The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle
I kind of loved this book. It's the perfect adventure novel and the archetypal there-are-dinosaurs-among-us! novel. Much better (in a way) than Jurassic Park and Journey to the Centre of the Earth. And I didn't even know that it existed until recently, much less than it was written by the best detective story writer ever (A.C. Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes).
I don't think I'm really spoiling anyone, but just in case: The Lost World deals with the discovery of a land that has somehow retained adequate conditions for prehistoric creatures to still populate it, and so we follow the adventures of a British expedition sent to bring back some evidence of its existence. The four characters are unique and different, it's a pleasure reading them. It must have been fun to write them. The narrator is a young journalist, whose motivation for joining the party is to get the love of a woman, of whom we know but one thing: she's beautiful. That's not really a great motivation, but it keeps the story going. The other three are a very brave and experienced hunter, who also happens to be a lord, and two Professors, so different that they are as chalk and cheese, or, more likely, like Tom & Jerry, and equally funny. The rest of the party is composed of several people of different ethnicities and are never paid much attention*, and that's where you can see how dated this book is.
I really enjoyed the descriptions of Maple White Land, with its different habitats, and the encounters with the dinosaurs and the tribes, although it was a bit brutal and violent at times. Specially when they get involved in the war between the tribes (Wipe out the missing link of human evolution? Was that really the wisest thing for a bunch of researchers?). However, I couldn't help laughing at the 1912 view of dinosaurs (the image of a dinosaur jumping like a giant frog or a kangaroo made my day).
*Just for the record: I don't really appreciate that non-white people weren't considered as real people by the author. I also think women have as much brain and guts as men! But what can we do about a novel written around a century ago? Just suck it up. Standards weren't the same back then.
I don't think I'm really spoiling anyone, but just in case: The Lost World deals with the discovery of a land that has somehow retained adequate conditions for prehistoric creatures to still populate it, and so we follow the adventures of a British expedition sent to bring back some evidence of its existence. The four characters are unique and different, it's a pleasure reading them. It must have been fun to write them. The narrator is a young journalist, whose motivation for joining the party is to get the love of a woman, of whom we know but one thing: she's beautiful. That's not really a great motivation, but it keeps the story going. The other three are a very brave and experienced hunter, who also happens to be a lord, and two Professors, so different that they are as chalk and cheese, or, more likely, like Tom & Jerry, and equally funny. The rest of the party is composed of several people of different ethnicities and are never paid much attention*, and that's where you can see how dated this book is.
I really enjoyed the descriptions of Maple White Land, with its different habitats, and the encounters with the dinosaurs and the tribes, although it was a bit brutal and violent at times. Specially when they get involved in the war between the tribes (Wipe out the missing link of human evolution? Was that really the wisest thing for a bunch of researchers?). However, I couldn't help laughing at the 1912 view of dinosaurs (the image of a dinosaur jumping like a giant frog or a kangaroo made my day).
*Just for the record: I don't really appreciate that non-white people weren't considered as real people by the author. I also think women have as much brain and guts as men! But what can we do about a novel written around a century ago? Just suck it up. Standards weren't the same back then.