Greig Beck

Return to the Lost World by Greig Beck is the second book in his Primordia trilogy about a group of people who track down the Lost World that Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about. In 2018, they followed the clues and arrived at a hidden plateau in the middle of the Amazon jungle. The pathway to this plateau was only revealed once every ten years. Unfortunately the first book ended with one of the party being stranded there.

Now it is 10 years later and Emma is ready to go back and bring Ben Cartwright home. She has used the last 10 years to train herself and to gather a strong party so that they can get in to that strange place, find Ben and survive. But as we know, something always disrupts those well laid plans!

This was an exciting and fun adventure read that explores a prehistoric world of jungles, swamps, and plains filled with creatures that mankind only knows in fossil form. The story moves quickly and there is plenty of action and violence and the author gives us an excellence reason for there to be a third book.… (meer)

The story had good bones, but it was too short...it needed to a full-length book instead of a novella. The entire book is 176 pages. This monster should have had a lot more! There wasn't enough background making what could have been what I had come to expect from a Greg Beck book...a fantastic story with a real nightmare of a monster. Instead, it just felt rushed and a bit incomplete. The hero of the story, Mitch was wishy-washy and so unwilling, or maybe unsure, to put his plans into action...questioning nearly every possible move. I kept thinking "Monsters don't come with instruction manuals...DO SOMETHING...ANYTHING!! He knew...or at least strongly suspected what was feasting on the citizens of this town, but he kept questioning everything that he came up with to stop it. I was almost convinced the monster was going to win this one. If you are a fan of Beck, the first 60% of this will be right up your alley. The last...just felt unfinished.… (meer)

I liked it, this is probably my first proper review on this site but I'm a big fan of Greig Beck's stuff. After getting back into reading earlier last year I've been eating up creature features and adventure novels left and right. Beck's books just hit differently for me, but I don't think Mysterious Island was up with the best of his work.

Overall, I thought it was fine. My biggest gripe is that it took way too long to get to the main stuff I wanted to see (Exploring the island, creatures, grisly action, etc.). Its all subjective, but that was what I was most excited for. I did enjoy getting to know the characters of Troy, Anna, and Elle however.

The bad guys were whatever, and I wasn't a huge fan of the cliffhanger ending. Felt like a lot of lead up to nothing if that makes sense? I understand that this is the first of a series, and will likely go on for a more bombastic sequel like Return to the Center of the Earth was (My personal fav of Greig Beck's works!)

This review sounds negative, but I did enjoy my time with it, my anticipation certainly didn't allow me to enjoy it fully for what it was. I'm sure upon a re-read I'll get some more out of it, and of course, I'll be there when a sequel comes. I do love me a good adventure novel, action horror is my jam and I do believe Greig Beck is one of the best in that regard!… (meer)