The Lost World (Jurassic Park #2) by Michael Crichton

 The Lost World (Jurassic Park #2) by Michael Crichton-400 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐

It is now six years since the secret disaster at Jurassic Park, six years since the extraordinary dream of science and imagination came to a crashing end – the dinosaurs destroyed, the park dismantled, the island indefinitely closed to the public.

There are rumors that something has survived....

Thoughts: I read Jurassic Park a few years ago and I've seen all of the Jurassic movies, including The Lost World: Jurassic Park. The movie is very different from this book, though. The first one was somewhat different, but this one is very different. Some of the characters have the same name and are similar such as Ian Malcolm, Sarah Harding, Kelly, and Eddie Carr. However, in the book Kelly is a friend of Richard Levine and Dr. Thorne (2 characters not in the movie), but in the movie she's Malcolm's daughter. In the movie, Sarah Harding is already on Isla Sorna, but in the book she decides to travel to the island later after an invitation from Ian Malcolm. Another similarity is that there's a scene where Eddie takes an infant Tyrannosaur that's leg is broken. Eddie and Sara try to make a cast for it in both the book and movie. In both, chaos ensues as the Tyrannosaur parents come for the infant. The scenes aren't exactly the same, but they're similar. In both the book and movie, Ian Malcolm travels to Isla Sorna to rescue someone. In the movie, it's Sarah Harding. In the book, it's Richard Levine. That's about where the similarities end. One scene from the movie that's iconic (and not included in the book) is the Tyrannosaur getting loose in San Diego. This scene is not in the book, but it's such an iconic scene. It seems like they took inspiration from different parts of this book for scenes from other movies in the Jurassic series, though. Overall, I like both the book and the movie, even though their vastly different. 

Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1) by Michael Crichton

 Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1) by Michael Crichton-448 pages (mass market paperback)

Hammond and InGen, Inc. have secretly created a theme park/zoo full of dinosaurs. Strange animal attacks are happening all across Costa Rica by what are suspected to be lizards, but actually might be small predatorial dinosaurs that have escaped from Jurassic Park. An EPA agent shows up at a dig site where Dr. Alan Grant and Ph.D. student Ellie Sattler are uncovering a juvenile velociraptor fossil. He says he's investigating Hammond and his island off the coast of Costa Rica. Hammond and InGen plan to open Jurassic Park to the public in a year, but the EPA agent (and investors who send Gennaro) believe that there could be inherent danger lurking. Grant, Sattler, Malcolm (a mathematician who subscribes to chaos theory and is extremely arrogant), and Gennaro travel to Isla Nublar to investigate Jurassic Park. Hammond and his employees, especially Wu (the geneticist responsible for creating the dinosaurs) and Arnold (the chief engineer) believe the island and park to be totally under control. However, they turn out to be very, very wrong after another employee, Dennis Nedry, intentionally shuts down the security systems and power during a storm. Nedry created the computer systems for Jurassic Park and is disgruntled over his compensation, so he conspires with Dodgson (an exec at a competitor who wants to make their own dinosaurs) to steal some dinosaur DNA samples and smuggle them off the island. The dinosaurs break loose from their paddocks when the electric fences are no longer electrified and wreak havoc, especially the predators (velociraptors, tyrannosaurs, dilophosaurs, etc.). Things go very awry and Hammond and his employees are far from in control. Can they get the island back under control before it's too late? How many will die and/or get eaten by the dinosaurs? I really liked the book and I'm leaning towards liking it more than the movie based on it. I really like the movie, though, also.