Book Journal: Congo

I like Michael Crichton. I like books that are entertaining the entire way through, and that take you only like three hours to read. I like books that are well researched, even if they aren't plausible. Thus I enjoy a great deal of Michael Crichton.

Congo by Michael Crichton

My favorite is Timeline, then probably The Andromeda Strain, followed by Jurassic Park. (Which is also a favorite film.) Congo wasn't great, by his standards. It was usual Crichton fare: the occasionally indecipherable science, the adventure, the show-and-tell characters. And given its setting--the Congo, the heart of Africa!--you'd think I'd devour it. I did not. I finished it quickly enough--it's just at about 310 pages--and it was exciting, but the characters were more lacking than usual this time, and the unexplained origin of the gorilla-human-chimp hybrid things and their significance (and also their violence) left a little to be desired. I'd say pass this one up in favor of a significant portion of his repertoire, including the aforementioned. Still, when the sun's broiling and lazy days are ahead, there's no complaints about the kind of read it's supposed to be.

6/10