Congo

By: Michael Crichton

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Deep in the African rain forest, near the legendary ruins of the Lost City of Zinj, an expedition of eight American geologists are mysteriously and brutally killed in a matter of minutes.

Ten thousand miles away, Karen Ross, the Congo Project Supervisor, watches a gruesome video transmission of the aftermath: a camp destroyed, tents crushed and torn, equipment scattered in the mud alongside dead bodies - all motionless except for one moving image - a grainy, dark, man-shaped blur.

In San Francisco, primatologist Peter Elliot works with Amy, a gorilla with an extraordinary vocabulary of 620 "signs," the most ever learned by a primate, and she likes to finger paint. But recently her behavior has been erratic and her drawings match, with stunning accuracy, the brittle pages of a Portuguese print dating back to 1642…a drawing of an ancient lost city. A new expedition - along with Amy - is sent into the Congo, where they enter a secret world, and the only way out may be through a horrifying death.....

Congo was adapted to the screen and directed by Frank Marshall.

©1980 CrichtonSun LLC (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

the best of Crichton with excellent narration

Popular opinion on Crichton's Congo has always been divided--some feel it's one of his better novels while many feel it's the opposite. I'm one of the former. I love this book. And while the Jurassic Park movies remain among my favorites, I didn't love the books nearly as much--they were good, interesting, but failed to sweep me away like Congo did and continues to do, and for that reason, I put it well above the Jurassic Park and Lost World novels. Amy, the gorilla, in particular is a gem. I always forget how much I love Crichton's sense of humor. Amy is marvelously rendered and a fabulous character. The other characters are well drawn and interesting--no one is one-dimensional, no one is perfect, everyone is interesting.
The narration is superb, and I need to spend a sentence or two on that because when I was trying to decide whether or not to buy the audible version, I very nearly didn't because of the many negative reviews of the narration. One in particular shreds her performance of Peter, saying he sounds like a sulky teenager. I honestly have no idea where they got that. Julia Whelan does a magnificent job with all elements, particularly the sciency bits where Crichton veers off into massive amounts of exposition/history/etc that no fiction author should be allowed to get away with and yet he DOES and somehow does it really well--Julia Whelan does a masterful job with those sections making them every bit as interesting to listen to as the action sequences. As if often the case with cross gender reading, Whelan does sound a little strained with the male characters. But I've heard far worse, and it's not distracting. And she's spot-on perfect with the overall narration, the female voices, and Amy.

This was an easy 5 stars and I will definitely be re-listening to it many times in the future.

Better than the movie...but...

The narrator made it very hard for me to rate this book, had it been done by Scott Brick it would've gotten 4 stars.

Julia Whelan makes it all too comical....like the movie.

Really enjoyed

Any additional comments?

If you like Michael Crichton you'll enjoy this story. It was well performed and really interesting. I typically listen to books at work when I'm doing something mind-numbing and this kept me engaged

audio lovin grandma

I didn't enjoy this one as much as other Criton books. narrator's voice was too monotone.

Action-Filled but Dated

Would you consider the audio edition of Congo to be better than the print version?

I think the audio version helps get over the chunkier science-heavy sections while making them seem less bogged down especially since a lot of the science in this is now very dated.

What did you like best about this story?

I absolutely adored Amy. While the scientists allowing Amy to drink and smoke seems unethical, she remains a compelling character to follow.

Which scene was your favorite?

I really enjoyed the epilogue of where the characters end up.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Parts of this book left me compelled to read all at once, while other, more science heavy sections, left me wanting to take breaks

Classic Michael Cricthton

I loved the storyline. Sci-fi & other Michael Crichton books are amazing. This one had a little bit too much technical descriptions, which I normally really like. I listened through it all but sometimes had to really buckle down & focus. Once those parts finished the story resumes and then it’s once again gripping. All in all though…amazing!

Performance…she’s the best! You’ll love her narration, she’s just phenomenal.

Not one of my favorite Crichton books

Not bad, not great. Mostly ok w some slow parts. Took a while to get to the main part of the plot.

Entertaining, informative Crichton scientific thriller

A deep dive by Dr. Crichton into the study of apes, including ape language, the geology of the Congo, climatology, and a dozen other technical topics, in the guise of a tale of a commercial expedition to find an ancient city with a diamond mine. Never less than interesting, often engrossing, and, eventually, exciting. The reader is poor, unfortunately. Some narrators have trouble voicing characters of their opposite gender, and Ms. Whelan is one of those. All the male characters speak in soft, husky voices. Recommend nevertheless.

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loved this book! I always liked the movie so decided to listen now not so sure about the movie lol great story! thanks

Starts with a bang and remains pretty high octane

The beginning had the hairs on my neck stand, and throughout, there's that Critchon unease. Really masterful.

It's got that same "man-meets-beast-and-finds-himself-totally-unprepared" feeling. It's one of the tenser ones, and I find myself feeling like I know the protagonist Amy, a gorilla. She kind of stayed with me.