, but why were those moments when he invoked that idea outright spoilers? What did that add?

It had entertaining moments but dragged a lot. I considered two stars, but I'm giving one back because Amy the Gorilla loves martinis and cigarettes and tickle time.

Jāsaka, ka bez Grāmatu kluba vajadzības, pie Kraitona es diez vai būtu ķērusies.
Nebija wow, bet nebija arī meh - saprotu, ka lasītājam pirms 35 gadiem, pat mazāk- kaut vai 90tajos, šis darbs piedāvāja aizraujošāku un pārsteidzošāku lasījumu. Tagad datori ir ikdienas realitāte, un ja vien džungļos būtu mobilais internets, vairums no mums ar savu glāstekli varētu izdarīt daudzas no grāmatā aprakstītajām funkcijām.
Patika vietas, kur ierunājās Kraitons - antropologs - par dzīvnieku lomu cilvēku sabiedrībā, par valodām, par vēsturi, mazāk - Kraitons fantasts, kaut arī sižetam oriģinālu elementu netrūka.
Yotubā apskatoties šīs filmas treileri, sapratu, kait kad bērnībā esmu redzējusi, un atkārtot negribas, turklāt Holivuda, protams, atkal dramatizējusi sižetu un dabiezinājusi krāsas.

I saw this on Chris' list and it triggered an old, funny memory. Now, I did read this book -- back in high school I went through a Michael Crichton phase and his books being as they are, I managed to read through his -- dare I say oevure? -- in a summer (don't recall which summer, tho')

The odd memory that Chris triggered however, has to to do with the movie Congo. I had a good friend in high school, wonderful fella, still a great friend. About the time we were seniors, he started dating -- or as the kids say, "going steady" with a...I think she was a sophomore at the time. The point is, Saturday nights I'd ask him:

"What are you doing tonight?"
"We rented Congo."
"You rented that last week."
"..."

And -- not lying -- we had the exchange roughly twice a month for the life of their relationship (about the length of the school year). Thus, when anyone in our circle of friends got lucky (for most of us a rare occurrence), we referred to it as "watching Congo." To use it in a sentence...

"You watch Congo on Saturday?"
"You know how I roll."

Etc., et.al.

(granted, at the time, no one I knew said "how I roll," but it sounds better)

In regards to the actual book, the only thing I remember is that I did not care much for it.

~cpd

As someone fluent in ASL, I loved the sign language using gorillas but that’s pretty much it. I’ve read a few Crichton books and this one was the least satisfying in my opinion. You can tell how much research went in to this book but it just felt poorly executed. It started strong with believable science but ultimately led to a contrived and predictable climax. I feel that Crichton tried adding too much in (cannibals, volcanoes, crocodiles, etc) and should’ve focused more on believability. I guess every great author has to have one rough book.

3.0 stars. Not his best book but much better than the movie made it appear to be. Overall, a decent read.

An excellent adventure that keeps you interested all the way through. Published in 1980 there is a lot of technology mentioned that is way ahead of its time. GPS, computer satellite links, Lazer targeted weapons, and more. Crichton was always way ahead of his time. He mentions the ability to destroy ICBMs using satellites. All of this takes place during a dangerous expedition deep in uncharted jungles with Amy a gorilla that knows sign language!

Definitely recommended!

certainly not my favorite Crichton. Starts of ok, but second half reads like it quickly needs to end, like the author has no inspiration to continue the story.