BONE WARS [Paperback]

Brett Davis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1998

Montana, 1876. Othniel Charles Marsh, one of the two top paleontologists in the world, in the state's Judith River fossil beds, doing what he does best: digging up the bones of dinosaurs. Montana is a big state, but Marsh can't rest easy. Edward Drinker Cope, his biggest rival, and the other top paleontologist in the world, is also in the area, and there simply aren't enough bones for both of them, leading them to play dirty tricks. And time itself is against them: the fierce snows of winter are on the way and, rumor has it, so is Sitting Bull, fresh from his triumph at little Big Horn.

Another complication: two foreign scientists are also competing for the bones. One says he's from Sweden, the other says he's from Iceland. One of them enlists Cope to help him, while the other befriends Marsh.

Marsh and Cope don't want the fossils to leave the country, so they decide to bury the hatchet and work together to outwit the visitors. This turns out to be harder than they thought. The foreign scientists possess amazing technology, but that's because they are much more foreign than they claimed. They don't just want to take the bones out of the country -- they're fighting over who will get to take them clean off the planet...

". . . a political thriller set in an alternate USA . . . humor . . . plenty of action. . . ". -- Locus

". . . a humorously insightful parody of human nature. His writing style is fantastic and his puns with names are a delight. . . ". -- Southern Book Trade

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Baen; First Edition edition (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671878808
• ISBN-13: 978-0671878801
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,520,444 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Aliens stole our fossils! A fine and funny tall tale, December 23, 2000

By 

Peter D. Tillman (Taos, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: BONE WARS (Paperback)

_____________________________________________
There's not a great deal of geological science-fiction extant, so I'm pleased to report that Bone Wars is worthy of your attention.

Montana Territory, 1876: Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope are both digging in the Judith River fossil beds, with no great success, and spying on each other's camps. They learn of another bone-digger, who shields his camp behind a "ghost wall," and has found some truly magnificent dinosaur specimens. A *fourth* paleontologist appears, an odd-looking fellow who claims to be from Iceland, and wants help to save the prize bones from being shipped off to "Sweden"....

Stir in a cowboy who's really a girl, a Sioux who's a Yale graduate, a deserter from the Little Big Horn, and a wild ride on a ceratopsian -- all done in impeccable late-19th century prose -- and you have a most entertaining confection. Recommended, with the usual caveat that others' reaction to (alleged) humor is notoriously unpredictable.

Brett Davis, whose writing I haven't previously encountered, has clearly done his historical homework. He writes in a spritely mock-Victorian style that's just right for the tale. This is a very amusing book. Fluff, but *good* fluff. I picked this one up on a whim, having heard of neither author nor title. I'm glad I did.

Happy reading--
Pete Tillman
Consulting Geologist, Tucson & Santa Fe (USA)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not too good!, October 13, 2000

By 

Peter Werner "peterwerner4" (Essingen, Germany) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: BONE WARS (Paperback)

This novel is not half as good as its sequel. It seems Davies was practicing still when he wrote it and that he developed his satirical talent only when he wrote the second novel. It is a good read though, interesting enough. But you are a little disappointed when you read the second book first.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars If you dig alternate history and dinosaurs, June 7, 1998

By 

Stu Shiffman ([e-mail]) (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: BONE WARS (Paperback)

This is a light and entertaining novel set in the Wild West in the post-Custer's last stand period, when Men were Men and so were paleantologists. The competitive parring of the foremost experts in the field, O. C. Marsh of Yale and Edward Cope of Philadelphia, is the milieu further complicated by the presence of a young woman masquerading as a man, Sitting Bull and nearly the entire Sioux nation, and two extraterrestrial bone-hunters with advanced technology and and secret agendas of their own. I enjoyed it -- I have been fascinated by the great "Bone Wars" (see the Kathryn Lasky novel of the same title for an entertaining take) for a long time (not geological time, but nevertheless...) so I was a sucker for this novel.