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The Lost World (Jurassic Park #2)

by Michael Crichton, Rina Buntaran (Translator)

3.55 of 5 stars 3.55 · rating details · 48,302 ratings · 1,052 reviews

It is now six years since the secret disaster at Jurassic Park, six years since that extraordinary dream of science and imagination came to a crashing end — the dinosaurs destroyed, the park dismantled, the island indefinitely closed to the public.

There are rumors that something has survived.

448 pages

Published 1995 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

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May 16, 2013 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The story goes that Steven Spielberg flush with the success of the first Jurassic Park movie, itself an adaptation of a Michael Chrichton novel, decided to try and repeat his success by commissioning the author to write a sequel to his original novel (which the first movie was based on) which they could then adapt into a movie.
Whether or not that's true I cannot say but I will say that do not base your initial judgement of this book or the prospect of reading it on the lacklustre utter turkey th...more

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Apr 10, 2011 Enrique rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well to be honest, I had watched the film adaptation before reading the novel. I loved the film especially with the Big Rex attacking my hometown. (Sadly the news never reported it). Now I had begun reading it kind of late, since I could only find a copy of it at Barnes&Nobels but I begun reading!

Now when I did read the novel I tried to clear my mind and not try to expect alot from it. However when I actually did get to reading the Lost World I was slightly dissapointed. To be frank I think...more

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Mar 30, 2008 Chris Friend rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: No living creature on earth. Except silverfish. They need the fiber.

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. WOW, this was disappointing.

I remembered going into this book that I had enjoyed the film version of the original Jurrasic Park far more than the book -- a rather unusual situation for me. I had a slight feeling of apprehension, but I ignored it. Even if I hadn't, though, it wouldn't have prepared me for the frustration and disappointment of this story.

Let me get this point out right from the start: The plot resolves itself WAY too quickly, as though something that is suddenly obvious, easy to t...more

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Feb 09, 2008 Henrik rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those who enjoy science-based fiction

Basically the usual good Michael Crighton stuff, interesting ramblings and speculations about science (in this case, the role of extinction in evolution). Certainly readable and enjoyable, but the plot line was not as solid as it could and should have been.

[Plot discussion follows]

1) Having the two kids come along was artificial and contrived, whereas in Jurassic Park it was natural. Did he include them here as a compulsory element in the case the book became a movie? (Note: having the kids alon...more

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Sep 26, 2007 Chelsea rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I find a lot of people discuss the "resurrection" of Ian Malcolm in their reviews, and I'd like to throw in my two cents. It's true, Malcolm is mentioned as dead at the end of Jurassic Park. To be exact, Muldoon is telling Grant what's happened to everyone else as they're flying away in the helicopter:
"What about Malcolm?" Grant said.
Muldoon shook his head.
The epilogue mentions the Costa Rican government not permitting the burial of John Hammond or Ian Malcolm (amongst a list of other ways they...more

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Sep 06, 2007 Wil rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Masochists and the illiterate

What I learned from The Lost World: The only people worthy of surviving in Crichton's world are geniuses. Everyone else is destined to be fodder/feed for terrorizing thunder lizards.

The Lost World suffers from two things: First off, if you've ever read Jurassic Park, then you know that TLW's protagonist, Ian Malcolm, is, in fact, dead. That's right... he died in Jurassic Park, but since they couldn't convince Sam Neill to return for the movie, Crichton rewrote history so that Malcolm somehow sur...more

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Jul 26, 2010 Emily Dahl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi

This was one of my vacay reads and I have to admit it was really enjoyable in that Dan Brown kind of way. I was drawn to the applications of modern animal behavior studies on the behavior patterns of the extinct dinosaurs. While it was awfully predictable (the red shirts were clearly identified from about chapter 3, and come on, a field scientist who LITTERS?...) and I got tired of Ian Malcolm's multiple-page-long diatribes (and got the funny feeling Michael Crichton envisioned himself as Malcol...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Kyle Sheppard added it · review of another edition

Michael Crichton's, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, is written to inform readers about scientific theories. Crichton uses third person point of view to explain to the readers how science has changed from the past to the present in the areas of survival and extinction.

