[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thelostworld.jpg]]

->''Too much change is as destructive as too little. Only at the edge of chaos can complex systems flourish.''
-->--'''Ian Malcolm'''

''The Lost World'' is a 1995 {{Science Fiction}} {{Thriller}} novel written by Creator/MichaelCrichton. It is the sequel to ''Literature/JurassicPark1990''.

Six years after the disaster at Jurassic Park, Ian Malcolm -- who is revealed to have actually survived the events of the previous novel -- teams up with paleontologist Richard Levine after learning about Site B, the "production facility" where the park's dinosaurs were hatched and grown, on Isla Sorna near Isla Nublar (the Jurassic Park site). When Levine leaves without Malcolm, he plans a rescue, with a team consisting of engineer Jack "Doc" Thorne, mechanic Eddie Carr, and two stowaway children, R.B. "Arby" Benton and Kelly Curtis.

However, not only do they have to contend with dinosaurs, but they have to contend with a rival group consisting of geneticist Lewis Dodgson, Dodgson's assistant Howard King, and biologist/[=P.R.=] consultant George Baselton. This group intends to steal dinosaur eggs for Biosyn, the rival company of [=InGen=], the Jurassic Park company.

Takes its title from an Creator/ArthurConanDoyle novel with [[Literature/TheLostWorld1912 a similar premise]]. In all, it bears only a passing resemblance to its cinematic adaptation, ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark''. The latter ironically borrows several plot beats to the aforementioned Conan Doyle novel.
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!!This book provides examples of:

* AbortedArc: Oddly enough, continuing one that was set up on [[Literature/JurassicPark1990 the previous book]]. The first couple of chapters or so are the investigation on the mystery of various animal attacks on Costa Rica and the appearance of strange unidentifiable animal corpses ([[spoiler:which are the ''Velociraptors'' who managed to escape from Isla Nublar before it was firebombed]]) and the apparent [[GovernmentConspiracy conspiracy of the Costa Rican government]] to keep this under wraps. Once the narrative switches to the other characters and they go to Sorna, this is never brought up again. Then again, see BusCrash.
* ActionGirl:
** Sarah Harding. She's physically the strongest human character in the book with some extremely impressive strength feats like punching a raptor and [[spoiler:shove Dodgson into the ''T. rex's'' mouth with her legs]].
** Kelly also gets a minor go at this by shooting a raptor from a moving motorcycle with a Lindstradt air rifle during a high speed chase.
* AlasPoorVillain: Howard King. Compared to Dodgson, he's not a bad guy, and ends up just trying to survive. He ends up fleeing from a pack of ''Velociraptors'', and even gets a HopeSpot when he ''almost'' makes it to safety before they bring him down.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
** Early in the novel, Levine and Gutierrez come across the carcass of a horse or cow-sized dinosaur that washed up on a Costa Rican beach, estimated at around one-hundred kilograms in weight. Levine later identifies it as an ''Ornitholestes'', a dinosaur which tops out at maybe three feet tall and fifteen kilograms in weight. The presence of chromatophores in a skin sample from the carcass suggests it might have actually been a ''Carnotaurus'', but confusing ''Ornitholestes'' with ''Carnotaurus'' (estimated at one to two tons) is just as silly.
** The last act shows that the dinosaurs are all dying out from prion infection due to the predators eating tainted sheep meat and spreading it around. Prion-based illnesses have only been demonstrated for a small number of mammal species, among all animals.
** The ''Carnotaurus''' ChameleonCamouflage, which allows them to become virtually invisible in seconds, even against a complex structure like a chainlink fence. This is purely a RuleOfCool invention that would not be likely for any land animal, period (although the camouflage of some cephalopods comes close).
** [=InGen=] apparently fed baby dinosaurs on goat milk, which Sarah and Malcolm agree is a logical choice. It ''might'' be a logical choice... if dinosaurs were ''mammals''. Dinosaurs, as reptiles, would almost certainly be unable to digest milk. You would not give a baby dinosaur milk any more than you'd give a baby bird or lizard milk.
