Jurassic Park: Dangerous Games [Hardcover]

This is different than the other stories, but a entertaining addition to the Jurassic park saga. Even as a huge JP fan I loved it. Highly recommended!

JURASSIC PARK: DANGEROUS GAMES isn't the usual Jurassic Park story. Sure, there are lots of dinosaurs (including appearances by a T-rex), but the overall tone and story structure is different. The book features a CIA agent named Espinoza. Espinoza is sent undercover to Isla Nublar. Yes, the island is still over run by dinosaurs. However, the world's most wanted drug czar, Cazares, has also made the island his headquarters: what better place to place your headquarters and grow your crop than on an island filled with animals the whole world fears and that is under an international quarantine. Espinoza's cover is broken and he is let go into the wild in a type of "The Most Dangerous Game" stunt. He's given twenty-four hours before the hunt begins. The tide turns when Espinoza meets Frances White, a former scientist who decided to stay on the island after the dinosaurs first ran loose. She "nursed" numerous raptors into the world and couldn't bear to leave them behind. She is able to communicate with them and they view her as their matriarch. White hates Cazares and she is inclined to help Espinoza leave the island, but first she forces him to pass a test. It is a test that only the worthy can survive.

I liked the basic premise of JURASSIC PARK: DANGEROUS GAMES. It was refreshing to see a story that didn't follow the typical Jurassic Park archetype. However, I was disappointed by the execution of the story. The hunt of Espinoza was much too short and convenient. Also, the climax of the story was dissatisfying; it ends too abruptly.

The typical Jurassic Park fan might be disappointed by JURASSIC PARK: DANGEROUS GAMES, but it's different enough that the book has more appeal with those who might not be serious fans of the series.

After prior Jurassic Park comic titles such as 'Redemption' and 'Devils in the Desert', we get a story that doesn't quite feel like Jurassic Park. Sure, it takes place on Isla Nublar, and there are dinosaurs galore, but the story is still very different in tone and content, that it might throw fans off a little.

An undercover CIA agent named Espinoza tries to bust a drug lord named Cazares that bought out the island, only to get found out and get stranded on said island. If the dinosaurs don't get him first, Cazares's hunters will. But he comes across a woman named Frances White, who chose to strand herself on the island long ago and be one with nature. She long learned to communicate with the raptors (which by now are completely feathered), and they willingly obey her command and signals. She even considers the T-Rex as a kind of `God' of the island, in which only the worthy can be able to look the beast in the eyes and be judged, a trial that she forced Espinoza to undergo before she decides to use the raptors as an army and help Espinoza. And aside from just Frances White who comes complete with a sizable bust and a midriff-showing tank top (of course), all the characters aside from Cazares look like the kind that sexy-looking actors would play, a far cry from the common everypeople look of the characters in the movies.

Again, a very different offering that can get so wildly incredible even by previous standards--but in the end I don't consider that a bad thing at all. If anything, it's truly refreshing to see a change in pace in the usual formula from every single past Jurassic Park story, to have a story that Spielberg probably wouldn't have concocted for the film series. It's intriguing to see the dinosaurs portrayed in a whole new angle through the perspective of Frances that we probably never would've before. In other words, it's not another man-eating monsters kind of story, but about animals, unspoken communication and coexistence. It plays out its themes of predator and prey and the survival food chain really well in the story's context. It is action-packed and totally exciting for it. And the artwork is probably the best that the Jurassic Park comics have ever looked--the dinosaurs, especially the feathered raptors, and their habitats are just plain gorgeously drawn, just as much so as the human characters. And as a special bonus, this comic is encased in a special hardcover. Altogether, 'Dangerous Games' is a winning collector's item for Jurassic Park fans from IDW!