Throughout the story, the author develops a theme of respecting nature and life. Crichton makes the reader understand the ethics of modern science. Through plot development, he strives to make his readers understand that technology...more

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Mar 02, 2012 Deslni01 rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, science, dinosaurs

Michael Crichton's The Lost World is an interesting piece of work. On the one hand, it is an exciting, page-gripping, edge of the seat thriller reminiscent of the first Jurassic Park novel. On the other hand, it is exactly that: reminiscent of the first Jurassic Park novel. In many ways, it is merely a rehash of the original. Ian Malcolm returns, as does Dodgson, there are other dinosaur and mammalian experts involved (of course, they are all considered the best in the world), and the story coul...more Michael Crichton's The Lost World is an interesting piece of work. On the one hand, it is an exciting, page-gripping, edge of the seat thriller reminiscent of the first Jurassic Park novel. On the other hand, it is exactly that: reminiscent of the first Jurassic Park novel. In many ways, it is merely a rehash of the original. Ian Malcolm returns, as does Dodgson, there are other dinosaur and mammalian experts involved (of course, they are all considered the best in the world), and the story could not be complete without two out-of-place brilliant children with knowledge and skills well above their actual level - particularly in the field of computers.[return][return]But that must be taken with a grain of salt, and Crichton forgiven, as he never planned on writing a sequel. It was only after many, many people, ranging from film producers to fans of both the novel and the movie pressured him into it.[return][return]Although many aspects are similar, that does not make the book any less appealing. With dinosaurs running amok, creating chaos, how can it be a bad read? This time, Ian Malcolm makes another appearance by wanting to visit the island and see the dinosaurs again. In that regard, his personality is very different than readers are accustomed - that, and he is alive, which he wasn't at the end of the first novel. One of his colleagues finds Site B, another island where dinosaurs were being produced for the park. Naturally, said colleague visits it alone, and Ian and several other colleagues must rescue him.[return][return]Of note are the reasons for the velociraptor's unseemly lifestyle - because as recreated animals they are missing a very important part of evolution: the social aspect. Also interesting are Malcolm's discussions on evolution and Darwins theory. Crichton was no slouch when researching what he wrote about, and this is no exception. Of course, Crichton has an agenda in writing such a book, and that is to beware human existence and technological advancement. As Malcolm said,[return][return]Human beings are so destructive, I sometimes think we're a kind of plague, that will scrub the earth clean. We destroy things so well that I sometimes think, maybe that's our function. Maybe every few eons, some animal comes along that kills off the rest of the world, clears the deck, and lets evolution proceed to its next stage.[return][return]The Lost World is a thrilling adventure that should not be missed by any reader who enjoys dinosaurs, thrillers, excitement or adventure. And since nearly everyone likes dinosaurs, it should be a required read...for most. For those that dislike the character Dodgson from both the original and the beginning of The Lost World, it is worth finishing merely to see Dodgson's comeuppance.(less)

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Dec 12, 2008 Fizzgig76 rated it 1 of 5 stars

Ian Malcolm is alive (!? don't ask) and goes to the mysterious Site B for Jurassic Park with some gung-ho people set of studying dinosaurs and plucky kids BUT they face dinosaurs and humans. Jurassic Park 2 (the movie) didn't use much of this book for its script...Having seen Jurassic Park 2 that would be a good thing one would think, but the book is possibly just as bad, if not worse for the fact that Crichton can write but chose to vomit up this story. The characters are flat, the action is ev...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Dody Yw rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Saya membaca buku ini setelah menonton versi filmnya. Cerita asli di buku ini jauh berbeda dengan yang ditampilkan di film. Jika dalam film bercerita tentang pemburuan dinosaurus oleh tim pemburu InGen pimpinan Peter Ludlow untuk dipindahkan ke lokasi baru Jurassic Park di San Diego, maka dalam cerita aslinya sama sekali tidak ada pemburu maupun aksi buru memburu dinosaurus.
Karakter antagonis di sini adalah Lewis Dodgson, yang tampil sepintas di seri pertama. Gagal mendapatkan embrio dinosaurus...more

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Jan 06, 2013 CJ rated it 4 of 5 stars

Though this sequel to the beloved Jurassic Park takes a while to get going (and I mean a good quarter of the book is spent making the reader wonder if anything interesting is going to happen) this book does not disappoint once it does.

Professor Ian Malcolm who was believed to have been dead during the first novel teams up with a man named Richard Levine to go to a second island called Isla Sorna. Apparently experimentation with resurrecting dinosaurs happened on this island too called "Site B" a...more

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Dec 16, 2012 Peter marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Amazon.com Review

...more

Amazon.com Review

Written in the wake of Jurassic Park's phenomenal box-office success, The Lost World seems as much a guidebook for Hollywood types hard at work on the franchise's followup as it is a legitimate sci-fi thriller. Which begs the inevitable questions: Is the plot a rehash of the first book? Sure it is, with the action unfolding on yet another secluded island, the mysterious "Site B." Is the cast of characters basically the same? Absolutely, from a freshly minted pair of cute, compu-savvy kids right down to the neatly exhumed chaos theorist Ian Malcolm (who was presumed dead at the close of JP). But is it fun to read? You betcha. Hollywood (and Michael Crichton) keeps telling us the same old stories for a very good reason: we like them. And the pulp SF formula Crichton has mastered with __ and The Lost World is no exception. --Paul Hughes