* ArtisticLicensePaleontology:
** At the end of the book, Malcolm talks about the extinction events at the end of the Triassic and Jurassic. While the Triassic did end with an extinction event (one of the big five, in fact), the Jurassic didn't (some taxa did go extinct around the time, but not enough for it to be considered an extinction event).
** The ''Stegosaurus'' in the novel is jarringly a pre-Dinosaur Renaissance restoration, as it is explicitly described as having a lumbering, bulky body with a thick neck and a dragging tail. Gets confusing when it is still stated to be warm-blooded.
* AuthorAppeal: In a minor example, Crichton admits he gave the ''Carnotaurus'' the ability to blend in with its surroundings purely so he could see how TheFilmOfTheBook would depict such a thing. Subverted when the second ''Jurassic Park'' film went in a completely different direction, though the concept would eventually be used (after Crichton's passing) with the hybrid ''Indominus rex'' in the film ''Film/JurassicWorld''.
* AuthorFilibuster: As per usual. Malcolm, Levine, and Thorne on occasion are the main culprits. There are chapters where we almost get it in stereo, with both Malcolm and Levine discussing and arguing over scientific concepts.
* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Lewis Dodgson gets eaten by baby dinosaurs. Considering that he tried to get the group killed, he totally had it coming to him]].
* BaseOnWheels: The "Challenger Trailers" ([[http://jurassicpark.wikia.com/wiki/Fleetwood_RV_Mobile_Lab an extensively modified Fleetwood RV]]).
* BigBad: Lewis Dodgson, who had bribed Dennis Nedry to steal genetic material in ''Jurassic Park'', has taken on an active role this time around.
* BlackAndNerdy: Arby is an extreme example; he's actually being skipped ahead in grades because he's so smart.
* BlandNameProduct: Levine is heir to the family fortune of the creator of "Becky" dolls, a clear stand-in for Barbie.
* BlatantLies:
** As soon as Levine is rescued by Thorne, Eddie, and Malcolm, he tries to explain away his original panicked phone call begging to be saved as him trying and failing to work the phone Thorne gave him. He even has the audacity to admonish Thorne for this while surrounded by [[DeathGlare death glares]] from everyone.
** Malcolm himself in the beginning of the book. He repeatedly tells Levine that he was never on Isla Nublar and there were never any dinosaurs, and Levine mentions Grant and Ellie told him the same. It's revealed that Malcolm is lying due to a non-disclosure agreement, and that as part of his silence two years of medical bills and rehabilitation were paid for by [=InGen=] for his silence. Sarah also doesn't believe him, though she doesn't call him out on it, she just knows that she spent a lot of time with him during his recovery process, and remembered all the times he had nightmares and spoke in his sleep, talking about dinosaurs and being particularly fearful of velociraptors when he mentioned them while sleeping.
* BusCrash: Dr. Gutierrez mentions, through all the heresay, it seems the dinosaurs that escaped onto the mainland and hid in the jungles and mountains of Costa Rica were hunted down and killed by the government.
** The reveal that Gennaro died of dysentery.
* ChekhovsGun: Very subtle. In the High Hide, Levine is eating a candy bar and lets the bits of wrapper fall to the ground. Later, raptors kill [[spoiler:Howard King]], and one of them finds the candy bar he has and eats it, seemingly enjoying it. Afterwards, the raptors march directly under the High Hide, naturally scaring everyone out of their wits, but they don't notice the High Hide and keep going. Until the last raptor notices something on the ground... the candy bar wrapper. Yep, it's the same raptor, and after finding the wrapper, he finds the High Hide, leading to the whole pack attacking it.
* ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike: Levine does this, saying that (specifically) Thorne was driving too recklessly from the ''charging Tyrannosaur'', and (generally) that he was doing all right on the island and didn't need help anyway. Bear in mind this is ''after'' his panicked, static-filled phone call begging for help. His rescuers are not pleased.
** Levine even claims that despite the ''charging Tyrannosaur'', that it was merely a threat display intended to drive them away, and that they were never in any danger. He claims the only danger was from Thorne's driving. This pleases his rescuers even less.
