Congo is a novel written by Michael Crichton. Released in 1980, it tells of an expedition for diamonds in the jungles of Congo.
Characters[]
- Karen Ross - the leader of an ERTS exploration of the Congo. Described as a "super genius" in mathematics.
- Peter Elliot - Amy's handler.
- Amy - a gorilla with sign language abilities.
- Travis - Karen's boss within ERTS.
- Captain Charles Munro - a mercenary with a disreputable reputation.
- Kahega
- Jan Kruger
- Misulu
Publisher's summary[]
Deep in the African rain forest, near the legendary ruins of the Lost City of Zinj, an expedition of eight American geologists is mysteriously and brutally killed in a matter of minutes.
Ten thousand miles away, Karen Ross, the Congo Project Supervisor, watches a gruesome video transmission of the aftermath: a camp destroyed, tents crushed and torn, equipment scattered in the mud alongside dead bodies — all motionless except for one moving image — a grainy, dark, man-shaped blur.
In San Francisco, primatologist Peter Elliot works with Amy, a gorilla with an extraordinary vocabulary of 620 “signs,” the most ever learned by a primate, and she likes to fingerpaint. But recently, her behavior has been erratic and her drawings match, with stunning accuracy, the brittle pages of a Portuguese print dating back to 1642 . . . a drawing of an ancient lost city. A new expedition — along with Amy — is sent into the Congo where they enter a secret world, and the only way out may be through a horrifying death…
Full summary[]
Prologue: The Place of Bones[]
Deep in the jungles of the Congo, a traveller named Jan Kruger and his local guide named Misulu man a satellite dish used by a diamond expedition. The dish is placed within an area known as the "Place of Bones" - believed cursed by the Arawani porters. During the night, Kruger hears something wheezing in the darkness. He soon finds his guide dead, with his head smashed in, and is then attacked by the thing that bashed Misulu's skull in.
Day 1: Houston[]
On the other side of the world, Kruger's employers (the shadowy information broker Earth Resources Technology Services, Inc., based in Houston) activate a camera held within the satellite dish. This reveals that Kruger's base has been completely destroyed before the camera is destroyed by a shadowy figure.
One of the leaders of the expedition (a young and gifted woman named Karen Ross) is able to recover an image of the figure - a gorilla. Though her boss is initially unbelieving of this, he relents after further analysis proves that the image is real.
Her boss also decides to set up an expedition to the Congo as soon as humanely possible to figure out the cause of their base's destruction. After some deliberation, he puts Karen in the lead. To help her out, Karen calls a contact of ERTS with expertise on gorillas (Dr. Peter Elliot).
Day 2: San Francisco[]
Peter Elliot is the project leader of a controversial project to study sign language (and the dreams) of a chimpanzee named Amy. Right before Elliot is called by Karen Ross, the main detractors of his experiment detract their arguments (having misjudged Elliot's work completely). During a meeting on the project, one of Elliot's fellow scientists reveals that fingerpainted drawings made by Amy to show her dreams match the description of "the Lost City of Zinj" - a mythical city that supposedly sits in the Congolese rainforests. Though most of the scientists in attendance believe that the City of Zinj does not exist, Kate Ross crashes the meeting with satellite photos of the City.
Later, Kate meets Amy. The chimpanzee initially acts aggressive due to Kate's presence but soon calms down (with Kate giving Amy her purse and letting her use her lipstick) and agrees to let Kate take her on a trip. Shortly after this, Amy (with Karen and Peter) boards a Boeing 747 to begin her trip into Africa.
Day 3: Tangiers[]
While still in the air, Peter has a revelation about the images - that they're not of a gorilla, but primate. Karen discovers that political conditions within the Congo have decayed (with some borders being closed due to the machinations of infamous dictator Idi Amin) and that local volcanoes will soon erupt.
Once in Tangiers, Karen visits a South African mercenary (or "white hunter") with a checkered past named Captain Charles Munro. Also present are representatives of ERTS' rivals - a Japanese-European Consortium. All three parties leave with seemingly nothing, though Munro invites the ERTS representatives (Karen and Peter) to dinner with him. While at dinner, they are shot at by Consortium gunmen. Despite this threat, Munro agrees to lead the ERTS expedition into the Congo.
Day 4: Nairobi[]
While the ERTS expedition is in the air, Travis discovers that ERTS communications have been tapped into by something called a "piggybank slurp". Though Travis wants to cancel the expedition, the costs of cancellation outweigh the costs already incurred by the expedition.
In Nairobi, Amy is kidnapped by members of the Consortium. Karen discovers that their plane has been thoroughly bugged and, while in the plane, gives the appearance of abandoning Peter and Amy. Once outside, she puts together a search and rescue operation that very quickly finds Amy (who was just abandoned in a junkyard).
Shortly before leaving Nairobi, Munro meets with Chinese associates to gain information on local politics. Once this is finished, the expedition leaves Nairobi for a Rwandan airport.
Day 5: Moruti[]
While over the Congo, the expedition's plane is shot at by the Zaire military. To gain a head start on the Consortium, they parachute out of the plane (with the inexperienced Peter being shoved out of the plane by Munro).
Once in the jungle, the expedition finds a village that has been ransacked by Kigani tribesmen (a cannibalistic tribe that is being systematically genocided by local governments). They escape the Kigani without any problems. Later, Karen is able to break through a complex jamming signal to contact Houston as Peter stares out at the jungle.