From Publishers Weekly

One fact about this sequel to Jurassic Park stands out above all: it follows a book that, with spinoffs, including the movie, proved to be the most profitable literary venture ever. So where does the author of a near billion-dollar novel sit? Squarely on the shoulders of his own past work?and Arthur Conan Doyle's. Crichton has borrowed from Conan Doyle before?Rising Sun was Holmes and Watson in Japan?but never so brazenly. The title itself here, the same as that of Conan Doyle's yarn about an equatorial plateau rife with dinos, acknowledges the debt. More enervating are Crichton's self-borrowings: the plot line of this novel reads like an outtake from JP. Instead of bringing his dinos to a city, for instance, Crichton keeps them in the Costa Rican jungle, on an offshore island that was the secret breeding ground for the beasts. Only chaos theoretician Ian Malcolm, among the earlier principals, returns to explore this Lost World, six years after the events of JP; but once again, there's a dynamic paleontologist, a pretty female scientist and two cute kids, boy and girl?the latter even saves the day through clever hacking, just as in JP. Despite stiff prose and brittle characters, Chrichton can still conjure unparalleled dino terror, although the wonder is gone and the attacks are predictable, the pacing perfunctory. But his heart now seems to be not so much in the storytelling as in pedagogy: from start to finish, the novel aims to illustrate Crichton's ideas about extinction?basically, that it occurs because of behavioral rather than environmental changes?and reads like a scientific fable, with pages of theory balancing the hectic action. As science writing, it's a lucid, provocative undertaking; but as an adventure and original entertainment, even though it will sell through the roof, it seems that Crichton has laid a big dinosaur egg. 2,000,000 first printing; BOMC and QPB main selection.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Oct 17, 2012 S rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really, really enjoyed Jurassic Park and couldn't wait to start the sequel and I wasn't disappointed. I have watched the films (a very long time ago) but the book is so much more.
The Lost World follows on from Jurassic Park. The main character this time is mathematician Ian Malcolm (who is the only character from the previous book. Along with him are a few new characters, Sarah Harding, Richard Levine, Kelly, Arby, Thorne, and Eddie. Malcolm and Levine attempt to track down an island where Lev...more

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Sep 16, 2012 Lady rated it 1 of 5 stars

Malcolm, terrorised beyond belief by his experiences on Isla Nublar, decides that once is never enough and that it's high time he stopped, y'know, not almost dying all the time in his newly won civilian life. So he goes back to play amongst the dinosaurs. How'd he ever make it off Isla Nublar in the first place? It got bombed back to the Cretaceous period, and it is acknowledged in this puny follow-up to Jurassic Park that everything on the island was destroyed by said bombing, but Malcolm survi...more Malcolm, terrorised beyond belief by his experiences on Isla Nublar, decides that once is never enough and that it's high time he stopped, y'know, not almost dying all the time in his newly won civilian life. So he goes back to play amongst the dinosaurs. How'd he ever make it off Isla Nublar in the first place? It got bombed back to the Cretaceous period, and it is acknowledged in this puny follow-up to Jurassic Park that everything on the island was destroyed by said bombing, but Malcolm survived because Crichton's drive to make a buck was stronger than any holocaust bomb.

Here we have the obligatory child stowaways, the failure of the adults to notify the stowaways' parents of the presence of their wayward offspring on a foreign island thousands of miles from home (what's that? Lack of comms, you say? Then being unable to communicate with the outside world was a major failure on the part of our merry band of hash smokers), the "Ooohs!" and "Aaaahs!" when dinosaurs are first glimpsed, and, as always, the failure to realise that big dinos have big appetites. No shit the metal-reinforced trailers are destroyed by Rexie & Co.! Things aren't making sense, Mikey. When's the next thunderstorm coming to lend an air of confusion to an already ailing plot? Quick - lightning! That'll fix 'em! You spent 8 buckaroonies because ol' Crichton knows how to tell a story, amirite?

Don't ever drive any sort of vehicle around in Crichton's dino escapades, because something always goes wrong, and the Jaws of the Jurassic are there to destroy the evidence. What - electric cars fizzle in the rain? Egads! Am I telling this story, or do I have to turn this car around? Shit, it won't start. Well, we're walking from here! Raptors are waiting, because you dropped candy bar wrappings out of utterly abhorrent indifference to the environment. "We're not changing anything because we want to study everything objectively" just doesn't fly when you're hurling candy bar wrappers around like a deranged Nestle Zeus. Not to mention Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. And how the fuck did Levine learn so much about dinos in less than three days of fighting to survive? About the same way Malcolm survived being bombed on an island, I'd wager.

