found the book out of balance, He included too much information through dialogue and the progression into the climax dragged, However, I still enjoyed it, I enjoy Crichton's writing, something about it, I like the intellectual stimulation and the action and the thrill of the scenes he creates, He overloaded the narrative with "suddenly," and "at that moment," which I found a bit annoying, He also used literary techniques with little to no effort, such as "his heart was beating in his chest, " I suppose that describes it well, as opposed to his heart beating in his thigh, although perhaps the latter may be more interesting.
I plan to finish all of Crichton's work, I cheated a bit with some research on this one, Many agree the novel ranks lowest in his bibliography, From what I understand the market demanded a second book, and it shows in the shortcut quality of the work, 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 think of, and even easier to find was completely hidden from consciousness since the characters' first opportunity to think of it from about a fifth of the way into the book.
Additionally, the characters pose some very interesting questions during their experiences that would be fodder for quite interesting discussions or even intriguing scientific theory/discovery in the book.
For instance, why are there so many predators on the island Why do they see so few carcasses What went wrong on the island Why does the raptor nest look the way it does That last was the only one I thought was halfway decently answered all the rest seemed like copouts.
Hell, the way the characters started to get out of their last little fix was complete B, S. that came from a bogus thought process from one of the kids,
One random compliment that unfortunately has nothing to do with the author's writing ability: He took the Carnotaurus that I'm familiar with from the simulator ride Dinosaur! at Disney's Animal Kingdom and gave it a rather unique twist: the ability to change colors with astonishing detail.
I'll have to admit, after being scared by that dino on the ride many years ago, the thought of it being a chameleon made me sympathize with the terror felt by the characters.
But really only for one scene, Then it was right back to the frustration,
My biggest complaint was the author's blatant activation of dramatic suspense, A character's thoughts would be either articulated through dialogue or explained through narration right up to the nexttothelast word, and then something would distract the person from completing the thought, and the author would move on.
That, in my book, is cheating, If the character thinks about something but can't figure it out, of if he's unsure why something just came to mind, fine, That's character development, in a way, Levine's thoughts on daylight in the final scene fall into this category, I actually accepted that he couldn't remember what the big deal was, Granted, when he finally did figure it out, and he went back into his holierthanthou attitude, even saying, "Well, isn't it obvious", I wasn't sure if I wanted to smack Crichton or Levine more.
A couple of conversations between characters usually involving Levine, now that I think of it were so full of these interruptions that I almost threw down the book.
I was being played with, and I didn't appreciate it, It was something like this:
"So I got this completely figured out, The only way we can avoid getting eaten in the next twenty seconds is if we, Oh, look! A leaf just fell in the breeze!"
or
"I wonder why these dinos are acting like this.
It might have something to do with the environment they're in, Okay, if we factor in what they had for breakfast last year, and consider the death rate among dinos livingmillion years ago.
. . Oh, this makes sense. They're all dying because . ACK! An attacking dino!"
and then
"Levine reaches the place he's been trying to reach for the last sixty pages.
There's a dino in his way, He looks around for a tool to use to beat the beast to smithereens, getting more and more anxiously panicked, trying desperately to think of anything, when suddenly he sees.
And the dino roared and started charging, "
Whether the reader is supposed to feel exhilaration from the suspense, offense from being insulted, or just frustration with the irrational and incomplete descriptions, I won't pretend to know.
Personally, though, a combination of the latter two was able to fester and boil and brood quite effectively throughout the course of the novel.
I was completely put off by the writing style and the predictability of his archetypes I could easily make a matching quiz to list the names of characters from this book and its predecessor, and there's a direct correlation for each one, with the same role being filled by each and the same outcome happening to each.
Oh, and Malcomb gets hurt, Again. What the heck is this guy's role, really Token chaostheory expert to make the reader believe that when everything goes to hell, it's supposed to Bubcus.
I hereby swear to never again read another Michael Crichton novel, Yep, it was that disappointing,.stars
Me for the firstof the book:
Ive never really liked the second Jurassic Park movie.
I changed my mind. There are worse things, like the book the movie was adapted from, I actually applaud the writers, because fixing this mess took talent, Guess it helped ignoring the entire book apart from two or three of the interesting dinosaur scenes,
Overall this was nice to read because Crichtons writing flows even when Malcolm is in the middle of one of his chaos rants, but man, I was expecting something way better than this.
First things first, I dont understand why the author went to the trouble of reviving Malcolm if his character wasnt really needed.
During the book he never once mentions his previous trip to Jurassic Park, and he behaves as though he has never been on the other island with Grant and Hammond.
He would have never, never, never gone to Isla Sorna to save Levine, whom he doesnt even like, knowing that he would find the same dangers, just to prove his stupid extinction theory.
Hes reckless and acts without thinking, plus he keeps blabbering about his theories even when his life is in danger, I was so confused when his group suddenly decides to go to the tyrannosaur nest to check I dont even know what, after a guy had just been eaten.
Then they bring the baby to the trailer and make him a cast for his broken leg and Malcolm says nothing They managed to make it work in the movie, but here that was way beyond stupid.