Day 6: Liko[]
While travelling further into the jungle, the expedition is found by "pygmy" tribesmen. The tribesmen also found found a survivor from the original ERTS expedition (though the term survivor is liberally used, as the man in completely catatonic). Due to his catatonic state, the expedition leaves him behind.
The expedition soon finds themselves at a river (which Amy refuses to cross and has to be tranquilized). Though the river starts out as calm, it soon becomes extremely chaotic for a brief moment. As the day ends, the expedition worries about territorial hippos attacking their convoy of rafts.
Day 7: Mukenko[]
As the day begins to break, the convoy of rafts is attacked by several hippos. Munro and the leader of the local porters (Kahega) are able to beat them away with tear gas but at least one of the rafts are popped. Once the hippos leave, the expedition watches as a Consortium plane is shot at by local military with missiles.
The next day, the expedition begins climbing Mukenko. While on the mountain's summit, Ross discovers that the Consortium has stopped jamming the link-up to Houston - implying that they have found the Lost City and making the expedition completely worthless.
Day 8: Kanyamagufa[]
Shortly after leaving Mukenko, the expedition encounters a group of gorillas. The alpha male of the gorillas tries to attack Elliot but is kept at bay by Elliot simply just standing his ground.
The expedition finds traces of the ill-fated Consortium expedition - the crashed remains of the plane that was sighted the previous day and the destroyed remains of the Consortium's camp. The camp is near the "Place of Bones" (or the Kanyamagufa) and was seemingly trashed by whatever trashed the ERTS camp near the same structure.
Soon after the expedition leaves the Place of Bones, they find the Lost City of Zinj. Any celebrations are cut short once Peter notices that Amy is missing. The expedition decides to set up camp without Amy (hoping that she returns to them soon).
Day 9: Zinj[]
The expedition begins exploring the Lost City but find almost nothing of note (or that they can agree upon) until they find patches of mold that obscure ancient murals. Using infrared sensors, they are able to uncover some information on the City (that it was inhabited by either the Bantu or a similar people and that it was extremely opulent due to its diamond mines).
Later, one of Peter's fellow scientists (who he messaged to gain more information on the "gorilla" footage) reveals that he found more information about Amy's past - her mother was murdered in the Place of Bones and Amy most likely witnessed this as an infant. In the night, the expedition hears something moving around outside the ruins but are able to get it to leave using machine guns.
Day 10: Zinj[]
Amy returns to the expedition in the morning. She left with a troupe of peaceful gorillas but returned out of a desire for milk and cookies. Peter tries to get answers about the identity of the gorilla-like primates scrounging around the camp but gets non-answers. Amy also gives almost no reaction to the City of Zinj.
One of the porters is killed (his head smashed in with stone paddles) while getting water. Further explorations of the City reveal that its occupants (supposedly) worshipped gorillas (as a statue of a gorilla with stone paddles is revealed in the lower levels of the City).
Late at night, the gorillas charge the expedition. They initially are unable to get them to back away using guns but after the silencers are removed, the gorillas flee.
Day 11: Zinj[]
While examining the gorillas, Peter discovers that they have non-gorilla traits (making them a new species). Further examination of the City reveals a startling truth about the gorillas. They were trained and (possibly) crossbred with various other primates to become the ultimate guardians for the Zinjian diamond mines.
To preserve resources, Munro beats the next nocturnal assault by the Zinjian gorillas off with tear gas instead of bullets.
Day 12: Zinj[]
The next day (after a failed attempt to flee their camp), the expedition decide to capture one of the gorillas to serve as an ambassador between the expedition and the Zinjian gorillas. Their attempts to capture one of the gorillas ends in failure, with Peter falling directly in front of several gorillas and having to be rescued by Amy. Shortly after this, they discover they have been cut off from the rest of the world by a solar flare.
To translate the speech of the apes, Peter has Amy speak with the other gorillas and then (over several hours) translates the speech and creates a simple message to be broadcast over a loudspeaker. At night, the gorillas attack once again. Initially, rain stops them from noticing the broadcast and they almost kill everyone in the camp. Once the rain clears, the gorillas notice the message and leave.
Day 13: Mukenko[]
The next day, the expedition find the Zinjian diamond mine inside Mount Mukenko. Karen and Munro argue over how to extract the diamonds, with Karen (with the help of Amy) setting off explosive charges inside of the volcano to collect the diamonds. Unfortunately, this sets off an eruption in Mount Mukenko.
The expedition flees the erupting volcano (which buries the Lost City of Zinj) and a lightning storm until they find the Consortium's plane. They barely escape being skewered by Kigani warriors and have to fight off a few Kigani soldiers while in the plane. Using an emergency hot-air-balloon they escape the plane.
Epilogue: The Place of Fire[]
A short epilogue showing the lives of the main characters up to 1980.
See also[]
| Title | Author | Release date | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| King Solomon's Mines | H. Rider Haggard | 1885 | A major inspiration for this novel |
| The Lost City of Z | David Grann | 2009 | A nonfiction book detailing a voyage through the jungle |
| Pandora in the Congo | Albert Sánchez Piñol | 2005 | A novel showing an expedition through the harsh African jungles |
| Amazonia | James Rollins | 2002 | A novel showing an expedition through a harsh jungle |
Sources[]
- Goodreads
- Wikipedia