The Lost World, by Michael Crichton (1995)
Recently, because this is the season for extra reading, I re-read The Lost World by Michael Crichton (which was made into a 1997 film). This novel turns 25 years old in September. Its main plot needs no explanation, of course. Just like Jurassic Park, there’s action, there’s excitement, and there’s dinosaurs chasing people.
As with all Crichton novels, there are technical and scientific themes that do not make it into the film. I had forgotten, for example, that the original mobile laboratory is solar powered: “He wants them light, I build them light. He wants them strong, I build them strong – light and strong both, why not, it’s just impossible, what he’s asking for, but with enough titanium and honeycarbon composite, we’re doing it anyway. He wants it off petroleum base, and off the grid, and we do that too. … The Explorer with the black photovoltaic panels on the roof and hood, the inside crammed with glowing electronic equipment. Just looking at the Explorer gave them a sense of adventure…” (pages 64 & 94)
Velociraptor skeletal cast at the Dinosaur Journey museum in Colorado (original photo by Jens Lallensack)
Another theme, naturally, is the changing scientific view of dinosaurs, and indeed other things, over time (in fact, the book and film are already out-of-date in some respects): “Back in the 1840s, when Richard Owen first described giant bones in England, he named them Dinosauria: terrible lizards. That was still the most accurate description of these creatures, Malcolm thought. … the Victorians made them fat, lethargic, and dumb – big dopes from the past. This perception was elaborated, so that by the early twentieth century, dinosaurs had become so weak that they could not support their own weight. … That view didn’t change until the 1960s, when a few renegade scientists, led by John Ostrom, began to imagine quick, agile, hotblooded dinosaurs. Because these scientists had the temerity to question dogma, they were brutally criticized for years, … But in the last decade, a growing interest in social behavior had led to still another view. Dinosaurs were now seen as caring creatures, living in groups, raising their little babies.” (page 83)
As with many Crichton novels, scientific hubris is a major theme. Other themes include the education of children (both dinosaur children and human children), information systems design, the theories of Stuart Kauffman about self-organisation and evolution, and the importance of what is now called the complex systems view.
Overall, this is a good solid action novel, with several scientific and philosophical themes to think about. Goodreads rates it 3.78. I’m giving it only 3½ stars, in part because it’s a little too much like Jurassic Park. But it’s certainly well worth a read.
The Lost World, by Michael Crichton: 3½ stars
Scientific Gems 
