Welcome to the land of wonders, where time travel is possible, space travel a reality, and "what ifs" come to life. Join me as I explore new worlds--and old ones--filled with scientific wonders, new civilizations, and strange new mysteries to consider.
This review does not represent the opinions of the general public. It reflects my personal thoughts and opinions on the book.
That said, on to the review!
Dinosaurs have captivated humans for as long as they've been known as "dinosaurs." Scientists worked at putting skeletons together. Artists worked at giving shape and form to unknown bodies. Writers tried to give life to creatures long dead. In this modern day and time we still know very little, but our writers are exploring the possibilities. Books abound about secret valleys, underground kingdoms, and secluded laboratories, but long before Dinotopia, long before Jurassic Park, long before Lost World, there was...The Lost World.
Deep within the jungles of South America there is a place, lifted high above the treetops by volcanic disturbances and tectonic upheavals, where the unlikely is fact and the impossible is real. Dwelling upon an isolated plateau are creatures from bygone eras: iguanodons, plesiosaurs, pterodactyls, and more. Or so says George Edward Challenger, Professor of Zoology, who claims to have met a man that had actually journeyed to that hidden place. When the scientists of Europe prove skeptical, he leads an expedition into the heart of the jungle to obtain hard evidence and ensure witnesses' unbiased testimonies. Not one of his party, however--not his stern academic rival, not the experienced aristocratic hunter, not the eager newsreporter, not even he himself--were ready for their trials and tribulations in that strange, lost world.
Here is the book that likely birthed the entirety of modern "lost world" narratives. Here is the book that spawned numerous movies about prehistoric creatures surviving to the modern day. Three movies share the title--not counting the movie based on Michael Crichton's novel--and a fourth is in production. "The Valley of Gwangi" and "The Land that Time Forgot" are just two of many similar movies in which a line of direct influence may be traced back to The Lost World.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, probably best known as the creator of the well-known detective Sherlock Holmes, set to pen a fantasy that everyone ever interested in dinosaurs has dreamed: that somewhere in space and time dinosaurs still live. Perhaps he wasn't the first to write such a narrative, but his has gone on to become one of the best known examples of such stories.
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