| Product: |
The Lost World - Michael Crichton |
| Date: |
24/05/01 (113 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Action, Suspense, Better than film
Disadvantages: Science lessons
Some where, some how, along the misty recesses of time, this book was passed over by many because, as many people will tell you "There's a film of that, you know." Or remark "There's a book about this film, too."
How?
I don't know. But all I can say is that it is a great shame. If you haven't read this book, then get it, and read it, and see what you've missed. You'll be amazed at how different it is from the film - characters disregarded, scenes chopped about here and there with one's from the original Jurassic Park book - also brilliant - and, for some reason, a farcical rampage through San Francisco. All, in Crichton's wisdom, not his creations.
The plot of the film was a bit silly, and generally ran something like this:
"There's this island where we breed dinosaurs. Can you go and have a butchers? Yes, they're dinosaurs, yes, they're probably waiting to tear you limb from limb, but come on: That stuff can't happen to the same guy twice!"
But against all reasoning of a sequel, it does all happen again. The story gets confused with the hunters, with the character Ajay never really being explained. My brother said that it spoiled it that there was so many people on the island - and he was right. The great thing about the original was that there was only a few people ther, adding to it's claustrophobic nature. But really, thirty odd armed men should be able to take down a few velociraptors. And, as I've already mentioned, the silliest ending to a film since Deep Impact, with a T-Rex loose in San Fran - oh no, how terrifyingly American.
But pick up the book, and you'll find a much better reason for Malcolm going to investigate - minus a Hammond cameo, because, lo and behold, he's dead from the first book.
This time it's because strange animal carcasses have been washed up on island beaches, and the Levine character, missed out tot
ally from the film, goes to investigate. When he doesn't return, it's up to his 'friend' Ian Malcolm and his girlfriend Sarah to rescue him. It turns out that Isla Sorna was a breeding ground, but Ingen persumed that everything had died due to the hurricane that swept the area. But, something has survived - that 'something' being masses of quite unfriendly dinosaurs. The other characters are Eddie Carr (who was in the film), and Thorne (who wasn't). Thankfully there's no Vince Vaughn character in the this one (stupidly snapping away at dinos who don't get on well with flash photography.)
And also, the baddies of the piece, except for the dinos, are Dodgson (you remember, the guy with the shaving can from the first one) and his mates, who are desperate to get an egg of a dino, These characters work a lot better than the hunters.
As with all Crichtons' work, there are plenty of excellent set-pieces. The trailer scene, the motorbike chase, the Dodgson demise - all described fluently and excitingly. But, as ever with Crichton, set-pieces will come bundled with the science. These can be too long and drawn out some times, feeling like overly-long science lseeons. Some people may find these too heavy, but persevere, and you'll be thankful that you did. I actually felt like I learnt something by the end of it, what with all the talk of evolution.
So all in all another cracker from the master of the sci-fi. Forget Goldblum's mumbling hero, and buy this, and get immersed in a world, that, believe it or not, has been lost.
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