Cretaceous Dawn [Paperback]

Lisa M. Graziano (Author), Michael S. A. Graziano (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2008

A long-extinct beetle appears in a physics lab. Four-and-a-half people and a dog are hurled 65 million years through time, to the Age of the Dinosaurs, and paleontologist Julian Whitney and his companions have only one chance for rescue. Meanwhile in the lab, police chief Sharon Earles must solve the mystery of why half a body remains where five people had just been. Physicists try to determine what went wrong but can they fix the vault in time to retrieve the missing people—and do they want to?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A rip-snorting good yarn. . . . Cretaceous Dawn's strength is its ability to transport the reader back in time to truly experience the Cretaceous." -- Dinosaur News

"An adventure-filled journey... In spite of its references to hard academic science, Cretaceous Dawn is a first-class adventure story, an effortless read as engaging as vintage Jules Verne. The descriptive prose is both evocative and illuminating, and the plot has enough twists and cliffhangers to keep readers traveling on to the inevitable conclusion." -- Natural History

"From the Inland Sea to the infant Rocky Mountains, we see the entirety of a long-gone ecosystem. The authors' scientific knowledge gives the story, and the giant creatures it is centered around, a realism that is immensely entertaining." -- Prehistoric Times

"Rendered with a clarity and vividness that gives the novel its richness, Cretaceous Dawn is plain fun, and educational at that. Short of time travel, this is as close as you'll ever get to the grim, predatory world of the Cretaceous." -- Falmouth Enterprise

"The Grazianos, sibling scientists, combine speculation and science in a compulsively page-turning time-travel adventure. A physics experiment gone awry sends four people and a dog 65 million years into the past. Day-to-day survival among creatures like giant croc Deinosuchus and T. rex becomes a priority, even as the group of stranded scientists realizes that getting home involves a 1,000 mile trek across the amazing landscape of Hell Creek. Details about plants, animals and insects in the distant past set the stage for a tight, scientifically plausible plot with a wholly unexpected twist that will keep readers guessing." -- Publishers Weekly, July 2008

"[The era is] described so vividly the reader forgets that no human overlapped with a dinosaur in the sands of time." -- The Cape Cod Chronicle

About the Author

Lisa M. Graziano, PhD, is a freelance editor and writer living on Cape Cod, Mass. She spent ten years as a professor of oceanography in Woods Hole, Mass. before turning to a full-time writing career.

Michael S. A. Graziano, PhD, is a neuroscientist at Princeton University. He is the author of both fiction and nonfiction.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Leapfrog Press (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0981514839
• ISBN-13: 978-0981514833
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #771,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As real as the Cretaceous gets, July 20, 2008

By 

Dylan Cooke (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cretaceous Dawn (Paperback)

An irritating flaw of much science fiction and even historical fiction is that authors assume that if the reader is willing to suspend disbelief about one thing (say, time travel), then the author has unlimited license to change what is known about the setting of the narrative and even human nature itself. The result is too often a silly fairy tale of distorted human actions and emotions that misses the chance to explore the time and place in which the story ostensibly takes place. Not so with this well written and fast-paced book.
I enjoyed Cretaceous Dawn so much, I think, because it does not twist its subject matter to fit the mold of a Hollywood dinosaur movie. Just because we live in the age of mammals today does not mean that tigers and bears crouch behind every tree. So it was also in the age of dinosaurs; then, as now, it was more truly the age of plants and insects, so it makes sense that the main characters, transported back in time, take quite a while to understand fully where and when they have arrived. This adventure tale is therefore also, in several ways, a mystery, but it is scientists who do most of the 'detective' work. Small, bright moments of discovery illuminate the larger quest just to stay alive. The authors, both scientists themselves, cleverly but delicately use this device to make sense for us of a world that is in many ways similar to our own, but differs in important aspects. One is exemplified by the acute loneliness - felt by the transplanted protagonists - of 65 million years of separation from the rest of the human race. Even an explorer on the far side of the moon is closer to home than this. Refreshingly and heart-rendingly, time travel here is much more than just a literary device to bring humans back to the cretaceous. The other distinguishing aspect of the cretaceous, of course, is dinosaurs. Oh yes, there are dinosaurs: lurking, heard, seen, smelled, and eaten, all, deliciously, realistically, in their natural habitat.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rip-Off Warning, January 9, 2009

By 

Jonathan Schwartz - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cretaceous Dawn (Paperback)

I think this is a great book, BUT!! This book is a reissue of Hell Creek, which was published in 2006. Same book, different cover. I bought it thinking that it was a sequel, or at least a different book by the same authors. It is not. Word for word the same book. If you've already read Hell Creek, DON'T buy this book.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Where the fossils come to life:" and indeed they do!, July 17, 2008

By 

A. Levine (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cretaceous Dawn (Paperback)

A subtitle of this book is "where the fossils come to life". Indeed they do, in this absorbing science fiction-mystery-adventure-time travel work (with a little romance thrown in as well).

After the first sentence I could not put the book down and urged my husband to read it. It is so absorbing, such a good read, that during a complete power outage following a huge thunderstorm, I found him huddled under blankets, reading it by flashlight in the middle of the night.

The three main characters who struggle to exist when they suddenly find themselves in the strange landscape of North America of 65 million years ago are all believable. Their motives, their confusion, their struggles to stay alive, their terrors when they encounter huge dinosaurs, their relationships, make them and their story your story. The ending was a surprise plot twist, and I hated to turn that last page--I wanted to know what happened next. And I felt I had learned so much about the Cretaceous era, I wanted to learn more. The book has an excellent and useful glossary to assist the reader in understanding various technical terms.

The brother and sister authors, Lisa and Michael Graziano, are both physical scientists and both employed in highly respected institutions. They have combined their scientific expertise with fine literary skills. I think it would make a fine movie, or a TV serial. This is a terrific book.