Congo

Michael Crichton

ISBN 10: 0679431136 ISBN 13: 9780679431138

Publisher: Random House Audio, 1993

Synopsis

Deep in the heart of the darkest region of the Congo, an eight-person field dies mysteriously and brutally in a matter of minutes....

Ten thousand miles away, at the Houston-based Earth Resources Technology Services, Inc., supervisor Karenn Ross watches a gruesome video transmission of that ill-fated team: a camp destroyed, tents crushed and torn, equipment scattered in the mud alongside bodies and -- the grainy, moving image of a dark, blurred shape ....

In San Francisco, primatologist Peter Elliot works with Amy, a gorilla with a 620 "sign" vocabulary and a fondness for finger painting. Her recent drawing matches, with stunning accuracy, the frayed, brittle pages of a Portuguese print dating back to 1642 -- a drawing of an ancient lost city. Immediately, a new expedition is sent into the Congo, descending into a secret world. where the only way out may be through the grisliest death.

Judith Ivey's film credits include Alice, Brighton Beach. Memoirs, and In Country. She starred on the television show "Designing Women."

Disclosure, Rising Sun, and Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton, are available from Random House AudioBooks. Sphere and The Andromeda Strain are available as Random House Price-Less Audios.

About this title

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

About the Author:

Michael Crichton was a writer and filmmaker, best known as the author of Jurassic Park and the creator of ER. One of the most popular entertainers in the world, Crichton sold more than 200 million copies of his books, which have been translated into 40 languages and adapted into 15 films. Long before the carefully researched techno-thrillers that ultimately brought him to fame, Crichton wrote—with remarkable speed and gusto—ten high-octane suspense novels to support himself while studying at Harvard Medical School.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Audio
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0679431136
• ISBN 13: 9780679431138
• Binding: Audio Cassette