“Living Memory” by David Walton- A hard sci-fi dinosaur adventure

David Walton is an author I’ve followed ever since I first read the fabulous The Genius Plague. Walton delivers time and again on hard sci-fi premises with just the right mix of taking itself seriously and campiness. Living Memory is another roaring adventure that absolutely nails the feel of hard science mixed with total insanity that makes books like this so much fun to read.

Walton asks a simple question with the main story of this book: what if dinosaurs really did have some sentient creatures among them, but didn’t have ways we could detect their presence among the bones we’ve found? He takes that premise and runs with it, delivering two parallel storylines that converge in the best ways. I can’t say a lot about one of them without spoiling too much, so suffice to say the second plot is great.

The primary story follows archaeologists as they make a series of startling discoveries that suggest there may have been intelligent dinosaurs. It turns out that some world governments are very interested in these findings, and the race is on to find out why and prevent mega-weapons from being developed. The premise is gripping, and the characters are well-written. There’s a lot of action here, as the archaeologists are set to dodging local and non-local authorities, dealing with corruption, and trying to figure out why they’re suddenly on the most-wanted lists.

Comparisons to Jurassic Park are inevitable. I can tell you these are wildly different works, though fans of the well-known Crichton novel should definitely sink their teeth into this one. Walton also nails the ending, sticking us with a potent plot point that has me yearning for the second book, which is already promised for next year (2023)!

Living Memory is a fast-paced read that still delivers on the nerdy goods of fake science. I can’t recommend it enough to fans of dinosaurs, hard sci-fi, or adventure novels.

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Links

Science Fiction Hub– I have scores of reviews of Hugo nominees, Vintage Sci-Fi, modern sci-fi, TV series, and more! Check out my science fiction related writings here.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

SDG.

“The Dinosaur Four” by Geoff Jones- A Self-Published Science Fiction Contest (SPSFC) Book Review

We’re now in the round of semi-finalists for the Self-Published Science Fiction Contest (SPSFC), and I’m reading and reviewing all of the semi-finalists! Check out my SPSFC Hub for all my posts and reviews for the contest.

The Dinosaur Four by Geoff Jones

A café in Denver is suddenly ripped from the pavement and dropped into the Cretaceous period in the same place, along with several diners. The people inside have to figure out what happened, avoid the dangerous dinos, and see if they can get back home.

The action gets going basically immediately, as the characters encounter a small array of dinosaurs and dinosaur-adjacent wildlife. As anyone who is even vaguely aware of how massive dinosaurs are and how deadly even small ones appear to have been, the implications should be quite ominous. What made the book the most fun for me is how it’s a kind of inverted Jurassic Park. Instead of humans bringing dinosaurs to life and dealing with the implications, here it’s humans going back in time (accidentally) and being trapped in a world with dinosaurs. Survival is not guaranteed.

The plot moves on at a good clip, and Jones introduces one element that basically slaps a timer on the events happening. I thought that was a good move because it added a sense of urgency to the story which was already fast paced. This turned up the action to frenetic in the best possible way. I found myself burning through the book quickly because I wanted to know what would happen next.

One of the characters seemed especially gross to me. There was latent and overt misogyny coming through that character’s viewpoint, to the extent that at first I almost wondered if it was narrative voice. Suffice to say that is not the case. The incel vibes are intentional, but they’re part of a building plot throughout the book that came to a satisfying end. I only point this out specifically because it was initially very off-putting for me, personally, and wanted other readers to know to persevere.

The Dinosaur Four is a hugely enjoyable romp. It’s the kind of read that’s excellent while enjoying the weather outside or flying on an airplane. It’s not going to make you think too hard. Instead, there are dinosaurs, there is action, and it’s fun to read. Recommended.

All Links to Amazon are Affiliates

Links

The Self-Published Science Fiction Contest (SPSFC) Hub– Check out all of my posts related to the SPSFC here!

Science Fiction Hub– I have scores of reviews of Hugo nominees, Vintage Sci-Fi, modern sci-fi, TV series, and more! Check out my science fiction related writings here.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

SDG.

One Sentence Book Review: “The Lost World” by Michael Crichton

The Lost World by Michael Crichton

Review

The Lost World is more quotable than Jurassic Park, but isn’t as intense or foreboding as its predecessor.

Links

One Sentence Book Review: “Jurassic Park” by Michael Crichton– I review Jurassic Park. By having two sentences, this summary of contents is longer than the post.

One Sentence Book Reviews– Read more one sentence book reviews here. I’ve decided to do one for every book I read, which is a lot. I got started on 5/14/16 so this list will grow from there.

J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

SDG.

Paleontology: Looking for a good dino book

When I was little, I loved dinosaurs.

 

I love dinosaurs.

I want to learn more about them, but I can’t seem to find any books for people like me. There are books for kids, and even for teenagers interested in the topic, but then it jumps straight into graduate level books that talk about way more than I care about.

Basically, what I want is a book that teaches me about dinosaurs–their types, behavior, evolution, finds, etc.–with pretty pictures to look at without having to read through mounds of anatomical details, etc.

As a bonus, it would be great if it discussed paleontology in at least a little detail.

I found two contenders, but they seem to demonstrate my problem.

Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up To Date Encyclopedia….  -This one looks like I could easily read it, but it doesn’t look like it goes quite as in-depth as I’d like.

The Dinosauria: Second Edition– This one has an awesome name, but looks a little heavy for what I’d like. The fact that some reviews basically say it’s a graduate level dinosaur anatomy textbook makes it even more scary.

So if any readers could help me out by recommending to me a dinosaur book, I’d be extremely pleased.