* ContinuityNod: Dr. Sarah Harding, who helped nurse Malcolm back to health and dated him for a while, is implied to be the daughter of ''Jurassic Park'''s resident veterinarian, Dr. Gerry Harding. Along with sharing a surname, she mentions that her father had been a vet and a bird specialist at San Diego zoo, which was what Gerry Harding was before signing with [=InGen=].
* CoversAlwaysLie: The cover of one edition of the book has the silhouette of an ''Allosaurus'', a dinosaur which does not appear in the book.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Everyone bar [[spoiler:Diego, whose death was offscreen]]. [[spoiler:Baselton]] gets his arm torn off by a ''T. rex'', which then proceeds to rip him apart until he's nothing but ''a mass of red flesh'', [[spoiler:King]] gets his head bitten off by raptors at the base of the neck, and [[spoiler:Eddie]] gets torn apart by ''Velociraptors'', who continue to fight over his remains all the way back to their nest (though Levine later claims it was a quick death). But [[spoiler:Dodgson]] takes the crown for most gruesome death in the book, as he is eaten by a bunch of baby ''T. rex''es. When he tries to escape, an adult ''T. rex'' ''bites through his leg'' so that he can't escape as one of the babies ''rips out his cheek and swallows it whole''. He finally gets put out of his misery when one of the infants tears out his throat.
* CuttingCorners: Once again, [=InGen=] doing things on the cheap but dangerously impractical rears its head -- not only is the island's remaining infrastructure absurdly insecure (see down on SwissCheeseSecurity), but the fact that [=InGen=] fed the dinosaurs with badly-made ground sheep (a known carrier of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrapie scrapie]], as opposed to antibiotic-infused poultry -- a tried-and-tested method used by zoos ''worldwide''), and disposed of its failed dinosaur experiment corpses in the lousiest of fashions (by dumping them all on a spot of the island without even bothering to burn them) has now [[spoiler:doomed all of the dinosaurs on the island to die of prion-based poisoning and neural degeneration, because the meat-eaters have gorged themselves on the rotten bodies and the contamination will eventually affect even the herbivores]].
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Levine has a conversation with Malcolm over radio about how "bringing the baby [''T. rex''] here is an awfully bad idea." Not even a full chapter passes before he has the same conversation in the High Hide with Eddie ''precisely word for word'' as he had it with Malcolm, right down to his answer of "We don't know, is the point!" when he's asked how he thinks the parents will react.
* TheDreaded: The ''Carnotaurus'' pack. Their near perfect camouflage makes them such effective hunters that even the raptors and ''rexes'' won't go near their territory at night.
* DrivesLikeCrazy:
** Richard Levine. He gets his license yanked and is ordered to teach as community service for driving 120 miles per hour in a 15 mile per hour school zone. In his ''Ferrari''.
** As mentioned above in ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike, Levine accuses Doc Thorne of this. JustifiedTrope, with a dose of hypocrisy from Levine, since they were fleeing from a tyrannosaur.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Donald Gennaro is revealed to have died of dysentery shortly after returning to Costa Rica.
* DrunkenSong: A version. Malcolm sings "Dixie's Land" while high on morphine.
* ExtinctAnimalPark: The book explores the infrastructure that such a park would logically require. The process of cloning dinosaurs shown in the first novel was too streamlined to be realistic, [[FixFic so this novel patches up that plothole]] by establishing that all the real cloning work was carried out at "Site B" on a completely different island, while the labs at Jurassic Park itself were just a show to impress visitors. In the present day, the protagonists explore the long-abandoned Site B in hopes that its ecosystem of feral dinosaur clones can shed some light on the actual behavior of prehistoric megafauna.
* FantasyWorldMap: The front and back of the book includes a [[http://jp.popapostle.com/images/episodes/The-Lost-World/map02.jpg handy map of Isla Sorna]] with the location of events in the book marked.
* FixFic: Many elements in ''The Lost World'' seem to be Michael Crichton correcting errors he made (unintentionally or not) in ''Jurassic Park''.
