BOOK REVIEW: The Lost World by Michael Crichton

 

This is a follow-up story to Crichton’s Jurassic Park, which was the basis of the movie franchise that has been so popular over the past few years. This one is about Site B, a laboratory island where the dinosaurs were bred for transfer to the infamous park, and the small team that goes in to rescue an erstwhile scientist who has gotten himself trapped while trying to study the animals there. The team includes Ian Malcolm (which is a little confusing considering that this character was supposed to have died in the first book, though he didn’t in the subsequent movie), the mathematician who was involved in the adventure on the first island, Sarah Harding, a naturalist who studies predators, an equipment specialist named Thorne, Thorne’s assistant Eddie, and the lost scientist, an arrogant, selfish prig named Levine. There are also two kids that stowaway on the expedition (Crichton always seems to have kids in dangerous places in his books). Add to the mix an unscrupulous exploitative businessman named Dodson trying to steal dinosaur eggs, and you have the makings for an unending series of thrilling episodes of people trying to survive in a world that they were never meant to. In spite of the confusion about whether this is supposed to be a sequel to the book or the movie, the author’s writing and characterization makes the story move along at a pace that precludes any consternation of storyline flaws. Entertaining to read, and even more to listen to in its audio form, this is a good one for that long flight or bus ride when one needs to be whisked away to another world, this time it being a prehistoric one.