9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Micheal Crichton delivers again, February 24, 2000
So far, my favorite book is "The Lost World", despite some of it's obvious flaws. Such would include the large number of inconsistancies between Jurrassic Park and this sequel, and obviously the only reason Crichton wrote this was because Universal wanted a sequel for Jurassic Park, but these are easily forgiven over the quality of the work. As opposed to the first Jurassic Park, Crichton takes much more time in his visual descriptions of the actions in this novel, giving a better sense of the passage of time. One would notice that this book is noticably longer than the first. Crichton, like usual, is a master of educating his readers while entertaining them, better than many writers. Of course, one has to mention the often frightening edge-of-your-seat suspence that makes this novel impossible to put down. If you read this book and find yourself still craving knowledge and dinosaur action, I would suggest the novel "Raptor Red" by Robert T. Bakker. This book is also extreemly informative as well as action-packed, however it does not have the real scary edge of The Lost World or Jurassic Park. On the other hand, it is written from the Raptor's perspective, and is a real interesting twist on normal dino stories.
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17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dinos Dinos Everywhere!, April 15, 2003
I don't know if the dinosaurs bring out the best in Crichton or what. I've read a few of his books and haven't really cared for them, but I loved Jurassic Park and I really enjoyed this one too. It's a rollicking adventure story that doesn't stop very often. When it does, though, with some long scientific asides, it stops dead.
Crichton sure is capable of writing an exciting tale. I wish he'd do it more often. Lost World has many exciting sequences as various dinosaurs (mostly Tyrannosaurus and Raptors) chase the humans all around the island. The action is breathtaking as, just when you think the humans have solved their problem (or at least are on the road to solving it), things take a turn for the worse. I am not one for hyperbole, but throughout the middle of the book, I couldn't put it down. I stayed up much later than I should, and only turned out the light because it was getting too late and I still had too far to go.
This really isn't much more than an action yarn with some scientific ideas attached to it, though, so don't get the idea that it's really deep. In fact, the scientific ideas are one of the problems with the book. I'm not saying they're not accurate, as I don't know enough about them to make that judgment. However, there are times where Crichton just stops the action dead to go on for a page or two about chaos theory, evolution, or something. These are interesting, but they completely destroy the mood of the book. It's almost like mixing chocolate and shrimp: sure, some people may like it, but for the rest of us who like both but hate them together, it makes the finished product just a little less palatable. Thankfully, the asides don't come at you too much at one time, so once each one stops the ball starts rolling again.
Being an action thriller, the characters aren't that complex. They seem like it at times (such as when they're spouting scientific theories), but they aren't really. Malcolm is scarred by the events in the first book, and there's an interesting sequence where this comes into play. Thankfully for himself and for the others, he snaps out of it fairly quickly. I liked his character, though, because he's a combination of a realist and a cynic. However, he uses his scientific knowledge and his intelligence to get them out of more than one scrape. He's probably the most broadly defined of the bunch. The other members of the expedition have their character hooks too, but they aren't that deeply explored. Crichton spends a lot of time detailing their background, but when events start happening, they're more fodder for these events than anything else. They are distinctive, they just aren't complex.
The villains of the piece, though, are pretty dull and stereotypical. Dodgson is your typical greedy and lazy villain. His specialty is stealing other people's research after it's been tested, because that's easier and more lucrative than doing your own research and possibly going down numerous blind alleys. His allies are the typical nervous bunch, with one person worried that they're doing the wrong thing and the other one worried that they're doing the right thing but that it will go horribly wrong (which it inevitably does). Thankfully, once they get events rolling to their inevitable conclusion, they're pretty much sidelined and we don't hear much about them again until the end.
The plot is kind of a runaround, but I really enjoyed it despite that. There are definitely predictable events in it, such as when a character does something and you know immediately what the consequences of that action are going to be, long before any of the characters do. That does mar things a little bit. But it's easy to look past them because Crichton writes the action so effectively. When characters aren't spouting scientific stuff, I almost held my breath as events happened. Especially effective is the trailer scene, where Malcolm and Sarah have to figure out how to get safely out of a trailer that's being pushed, prodded and smashed by two enraged Tyrannosaurs. It's hard to tell what's going to happen there, or who will survive this sequence. Nobody (with the possible exception of Malcolm) is safe in this book, so there is a lot of tension. I will say that not everybody dies, but there certainly is doubt when certain people are in danger.
I wish Crichton would write more like these. To me, he seems at his best when he's writing scientific action thrillers. I wish there were a way that he could limit the scientific asides, though, as they really slow things down. I don't mind the asides themselves, but I think they could be included better. Still, this is one book that you won't be able to put down. And it has dinosaurs eating people. What could be wrong with that?
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing, A Sequal thats Worth the Time, March 3, 2000
I'm quite skeptical about sequels, especially when the first was simply so clever. I could never have expected The Lost World to be so much different, and yet every bit as good as its predecessor. Perhaps one my favorite aspects of this book is that Crichton takes a risk (which is quite renowned for now) and offers an entirely new breed of dinosaur toward the end, the Chameleon-Raptor mix. The moment I begin to see this being, I envisioned one of the most devastating beasts the World would have ever known. I wish there had been more dealing with this creature throughout the adventure, but I was pleased to see Crichton back off the complex, realistic style he's so fond of and side track down a more creative, "what if" path. This book is not JP and it doesn't read like JP did, but I consider it worth every dime that JP was.
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