** Notably, the "Amphibian Visual Cortex" (the idea that dinosaurs can see only movement) is widely derided. The theory comes up as having been postulated by an inept paleontologist, and Baselton and Dodgson following it at the tyrannosaur nest gets Baselton killed. Levine states that the only reason for a tyrannosaur to ''not'' attack someone would be if it wasn't hungry, as anything around the size of a goat would be sufficient, unknowingly describing the situation Alan Grant found himself in. Levine also takes time to rubbish Grant for suggesting a driving rainstorm could confuse a tyrannosaur, presumably unaware Grant was speculating after an actual encounter with one.
** The ''Velociraptor'' having fully developed pack dynamics after breeding in the wild with no adult raptors to teach them said dynamics is taken to task. The raptors on Isla Sorna have just enough organization to hunt their prey, but devolve into a feeding frenzy and fight over the meat once the kill is made, and their nest is full of smashed eggs and underfed juveniles.
** Most notably, the ''entire concept'' stems from this. Malcolm notes that, in the tour in the first book, Hammond showed them one room where they do the DNA extraction, sequencing, and repair, and in the very next room they're incubating embryos in artificial eggs from that recovered genetic material. Malcolm states that, while that's very slick and [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall makes for a good narrative]], in reality, the type of genetic engineering Jurassic Park was trying to accomplish would have ridiculously high failure rates, with a very, ''very'' small percentage of viable embryos from the process. Thus, it stands to reason there was a "factory floor" where all the unsightly business of the failed experiments actually took place, well out of view of any potential rich tourists and their kids. Isla Sorna, "Site B," is that factory floor.
*** This is less of a FixFic, given it was a much-discussed point between Wu and Hammond regarding the 'versions' of their dinosaurs. Wu wanted to adjust the dinosaurs to make them more docile and match the commonly-held but inaccurate expectations of a paying public, but Hammond wanted authenticity, 'real' dinosaurs. The process described is ''very'' suggestive of a difficult R&D and testing process, none of which was seen by the visitors to the park in the first novel.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** At one point where he's twiddling his thumbs, Levine muses that when he first arrived on the island, he thought he caught a glimpse of a dinosaur that resembled ''Carnotaurus''. The gang winds up dashing right into the middle of their territory near the end of the book.
** Malcolm’s lecture in the very first chapter, which Levine interrupts, goes on to mention prions as the chapter closes. Prions turn out to be a key part of the situation.
** Sarah Harding talks to Kelly about a fellow zoologist who, before going in the wild, studies all the existing documentation about the animals he's going to study, then discovers from his own observation that most of said documentation is factually wrong. A bit later, Baselton [[spoiler:assumes from existing science papers that ''T. rex'' has a frog-like brain and is unable to see things which stand still]], and is quickly proved wrong [[spoiler:when the ''T. rex'' kills him despite him standing motionless]].
* GadgeteerGenius / MrFixit: Eddie Carr could be described as a true Gadgeteer Genius while Doc Thorne is more a Mr. Fixit, as Arnold would be.
--> '''Eddie:''' Violence and technology... not good bedfellows!
* {{Gorn}}: In-universe, but 'off-screen', Arby and Kelly get to see Baselton literally ripped into pieces by tyrannosaurs.
* HandicappedBadass: Malcolm has problems with his leg (because of the previous dino-related injuries and later because of injuries that he gets when the ''T. rex''es attack the camp) but he (mostly) maintains his usefulness throughout the book.
* HarmfulToMinors: Kelly and Arby both witness some gruesome human deaths in spite of the efforts of Thorne and the others to keep them from seeing those.
* HistoryRepeats: [[spoiler:The dinosaurs of Isla Sorna are doomed to go extinct all over again, due to the carnivores contracting scrapie from eating prion-infected meat and the disease infecting the herbivores as well.]]
** In-universe, Malcolm gets a leg injury, though less severe this time, and spends parts of the latter half of the novel under the influence of morphine, just as he did in the first novel. Thos the injury this time is less severe.
* HollywoodChameleons: The carnotaurs can not just change the colour of their skin but even mimic complex patterns like chain fences and adopt the effects of torches shone on them, all in mere moments -- no modern animal has anything ''near'' so advanced. That said, Rule Of Cool/Scary is in full effect.
