“Life finds a way.”
Michael Crichton’s 1990 book Jurassic Park is arguably the most famous fictional story about dinosaurs ever penned. Thanks to Steven Spielberg’s stunning big-screen adaptation and the five further blockbuster sequels, the story of John Hammond and his team of scientists constructing the greatest theme park the world has ever seen (and how things quickly go wrong) has become legendary amongst sci-fi fans. So, from Brachiosaurus snot to Velociraptor dexterity, if you’re in the mood for more dinosaurs, join us at What We Reading for these books like Jurassic Park. We’ve spared no expense in pulling together these reads which all combine sharp teeth, groundbreaking scientific discoveries and heart-stopping adventure!
Footprints Of Thunder (Thunder #1) – James F. David
Our first stop on our tour of the best books like Jurassic Park is James F. David’s Thunder series. Kicking off his 1995 story, Footprints of Thunder, David introduces a world that has been rocked by a natural phenomenon that has turned it into a patchwork of the past and the long-distant past. Whole cities have been engulfed by primaeval forests. Massive prehistoric monsters now stalk urban streets in search of human prey.
Whilst ordinary men and women desperately struggle to survive in this strange new world, an increasingly desperate president and his collection of advisors search for a solution to avert this imminent apocalypse. Failing to do so may just result in these monsters ruling the planet again.
The Great Zoo Of China – Matthew Reilly
The Chinese government has been hiding a secret for over four decades. They have found a species of animal that no one believed ever existed, a discovery that will stun the entire world. Now the Chinese are ready to show off their astonishing find within the walls of the greatest zoo ever built.
A select group of journalists and guests have received invitations to the zoo nestled in the heart of the country to see this creature for the first time. Among them is Dr. Cassandra Jane ‘CJ’ Cameron, a renowned expert on reptiles and contributor for National Geographic. The visitors have been assured by their Chinese hosts that they will be struck down in awe at these beasts, they are perfectly safe, and absolutely nothing can go wrong. With stunning natural discoveries and a new park to witness, Matthew Reilly’s The Great Zoo of China is one of the most famous books like Jurassic Park.
The Andromeda Strain (The Andromeda Strain #1) – Michael Crichton
If you loved Michael Crichton’s imaginative scenarios and style of writing in Jurassic Park, why not dive into another one of his best books for your follow-up read? First published in 1969, the story begins with the United States government receiving a warning from biophysicists that their current sterilisation procedures on returning space probes may not be enough to prevent uncontaminated re-entries into the atmosphere.
Fast forward two years and seventeen satellites are sent to the outer fringes of space to collect organisms and dust for study. One of these satellites falls to Earth, landing in a deserted area of Arizona. Twelve miles from the landing site, in the small town of Piedmont, a harrowing discovery is made: the streets are filled with dead bodies of its inhabitants as if they all suddenly dropped dead where they stood.
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Raptor Red – Robert T. Bakker
Another dinosaur book published hot on the heels of the Jurassic Park craze in the ‘90s, Robert T. Bakker’s Raptor Red whisks readers back in time 120 million years. Set on the prehistoric plains of Utah, they are introduced to an unlikely heroine: Raptor Red, an intelligent, fierce and beautiful predator.
Acclaimed palaeontologist Bakker paints a vivid and colourful picture of this lush world and tells the story of this raptor and extraordinary mind. From tragic losses and brutal struggles for survival to a daring new migration to the Pacific Ocean to evade a new predator, Raptor Red is the perfect book similar to Jurassic Park for anyone fascinated with all things raptor. Combining fact with fiction, it is a thrilling look at changing climates and evolution and wonderfully captures the thoughts, behaviours and emotions of some of the most enigmatic creatures to have walked the face of the Earth.
The Lost World (Professor Challenge #1) – Arthur Conan Doyle
London, 1907. Journalist Edward Malone has just been rejected by the woman he loves, Gladys, for being too prosaic. To prove himself worthy of her, he decides to embark on an adventure in search of fame. Soon after, he meets the enigmatic Professor George Challenger. Challenger is a scientist who claims to have discovered a ‘lost world’ populated by stunning pterodactyls and other prehistoric creatures.
Whilst he might be more renowned for his Sherlock Holmes stories, Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World is one of the books most like Jurassic Park. Jam-packed full of exotic locations, bizarre and dangerous creatures and countless heart-stopping moments of crisis, it remains one of the most timeless adventure stories.
Dinosaur Summer – Greg Bear
Peter Belzoni is not looking forward to summer in Manhattan. Thankfully, his father, photojournalist Anthony Belzoni, offers him a way out in the form of a job and a trip to South America. The Lothar Gluck Circus, once the world’s most famous dinosaur attraction has gone bankrupt. An assortment of ankylosaurs, avisaurs and centrosaurs have been left behind, along with an especially fierce raptor named Dagger.
The two filmmakers and a circus trainer plan to release the giant beasts back into the wild, with the father-son duo being tasked with filming the process for National Geographic. It seems an impossible, foolhardy task. Nobody has ever attempted to transport nearly a dozen full-grown dinosaurs across the El Grande plateau in Venezuela, a land untouched for over seventy million years. Their journey strains their technology, robbers and trigger-happy soldiers lurk around them and, as they get closer to their endpoint, the frenzied dinos soon become the biggest danger of all.
Journey To The Centre Of The Earth – Jules Verne
Jules Verne’s iconic Journey to the Centre of the Earth tells the story of ambitious Professor Lidenbrock. When Lidenbrock stumbles upon a manuscript in which a medieval alchemist and explorer claims to have discovered a route to the centre of the Earth, he can’t resist. Along with his nephew, Axel, and Hans Bjelke, a native guide, the trio trek across Iceland and deep into the bowels of a volcano.
Their expedition into the extinct volcano leads them to a sunless sea where they soon discover a stunning subterranean world. Filled with luminous rocks, antediluvian forests and fantastic marine life, this world where the past is both living and breathing may hold the secret behind the origins of human existence. Undoubtedly one of the best books like Jurassic Park, Journey to the Centre of the Earth is fast-paced, ambitious and the sort of sci-fi adventure that fans of Michael Crichton need to read.
The Hatching (The Hatching #1) – Ezekiel Boone
Deep in the jungles of Peru, where so much remains hidden and unknown, a black skittering mass devours an American tourist whole. Thousands of miles away from the incident, an FBI agent investigates a fatal plane crash and comes to an earth-shattering realisation. Unusual seismic shifts register in an earthquake lab in Kanpur, India, whilst the Chinese government ‘accidentally’ dropped a nuclear bomb on an isolated region of its own country.
As these incidents reverberate across the world, a strange package is sent from South America and arrives at a laboratory in Washington. One of the best apocalyptic books similar to Jurassic Park, Ezekiel Boone’s The Hatching series is a story of a long-dormant ancient species stirring itself back to life.
Fragment – Warren Fahy
The time is now. The place is The Trident, a long-range research vessel hired by the reality TV show Sealife. Aboard is a cast of ambitious young scientists. With a director dying for drama, tiny Henders Island may be just what the show needs. Until the first scientist sets foot on Henders – and the ultimate test of survival begins. For when the scientists reach the island’s shores, they are utterly unprepared for what they find – creatures unlike any other recorded in natural history.
Soon the scientists will stumble on something more shocking than anything humanity has ever encountered: because among the terrors of Henders Island, one life form defies any scientific theory – and must be saved, no matter the cost. As brilliantly imagined as Jurassic Park, Fragment is a story of a completely alternative evolutionary path, producing terrifying predators along the way.
The Great Zoo Of China – Matthew Reilly
It is a secret the Chinese government has been keeping for four decades. They have unearthed a species of animal that no one believed existed. It will amaze the world. Now, the Chinese are ready to unveil their astounding discovery within the greatest zoo ever constructed.
A small group of VIPs and journalists have been brought to the zoo deep within China to see its fabulous creatures for the very first time. Among them is Dr Cassandra Jane ‘CJ’ Cameron, a writer for National Geographic and an expert on reptiles. The visitors are assured by their Chinese hosts that they will be struck with wonder at these beasts, that they are perfectly safe, and that nothing can go wrong.
Relic (Pendergast #1) – Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Just days before a massive exhibition opens at the popular New York Museum of Natural History, visitors are being savagely murdered in the museum’s dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human…
But, like Jurassic Park, the museum’s directors are adamant about going ahead with the big bash to celebrate the new exhibition, in spite of the murders. Museum researcher Margo Green must find out who – or what – is doing the killing. But can she do it in time to stop the massacre?
Ice Hunt – James Rollins
Carved into a moving island of ice twice the size of the United States, Ice Station Grendel has been abandoned for more than seventy years. The twisted brainchild of the finest minds of the former Soviet Union, it was designed to be inaccessible and virtually invisible.
But an American undersea research vessel has inadvertently pulled too close – and something has been sighted moving inside the allegedly deserted facility, something whose survival defies every natural law. And now, as scientists, soldiers, intelligence operatives, and unsuspecting civilians are drawn into Grendel’s lethal vortex, the most extreme measures possible will be undertaken to protect its dark mysteries – because the terrible truths locked behind submerged walls of ice and steel could end human life on Earth.
Ancestor – Scott Sigler
On a remote island in Lake Superior, scientists struggle to solve the problem of xenotransplantation – using animal tissue to replace failing human organs. Funded by the biotech firm Genada, Dr Claus Rhumkorrf seeks to recreate the ancestor of all mammals.
By getting to the root of our creation, Rhumkorrf hopes to create an animal with human internal organs. Rhumkorrf discovers the ancestor, but it is not the small, harmless creature he envisions. Similar to Hammond in Jurassic Park, his genius helps give birth to a fast-growing evil that nature eradicated 250 million years ago – an evil now on the loose, and very, very hungry.
The Passage (The Passage #1) – Justin Cronin
First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear – of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse. As civilisation crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two desperate people flee in search of sanctuary.
One of the best books like Jurassic Park, The Passage is a relentlessly suspenseful adventure and an epic chronicle of human endurance in the face of unprecedented catastrophe and unimaginable danger.
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