Oh, and Arby would have totally bitten the dust in the raptor scene, except Crichton's too wussy to go ahead and kill off a kid. Someone throw that kid into a jumbo jet engine, quick - he'll just bounce off the blades. Besides, we still need him to serve as a source of information about the island while the mushroom eating idiots go off to sightsee.(less)

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Feb 08, 2012 Donovan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: thriller

Unfortunately this didn't meet the bar compared to the first (as so many sequels fail to do). I got the distinct feeling that Crichton was pushed in to writing this rather than wanting to write it. He makes an effort though and in being fair, it is not too bad. There are some cheap plot-hole fixes, to make this compatible with Jurassic Park but you can probably push those aside. It is still mostly about dinosaurs chasing people and has too many similarities to the first novel.

Plot ***Spoilers***...more Unfortunately this didn't meet the bar compared to the first (as so many sequels fail to do). I got the distinct feeling that Crichton was pushed in to writing this rather than wanting to write it. He makes an effort though and in being fair, it is not too bad. There are some cheap plot-hole fixes, to make this compatible with Jurassic Park but you can probably push those aside. It is still mostly about dinosaurs chasing people and has too many similarities to the first novel.

Plot ***Spoilers***
Six years after the disaster on Jurassic Park, eccentric mathematician Ian Malcolm (it is revealed early on that he was so close to death at the end of first book that he was mistakenly pronounced dead several times) and spoiled, rich paleontologist genius Richard Levine are researching InGen's mysterious Site B, and its exact location, after learning of its existence. Site B, an island named Isla Sorna, was the secret "production factory" for Jurassic Park, where dinosaur stock were hatched and grown, before shipment to Isla Nublar. Levine mysteriously disappears, and Malcolm fears he might have discovered the location of Site B, and in his impatience already set out for it without letting Malcolm know. Custom field vehicle creator Doc Thorne and his employee Eddie Carr, who provided much of Levine's equipment, deduce the location of Site B, with the assistance of Malcolm and two schoolchildren who assisted Levine, computer whiz R.B. "Arby" Benton and his friend Kelly Curtis. They organize a rescue operation and take with them two highly customized RVs, modified for scientific purposes, as well as a solar powered Ford Explorer, a motorcycle, and an observation platform called a 'high hide'. Stowed away with them as they leave are Arby and Kelly, who plan to rescue Levine as well.

At the same time, Lewis Dodgson, a geneticist at Biosyn—InGen's arch rival—and his two colleagues Howard King and George Baselton head to Isla Sorna, hoping to steal dinosaur eggs for their own company (it should be noted that Dodgson conspired with the character Dennis Nedry to steal dinosaur embryos from InGen in the first book). Sarah Harding, a wildlife observer who had a previous relationship with Malcolm, accompanies them on the trip to the island. Dodgson throws Sarah overboard from their ship, thinking she will drown, and continues with his plan. Lewis Dodgson, Howard King, and George Baselton proceed to steal dino eggs. Once they come upon the T-Rex nest, King and Baselton are hesitant. Dodgson forces them to go on with the mission. Dodgson uses a black box which emits a high pitch sound to fend off the two adult T-Rexes. When trying to steal some eggs King steps on a baby T-Rex's leg and breaks it. Baselton is too scared to enter the Rex nest and take an egg, so Dodgson attempts to grab one himself while holding the black box. As he twists, the black box is separated from its power supply and stops emitting sound. Baselton then tries to stay still thinking the T-Rexes won't notice him. The T-Rexes spot him however and eat him. Dodgson and King make a run for the SUV, but one Tyrannosaur pushes it off the hill before they can drive away. Dodgson falls out of the vehicle but survives. King is later killed by Velociraptors as he attempts to make his way across the island to the boat.

Coming across the baby Tyrannosaur, Eddie brings it back to the base camp, where Malcolm and Sarah fix its broken leg. The absence of the infant is noted by its parents, who track their offspring down by smell, leading them directly to the trailers. The T-Rex then pushes one of the trailers off the cliff (perceiving the trailer as a threat to their young), with Malcolm and Sarah inside. Both are rescued by Thorne, but Malcom's leg is injured, and he ends up spending most of the remainder of the story immobile and high on morphine (as he did in the previous novel). Meanwhile the group at the "high hide" are attacked by Velociraptors. Eddie is killed, but Arby manages to lock himself in a nearby cage. Arby is quickly abducted by the raptors, who bring him to their lair. Thorne and Levine rescue Arby, and the survivors take shelter in an abandoned gas station set up by InGen for the island's workers when the island was still in use. There they encounter two Carnotaurus, but they manage to scare them away with flashlights.

