I just finished Jurassic Park, and similarly the plot was fun but the characters were fine. The only character that's somewhat fleshed out is basically a stand-in for Crichton himself and actually has multiple almost chapter long monologues talking about the "arrogance of science."

Which is confusing as hell as the character is supposedly a world-renown and respected mathematician and basically all of the criticisms Malcolm throws at "science" and "scientists" (as if all science and scientists are some unified bloc) would apply directly to other areas of academia....like mathematics.

I didn't even touch on the thematic confusion of pro-corporation messages while the villain is corporation-personified.

I say all of that to say Crichton in my experience is great at finding interesting scenarios and plot lines to explore, and not much else.