Rating: 
Summary: Site B Revisited
Review: I've just re-read The Lost World back-to-back with Jurassic Park, and the sequel suffers somewhat by comparison. It's a lot bleaker than the movie version, with a smaller, less hospitable island, and the creatures wasting away from prion diseases (mad dino disease!) The T-Rexes display proper Spielbergian family values, but the raptors (and others?) seem to be afflicted with terminal behavioural problems; the outlook for them is not good. Where The Lost World loses out, compared to the first story, is in the plot and the human action. In Jurassic Park there was a terrific buildup and a scramble for survival, truly compelling stuff; in the sequel, we have a sort of field trip/rescue operation which only occasionally gains momentum. That said, there is plenty of food for thought, with Ian Malcolm & Co never at a loss for a theory or three concerning extinctions. Some people have said that Arby and Kelly add nothing to the story and might as well not be in it at all; I say that at least they're smart and sensible (unlike poor Lex in Jurassic Park, who has some of the dumbest lines ever printed.) So to sum up, not bad but lacks the bite of the original.
Rating: 
Summary: Zac Lawson's Review of The Lost World
Review: "The Lost World" is one of the best books I have ever read. Crichton was ingenious while writing it, although I have head that he very much hated it himself, when writing it, until he read it once again. I have read it 5 times and have seen the movie 6. It is one of my favorites along with "Sphere", "Airframe", and several others of his. His characters, such as Ian Malcolm, Sarah Harding, Doc Thorne, and Eddie Carr are very strong, and it seems as if you could actually meet them once you get into the book. The movie was not as good, but much better than "Jurassic Park". The original had much more research dedicated to it, but when Malcolm describes this information, which he does often, he begins to drone, and becomes especially boring. He is not near as boring in the sequel, but, as one other person remarked in their own review, Malcolm was said to be dead by Muldoon, who would have surely known. The others left the island--Isla Nublar--in helicopters, and the island was obliterated with bombs, unless other choppers came to the compound, taking Malcolm's 'dead' body away, and fixing him up. Anyway, "Lost World" is a magnificent book, and I would advise others to read it.
Rating: 
Summary: As good as Jurassic Park
Review: If you liked Jurassic Park, you will like The Lost World. If you can get past aspects of the book that are more unbelievable, like the recurrance of Dr. Ian Malcolm, it can be a fun book to read. There are different theories on the behavior of the dinosaurs in this book as the characters this time are trying to simply observe the habitat. Although I enjoyed the characters in this book, I agree with another review and I feel that once again the dinosaurs steel the show. Crichton is able to put you on the island and make you feel like you are there observing the dinosaurs. Crichton has again created an exciting and thought-provoking book and I recommend it to any Crichton fan.
Rating: 
Summary: Sell Out? Definitely too many loose ends
Review: I had just finished reading Jurassic Park, and was so excited by it that I rushed right out to a bookstore on my lunch break to buy The Lost World. I had seen the movie, and heard the rumors that it was nothing like the book. I figured, "Of course it's not, because for one thing, Malcolm and Hammond die in the first book." Needless to say, I was shocked to see Malcolm still alive in this book! I don't know what Crichton was thinking, maybe keeping Malcolm was akin to Conan Doyle brining Holmes back by popular demand. But you can't talk about the Costa Rican government not permitting the BURIAL of Malcolm and Hammond in the first book, then bring Malcolm back in the second, simply waving off the greatly exaggerated news of his death. Observant readers will catch that, Mr. Crichton, I'm sure I'm not the only one! Also, I was annoyed at the flip dismissal of Grant in The Lost World. At the end of Jurassic Park, he noticed that the raptors were very likely migrating. So where are these migrating raptors, huh? To sum up: if I hadn't read Jurassic Park, I would have liked The Lost World a lot better. The sequel pales in comparison and frankly, just fails to satisfy.
Rating:
Summary: Zac Lawson's Review of The Lost World
Review: "The Lost World" is one of the best books I have ever read. Crichton was ingenious while writing it, although I have head that he very much hated it himself, when writing it, until he read it once again. I have read it 5 times and have seen the movie 6. It is one of my favorites along with "Sphere", "Airframe", and several others of his. His characters, such as Ian Malcolm, Sarah Harding, Doc Thorne, and Eddie Carr are very strong, and it seems as if you could actually meet them once you get into the book. The movie was not as good, but much better than "Jurassic Park". The original had much more research dedicated to it, but when Malcolm describes this information, which he does often, he begins to drone, and becomes especially boring. He is not near as boring in the sequel, but, as one other person remarked in their own review, Malcolm was said to be dead by Muldoon, who would have surely known. The others left the island--Isla Nublar--in helicopters, and the island was obliterated with bombs, unless other choppers came to the compound, taking Malcolm's 'dead' body away, and fixing him up. Anyway, "Lost World" is a magnificent book, and I would advise others to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!!
Review: If you like dinosuars, then you would like The Lost World, an awesome dinosaur book. If you have seen the movie and liked it, you would think this book is better than the movie. Ofcourse fake, but a good fiction book. If you a dinosaur fan, read this book. You will see how the main charactors get through this and surviving a T-rex and trying to outrun raptors. Cliffhanger is one thing in this book. you will be on the edge of your of seat reading this book!
