The Lost World is a great sequel to Jurassic Park. While I can safely say I enjoyed the first book more, The Lost World was also a very intellectually entertaining read.As far as story goes, as can be expected, Crichton thought of every detail. He didn't forget a thing. Ian Malcolm learns of a second island full of dinosaurs. And his twisted mind wants to go there and study the dinosaurs' behavior. He and six others travel to the island. Meanwhile there is a group of men following them that want to capture dinosaurs and bring them back to the main land; they are on the island at the same time as Malcolm. I didn't have any issues with the story/plot. I pretty much knew what it was going in. But the delivery was great.
The Lost World is written in multiple POVs from both the good and bad guys' perspectives, which I found quite interesting and very different. You don't usually see authors write in so many different POVs. But it worked somehow. I can't say I loved that but it didn't bother me either.
Characters...what to say? I actually really enjoyed reading parts of the book from Malcolm's perspective. I wish Crichton had written more of it from his point of view. Malcolm had a lot of monologues which I surprisingly enjoyed even if I didn't always agree with everything he was saying.
Sarah Harding and Doc. Thorne (the vehicle and equipment supplier) were my favorite characters. They were both brave and probably the only likable characters besides Malcolm. I mean, I liked Malcolm but not the same way I did Sarah and Thorne.
Doc. Levine was solely focused on his research and remained quite oblivious to the dangers around him for the majority of the book. I actually came to hate him more than I did Lewis Dodgson, the antagonist there only to steal dinosaur eggs. Levine didn't care about anyone around him and neither did Dodgson but for some reason, it was ten times worse when you had to endure it in Levine's POV than Dodgson's.
The writing was fantastic. Crichton didn't miss a detail. There aren't many people who can use a chocolate bar and a candy wrapper to propel the story into a series of events that push the characters into even more terrifying situations. When I really got lost in the story I could sometimes just feel the dinosaurs picking at my skin. The whole image would just make me cringe.
There are only a couple of things I didn’t really like. This book has a lot of swearing so I’d recommend it for older young adults. My second problem was Malcolm actually wanting to go back to an island full of dinosaurs. It’s clear that he still has nightmares and is just completely terrified from his first experience, yet he wants to go back. I felt like that was a little…just wrong. I mean, I get he’s pig-headed and wanted to be able to prove his theory as correct but I just felt like that wasn’t enough of a reason to risk his life again, not when he knew what could happen.
So there you have it. I really did enjoy this book and am very glad I gave it a second try. If you liked Jurassic Park, then you should definitely read The Lost World.
