Customer Reviews

Cretaceous Dawn

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Cretaceous Dawn is a well-written, quickly-paced trek back to another time and place. The descriptions of Cretaceous flora and fauna are educational and often entertaining, and the human characters sufficiently fleshed out to earn a measure of attachment from the reader.

There are a handful of jarring continuity issues- the kind that stop you in your tracks and make you go back a paragraph or two to see if you missed something (you didn't). And these do impact on one's enjoyment of the story. The theoretical concepts central to the story ("time folding" and the need for a hurried 1,000 mile trip to a specific spot) are challenging to grasp, and the resulting inability of the reader to identify with the characters' sense of urgency detracts from the experience as well.

But for an easy read, and especially for younger readers for whom a lighter approach to complex subjects may be welcomed, this is a worthwhile effort and deserving of recommendation.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The context is well-researched, the characters are entertaining (including, naturally, the dog), and the action moves quickly. Once you begin to read, the story draws you in and moves you quickly through the text. Sure, there are many dinosaur books and movies out there, but this one approaches the topic from a new perspective, and the other aspects of the story make it even more appealing. I appreciated the scientific details, and the undercurrent of humor. I look forward to reading more by these authors!

This book was tagged by Amazon as similar to Vonnegut, something it most assuredly is not. But then Amazon's method of pairing books has always made me chuckle. This book is a keeper, as in on my bookshelf and recommended to friends for holiday gifts. For one thing, it's a nice-looking book--heavy off-white paper, eye-catching cover, feels weighty in your hands. I hate cheap-looking and -feeling paperbacks.

Beyond the packaging, though, the writing itself is excellent, and the story is one that you don't want to start if you have somewhere to be anytime soon. You won't be able to put it down. The writing is so straightforward and clean that it's very easy to read, and I got completely immersed in the multiple story lines. While a small set of characters is lost in the Cretaceous wilderness of Montana 65 mill years ago, a team is researching their mysterious disappearance in the present. I especially appreciated the FEMALE police chief, and how no-nonsense she was. In fact, all the female characters in this book were realistic, and strong--from the German shephard to the T. rex, from the physicist to the chief of police. Not that the male characters weren't--but this was very refreshing to see in a pop-fiction book.

The other thing I liked was the humor. The small character interactions made for frequent chuckling, and that's also something that's not often incorporated into this type of book. People, when they behave naturally, are naturally humorous in small ways. The nonstop action and cliffhangers ending nearly every chapter are things that often annoy me about other books, but didn't in this one. They worked, and kept me turning the pages in anticipation.

A few of the characters could have been beefed up a bit more, esp. the security guard Frank, but the important characters were real enough, and the nonhuman stars were the best. These authors clearly love the outdoors and they know their paleontology. I wish there'd been more of that in amongst the action and travel. I learned a lot without any effort on my part. Good and interesting science told in a fun way. At first I wondered about things like volcanoes and earthquakes; wouldn't they be all over the place? And the atmosphere--was it like today's, or would they have trouble breathing? Turns out the Cretaceous wasn't any different from nowadays in that sense, except of course for the higher levels of atmospheric CO2, which made it generally much warmer across the globe back then. But then, as one of the characters says, it was a very recent time period in Earth's history. Hundreds of millions of years earlier, it seems, things would not have been so like today.

Who this book is not for: those with a real dislike of the outdoors, of anything paleontology-related, and of female characters that don't scream at every shadow.

For those who spent their youths tramping the woods and streams, pretending to see T. rex tracks in bunny prints, this book is definitely enjoyable. Although it's clearly for adults, it could be read by teens, and I'm going to give it to a 10-yr-old whose a good reader.

CRETACEOUS DAWN is great sci-fi fun. Take one part time travel, one part really cool dinosaurs, and one part unusual missing-persons case. Stir together with liberal dashes of hard physics and paleontology. Fold in the excitement and tension of a classic thriller, and you have CRETACEOUS DAWN, a rollicking good time by L. M. and M. S. A. Graziano.

