From ghostly goings on to a more realistic threat.
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
The Lost World - Michael Crighton
Let me start of with the stuff that kind of confused and annoyed me in this one:
1. Why is Dr Malcolm so dismissive of the existence of prehistoric animals when he has been to a place where he has seen them for himself?
2. Why does Mr Levine seem to have a personality transplant at the end of the book and turns from Action Man into a snivelling bag of nerves?
3. Why it is that you can almost tell from the start of the book which characters are going to survive? No effort is wasted on developing a character that does not make it to the end! That's efficient writing.
I know, it almost sounds like I did not enjoy this one much. But I did. I find it strangely hard not to enjoy a Crighton book. He has a great pace, entertaining characters that are very likable (although essentially stereotypes). there is lots and lots of action in it. People are dying all over the place and at one point it seemed like no-one was going to make it to the end of the book.
The relatively simple underlying story is that of group A (goodies) trying to discover if dinosaurs still exist for science's sake and group B (the baddies) trying to get to the same place but for purely personal gain. Inter weaved in all this is a bit of semi-scientific babble about extinction theories and how we can learn from observing nature but there is still much we only observe and cannot explain. The story has a few twists and turns. Some are surprising, some are not.
Malcolm and Levine meet over a lecture where Malcolm belittles Levine's ideas. You would think that might be the end of it but no. Even though they do not seem to hit it off at all Malcolm is intrigued by the ideas that Levine has and the two men start working together on looking at the possibilities of ancient life having survived in certain places on earth. Seems they are not the only ones and our boys have to go covert ops to ensure their work stays safe. They even goes as far as to engage the help of a couple of young kids to throw the people watching them off the trail. Mind you, these are not your average kids (well... they wouldn't be would they). They are kids of the extra smart variety. After some ducking and diving Levine thinks he knows where to go and tries to be a hero. Naturally he seems to get himself in to trouble and the rescue mission is mounted. Malcolm and his crack team set of after Levine. There is the clever yet practical Mr Thorne and the expendable Eddie. They have been busy preparing vehicles and equipment for the expedition and now all their snazzy inventions are going to be put to the test. The stowaway kids are Arby and Kelly. They hide in one of the vehicles as they do not want to miss out on the field trip. Both Arby and Kelly serve a purpose of some kind as they both save the day when it matters most to those around them. Naturally there is a kind of a love interest for the put upon Dr Malcolm and she comes in the shape of the very capable Dr Sarah Harding. She is way to amazingly competent and she wanders onto the stage like and Amazon with a degree. She also ends up saving just about everyone... at least once. when they are on the island there is all sorts of mayhem. There are raging dinosaurs (caused by the opposition, up to a point), we have broken down vehicles, boys in cages and up in hides, girls hiding in and underneath cars and did I mention the really pissed off dinosaurs? At on point it seems we are averaging about a corpse a chapter but not to worry it is not all doom and gloom. It is a thrilling roller coaster ride of a story and it hurtles it's way towards and ending that is strangely fitting ad comforting. All the bad guys lose, all the good guys win and the dinosaurs sort of win too.
Title: The Lost World
Author: Michael Crighton
393 pages
Century
ISBN# 0-7126-76902
Books to be read: 148
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