* ILied: Sarah lies about the number of shots left in the Lindstradt that Kelly is using to kill a raptor so the latter can be better motivated to aim carefully.
* ImprobableInfantSurvival: [[spoiler:Kelly and Arby both survive, though not unscathed. Arby in particular gets the utter stuffing kicked out of him.]]
* JustDesserts: [[spoiler:Dodgson]], who gets eaten alive by [[spoiler:baby ''T. rex''es.]]
* KarmicDeath:
** [[spoiler:Dodgson attempts to murder Sarah by pushing her off the boats in the treacherous, rocky coast; when they're both pinned down under a car, hiding from a ''T. rex'', she slowly pushes him out for the ''rex'' to see. It then takes him to its nest, where he gets eaten by the baby ''T. rex''es. The one that finally kills him is the same one whose leg his team broke when they invaded the nest.]]
--->'''Malcolm:''' You see? There is a God.
** Subverted by [[spoiler:King]], who gets almost as grisly an end at the jaws of ''Velociraptors'' -- but didn't really do anything to deserve it. The worst thing he does is clumsily break the leg of the baby ''T. rex'', and he was scared out of his mind while doing so.
* KnowWhenToFoldEm: Both King and Dodgson separately come to the conclusion that they need to "get the fuck off this island" once Baselton is ripped apart by ''T. rex''es in their failed attempt to steal the ''rex'' eggs and subsequent flight in stark terror.
* LampshadeHanging: The book takes an entire chapter to point out how stupid it is to assume a ''T. rex'' can't see you if you don't move, killing a character who tries it. It also handily suggests another explanation for the fact that it apparently worked in the first film and book — the tyrannosaur had just eaten and simply wasn't hungry.
* MamaBear and PapaWolf:
** The two ''T. rex''es are ''not'' going to let ''anyone'' hurt or take their babies away.
** DoubleSubverted with the ''Maiasaurus'' herd. When Dodgson's team takes eggs from their nesting grounds right in front of them with help from his acoustic weapon, they seem to completely forget that he was even there to do what he did. But later, the herd comes across the jeep he had put the eggs in and completely demolishes it to rescue the newly-hatched calves.
* MeaninglessVillainVictory: The death of Hammond and downfall of [=InGen=] in the first novel were ultimately this for Dodgson and Biosyn. Yes, Dodgson's actions set off a chain of events that brought down their biggest corporate rival -- but that wasn't much of a victory. If anything, Dodgson's operation to acquire viable dinosaur embryos from Jurassic Park utterly failed (to say nothing of the money Biosyn lost on Nedry's down payment). Dodgson's subsequent attempts (legal or otherwise) to acquire the [=InGen=] technology in the wake of their collapse also failed -- and ended up costing Biosyn even more money.
* MinionWithAnFInEvil: Howard King; he considers it part of his job to rein in Lewis Dodgson's ruthless side, seems truly horrified when Dodgson seemingly murders Sarah Harding, and is the first to acknowledge that maybe this whole egg theft isn't a good idea. [[spoiler:It doesn't save him.]]
* MoodWhiplash: After [[spoiler:King]] gets torn apart by raptors, one of them picks up and eats a candy bar the victim drops. It appears to enjoy it.
* NativeGuide: Diego, a local who has been to the island several times before the dinosaurs were put there and is convinced there is no danger, serves this role for Levine briefly.
* NervesOfSteel: Lewis Dodgson, despite having never seen one of Hammond's cloned dinosaurs before, is still absolutely unflappable when dealing with them. He even has the balls to go after ''T. rex'' eggs and keeps the parents at bay with his sonic weapon while Baselton and King are nearly shitting their pants. It's when he accidentally rips out the power cord for the sonic gun that Dodgson starts to lose his nerve, culminating in a full blown VillainousBreakdown when he wakes up to find the compys starting to eat him while he was unconscious.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: If Lewis Dodgson had just left Sarah Harding at the Costa Rica docks instead of inviting her along and then grabbing hold of the VillainBall by [[spoiler:trying to murder her by throwing her off the boat]], he might have survived to bring back something valuable from Isla Sorna.
