The Lost World by Michael Crichton

I'm not sure what to say about Michael Crichton's sequel to Jurassic Park. I'm not sure there was really a point to the Lost World, other than to make some more money by providing some entertaining albeit more-of-the-same dinosaur-related action.The moral imperative from the first novel, that being the idea that man shouldn't attempt to "play God" and meddle in the affairs of nature, has all but disappeared. I don't recall any of the same diatribes against unregulated genetic research that the first book was filled with, which doesn't leave the Lost World with any real anchor in the real world. Yes, there's plenty of interesting discussion about evolution and extinction and chaos theory and plenty of jabs against the common man and his lack of scientific or historical knowledge, but all those paths were tread by the first novel. Even the protagonist, Ian Malcolm, by far the preachiest of the characters from the first novel, has nothing more to say about the events of the first novel. In fact, he barely seems to remember it. He actually seems rather eager to go to this other island conveniently shoe-horned into the Jurassic Park canon to find himself some more dangerous dinosaurs to go toe-to-claw with.

I guess it kind of sounds like I didn't like this novel. That's not true at all, actually. I liked it for the same reason I like Crichton's other novels. It's compelling science fiction, with plenty of action and enough facts fabricated or pulled from the real world to make it all seem somewhat believable. It's just that this one didn't seem at all necessary.