'Jurassic Park' and 'The Lost World' by Michael Crichton (1991 and 1995)

These two books I picked up for free at Steer's mad giveaway recently. I really enjoyed them! I quite liked the first 2 movies (the third was abysmal) but was surprised how much better the books were. I'm sure you know the story so I won't describe it. I'm sure the science throughout is a little dodgy (otherwise there would be cloned dinosaurs I suppose!) and the characters are cardboard thin at times. But, hey....it is genuinely exciting! I stayed up to read them...I couldn't put them down.

I particularly liked that the animals themselves were portrayed rather sympathetically. They were not anthropomorphised nor were they simple killing machines. Part of the story revolves around concepts of dinosaurs as social creatures and their role as parents. The velociraptors, the protagonists of the movies arguably, have a somewhat smaller role, whilst the t-rex takes centre stage. But it is the supporting cast of more varied animals which brings this lost world to life.

I found it especially satisfying that the whole "let's take a live dinosaur to mainland USA" plotline (which diminished the second movie) was absent from the book. Crichton has gone up in my estiamtion for this fact alone!

I would recommend these books simply because they are good fun, if a bit bloody and strewn with entrails at times!