To be honest, this was a trend for all the characters involved, In the end the dinosaur attacks were triggered by idiotic actions more than anything else, but Im mad at Malcolm in particular, because he freaking KNEW what would happen.
Is it too much to ask for character continuity and characters who use their brains Jeez,
On the other hand, I liked seeing a woman like Sarah take the lead in this kind of book written by a man in thes.
Its refreshing and heartwarming, Doc Thorne was also very sweet and caring, and Im glad he survived, I wouldnt want to be in his and Levines shoes though, because now they have some explaining to do to the childrens parents lol.
Some of the dinosaur scenes were nice and brutal, especially the ones with the tyrannosaurs, but others were purely unrealistic.
I wish the raptors werent in this book at all, Raptors that eat candy bars, holding them in their forearms Raptors that find the high hide by sniffing a candy bar wrap Raptors that run away with keys Dinosaurs that destroy a car to find their eggs inside closed metal briefcases after hours Im sorry, but this is too much.
And theres many more scenes that made me roll my eyes,
This book was one entire discussion about extinction, chaos and other scientific stuff, There was too little action, even the conclusion was rushed so that the characters could tell everyone about their latest realizations, The villains die, the good guys survive, Thats it.
I guess the good thing is that this book made me appreciate the movie in a way I didnt think was possible after all these years.
This one was just "meh", This is one of the rare instances where I will say that I prefer the movie over the book, Ugh, and the scientific babbling that went on, . . yikes, it was brutal for me, Would've liked more action and gore, Still love Crichton though. .stars
After loving Jurassic Park, I have been eager to read its sequel, The Lost World, Unfortunately it's just not as good, The story takes a long time to get started and, even still, the plot is so thin, Thank goodness for Malcolm who saves this book with his monologues, i can finally say to people that ive watched the movies AND read the books !! this was a hell of a journey and i genuinely had a blast with this duology.
what i loved about thisnd book was definitely the action, it was adrenaline inducing and i actually felt like i was there, shivering next to the characters,
i also loved the characters and their different views on this Lost World and their personalities, too, my favourites are Ian amp Sarah for sure
i enjoyed majority of the scenes that werent presented on screen, i really wish they were includeddamn epic !!!
writing style was also really easy to follow and completely managed to suck you into the story.
my favourite sentence is “ill be damned” tho, idk its just so oldschool and hilarious for some reason
i loved hearing what Ian had to say amp all his theories !
i found Levines observations on the dinosaurs, and how they behaved, also interesting.
and Sarah is one badass woman !! while men cowered, she went to deal with the situation without showing fear
now, i couldve liked it better without the kids involved.
i dont like kids in general, so thats probably just my own issue lmaoo
imo, this book is even better than thest one.
highly recommended !! Now that was really enjoyable!! I really loved all the science and theories,
this is legitimately a bad book, not even camouflaged dinosaurs can save it, This was the first time for me I've seen the movie quite a number of times yes, I'm one of the people who like it, sue me! but had never read the book before.
Many years have passed since the "incident" on Isla Nublar, InGen almost went bellyup, Hammond is dead first major difference to the movie right there and nobody is allowed to talk about what happened.
There are some rumours here or there, making it almost a myth,
We're meeting Malcolm again, who is hired by a rich kid to help him locate the mysterious "site B", A few other recognizable names pop up, too, but the characters are vastly
different from the ones in the movie,
Anyway, they eventually figure out where site B is, go there some smuggling on board because people are stupid that way and the rest, as you probably guessed, is.
. . dino chowder. cackles
I have to admit that this was not quite as good as the first, Neither the characters assembled nor the story itself, but it did have Chrichton's signature blend of reallife science with slightly futuristic spins that end in thrilling action.
Moreover, we finally got some highly interesting background information about Hammond's operation You know, what went on behind the curtain, And putting the pieces together was a lot of fun!
Some might not always enjoy Malcolms detailed remarks on this or that, but I find him funny and interesting.
And no, not only because I pictured him as Jeff Goldblum, Though that helped. lol
Center stage, of course, belongs to the dinos though, At least for me. The tenacious compies for example, Gotta love the little buggers, And yes, it is a metaphor for man's hubris and the consequences of meddling, . . especially when not having full knowledge, And you can never stuff the raptor back into the box,
It was hilarious to "recognize" the people from the movie in this book, like Eddie see my only status update, I definitely also enjoyed getting more tech details about the equipment and setup, One could say I work too much with engineers, lol
Despite everything, however, I have to say that I like the movie better, Shocking, I know, but it does happen,
Now, apart from this being my first read of this sequel, I also went and got myself the Folio Society's special edition so I have to review it's wonderful slipcase once again designed to resemble dino skin and the fantastic illustrations:
So yes, it matches the first one and I'm very happy they grace my shelf together with the nonfiction books about dinos.
.
Attain The Lost World (Jurassic Park, #2) Conceived By Michael Crichton Conveyed As Booklet
Michael Crichton