Turning Off The TV #18: Primeval

Welcome to my regular Thursday feature, Turning off the TV! In this feature I recommend books similar to TV shows or films you may have enjoyed, both series and specific episodes.

The TV series this week is: Primeval.

When strange anomalies in time start to appear all over England, Professor Cutter and his team have to help track down and capture all sorts of dangerous prehistoric creatures from Earth’s distant past.

BECAUSE DINOSAURS!!! DINOSAURS!!!

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton is one of my favourite books, and the 1993 film adaptation also happens to be one of my favourite films. The book is a whole lot more technical than the film, but in general it’s pretty faithful. It’s just such a clever and thrilling story, plus who doesn’t love the idea of a park filled with actual, real life dinosaurs? Unless perhaps you’re being chased by a T-rex or something…

The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle may be known for his Sherlock Holmes series of books, but they weren’t the only thing he wrote. Another of his series followed a character called Professor Challenger, and the first book, The Lost World, tells the story of a discovery of a remote area of the Amazon rainforest. The most astonishing part of the discovery however, is the fact that prehistoric creatures are living there.

Dinosaur Planet by Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey doesn’t just write about dragons. The creator of the well-loved Dragonriders of Pern series has also written about dinosaurs. Dinosaur Planet follows the crew of ARCT-10 as they head to Ireta (the titular dinosaur planet), in order to catalogue its flora and fauna. However, it doesn’t seem like the inhabitants of the planet are particularly welcoming…

Dinosaur Tales by Ray Bradbury

Until I started researching books for this post, I had no idea that Ray Bradbury had written a book about dinosaurs. Dinosaur Tales gathers together a collection of short stories that Bradbury wrote on… well you guessed it, dinosaurs.

Are you a fan of Primeval? Do you have any recommendations to add? Are there any other TV shows or films you’d like me to cover?

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Sci-Fi Month: Definitive Science Fiction Reads

Today I want to share a challenge with you all: my definitive list of science fiction reads! They are books I feel every sci-fi fan should read at least once in their lifetime, and as well as creating a challenge for myself I hope that it can be challenge for some of you too. Although I already have a Top Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books Challenge, I wanted to create one that reflected all different types of science fiction, including Young Adult. So it will actually be a mix of books I’ve loved, books I really feel I should read because they’re considered classics, and some titles that might often be overlooked, as well as some books that I’ve heard a lot of good things about.

 

If you’d like to join in, feel free! I’ll be keeping track of my progress too, on a separate post. Don’t forget to check out the schedule for the rest of today’s posts. You can also Tweet about the event using the hashtag #RRSciFiMonth.

‘Classic’ science fiction

• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
• Foundation by Isaac Asimov
• The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
• The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
• The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
• Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
• I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
• A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
• Ringworld by Larry Niven
• The Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Niven
• 1984 by George Orwell
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
• A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
• Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
• Twenty-thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
• Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
• The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
• The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
• The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham

Newer science fiction

• Oryx and Crake by Margaret Attwood
• The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
• Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
• Guardians of Paradise by Jaine Fenn
• Neuromancer by William Gibson
• The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
• Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
• Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
• Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
• Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
• Hyperion by Dan Simmons
• Mockingbird by Walter Tevis

Young Adult science fiction

• Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Breathe by Sarah Crossan
• The Maze Runner by James Dashner
• Earth Girl by Janet Edwards
• Legend by Marie Lu
• Cinder by Melissa Meyer
• The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
• Across the Universe by Beth Revis
• Divergent by Veronica Roth
• All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill
• What’s Left Of Me by Kat Zhang

What do you think of the challenge? Are you going to join in?

Review: The Lost World (Jurassic Park #2) by Michael Crichton

3 out of 5 stars | Goodreads

Jurassic Park is one of my favourite books. As a child, the film both simultaneously fascinated and terrified me. I was one of those children who loved dinosaurs, and collected fossils on the beach. This interest in palaeontology led to an interest in history, which then led to an interest in archaeology. So I think I can say that I have Jurassic Park to thank for where I am today.

So I was so disappointed that I didn’t particularly enjoy this book. If you have read Jurassic Park, you will know that unlike in the film, Ian Malcolm actually died at the end. Hence why I was so confused as to how he was the main character in this one – apparently the press ‘wrongly reported’ his death. Funny how this book came out after the Jurassic Park film, huh? I just couldn’t shake a strange feeling that Crichton was cashing in on the success of the film throughout the entire time I was reading the book…

If you have seen the second Jurassic Park film, you will know it involves Ian Malcolm going back to the island, after reports that something wasn’t right. His daughter sneaks into one of the trailers – but in the book it is actually originally two young (middle-school?) students, along with the professor they help out and a few others. Despite the constant menace of the T-rex and raptors, the action just kind of felt flat – even though they were in great danger, I always felt like I was waiting for something really big to happen.

The writing is very typical of Michael Crichton – to the point, technical in places yet still accessible to the reader. I quite liked the majority of the characters – and of course with this sort of book, there’s got to be some you don’t like, so you’re waiting them to be snatched up by the T-rex or velociraptors, or some other horrible fate. And there are several rather arrogant or cocky characters in this just waiting for that to happen.

Overall – yes, I enjoyed the book (dinosaurs!). But somehow it almost felt unresolved, it felt almost like the middle part of a book, with the beginning and ending missing. Perhaps Crichton was betting on a third book, I don’t know. It just doesn’t have the excitement and wonder that the first Jurassic Park book had, and is nowhere near as tense – events somehow seemed much more predictable.