In CRETACEOUS DAWN, physicists Dr. Yariko Miyakaro and Dr. Shanker are working to produce detectable gravitons. Instead, they are producing beetles. And very strange beetles, at that. Dr. Julian Whitney, paleontologist, is called in to study and hopefully identify these very unusual beetles. Suddenly, due to the extreme sensitivity of the graviton experiment, there is an explosion in the lab, and 4 ½ people and a dog are transported back 65 million years, to the beginning of the Cretaceous era. And so the adventure begins...

CRETACEOUS DAWN is fast-paced and action-packed, drawing the reader immediately into the Cretaceous era, and firmly keeping him there. I read this book in nearly one sitting; I was so absorbed by the story. The writing is excellent - the vivid descriptions of the landscape, the dinosaurs, and the other inhabitants of the Cretaceous; the accurate but palatable scientific details; and the interesting, well developed characters. You like these people, and genuinely care about what happens to them.

If you love dinosaurs, time travel, science fiction, thrillers, or detective stories, you will enjoy CRETACEOUS DAWN. This book is extremely entertaining, and quite simply, it is a good story. A gripping adventure that I, for one, could not put down. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND CRETACEOUS DAWN. Grab a copy, kick back, and have a great time.

From the very first page of Cretaceous Dawn, I was drawn in. The story of a group of people, sent 100 million years into the past sets up an incredible journey complete with accurate historical references and elaborate detail that makes you feel as though you were right beside them! Each chapter has you on the edge of your seat, begging for more until you reach the end where you'll find an incredible twist! A must-read for anyone into paleontology or physics.

Dr. Yariko Miyakara and Dr. Shanker, both physicists, are working with gravitons in their lab in Creekbend, South Dakota, when strange things begin to happen. After a program run, items like sticks, rocks, and strange bugs begin to appear in the "vault". The items remain only long enough to be photographed before suddenly disappearing. Yariko calls in specialist paleontologist Dr. Julian Whitney to look at and identify the bugs. Julian is shocked, telling Dr.'s Miyakara and Shanker that their bug hasn't existed for millions of years.

While attempting to fix the program, the run is interrupted by two returning security guards. The door to the vault is left open, and the sound interruption triggers the mechanism. Suddenly the three doctors, security guard Frank, and Shanker's German Shepherd Hilda are tumbling through an unexpected portal. They find themselves in a strange jungle, surrounded by dangers. The physicists fears are confirmed when the paleontologist identifies the flora and fauna as coming from the Cretaceous period of Earth. Yariko's program anomaly has just projected instead of received. The only two who have any survival training at all is Frank, who's leg is broken, and Hilda. Using only her brain and a stick in the dirt, Yariko figures that if the items received in the lab were reverted, then they could revert too if she can calculate where and when. Julian must calculate where they are in relation to modern day South Dakota. Somehow, in this alien landscape thwarted by ferocious wildlife, unfamiliar terrain, and unprepared for survival, the little band must make for the point calculated by Yariko before two months pass. They must travel through a land unequipped for the yet-to-be-evolved human race.

Meanwhile, in Creekbend, Police Chief Sharon Earles, Sgt. Charlie Hann, and Yariko's assistant Mark Reng work frantically to discover what destroyed the vault in Yariko's lab and where the doctors have gone.

Sibling authors, L.M. Graziano and M.S.A. Graziano have truly captured the era and the mood, using just the right blend of science and fiction, creating a fantastical expedition through time and space. Their characters are real and fully fleshed. (I especially liked Hilda, having two German Shepherds of my own) The dialogue is authentic and smooth, the descriptiveness of the surroundings make you actually feel the world around you. The past becomes as foreign as the future, and can the future ever become the past?

Each chapter is lead by a piece of a lecture series by the character Julian Whitney, and utilizes important information of the Cretaceous era, the era that boasts the dawn of mammals and the evening of the dinosaur. The authors added a detailed Glossary Of Terms for the era at the end of the book to aid in identifying with the flora and fauna of the period. There's another book here, that I'd like to see happen. And definitely a movie. If you enjoyed 'Jurassic Park' by Michael Crichton or 'Survivor' by Robert Steele Gray, then you are going to LOVE 'Cretaceous Dawn'. I highly recommend this book. Enjoy!

Gosh, I loved this book. A lot of books have good plots and interesting characters, and this book does too, but it was also so ALIVE and so VIVID that I felt totally immersed in that darn steamy jungle full of dinosaurs. Great read. Hope for a sequel.