Once daylight comes, Sarah attempts to get the Explorer back. After escaping a group of aggressive Pachycephalosaurus by hiding underneath the vehicle, she encounters Dodgson, who is also hunting for the SUV. Sarah pushes Dodgson out from under the vehicle, as revenge for his earlier attempt to murder her. He is then taken by one of Tyrannosaurs to their nesting site, where his leg is broken and he is left for the babies to eat. After Sarah fails to reach the helicopter in time, Kelly locates an abandoned building with a functional boat inside. After making a quick getaway from a group of Velociraptors, the survivors are able to reach the boat and escape the island. While on the boat, Malcolm and Harding tell Levine, who was bitten by one of the animals, that some of the carnivores, including the Velociraptors and the Procompsognathus, are infected with prions due to InGen's decision to feed them contaminated sheep, and any animal bitten by them will be infected also. This means that all the dinosaurs on the island are fated to die due to the uncontrolled spread of the prions. Levine panics about the possibility of being infected with prions, but Malcolm states it shouldn't be harmful to humans. With that said, Thorne finally declares that is time for all of them to go home.(less)

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Dec 10, 2011 Danny M rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Suspense and mystery readers

Recommended to Danny by: Read the presious novel.

This is the sequel to the novel Jurassic Park written by Michael Crichton. You should read Jurassic park before reading this book. Michael Crichton is a genius, and I always liked his novels. His books are filled with brilliant ideas and plenty of suspense. Michael Crichton does plenty of research in writing his novels and there is a mixture of truth and fiction in his writing. The novel Jurassic Park was one such idea that was brilliant and fascinating. The book was so good when Steven Spielber...more

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Sep 06, 2011 Jenine rated it 2 of 5 stars

First off, I love the Jurassic Park series and have enjoyed all three movies. The first book was great and I have read it a few times already...but I have to say I was very disappointed in this book. Yes I saw the movie already but that in no way has any bearing on my lack of enthusiasm for this novel. I had good expectations for this book because of the first book and Michael Crighton's talent for writing. However I found little to enjoy from this book. The plot (whatever the plot is, I never g...more

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Jun 16, 2011 Kenny rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-scifi, science

There’s no doubt that Michael Crichton is a genius, but his particular ability lies in conception, not execution. His books are always brilliant ideas less than brilliantly written. His style is often clunky and predictable, but his ideas . . . his ideas are golden.

Jurassic Park was one such idea, so wonderful and powerful that even Steven Spielberg could not much improve on it. The success of the movie owes a debt to the great setting, characters, and situations already present in the novel. Th...more

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Jun 24, 2010 Lindsay rated it 3 of 5 stars

Michael Crichton has been one of my favorite authors for only a couple of years now, but I've been trying in that time to slowly work my way through all his novels. This book is the second part of the Jurassic Park story, and it's the only sequel Crichton ever wrote. It takes place six years after the events of JP, with mathematician Ian Malcolm as the main protagonist. He and Lewis Dodgson, the unscrupulous researcher from the Biosyn company, are the only two characters from JP to make an appea...more Michael Crichton has been one of my favorite authors for only a couple of years now, but I've been trying in that time to slowly work my way through all his novels. This book is the second part of the Jurassic Park story, and it's the only sequel Crichton ever wrote. It takes place six years after the events of JP, with mathematician Ian Malcolm as the main protagonist. He and Lewis Dodgson, the unscrupulous researcher from the Biosyn company, are the only two characters from JP to make an appearance in the sequel. The primary action of the plot takes place on Isla Sorna, an island near Costa Rica that InGen had been using as part of their dinosaur breeding program. Malcolm and his team end up there initially to rescue Richard Levine, a fellow-researcher-friend of Malcolm's who goes to the island out of curiosity after he is exposed to a strange creature on a beach in Costa Rica. Dodgson and his team arrive later to steal dinosaur eggs and by doing so fulfill the goal of stealing InGen's research that Dodgson was working toward in JP. Conflicts between the two different groups and, of course, between dinosaurs ensue.

I enjoyed the book, but overall didn't find it quite as exciting as JP, despite the abundance of action scenes. The overall sense of danger and impending doom that runs throughout JP is greatly reduced in The Lost World, so even though I was hooked on the story, it was more out of curiosity about the history of the InGen project than out of interest in what was presently happening to the characters. Even the dinosaurs are less interesting, and the whole scope of the plot and setting is a lot narrower than JP.

While the main theme of JP revolves around the dangers of playing God and creation, LW focuses more on adaptation and extinction. Like in JP, Crichton uses Chaos Theory as a plotting device, but I felt much more intrigued by the concept as a whole and its connection to plot in JP. Theme and plot don't actually tie together as well in LW, so a lot of the time during my reading, I was wondering why the extinction idea was all that important to the direct events of the story or to the development of any of the characters. In JP, this is a critical connection that is much better executed.

The Lost World isn't a bad book by any means, though. The action is good, the science is interesting, and it gives more of a glimpse into the world created in Jurassic Park. Despite being a sequel that isn't quite as strong as its original source material, it's still worth a read.(less)

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Dec 17, 2012 Clementine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

I feel the same way about this one that I did about Jurassic Park: it's fun and exciting, and basically does its job as a biological thriller, but it's not exactly high quality. The writing's not great, the science obviously doesn't hold up (like, uh, he referred to velociraptors as 2m tall Jurassic creatures when they were actually the size of a large-ish dog and lived during the Cretaceous), and the whole thing requires quite a lot of suspension of disbelief.

