The Lost World (Jurassic Park, #2)

by Michael Crichton

[clementine]

I feel the same way about this one that I did about Jurassic Park: it's fun and exciting, and basically does its job as a biological thriller, but it's not exactly high quality. The writing's not great, the science obviously doesn't hold up (like, uh, he referred to velociraptors as 2m tall Jurassic creatures when they were actually the size of a large-ish dog and lived during the Cretaceous), and the whole thing requires quite a lot of suspension of disbelief.

I mean, not just in terms of the science - everything. We have Dodgson as this conscienceless villain, someone there simply to be evil and not to provide any sort of nuanced conflict. We have the kids, whose arrival on the island was broadcasted from a mile away and whose only role seems to be using the computers. (Just like in the first one, of course.) We have all the villains dying and none of the heroes, unless you count Eddie, who is just a random engineer. We have the complete lack of compelling, complex female characters. I guess to be fair there's a bit of a lack of compelling, complex characters in general, but when there 7 adults on the island and only one is a woman... you know. Ian Malcolm remains awesome, though.

I mean, yeah, it's a decent thriller. You just can't think about it too much.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot to add - what is it with all the people barely reacting to the fact that there are FUCKING BLOODTHIRSTY DINOSAURS on this island? They all take in stride, and it's like, DUDE, THERE ARE LIKE 500 GODDAMN DINOSAURS SURROUNDING YOU. But, no, they barely seem to register it.