Talk:Congo (novel)

I am no Wiki editing person, but it seems a travesty that this document does not mention the excellent Interactive Fiction adaptation of the book - Trillium/Telarium's "Amazon". - 6Jun10

In my opinion, this was a bad novel. KSchutte 02:11, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

Alert the internet -- someone thinks a Michael Crichton novel is bad. Sorry, bud, but it's quite common for people to dislike Crichton's books, especially as he is a popular novelist. GreatGatsby 04:57, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

The Great Gatsby also sucked.--207.67.97.70 18:45, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Michael Crichton cares. 94.1.182.14 (talk) 16:10, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

S. Martins quote within the novel

...said bluntly that “this country will go to war over Zaire before we go to war over any Arab oil state.”

Ah, the good ol' days, eh?

-G —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.67.114.45 (talk) 02:15, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Inaccuracy in current entry?

it says that diamonds were later sold to Intel, a real company, when i believe, the company was fictional and named Intec. I'm a noob editor, so i wasn't sure if this merited editing or not, as it was likely meant to imply "Intel" to begin with, so /shrug —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.210.70.70 (talk) 02:33, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

In the epilogue of the book it actually says "Intel" bought the diamonds,although Intec were the company that the team were working for to start with. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.154.134.95 (talk) 18:58, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

The plot is jumbled in the current entry. It indicates the expedition loses contact with Houston, then the gray gorillas attack. However, in the novel the gray gorillas attack, the expedition forms the idea to translate their language, then communication with Houston is lost. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.194.122.45 (talk) 07:14, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

Needs mentioning

Koko (gorilla), the probable inspiration for Amy.

Simpsons Safari, where chimps mine for diamonds, might have been influenced by this book.

--68.161.148.47 (talk) 05:11, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Solomon

Quote: "Congo is a Lost World novel in the tradition founded by Henry Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines and featuring the mines of that work's title.[citation needed]"

I can not remember whether King Solomon's mines were explicitly named in Congo, the connection is obvious however. If anybody remembers whether Solomon was explicitely named in Congo, feel free to remove the citation needed, otherwise one could presumably easily edit the paragraph like so:

"Congo is a novel of the Lost World genre with similarities to H. R. Haggard's King Solomon's Mines. Both feature lost cities in Africa which are the source of highly-desired gems."

Indeed Congo is pretty much what you get if you cross King Solomon's Mines with Mountains of Madness - doesn't even require much shaking nor stirring.

-- Nils Jeppe (talk) 12:04, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Mukenko Fictitious?

Googling around I could not find any reference to the volcano/mountain Mukenko featured in the novel. I don't a great deal about geography but it would be useful if someone could verify this, mention Mukenko in the novel and then state whether it was an invention or whether it was real. I see this as especially important seeing as how Crichton generally presents most of his novels as 'false documents' - i.e. fiction as fact. This is especially true of the Congo. -- 94.1.182.14 (talk) 16:13, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

Likely he meant Mount Mikeno. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.99.238.3 (talk) 07:02, 1 July 2014 (UTC)

Error in book

The book states that the C-130 [Hercules] transport aircraft was the "Largest Airplane in the world". This is rubbish. It is a medium sized aircraft only. Michael may well have got confused by the C-5 Galaxy, which certainly is very large, but even so it is a basic mistake and someone should have spotted this prior to its publication. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.2.57.146 (talk) 16:39, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

On a similar note, it is considered bad practice to name a species after oneself, as the scientist in this novel intended. I'm not sure that editors would even allow it. Also, Gorilla elliotensis means "Gorilla from Elliot." It should have been, Gorilla ellioti. Not that this is particularly important, or anything. Tennesseellum (talk) 01:37, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

I added this into the category for 1980s science fiction novels. Transcendentalist01 (talk) 19:50, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

The final sentence reads " From there the balloon slid across the Zaire border, moving SOUTHEAST towards Kenya" Kenya is due East or Northeast of the Virunga region, and not to the south. Cannot understand how this error was missed!!

Well, as Kenya is longer than the Virunga region and extends both farther north and south, I don't think it is an error. Look at a map and draw a line from Virunga National Park to Mombassa. It may not be exactly south-east, but it is closer to SE than east. So north-east, east or south-east would all be valid directions, I would think, especially as it doesn't seem like Crichton was giving an exact heading here. Sheriffjt (talk) 00:43, 20 August 2014 (UTC)