I mean, not just in terms of the sc...more

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Feb 25, 2012 RaskolnikovRR rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Gripping, thrilling and surely an engaging science fiction. This is a more like a series of the first book, Jurassic Park, but it's still okay if you read this straight off ( I did ). It has the enough of the back story to cover the previous one. Starting off with the mysterious appearances of these lizard-like creatures, scientists and bio-tech companies race to the island. The scientists are research oriented while the companies want to exploit the situation commercially.

Ian Malcolm is a re...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Vicki Le Feuvre rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

Not that I am prone to speaking ill of Spielberg, but whatever calamitous decision led to him not having Michael Crichton co-write the screenplay of The Lost World alongside David Koepp as he did for the first Jurassic Park movie was obviously a big mistake.

In terms of plot, characterisation and carefully crafted atmosphere this novel is vastly superior to the movie that shares its name. Also there are a lot more raptors in it, which is just gravy.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed watching a fully-g...more Not that I am prone to speaking ill of Spielberg, but whatever calamitous decision led to him not having Michael Crichton co-write the screenplay of The Lost World alongside David Koepp as he did for the first Jurassic Park movie was obviously a big mistake.

In terms of plot, characterisation and carefully crafted atmosphere this novel is vastly superior to the movie that shares its name. Also there are a lot more raptors in it, which is just gravy.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed watching a fully-grown T-Rex terrorising San Diego as much as the next dinosaur enthusiast but it appears that those scenes came at a terrible price for the movie.

One of the worst things the movie-going public lost out on was Sarah Harding’s brilliantly sharp and almost superhumanly resourceful character. The Harding of the book has a world of darker shades to her. She is far less simpering, sublimely more intelligent, can actually climb a rope and is ultimately much more fun.

I would also happily swap Ian Malcolm’s marginally irritating albeit gymnastically gifted daughter of the film for the geekily zealous Kelly and Arby of the book any day. This is not just because they prove themselves to be wildly more useful in almost every situation that is not conveniently gymnastic-centric, though of course that does help. Mainly it is because they are engaging and well thought-out characters who add much more to the plot than simply filling the role of accompanying non-adults who can always be relied upon to increase the audience’s concern for their protagonists’ survival.

In terms of deliciously violent or just plain scary moments, the scene with the raptors picking off all those unnamed soldiers as they run through the long grass is of course a great moment in the film but there are many more such moments in the novel and they’re all just as terrifying.

I was sad to see Dr Grant’s unfounded assertion that a T-Rex’s vision is based on movement somewhat clumsily corrected in this sequel. However, it was utterly worth the loss of this always thrilling plot device just to create one shining moment when Malcolm’s often irksome arrogance is absolutely justified. When answering a question put to him as to why the two men caught in the T-Rex’s nest are just standing still instead of running away Crichton has Malcolm utter the fantastically damning line: ‘they are misinformed’.

Speaking of raptors, as I am often apt to do, Crichton managed to make them even scarier in this novel, a feat that I would not have thought possible until now. Site B, it transpires, is unfortunately very predator-heavy and has therefore been breeding raptors with a survival-of-the-nastiest mentality. So that’s nice.

That the novel affords him time to explain this highlight what was always a particular strength of Crichton’s writing, that he managed to include a lot of sciency-bits and ponderings on the theory of evolution without for a second becoming boring. I am still not sure how Crichton managed to achieve this effect where many authors before and after him have failed. Regardless, it adds a depth of reality to his concept that is just as necessary in bringing the dinosaurs to life as the supposedly impossible scientific leap that InGen would have needed to clone extinct animals in the first place.

Overall, the film does not shapeup to the way that Crichton’s structure gradually builds the tension to breaking point for the reader and then, even better, sustains it. After an uncomfortably calm opening of suitable length a well-judged tipping point is reached after which increasingly violent and bloody encounters ensue, alongside comparatively diminutive glimmers of hope, which push the characters ever closer to the edge of extinction as the plot evolves. It is this attentiveness to the science of building tension which makes the first film and both novels alike truly great to watch/read.

