Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Crichton, Michael (Vol. 90) - Mark Annichiarico (review date 15 September 1995)

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Mark Annichiarico (review date 15 September 1995)

SOURCE: A review of The Lost World, in Library Journal, Vol. 120, No. 15, September 15, 1995, p. 91.

[In the following review, Annichiarico compares The Lost World to Jurassic Park.]

When strange animal carcasses begin to wash up on the shores of Costa Rica, an eccentric paleontologist suspects that dinosaurs may exist somewhere in the area. [The Lost World, the much-anticipated sequel to the megahit Jurassic Park (1990),] reads more like a movie novelization: so bereft of plot and characterization in deference to action that it is closer in spirit to Steven Spielberg's movie version (1993) than to the entertaining and educational novel that preceded it. Reprising their roles from Jurassic Park are Ian Malcolm, who bought the farm courtesy of a T-rex in JP but whom Crichton seemingly couldn't resist resurrecting, and Lew Dodgson, the evil scientist...

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1. Introduction
2. ∗Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Pauline Kael (review date 9 November 1981)
   2. David Denby (review date 16 November 1981)
   3. Gary Jennings (review date 11 November 1990)
   4. Ronald Preston (review date 21 November 1990)
   5. J. P. Telotte (essay date 1990)
   6. Robert Nathan (review date 9 February 1992)
   7. Ian Buruma (review date 23 April 1992)
   8. Karl Taro Greenfeld (review date 11 May 1992)
   9. Julian Loose (review date 22 October 1992)
   10. Stephen Jay Gould (review date 12 August 1993)
   11. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt (review date 6 January 1994)
   12. John Schulian (review date 16 January 1994)
   13. Patt Morrison (review date 16 January 1994)
   14. Julie Burchill (review date 22 January 1994)
   15. Geraldine Brennan (review date 30 January 1994)
   16. Douglas Kennedy (review date 4 February 1994)
   17. Michael Coren (review date 21 February 1994)
   18. Francine Prose (review date October 1994)
   19. Publishers Weekly (review date 21 August 1995)
   20. Mark Annichiarico (review date 15 September 1995)
   21. Mim Udovitch (review date 1 October 1995)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright