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To prepare for the release of Jurassic World: Rebirth later this year, I finally read The Lost World, Michael Crichton’s sequel to the legendary Jurassic Park.

It’s an excellent follow on to the first book, that actually manages to improve on it in several ways.

The story follows Ian Malcolm, mathematician and Chaos Theory adherent, who’s seemingly been revived after his death at the end of the first novel. Mysterious carcasses have been washing up on the shores of Costa Rica, and it seems like there might be something living on an island offshore.

He’s contacted by Richard Levine, an egotistical paleontologist, who organises an expedition to explore the uninhabited islands, and see if he can find this “lost world”, which exists outside of evolutionary theory. There, they discover a second island owned by InGen, where they grew and raised the dinosaurs before sending them to Jurassic Park.

Now, having been left alone for years, the dinosaurs appear to be thriving on their own. But Malcolm isn’t convinced all is as it seems, and as you might imagine, things become unpredictable quite quickly.

It’s not often that a sequel improves on the original, especially not when it was unplanned, as was the case with The Lost World, but as with most great sequels, it keeps everything great about the original, and adds more.

In the case of both this and Jurassic Park, I saw the movies long before I read the books. While I think Spielberg’s first movie is an improvement on Crichton’s novel, the second movie just doesn’t measure up to its book origins.

I was surprised by just how many differences there were. Jurassic Park kept most of the same basic plot and narrative as the book, but just streamlined it, this was a complete change, and not one for the best.

In the book, there’s no revived InGen corporation trying to get hold of the dinosaurs to set up anew attraction in San Diego, no inferior Hammond, no trophy hunters or low-quality mercenaries. And most importantly, no T-Rex going full Godzilla in the final act.

Crichton instead chooses to make this into a real thriller, full of tension, and that impending sense of dread that’s always just hanging around the edges of the story, waiting to strike. As we’ve already gone through one story with Ian Malcolm, and know how prescient he can be, you’re aware that things are going to descend into chaos at some point, but you’re never sure when, or what will be the inciting event.

Despite the fact that there are a lot of toothy dinosaurs, a large part of the book chooses to focus on this tension, twisting up until it gets to the second half. Instead, a lot of it is devoted to simply observing these creatures, and trying to work out the mystery of their survival.

Much like the first book, there’s a lot of science and technology stuffed in. Clearly this is coming from Crichton’s own personal knowledge and fascination with such things, and he’s again done his research. It’s mostly weaved in naturally, though Malcolm can’t resist talking about theories of evolution and chance at the strangest of times. Even so, it’s kind of funny to compare this scientific fidelity with the pseudoscience of the more recent Jurassic World movies, and instead has a conclusion that feels entirely plausible.

Everything has been stepped up from the last book. The dialogue, characters and prose are all improved, and kept tight and slick, as you’d expect from a thriller, that keeps the pages turning. Like all good science fiction, it asks a question about humanity, in this case our relationship with nature (a similar theme to the first book).

In all, it’s an excellent read, and while it would have been great to have more books in this series, it’s actually a good thing that it came to an end while it was still on a high (unlike its movie counterparts), and provides something of a solid conclusion for these terrible lizards.

Buy The Lost World here.

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