I often find myself measuring my involvement in a story by how unwilling I am to put it down when I finish my regretfully necessary commute on the tube each evening. The most engaging of books don’t get put down when it becomes necessary for me to stand up and start negotiating my way through the bustling crowds of my fellow commuters. The best stories are carried out into the street still being avidly devoured at the expense of my own personal safety. The Lost World was definitely one of those life-endangeringly good books for me. By the final chapters, though I was probably more at risk from passing cars, the threat of an imminent dinosaur attack just felt too real to me to put the book down and watch where I was going. Now that’s a good book.

p.s. Just on the off chance that she is reading this I would like to send out a brief message to the woman at Kings Cross station who politely tapped me on the shoulder to tell me that I had dropped my hat. Something I had failed to notice due to the fact that I was walking along with my nose in this particular book. I am sorry about how violently I jumped away from you, probably with a look of sheer repulsion and terror on my face. It was nothing personal. Just that, for a second there, I thought you might be a velociraptor intent on my blood. Easy mistake to make. You understand.
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Mar 03, 2009 Antof9 rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009-read, alterna-history, animals, couldn-t-put-it-down

I read Jurassic Park about a million years ago, and I've always wanted to read this one. Neither of them is really "my" kind of book, but they do hold some fascination for me, in their own little ways. And I have to say, this one didn't disappoint! When I started this, I couldn't even remember the movie, but by the time I got to the part where they splint the baby raptor's leg, I could picture the whole scene! The best part? As intense as the movie was at that point, the book did it better!

(Don'...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Pretty decent sequel to Jurassic Park, though it does seem like Michael Crichton just stuck 2 kids in to either up the stakes and make us feel more invested, or he's a formulaic hack who can't figure out another way to create that emotion. This sequel sees Ian Malcolm reprise his role as cynic and chaos expert, and exploring Site B, the dinosaur factory that produced the adult specimens in the first book. There's a lot of backstory that is explored through some really forced exposition and an en...more

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Aug 08, 2011 Jenna Watt added it · review of another edition

Starting out reading this book I had high expectations. I was told this was better than the first one. Well those people must not have been readers because this book was not nearly as good as the first. I was looking for action and fun but mostly this was a 'how dinosaurs were when they lived' book. All the action started at the end of the book and thats where i started to get the feel of the first one.

the descriptions of certain dinosaurs were very well written, and i could see them clearly.

I...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Rebecca Anderson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: challenge-11

‘The Lost World’ is proof that the sequels can be better than the originals, grown ups can still love dinosaurs, and even the most rigid reader can indulge in a little adventure. Michael Crichton returns to the world he originally introduced to us through Jurassic Park with new vigor. The sequel to the famous dino-zoo thriller may have blown its prequel out of the water. With more likable characters, more blood and grit, and more scientific spark, this is a must read for adventure fans.

‘Somethin...more ‘The Lost World’ is proof that the sequels can be better than the originals, grown ups can still love dinosaurs, and even the most rigid reader can indulge in a little adventure. Michael Crichton returns to the world he originally introduced to us through Jurassic Park with new vigor. The sequel to the famous dino-zoo thriller may have blown its prequel out of the water. With more likable characters, more blood and grit, and more scientific spark, this is a must read for adventure fans.

‘Something has survived…’ is scrawled across the back of my library copy of this novel, and it speaks the truth. For fans of the first book, this is a must read for even more thrill. This time, the story takes us to an alternative site for InGen, Site B, where the dinosaurs were originally bred for Hammond’s state of the art theme park. Ian Malcolm, the dark and brooding mathematician, remains of the original cast, and somehow finds himself back among the Jurassic tenants for one last time.

The plot this time is a group of scientists, bent of observing dinosaur behavior, opposite a group of competitive researchers working for one of the world’s leading DNA companies, out to steal the technology InGen left behind, patent it, and make millions. Of course, the third group playing it’s part in the book would be the dinosaurs, who could care less what the humans are doing, since they’re just plain hungry.

The book, in my opinion, is better than the first. The characters are more likable, more three-dimensional, and there’s just more interaction and tension. The book has more ‘side-plots’ happening, you aren’t just following a couple of linear paths with a handful of characters, it’s a network of events. Crichton truly stepped up his game and style with this book.

My issues? First, sometimes his characters, albeit brilliant men and women, come out with these very complex ideas and theories that have holes in them. I am no mathematician, animal behaviorist, biologist, or paleontologist, but even I had to stop and read over what they were saying and go, “Wait, but that doesn’t make sense, you’re contradicting yourself…”

And the kids. I hated the kids. The reason they were there was absolutely ridiculous, I didn’t understand why they had to be there at all. There was no point in having them there, since at times their presence in the plot seemed a little forced. (Although, they were less annoying than the kids in the first book…)

I really did enjoy this book, though. I’m a sucker for a good science thriller. Give me a creature, but give me the science behind it, and that’s exactly what Crichton does. I’m slowly becoming a fan of his work, and I’m looking forward to reading more of it in the future.

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Aug 14, 2012 Dennis Troy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jurassic Park was no doubt worthy of a continuation, unfortunately The Lost World will not hold the same interest as the first novel did. While the story is not totally flat--it had its moments--it just can not worthy of the name Jurassic Park.

