Dinosaur book has action;
short on reality, humans
“Jurassic Park”
Michael Crichton
Ballantine Books
By Mark Baldridge
Staff Reporter
Michael Crichton’s “Jurassic Park”
is a book with everything you could
ever want: sexy blondes, brilliant sci
entists, chaos theory and Tyrannosau
rus Rex —- the greatest meat eater of
them all.
Not to mention apatosaurs (com
monly called brontosaurs), a cute baby
triceratops named Ralph and even
some of those big kite-like pterodac
tyls.
Then there are other, nastier, things
with mean reptilian brains and killer
instincts.
All that it’s missing is humans.
Crichton couldn’t paint a realistic
character if his life depended on it.
Any reader listening for an authentic
human voice will only get the hollow
echo, “No one here but us cardboard
cut-outs.”
This is made worse by Crichton’s
prying literary style; at one point or
another we get to ride around in each
character’s two-dimensional head.
It’s tiresome. Instead of getting to
know one cardboard figure well, we
get to know all of them poorly—and
some of them are easy to dislike.
The book runs rampant with over
simplifications of important ideas and
confusing descriptions of mundane
detail. Even the typos get out of hand.
But so have the dinosaurs, and that
covers a multitude of sins.
Anyone who has ever stood in
wonder at the foot of a tyrannosaur
skeleton, read the kid’s books where
they show how many greyhound buses
are equal to one brotosaur or just
played with red, green and blue plas
tic dinos, will relish seeing these beasts
alive and well and duking it out in the
park.
All your old friends are here and
the only thing missing is the fight you
always wanted to see, the greatest
struggle of all time—the tyrannosaur
and the triceratops, head to head.
Too bad the originals never met.
You can bet they were separated-by
millions of years.
But here in the park, built by a
senile billionaire, you can see them
all: together again for the first time
anywhere.
So the book has it’s redeeming
features after all. It’s not terribly de
manding, action packed and (kiiul of)
informative, about dinosaurs anyway.
The method they use to get dino
saur DNA — all the dinosaurs in the
book are clones — is absolutely bril
liant. And some of the discussions of
chaos theory are pretty interesting, if
awfully simplistic.
In all, not a bad book to take to the
beach, or — if you’re stuck with the
rest of us in Lincoln — to the, I don’t
know, park?
Zaca
Continued from Page 10
down.”
The bands’ activities include
tours, festivals and recently, Farm
Aid VI. Because of their own expe
rience losing 10 acres of family
land to bankers, Zaca Creek sup
ports Farm Aid.
“It’s important for the people in
the public eye to take a stand for
something and I’m glad and proud
to be able to do it. And hopefully,
we’ll have a big enough record and
sell enough records that us, making
a stand tor something like Farm
Aid has an impact on a lot of people.
“A broken heartland,” he said,
“still can be changed.”
I
Sin
Continued from Page 10
for acting.
Unfortunately, Johnson’s great
work is not enough to save this movie
_
from its grisly fate of a dubious end
ing, along with being an all-around
bad film.
“Guilty As Sin” should be skipped
by DeMomay fans, but it’s a must-see
for Johnson fans, and fans of suave
cinematic psychopaths in general.
Boy
Continued from Page 10
Under the influence of Senegalese
musician Maurice Zou, Reilly co
wrote two compositions, “Nouwe O
N’Mazei” and “Fire," a song rich in
rhythm and blues and topped with a
rocking refrain.
“Words Inside" reminisces lost
loves and lost worlds, like the lost
world of “Eldon Street."
“Gone are the tall towers and fac
lories/Gone are the ships and the
cranes/Day by day my river’s getting
clcaner/Who’ll take the blame?”
Reilly wrote the lyrics, not as a
satire on pollution, but as a requiem to
childhood memories about a street
once full of life, refineries and em
ployment— now defunct, except for
the pubs and the emptiness.
When Reilly, Needham, Hiley and
drummer Darren Ford explore new
hooks and crannies, the result is noth
ing like you’d expect, but that’s the
beauty of Boy on a Dolphin, “Words
Inside.”•.
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" A friend dragged me to the
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He tried to explain a toilet
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but was soon complaining that his
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hurt his feet.
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motlJL sasoa*,
U %mm£lxmU my
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It must be the way they
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Next we saw an empty
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For a moment 1 considered
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uic stow Student Leader*
Rev. Jim Pennington Brent Smith. Pres.
Phil Gaylor. DEO Josh Adams. Vice Pres.
Summer
Bible Study 9:00AM
Sunday Worship Experience 10:00 AM
Beginning Aug. 22nd
Bible Study 10:00AM
Sunday Worship Experience 9:00/11 AM
Spiritual growth opportunities and
social events offered throughout the week.
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On the N.W. corner of 16th and ’Q‘ Streets
Call 477-3997 for more Information.
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