Jurassic Park Series

[xeno-kaname]

TLW isn't quite in the same league as the first book in my opinion, but the review Aspie pulled up is a steaming pile of fresh rhino manure.
There's a lot of interesting theory in the book, and looking further into it can be a journey down the rabbit hole. Once you start looking at problems in evolution, you start looking at self-organising behaviour, which in turn leads to Fibonacci sequences and some incredibly bizarrely ordered patterns that occur in nature. It's a book about theory more than anything else really, in my opinion, and exploring further depth in concepts addressed by the first book. The other major element is exploration in the modern age, which was handled in far more depth in Congo.

Yes that's just one of the bad reviews. I've seen far kinder reviews. There's always two sides to the coin.

[Cvalda]

Whether you prefer the TLW movie or book depends on what kinds of BS you're willing to put up with: Ian Malcolm not shutting up and acting like an ass, or a preachy, half-assed animal rights message with a gaggle of obnoxious protagonists.

And gymnastics!

[Aspie]

TLW

Spoiler

Just with dinosaurs.

[close]

[Remonster]

TLW

Spoiler

Just with dinosaurs.

[close]

Never read it. But now I kind of want to...

[Aspie]

TLW

Spoiler

Just with dinosaurs.

[close]

Never read it. But now I kind of want to...

For a good laugh I presume?

If so, I can guarantee you that Hannibal Rising might be just as horrible as The Lost World. And that's really saying something.

Whether you prefer the TLW movie or book depends on what kinds of BS you're willing to put up with: Ian Malcolm not shutting up and acting like an ass, or a preachy, half-assed animal rights message with a gaggle of obnoxious protagonists.

The only thing worse than TLW novel was TLW: The movie

[Remonster]

TLW

Spoiler

Just with dinosaurs.

[close]

Never read it. But now I kind of want to...

For a good laugh I presume?

If so, I can guarantee you that Hannibal Rising might be just as horrible as The Lost World. And that's really saying something.

Whether you prefer the TLW movie or book depends on what kinds of BS you're willing to put up with: Ian Malcolm not shutting up and acting like an ass, or a preachy, half-assed animal rights message with a gaggle of obnoxious protagonists.

The only thing worse than TLW novel was TLW: The movie

Well the thing is, there are certain parts of TLW I enjoy. That goes for both the novel and the film. I'm interested in Hannibal Rising because I have heard so many bad things about it, that I just want to experience it myself. For a laugh.

[OmegaZilla]

TLW isn't quite in the same league as the first book in my opinion, but the review Aspie pulled up is a steaming pile of fresh rhino manure.

LoL, yes. Exactly.

Not to mention that bringing in an external review won't do much.

[Aspie]

http://johnwalterswriter.com/2012/12/02/book-review-the-lost-world-by-michael-crichton/

Okay, let's get this over with right from the start:  there's no mistaking that "The Lost World" is an inferior book to its prequel.  It's exciting enough, and it has the obligatory man-eating dinosaurs, and it's set on a far-off island where hapless good-guy and bad-guy scientists and innocent kids flee from one catastrophe to another, but it's just a pastiche of one disaster after another without much in the way of plot to hold it all together.  Worse, it is broken up in parts with long boring expostulations on evolution and chaos theory which completely bring the action to a screeching, grinding halt.  It's readable, yes; I made it all the way through.  But then, once I start a book I hardly ever put it down until the end.  That's why I give great thought to what I want to read before I start.

One problem I had is that, as I did with the first book, consciously or unconsciously, as I read, I compared the book with the film.  The book "Jurassic Park" held up well to the film; it was different, but equally as exciting.  "The Lost World" book, however, besides being nothing like the Spielberg film, is nowhere near as kick-ass and exciting.  For example, at the end of the film a tyrannosaurus rex rampages through San Diego gulping down passers-by as it searches for its baby.  This is completely missing in the book; all the action in the book takes place on the island.  That's okay, as far as it goes, but somehow Crichton's prose doesn't come through as sharply as it did in the prequel.  The part where the trailer is being pushed over the cliff, for example, which in the movie is a spine-tingling Spielbergian thriller moment, is somehow pallid and ho-hum in the book.  In the film the team of bad-guy scientists, with their appropriately sinister agenda, are a fitting foil for the heroes; whereas, in the book the bad-guy team is pathetic – a couple of losers who never pose any sort of serious threat.

All right, you win a few, you lose a few.  That's the trouble with sequels – they often don't measure up to the original.  In this case, it's a shame, as the story has so much potential for us dinosaur lovers.  I'm a sucker for well-told tales of lost worlds and civilizations.  The original Arthur Conan Doyle novel "The Lost World" was a great piece of work; it was intelligent and absorbing and kept me enthralled even though the team didn't even make it to the plateau in the middle of the Amazon jungle until 100 pages had passed.  The Tarzan series was full of lost cities and peoples which Tarzan would discover in the middle of the jungle, or in the core of the Earth, and inevitably Tarzan would have to fight for his life against its denizens or their enemies.  The genre evokes wonder, mystery, thrills, and adventure.

In closing, I can't say I would recommend Crichton's "The Lost World".

It's not an isolated opinion. The World thinks The Lost World is shit.

[DoomRulz]

One measly writer constitutes the entire world?

[OmegaZilla]

One measly writer constitutes the entire world?

You're even arguing with trolling?

[xeno-kaname]

I stopped reading when he said "One problem I had is that, as I did with the first book, consciously or unconsciously, as I read, I compared the book with the film."

[OmegaZilla]

[Gazz]

TLW

Spoiler

Just with dinosaurs.

[close]

Not even close. TLW may not be a patch on Jurassic Park but it's really not that bad. I remembered being genuinely excited during a few of TLW's chapters whereas HR was a slog from first page to last.

[DoomRulz]

One measly writer constitutes the entire world?

You're even arguing with trolling?

Sometimes I can't help myself. I know, I know

[First Blood]