Few
months ago, after Jurassic World had been released, some of my friends and I
were talking about the older sequel of Jurassic World, Jurassic Park. It's been
ages since the old one released. Then I found one of Crichton's work, Congo.
I've read it, it's a recommendable book. If you love adventure and this book
really fits you.
Author : Michael Crichton
Country : United States
Language : English
Genre : Science fiction, adventure novel
Year : 1980
Pages : 348
The novel starts with an abrupt end to an diamond
expedition in the legendary lost city of Zinj sent by Earth Resource Technology
Services Inc. in the dense rain forests of Congo (Zaire) when the team is
attacked and killed by an unkown creature and all contact with them is lost.
Luckily there is a camera taken a video and trasmitted to the base
station in Houston. In the video, it shows a peculiar race of grey haired
gorillas-like who they believe as murders.
Our main character, Dr. Karen Ross, supervisor of
ERTS asked Dr. Peter Elliot, a primatologist who trained a gorilla named
Amy which be able to speak sign language, about the video. Elliot and Amy both
shocked, Amy said gorillas don't kill people. Then Ross decides to take another
expedition to Congo to get the blue diamonds and to prove her boss that she as
a genius woman could join the expedition. Because of the bewilderment over
this incident she contacts Dr. Elliot to find out what this gorilla is. She
tells him that their going to the Congo and he wants to come and bring Amy, his
gorilla. Amy has been experiencing bad dreams because of her past which is
unknown to Dr. Ross. She begins finger painting which helps her sleep at ease
because tries to banish the dreams onto paper. Elliot realizes she wants to go
to the jungle because all the her paintings are of it. The expedition leaves
quickly because there is a competing company that is also making its way to the
Congo to get the blue diamonds, which are an amazing source of energy.
The expedition is set to meet Charles Munro, the
best guide there is, to guide them through the Congo. They discussed business
matters and quickly headed to Nairobi. From Nairobi they took their final plane
to go to the Congo. At that time a civil war had started in Africa and both
sides were shooting everything, including the expedition’s plane. Every one had
to take a parachute and jump out of the plane. This was a major delay in the
time the expedition had to beat the competition to the diamond site. The
expedition: Ross, Elliot, Munro, Amy, and some African men; have to walk the
rest of the way to the diamond site. On their way they encounter many dangers
like: cannibalistic tribes, angry hippos, crocodiles, and a volcano ready to
burst. As they are walking through the jungle Ross is informed on her computer
that the competition has already reached the site and there is no point to
continue. Later on they find the competitions camp site destroyed and all the
people are dead. During their journey they have an encounter with mountain
gorillas. Amy runs of with them because she thinks the group is mad at her.
After all the troubles and danger they finally arrive at a place to make camp,
which turns out to be the lost city of Zinj which contains the blue
diamonds.
They are very excited to have made such a great
archeological discovery and go exploring the city for the rest of the day. At
night they set up and electric fence, sensor guns, and sensor lasers. This is
their first encounter with the gray killer gorillas. The gorillas showed signs
of intelligence by attacking different parts of the electric fence to get in,
they also wheezed to one another and used hand signals, which served as a
language. The next day while studying paintings in one of the houses of the
city they discovered the story behind the city. The city has diamond mines under
it and they trained gorillas to be like watch dogs to guard the mines. These
“watch dogs” turned on their masters and these killer apes rule the city. The
team dug a moat around the camp because it is known that no gorilla will cross
even the smallest body of water. That night the gorillas came and the same
wheezing noises where heard used a tree trunk as a bridge over the moat and
some of them made a distraction while others used a stick to lift open the
fence and kill some of the African people. Later the team studied the body of
one of the dead animals. It was a little smaller than a gorilla and weighed
less and it’s fur color was gray. The next night the same thing happened: more
gorillas slipped in unnoticed, killed some of the African people, and made a
clean exit. The next day Amy returned to the camp site and told Elliot that
these gray gorillas are bad creatures and that she could understand them a
little. Elliot thought of a plan, he and Amy went to the lair of these gorillas
and focused on one. Amy would explain to Elliot what each noise meant. By
the end of the day they had down the meaning of a few words. Elliot made a tape
with the words: GO AWAY, NO COME, and BAD HERE. As the gorillas attacked that
night he played the message and they all left. The plan had worked. The next
day the volcano was ready to blow which meant they had to leave quickly. On
their way a cannibal tribe attacked them. They managed to escape in a hot air
balloon and Amy was set free and lived with a gorilla troop. Ross got her blue
diamonds and went home happy.
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