* NoodleImplements: Jack Thorne was notorious for having pulled these on his [[Subject101 Structural Engineering 101a]] students at Stanford University as a form of engineering improvisation. Such assignments included constructing a chair to support a 200 pound man using only paper Q-tips and thread, pulling the answers to the final exam off the roof using only a shoebox containing licorice and toothpicks, and dropping an egg off the building and ensuring it doesn't break using only cardboard toilet paper rolls (that one famously didn't work).
* OhCrap: There are several of these moments in the story.
** When King loses his nerve and refuses to grab a ''T. rex'' egg, Dodgson berates him and winds up yanking the electrical cord out of his sonic gun: the only thing keeping the ''T. rex''es at bay. Dodgson freezes on the spot in sheer terror.
** Levine realizes how absolutely screwed Malcolm and Sarah are in the trailer when the ''T. rex'' couple come for their baby and mark the extension of their territory to include the clearing with the trailer in it.
*** In fairness, Malcolm realizes it too. "Brace yourself, Sarah. This is going to be bad!"
* OffWithHisHead: [[spoiler:Howard King gets his head ripped off by the raptors]].
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: George Baselton is willing to help [=InGen=] cover up their dinosaur disaster one day and then hire on to help Biosyn capture dinosaurs the next.
* PlotHole: As one of the FixFic aspects of the book, the story portrays the raptors as being extremely violent and disorganized outside of when they hunt, and being bad parents because they had no parent animals to teach them how to rear their own young, but notably the raptors are the ONLY dinosaurs on the island that appear to display this behavior, and are in stark contrast to the Rexes and herbivore dinosaurs with young we see, who appear to take care of their babies just fine.[[note]]Another interpretation is that this is actually the raptors' intelligence being {{Deconstructed}}. Because they [[ItCanThink can think]], they also consciously need to ''learn'' certain behaviours that other dinosaurs have programmed into them by instinct, [[FridgeBrilliance and as a result they're incapable of functioning in an environment where they never had elders to learn]] ''[[FridgeBrilliance from]]''.[[/note]]
* PushedAtTheMonster: When Sarah and Dodgson are hiding under an abandoned SUV, a few yards away from a ''T. rex'' nest, Dodgson is whispering, trying to formulate an escape, Sarah, [[spoiler: still furious that he pushed her overboard on the boat ride over]], comes up with her own plan. She [[spoiler: pushes him out of their hiding spot]], the adult ''T. rex'' notices and grabs [[spoiler: Dodgson, and drops him in the middle of the nest.]] While Dodgson screams [[spoiler: while being eaten by the ''rex's'' brood]], Sarah makes a break for it.
* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Ian Malcolm cites this trope at the beginning of the book to explain the {{Retcon}} of his death.
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: Exploited by Biosyn. Dodgson remarks that while animal rights activists can easily drum up support for laboratory dogs who "lick your hand and break your heart," reptiles are less likely to garner such public sympathy, particularly genetically engineered ones like [=InGen=]'s dinosaurs. Hence, his expedition to Isla Sorna for potential experimental subjects.
* {{Retcon}}: Ian Malcolm died in the ''Jurassic Park'' book. Not implied, not foreshadowed, but outright stated -- the fact that the government wouldn't release his corpse for burial is a minor plot point in the epilogue. However, he got better and is now the protagonist of this book.
** There's a flyaway moment where Muldoon shakes his head, and precisely ONE line where Grant notes that they won't release the bodies of those that died. But Grant could very easily have just been misinformed based on Muldoon's vague head shake when he asked him about Malcolm. That isn't outright stating anything.
