I'm not going to lie to you, I picked this book up on a complete whim while out at Barnes & Noble about...two weeks ago. Along with snagging this book I got myself a new Schielc t-rex toy, which I abosultely adore. The look the toy is giving this book prompted someone to call him "Skeptasaurus", which I think is now going to be his name forever.
I'm going to do a more detailed review about my lovely toy in a little bit. I actually had full intentions of doing one that day, but I got lost in my crazy world of distractions.
This book is actually a collection of short stories mostly starring the same main character in different dinosaur related scienarios. It had a lot of promise, but the stories seemed to kind of feel too familiar or repatative in character design. I ended up only reading 3 our of 5 of them and don't really have a desire to finish the book. While the stories do have some really cool paleontology elements, the characters were too similar between stories and sometimes the plot elements didn't make any damn sense.
The main protaginist of each story is Henry Vickers, a cool, manly-man hunter guy who tracks dinosaurs. In the three stories I read, he had to help rangle a t-rex or tag along with people going back in time.
If they explained how they went back in time, I don't remember it, but I think Vickers was more of the muscle and not the brains. He often dismissed the science behind the magic because he wasn't there to do that job.
In the two time-travel stories, Vickers was there to help either gather paleontology information and observe, or help rich dick-heads do a dinosaur safari. The second one wasn't my favorite, but I will say "Calibration Run", the first of the time-travelly stories, was pretty fun to read. Vickers is tossed back into time to help a lady paleontologist gather priceless information about plants, animals, etc...and they happen to run across a tribe of early hominids. They never really identify which hominds they were supposed to be, but the paleontologist explained that there was no way to really tell and it could be a species they'd never seen before.
Naturally, she wanted to take one back with them to study, but when the creature started to shed tears inside the trap, Vickers lets the thing go, saying that it was too human for them to treat like an animal.
Pretty legit, in my opinion.
If they explained how they went back in time, I don't remember it, but I think Vickers was more of the muscle and not the brains. He often dismissed the science behind the magic because he wasn't there to do that job.
In the two time-travel stories, Vickers was there to help either gather paleontology information and observe, or help rich dick-heads do a dinosaur safari. The second one wasn't my favorite, but I will say "Calibration Run", the first of the time-travelly stories, was pretty fun to read. Vickers is tossed back into time to help a lady paleontologist gather priceless information about plants, animals, etc...and they happen to run across a tribe of early hominids. They never really identify which hominds they were supposed to be, but the paleontologist explained that there was no way to really tell and it could be a species they'd never seen before.
Naturally, she wanted to take one back with them to study, but when the creature started to shed tears inside the trap, Vickers lets the thing go, saying that it was too human for them to treat like an animal.
Pretty legit, in my opinion.
Sadly, that is really the only highlight of these stories. 1 out of 3 I read were pretty good, but there was a glaring issue with each of the group of characters Vickers was tossed in with.
Each story had the same two tropes that I couldn't get past: a female who is sleeping with someone she's not supposed to and a over-the-top hot tempered asshole. It was just...distracting. I was even willing to forgive the fact that it was never explained just how they were going back in time (though to be fair they may talk about it in another story I didn't make it to), and the fact that in one of the stories is about safari hunting dinosaurs.
I hate that sport anyway.
Each story had the same two tropes that I couldn't get past: a female who is sleeping with someone she's not supposed to and a over-the-top hot tempered asshole. It was just...distracting. I was even willing to forgive the fact that it was never explained just how they were going back in time (though to be fair they may talk about it in another story I didn't make it to), and the fact that in one of the stories is about safari hunting dinosaurs.
I hate that sport anyway.
So, would I reccomend this book? No, I wouldn't. I wasn't fun and I didn't enjoy the characters at all. The second story is pretty cool, but the rest of it fell short. I think if you want a good dinosaur book, there are others you can dabble in.
I think the next dinosaur book I'm going to try out is Dinosaur Wars: Earthfall by Thomas P. Hopp. It's dinosaurs...from spaaaaace!
That'll probably come next month as I'm going to finish up a nerdy book about vampires before I start that one. I'll keep you updated for sure.
Next week is Darwin Day, so I'm going to work on getting something prepared. I posted about the weird computer issues Ive been having, so bear with me while I get that mess sorted out.
Unfortunately, typing these posts through the Blogspot app on the phone isn't the best format wise....and spellcheck wise.
So, sorry for that too.
Unfortunately, typing these posts through the Blogspot app on the phone isn't the best format wise....and spellcheck wise.
So, sorry for that too.
Anyway, I'll try and post more often than I have been. I actually have a lot of stuff I can gush about, so I just gotta wittle out the time.
Until then!
- M
That sounds like a story you could've written better.
ReplyDeleteWait a minute, why AREN'T you writing a dinosaur story?!
ReplyDeleteMan, I really want to! Just don't have any good ideas floating around in the veegle brain.
Delete