The author makes that famous point about how flat maps (which scrunch the equatorial regions and expand as you go toward the poles) make us underestimate how huge the continent is. Narratively, “Congo” follows a 1979 African expedition that boasts high-tech camping, defense and communications gear while also tapping into the spirit of 19 th century expeditions, because Africa is still so vast and mysterious.
It’s a sneaky man-versus-nature novel, seemingly less focused than his other techno-thrillers but still achieving a powerful theme about how nature dwarfs us and will bury us in the end as it has all previous fossils and architectural ruins.
In “The Andromeda Strain,” Michael Crichton detailed nature’s microscopic but serious threat to mankind, and in “Congo” (1980) – his best novel up to this point – he illustrates nature’s worldwide threat to mankind.
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