** The epilogue line says the Costa Rican government would not allow the ''burials of Hammond or Ian Malcolm. They simply waited.'' It specifically lists those two, and doesn't mention anyone else. Crichton also admitted that when he was approached to do a sequel novel, he specifically retconned Malcolm's death because he needed Malcolm to serve as the sequel novel's ironic commentator. In Crichton's own words from the website: "Malcolm came back because I needed him. I could do without the others, but not him because he is the “ironic commentator” on the action. He keeps telling us why it will go bad. And I had to have him back again. […] As Mark Twain once said, “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” But it’s also true that Conan Doyle (the original author of a book called The Lost World) pushed Sherlock Holmes of the Reichenbach Falls with Moriarity. And they were unquestionably dead. And after a few years, Holmes turned out to have made a miraculous recovery. So these things happen in fiction."
* ShaggyDogStory: The end of the story indicates that the entire dinosaur population is rapidly dying off due to being infected with prions as a consequence of [=InGen=] feeding the predators tainted meat, rendering the entire threat of the Costa Rican government destroying the island, as well as the subplot of saving the baby ''T. rex'', moot.
* ShoutOut: In a nod to the original ''Literature/{{The Lost World|1912}}'', the paleontologist stated in-story to have originated the "tyrannosaurs can only see movement" theory is named John Roxton. He is derided as an idiot who "doesn't know enough anatomy to have sex with his wife."
* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: Dodgson hires a private investigator to keep tabs on the survivors of Isla Nublar. The P.I. reveals that Donald Gennaro died of dysentery on a business trip.
* SuperCellReception: The novel has satellite phones that are explicitly extra-durable and specifically made for the island, but it's eventually zigzagged: the phones fail and garble a message, which helps kick off the plot. However, Thorne believes that it's because Levine mucked up using it, Levine because Thorne made it too complicated.
* SwissCheeseSecurity: The island's security depends entirely on its remoteness. Arby finds this out when his attempt to guess the computer network's password fails and it just asks him to create a new account.
* TakeThat:
** Funny enough, the novel takes a couple of digs at ''[[Literature/JurassicPark1990 its predecessor]]'' (and most especially, [[Film/JurassicPark1993 the movie]] [[TheFilmOfTheBook adaptation thereof]]). Look on ViewerFriendlyInterface and LampshadeHanging for the full explanation.
** Levine himself appears to be a TakeThat to Ian Malcolm's personality from the first book, being a smug self-satisfied scientific genius who acts like a rock star and whose ego is utterly immune to criticism. Predictably, Malcolm can't stand him and takes constant jabs at his arrogance.
* TeeteringOnTheEdge: The ''T. rexes'' push a double-trailer until the back trailer is dangling over a cliff. Malcolm and Harding, stuck inside the trailer, have to climb up the inside before the connection gives out, dropping the vehicle into the canyon below.
* ViewerFriendlyInterface: The book parodies this (especially the 3D output from the first film) when the [=InGen=] OS turns it into a useless display of cutting edge graphical power that... turns the display into a [=3D=] cube. This angers the characters, who are trying to escape feral raptors. [[spoiler:Kelly, who is the one operating the computer, eventually gets the bright idea to just follow the cables the computer is running on, which are, quite logically, in a crawlspace so they can be serviced. By the time the raptors get in, they're gone.]]
* VillainBall: Lewis Dodgson decides to bring Sarah Harding on the boat to Isla Sorna as soon as she reveals her connection to Levine, assuming she can provide valuable information or assistance. As soon as he teases out from her that she has told nobody where she is or where she's going, he practically creams himself at the thought of eliminating her without any consequences. Unfortunately for him, [[spoiler:this sows the seed of his own demise.]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: While the novel only brings back Malcolm, Dodgson hires a P.I. who gives him a verbal update on what the survivors are doing, and mentions Grant, Ellie, Tex, Tim, and reveals Gennaro dies of dysentery while on a business trip. However, Muldoon, who survived the first novel, isn't mentioned at all by the P.I., nor is there any reference to him at all by any characters. Harding isn't mentioned in the P.I.s update either, although the novel hints that Sarah Harding is his daughter, when Malcolm reacts with astonishment when Sarah mentions that her father was a veterinarian.
* WhatMeasureIsANonCute: Eddie won't shoot a baby ''T. rex'' that's biting at his boot.
* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Arby and Kelly. Justified in that Arb is a child prodigy, albeit naïve, and Kel is very smart and enjoys being with smart people.
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