Review: The Lost World

The Lost World by Michael Crichton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not even close to as amazing as the first book, but this still has some great dino moments and absolutely fascinating ideas.

WARNING: This review contains unhidden spoilers for Jurassic Park.

The sequel is a little slow to get into. It's been six years since the events of the first book, but it's all been covered up and the people involved deny having been a part of anything. Hammond has stayed dead (unlike Malcolm) so we need a new reason to head back into dino territory and that reason comes in the form of a curious scientist, Levine, who strikes up a bizarre friendship with Malcolm based on the theoretical idea of a 'lost world' - an isolated location where animals previously considered extinct may have actually survived.

Thing is, this is the theory that starts us off, but it's a pretty flawed theory because these animals didn't survive - they're a product of Hammond's greed, which was so beautifully destructive in the first book. Obviously we already know there's going to be living dinosaurs, and as soon as they mention 'Site B' you can pretty much rule out natural occurrence. So why bother with Levine's ridiculous theory in the first place?

The science is this book both fascinated and frustrated me. There's so much of it, and honestly I loved how crazy the theories were but I'm pretty sure if you actually knew a bit about science and examined this you'd pick out a lot of flaws. But, since this book is smarter than me, I kinda just went with it and appreciated learning all these new things about biology, evolution, extinction, chaos, etc. But it comes thick and fast and this book is far more interested in examining theories of dinosaur behaviour and extinction than bringing the thrills and chills that the first book delivered so brilliantly. Malcolm has a ton of info dumps and it's hard to keep up, meaning the pace really drags at times. I was never bored though? I was really interested in all the behaviour discussions, but as for proteins and chemicals it kinda just whooshed on over my head. It was fun to try and comprehend it, though, and act like I was smart.

The dinosaurs that we meet are familiar faces, but they seem far less antagonistic in this one, and everything is 'fascinating, unusual behaviour' rather than 'HOLY JEEZUZ THE DINOS ARE GONNA EAT US.' Which made me sad, because I am a twisted person who enjoys reading about fictional people suffering gruesome deaths at the hands of dinosaurs and other savage creatures. It doesn't really amp up until about 3/4 of the way through, but at least the ending is action-packed! I probably would have enjoyed less raptors because they did all the menacing of the first book so I was ready for something different. Also just would have been nice to have new dinos to learn about. But hey, who can really complain about those savage velociraptor claws?

The characters blended together a little bit again, but you could also kinda guess who was going to end up as dino-chow. The kids were less annoying, but Arby was like a washed out copy of Tim from the first novel, so he and Kelly didn't really bring much to the table. Also they seemed a bit unbelievable for a couple of 13yr olds. I liked Sarah, and I liked that she was gung-ho, but I did think it was a bit much at times? (She was far more annoying in the movie, though. Book Sarah I can actually stand. Movie Sarah needed to be trampled by triceratops or ravaged by raptors.) Malcolm had so much sass in the first book but he's relegated to snarky scientist in this one so it takes out a bit of the fun. I do still love him as a character though. I like that he's so cynical.

I love the setting, and this idea that there's these dinosaurs living on their own private island roaming free. The whole 'studying extinction' side of things was a bit of a mess, but meh. I wasn't particularly invested in their research, anyway. I just wanted plenty of interactions.

Crichton writes the interactions and encounters wonderfully - he has a gift at creating suspense and formulating a fantastic visual to accompany the story. There was some great tension throughout.

It doesn't quite live up to the first book, but there's still some fascinating ideas and suspenseful moments. This book has solidified my love of Crichton's work, so I'll be working my way through his books in the future.

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