Before I begin a basic plot analysis, it is worth mentioning that the this story should not be compared with the movie in any way. Other than some same characters and very basic storylines, the movie takes it's own direction--unlike in the film Jurassic Pa...more Jurassic Park was no doubt worthy of a continuation, unfortunately The Lost World will not hold the same interest as the first novel did. While the story is not totally flat--it had its moments--it just can not worthy of the name Jurassic Park.

Before I begin a basic plot analysis, it is worth mentioning that the this story should not be compared with the movie in any way. Other than some same characters and very basic storylines, the movie takes it's own direction--unlike in the film Jurassic Park where at least they tried a little bit to follow the novel.

The story begins with a new character, Dr. Thorne, and the familiar Dr. Malcolm--the only significant holdover from the original novel--who stumbles across evidence that there is another island full of cloned dinosaurs. While the original island--Isla Nublar--was an amusement park of sorts, the island in The Lost World--Isla Sorna--is where the production once took place. It is now thought to be abandoned. We find the primary company of InGen had filed for bankruptcy about eight years earlier. Thorne convinces Malcolm to go to the island to look for one of their colleagues, Dr. Levine. Malcolm calls his girlfriend, Sarah Harding--an expert in animals, and asks her to travel with them. They finally reach the island only to find that two children--students of one of the doctors-- have smuggled themselves inside the luggage. These children are Kelly and Arby. So now, there are six people on the island--the sixth being Eddie Carr, a manservant. Well to make a long story short, after arriving at the island, the suspense stops. They then being to explore the dinosaur ecosystem for about the next 150 pages before anything significant happens. Since the island has long been abandoned, the wildlife has started to merge together. This topic, of course, requires several pages of inspection. Then, as Malcolm once said, "this is where the screaming begins...". Some die, some live and some escape. As usual, three bad guys do follow them to the island, and predictably--they make nice snacks for the dinosaurs. Do not worry, that was not a spoiler. Once you meet these men, you realize they are possibly the least intelligent antagonists Crichton has written.

Granted, the story does begin rather interesting, that is, until they get to the island and find Dr. Levine. After this point, it is a drag just to get to through. This is not just because the action becomes minimal, but there are no feelings of any kind of suspense. When the ending does get interesting, the action does not stop, and I assume one can read through these last several chapters rather quickly. Additionally, this novel has a weak cast of characters. Just bad when you compare them to the first story. There is just not one who was worth talking about. Even Malcolm, who was great in the first story becomes another boring clone of the others. His wit is mostly missing here. The newly introduced, Dr. Levine-- perhaps the most talkative of the group--grows tiresome very fast. The two children from this story are even less enthralling than the two from Jurassic Park.

It seems, based on the quality of the plot and characters, Michael Crichton was pressured into writing this novel because of the success of the movie Jurassic Park. There is nothing else in the The Lost World that is memorable enough to mention. With that being said, this story should not not be hated too much, because it just was not that bad. It did have its fun moments, but sadly, this novel will always be compared to the great success of its predecessor--and will always fail in the comparison. On its own--and with lesser expectations, I suppose, it may hold up. And perhaps expectations must be lowered in order to enjoy this story.

On a personal note: I read this novel, before the film, a mistake I made with the previous. But, one common factor in both films, was the casting of Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcom. Had it not been for Goldblum, I just might have ignored this film.(less)

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Jun 17, 2012 Alazzar rated it 2 of 5 stars

I liked Jurassic Park so much when I read it 2 years ago that I gave it 5 stars. The Lost World, however, I was unable to finish.

I’ve often said in the past that I don’t mind weak characterization so long as the plot is engaging enough to compensate for it. Apparently, I was wrong.

This book is about dinosaurs. I, like most human males, wanted to be a paleontologist when I was a kid. To this day, I’m still certain that dinosaurs are objectively awesome. So, we had a strong plot element already.

B...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Brandy Eggleston rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

After reading Jurassic Park, I kept putting off starting (and then finishing after I had finally started reading) The Lost World, simply because I didn't want the dinosaur fun to end. I still feel that way after finishing the book. I enjoyed Michael Crichton's sequel to Jurassic Park, very much. Admittedly, I think I liked the first one a bit more but that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy The Lost World any less. I can't help but wish for more of the Jurassic Park/Lost World story, though I know...more

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About Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton was an American author, film producer, film director, and television producer. His books sold over 150 million copies world wide, and among his best-known works were techno-thriller novels, films and television programs. His works were usually based on the action genre and heavily feature technology. Many of his future history novels had medical or scientific underpinnings, reflec...more

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“What makes you think human beings are sentient and aware? There's no evidence for it. Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told-and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide behavior which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion. Next question.” — 219 people liked it

“All your life people will tell you things. And most of the time, probably ninety-five percent of the time, what they'll tell you will be wrong.” — 82 people liked it

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The Lost World (Jurassic Park #2)

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