It’s been six years since the secret disaster at Jurassic Park, six years since the extraordinary dream of science and imagination came to a crashing end ā the dinosaurs destroyed, the park dismantled, the island indefinitely closed to the public.
There are rumors that something has survived…
The Lost World by Michael Crichton. Book #2 in Jurassic Park duology. Narrated by Scott Brick. Published by Random House Audio, 2007. Originally published in 1995. Run time of 15 hours and 18 minutes.
I……… think I might HATE this book? š It started out a slow MEH, and I kept reading thinking surely it was going to get better. With an hour left of the audiobook and I finally just excepted the fact that it just wasn’t going to get any better…. In fact, it just kept getting worse. 
This book makes The Lost World movie look good, and that’s really saying something.
Where do I even start???
Ok, I’ll start with my biggest complaint first. So many Chekhov’s guns!! Things get brought up or questions are asked, theories discussed, and then never ever mentioned again! Worse, NOT ONLY never mentioned again, but the discussions are constantly interrupted right at the big AH HA! moment. š” I’m not even exaggerating. Some great questions are brought up, vaguely talked about for a few pages, then the convo would end something like this: “OMG!! Do you know what this means?? It means that the……. OH LOOK! IT’S A DINOSAUR!!!!” and the conversation is never brought back up, no explanations or revelations. What the hell kind of writing is that??
My second biggest complaint is about Ian Malcolm. No, not that he was somehow alive after dying in Jurassic Park…. I’m used to horror and comic books. Everyone always comes back from the dead at some point. No. It was because the mathmatiition chaos theory dude from book 1 was now totally different. He was so obnoxious. Now all of a sudden he knows so much about dinosaurs, more than the dinosaur experts? He hated the whole Jurassic Park experience, yet for some reason he agrees to go find dinos with Levine? A guy he doesn’t even like?? Don’t even get me started on the forced feeling love interest going on with Sarah.
Speaking of things feeling forced, the two pre-teen characters. Why? Just……… WHY? They added nothing to the story and just felt like they were there because the first book had two annoying children, so the 2nd book needed two equally annoying children. š
Sadly, the kids and Ian were not the only insufferable characters in The Lost World. Levine was maybe the worst? I never wanted a character to die so bad in my life!! This guy was beyond annoyingly obnoxious. Dude, just STFU!! >.< Why is everyone here to save you?? Just leave him on that island to be dino chow!!
Honestly, nobody was that likable! Sarah was a badass, but sometimes too much of a badass and it didn’t feel very believable. It felt like the two mechanic tech guys on purpose in the story was to ask “what?” and or “why?” when the other more important characters needed to give us an exposition dump. And the human bad guy had less depth and backstory than a cartoon villain. Did I mention everyone is also a genius? Ok. Whatever.
The actual plot has a plodding pace. Glaciers moved faster. It felt so loose and semi-nonexistent. In Jurassic Park, the characters all had a point for being on the island. In The Lost World, I just kept asking what is the point? The story felt so unnecessary. 400+ pages / 15 hours of super slow, paper thin plot just didn’t cut it. š¦ I expected more from Crichton than just a cash grab.
Jurassic Park is a classic. A real OG in the dinosaur sub genre. Let’s all just pretend book 2, The Lost World, never happened. D:
Creature From The Book Lagoon 