Congo [Mass Market Paperback]

Michael Crichton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 23, 1992

The legendary ruins of the Lost City of Zinj have seen an eight-person field exhibition die. After startling discoveries, a new expedition is sent back into the Congo--its mission, to descend into the secret world where the only way back out may be through the grisliest death....

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you saw the 1995 film adaptation of this Crichton thriller, somebody owes you an apology. While you're waiting for that to happen, try reading the vastly more intelligent novel on which the movie was based. The broad lines of the plot remain the same: A research team deep in the jungle disappears after a mysterious and grisly gorilla attack. A subsequent team, including a sign-language-speaking simian named Amy, follows the original team's tracks only to be subjected to more mysterious and grisly gorilla attacks. If you can look past the breathless treatment of '80s technology, like voice-recognition software and 256K RAM modules (the book was written in 1980), you'll find the same smart use of science and edge-of-your-seat suspense shared by Crichton's other work. --Paul Hughes

Review

A group of scientists visits the Congo jungle in search of a lost city and a domestic ape’s ancestors, only to find the jungle holds some strange primates who have killer instincts. High drama marks a vivid condensed audio version of a thriller. -- Midwest Book Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (November 23, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345378490
• ISBN-13: 978-0345378491
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (257 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #847,008 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Crichton was born in Chicago in 1942. His novels include Next, State of Fear, Prey, Timeline, Jurassic Park, and The Andromeda Strain. He was also the creator of the television series ER. One of the most popular writers in the world, his books have been made into thirteen films, and translated in thirty-six languages. He died in 2008.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Most Entertaining Novel Since "Jurassic Park", October 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Congo (Mass Market Paperback)

This novel kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time I read. Michael Crichton does a good job displaying realism in this realistic science fiction novel. He creates a story in the darkest region of the Congo, near the Lost City of Zinj,where an eight-person expedition dies brutally in a matter of seconds. At the home base back in Houston, supervisors watch a gruesome video transmission of the ill-fated team: dead bodies, tents crushed, and a blurred dark moving image. A new expedition is sent to the Congo. Some are in search for diamonds while a primatologist is taking his gorilla Amy, who knows sign language, back to her home in the Congo. During the expedition they encounter trouble with the native tribes and man-eating gorillas. Many people die and there is a lot of action in this thriller. Life threatening creatures and jungle weather creates a setting which makes this book so entertaining. This book can be compared to "Jurassic Park." Both display great action scenes and interesting stories by the same author. I recommend this book greatly if you are either a science-fiction or suspense thriller fan.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bring home Congo, bring home the fun!!!, October 26, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Congo (Mass Market Paperback)

In Houston, Texas, a shocking video from the Congo appears before the eyes of Karen Ross, a scientist of the company ERTS. She sees the campsite of ERTS' current expedition destroyed and its members dead. Karen Ross is sent to the Congo to find out what happened with the help of a primatologist by the name of Peter Elliot, Peter's gorilla that is fluent in sign language, Amy, and an experienced guide named Munro with his crew of porters. Karen discovers that she must race to the Congo against German and Japanese scientists to find a specific diamond that may hold the key to the future, and she is driven to succeed at any cost. They must face bellicose hippos and tribes of fierce cannibals. As the expedition progresses, a vicious new species may tamper with the success of the expedition, and with the crew's lives.

I would have to say this is one of Michael Crichton's finest works. The book gives plenty of background information, making it easy to understand the plot and what's going on. After awhile, it is impossible to put the book down for its extravagant details and stunning scenes. The action is well described and sucks you into the book. The characters are very three dimensional and many have such great personalities that make the book's slower parts fun and interesting. One of the most interesting characters would have to be Amy, the gorilla fluent in sign language. She makes even the most fearsome scenes hilarious. The only reason I didn't give this book five stars is because it is not incisive enough, for it takes about 150 pages for the book to really draw you in.

I highly recommend this book, for it is one of the best books I've read in years.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Everything but the kitchen sink, December 18, 2004

By 

Bryon Butler (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Congo (Mass Market Paperback)

I found myself on vacation with no book...tragic. I remedied this with a copy of Congo.

As I read Congo, the story of diamond hunters in, yes, the Congo, I realized how much has changed since 1980. A cutting edge computer thriller, it has references pinball machines, five-inch floppies, 256Kmemory and portable cassette tape players. Yet it was also current, with its talk of DNA testing and the competitive threat of both the Japanese and Chinese in the world markets.

Congo has it all: competing international diamond hunters, the Congo, African pygmies, cannibalistic tribes, various warring countries and factions, lost cities of bygone centuries, active volcanoes, sign-language gorillas, geographic history, gorilla history, African and Congo history, a possible new species of gorilla with its own agenda, communications satellites, plane crashes, hot air balloons, and, well I'm sure I'm leaving something out. Michael Crichton's deft writing brings it all together for an enjoyable action romp that works....almost. If anything suffers in the book it is the characters. So much is packed into the story that the characters do not develop, and are almost relegated to following the action, which never ends. The author has to explain a lot to the reader so that we can follow along. He does this as the narrator and often includes it in character dialogue. So much information is presented as dialogue that I get the picture of very educated people, stuck in the Congo with killer gorillas and dead bodies, finally snapping and pummeling each other to the ground yelling, "Why are you being so redundant? I KNOW all this stuff!" The reader often won't, however, making it important but at times slowing the book down.

I wondered how this book could be made into a movie, and on a whim rented the 1995 thriller. The movie works by leaving a lot out (no cannibals, competing groups, and not even one African pygmy, among other things) and by breathing life into the characters and even introducing new ones. It does not do the book justice, but it does do what the book does not; it brings the characters to life.

Congo ends with a three-page reference of all the works Crichton studied and referenced in writing the book. It was impressive and shows his ability to take so much and make it work. Before this reference section was an epilogue explaining what happened to the books major characters when the adventure had ended. I found myself less interested in this and more interested in the reference list, as Karen, Peter, Munro and the rest never really impacted me, and were lost in a thriller that has everything but the kitchen sink.