The Lost World (Jurassic Park, #2)

by Michael Crichton

Only at the edge of chaos can complex systems flourish.”

Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their ‘beliefs.’

Scientists pretended that history didn’t matter, because the errors of the past were now corrected by modern discoveries.

the truest picture of life in the past incorporated the interplay of all aspects of life, the good and the bad, the strong and the weak. It was no good pretending anything else.

“Never mind now, Arby. We know what we have to do. Let’s go, kids!”

Kidnapping middle schoolers to go dinosaur hunting! On a remote island!

But now imagine: a specially stocked hunting preserve, maybe somewhere in Asia, where individuals of wealth and importance could hunt tyrannosaurs and triceratops in a natural setting.

The Sound of Thunder!

“Let’s be clear. This is it. This is absolutely the last time. Either you get the animals now, or it’s over. This is the last time. Got it?”

Biggest lie ever.

I had a guide named Diego,

**had

He saw them with a kind of languid intensity, and he almost did not mind the sharp pain on his neck, and he almost did not care that his neck was within the animal’s hot jaws. It seemed to be happening to someone else.

Good writing

“All your life, other people will try to take your accomplishments away from you. Don’t you take it away from yourself.”

“Human beings are so destructive,” Malcolm said. “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 decks, and lets evolution proceed to its next phase.”