Congo (novel)
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| Author | Michael Crichton |
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| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science Fiction |
| Publisher | |
| Released | 1980 |
Congo is a novel by American writer Michael Crichton. The novel centers on an expedition searching for diamonds in the dense rain forest of Congo.
[edit] Plot Summary
The novel starts with an abrupt end to an expedition in the dense forests of Congo when the expedition team is attacked and killed by an unknown foe and all contact with them is lost. The expedition, searching for deposits of what are arguably the most valuable diamonds in the world, discovered the legendary lost city of Zinj. A video image taken by a camera there, and transmitted by satellite to the base station in the United States, shows a peculiar race of gorillas to be responsible for the murders. Those gorillas are different from normal gorillas in their appearance and behaviour. They are gray and rather small, and they seem to communicate via wheezing sounds.
Another expedition, led by Karen Ross, is launched to find out the truth and to find the city of Zinj, and the deposits of the new type of diamond that would change the shape of technology and the world as we know it. This time the searchers bring along the famous White African mercenary Munro, as well as a female gorilla named Amy (who has been trained to communicate with humans using sign language) and her trainer Peter Elliot. Time is of the greatest essence, as a rival consortium of European and Japanese corporations has also set off into the jungle after the diamonds, turning the entire expedition into a race to the city of Zinj. Unfortunately for Ross and her team, the American expedition encounters many delays along the way, including plane crashes, native civil wars, and jungle predators.
Eventually, Ross and her expedition reach the City of Zinj and discover the consortium camp, like the original expedition's camp, in ruins and devoid of life. Ross and her team then first encounter the killer gorillas and are attacked. A brief battle ensues and several gorillas are killed. After studying the corpses, it is concluded the animals are not "true" gorillas by modern biological standards, but presumably a gorilla-chimpanzee or gorilla-human hybrid. They are subsequently named Gorilla elliotensis by the scientists. Afterwards, Ross, Elliot, and Munro explore the ruins and discover that the killer gorillas were bred by the ancient inhabitants of Zinj to guard the diamond mines from intruders. After several more attacks, Elliot, with the help of Amy, finds a way to tame the new gorillas (she refers them as "bad things"), but their victory is cut short by the eruption of the nearby volcano, accelerated by the explosives placed by Ross for her geological surveys, that buries the city and the diamond fields under 800 meters of lava. Ross, Elliot, Munro, and the rest of the team's survivors are forced to run for their lives. The team then manages to find a hot air balloon in a crashed consortium cargo plane and use it to escape.
[edit] Film
In 1995, a film version of Congo was released, loosely based on the novel. It starred Laura Linney and Tim Curry.