Rating:
Summary: A so-so sequel that should have been better
Review: Michael Crichton came up a winner with "Jurassic Park". Who doesn't love dinosaurs? So when you hit a winning ticket, you exploit it for all you're worth, right? Well, yes and no. Crichton had a good idea for a sequel but he doesn't do it the justice it deserved. There was no reason to bring Malcolm back; his turning up alive after being pronounced dead was just plain lame. I suspect Crichton was tired of Grant/Sattler and wanted to go with a new team. But the idea of a secret island where the real work of Jurassic Park was carried out is pretty good; after Jurassic Park was abandoned, what became of all those leftover critters? Malcolm's new team proposes to go in and find out. As usual, the dinosaurs save the book; the plot is contrived in spots; the characterizations, except for the two youngsters, Arby and Kelly, are flat and uninteresting for the most part, but the dinosaurs fascinate us by just being dinosaurs. Especially compelling is Crichton's description of the raptor pack which has grown to young adulthood without adult modeling; bred from a test tube, they had no parents to provide an example for social existence, and the result, as Crichton shows us, is a pack of unsocialized predators living in a world in which only the strongest and most vicious survived and all the others died. In such a world, nothing is going to survive very long; once they've eaten all their prey, they'll turn around and eat each other. The writing in general has a somewhat hurried quality, as if Crichton just wanted to bang this sequel out and get it over with before moving on to something else. But even with its flaws, Crichton still knows how to engage the reader's attention. "The Lost World" doesn't measure up to its predecessor by a long shot, but it's still a pretty good read.
Rating:
Summary: A great adventure
Review: Although this book is excellent, I have to say that it is not as good as it's predecessor, maybe it's because we've read and heard the storyline before or the idea of creating dinosaurs has worn off, but either way it's still a good read. Once again, Crichton's opening argument to win over the audience and make them believe that Dinosaurs could've survived is totally believable. One of the biggest problems with the book, I thought, were the characters. I found it extremely difficult to actually like them. Apart from some minor problems, Crichton's 'The Lost World' is a worthy sequel to Jurassic Park, and I would suggest this book to any book-lover.
Rating:
Summary: Extinction
Review: Life on earth has been marked by a steady amount of extinction. Ian Malcolm, mathematician gave a talk entitled "Life at the Edge of Chaos." Two self-organizing behaviors are of significance to evolution, adaptation and the location of complex systems at the edge of chaos. A person in the audience proposed that dinosaurs had not become extinct and that somewhere there was a lost world. Richard Levine, the curious millionaire paleontologist, sees an aberrant form in Costa Rica. It is not a lizard. Aberrant forms are always destroyed. They seem to be attracted by the soy bean fields. Rain forest is a good environment for concealment. Costa Rica has one of the richest ecologies in the world. Ian Malcolm and Richard Levine engage in a an arm chair search of the string of islands off of the Costa Rica coast. The wildly fluctuating Levine is seized with one of his enthusiasms and sets off on an adventure dragging other characters in the book in his wake as events unfold. I loved CONGO and JURASSIC PARK and so had looked forward to reading this book. In a sneak visit to the site, Levine's guide is suddenly snatched away from him. He had been entranced to see a maussaur, the tiniest dinosaur. There were rumors that unknown animals were showing up in Costa Rica. The book focuses on two children, assistants to Richard Levine and Thorne, a retired engineering professor. Thorne is something of a materials scientist. The children, Arby and Kelly, are appealing. When the trio reached Levine by satellite phone they detected distress and endeavored to try to find him. They did not realize initially that he was probably in the vicinity of Costa Rica. At Levine's apartment they discover he had been recovering InGen (JURASSIC PARK) files from an old computer. At Ian Malcolm's office some suspicious photographers had taken a snapshot of the map in his office showing the supposed sites of lost worlds identified by Malcolm and Levine. Malcolm phoned Levine's office to tell him the map was no longer secure and reached Thorne. Thorne, Malcolm, and the children think they can determine Levine's location through the recovered files. It is Isla Sorna. Sarah Harding, a biologist studying hyenas in Africa would meet them there. Reverse engineering is industrial espionage. Lewis Dodgson practices reverse engineering. He and a man named Rossiter seek to acquire the InGen technology in order to fabricate lab animals to stymie protestors impeding the research agenda in biotechnology areas. It is learned that extinction of the recreated dinosaurs may have hinged on something akin to mad cow disease. The adventure is far-fetched and exciting.
Rating:
Summary: Lost World is Found
Review: I think i have found my favorite book at last! . I actully read this book before jurrasic park which may seem silly but it edged em on to read more of Michael Crichton's books. It si all about a group of scienctist's exploring an island they beilive has prehistoric animals roaming it. The discover dinosaurs have formed life here and study them. Unlike some reviews state, i think this si probably one of the best books i have ever read. Though i do agree i see no connection with this book to jurrasic park which i have now read) i think it is much more like ' real life ' with the excepton that there are dinosaurs....
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