This follows a format that Crichton uses several times, that of a report into a real event. It works well here. Michael Crichton is a author who seems to write subject books. By that I mean each of his books is based on a meticulously, I have to say, researched subject. Sometimes he uses too much of the research in his novels, giving huge amounts of information, but generally it's backed up with a well written story. The subject here is I suppose communication/intelligence both in the sense of human telecommunications and primate intelligence. Now I have to say it's taken me many years to read this book. I first tried when the movie version came out. I struggled and gave up. Then I tried twice more with the same result. So five stars? Simple really. I sat down and read. It's well written, but slow to get going. Now I'm older I appreciated the research more and enjoyed the story. On the first attempts I think I found the "it's a real event, here's what happened" approach difficult to get into but now i enjoyed it (I read andromeda strain as well which is the same) its definitely an age thing s I find my tastes changing over the years. It's clever and a decent read.

This is a cracking adventure book. The science doesn't hold up to much scrutiny but it's certainly a page turner, and Amy the talking gorilla is a lot of fun. I was disappointed by the deus ex machina ending, but I don't regret my purchase.