Customer Reviews

DINOSAUR SUMMER.

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

As somebody who spent his early adolescence watching old monster movies like "King Kong" and reading old science fiction like "The Lost World" by Arthur Conan Doyle (the creator of Sherlock Holmes, if you don't know), I was truly excited when I picked up "Dinosaur Summer." It was such a great idea, to treat the tale of Professor Challenger as if it actually happened. But when I was done reading it, I was curiously disappointed. I had loved the premise, and even enjoyed parts of the narrative, but when it was done, I felt like I'd been cheated. I think the mixed reviews this book has received come from this: we were led into the book expecting a kind of Golden Age science fiction, with lost worlds and intrepid professors and risks and dangers and escapes, and we were presented with a 1990s sensibility of moral and environmental failures. Nobody succeeds at much of anything in this book, which runs directly counter to the genre it's attempting to revive. I love Greg Bear's work, especially "Blood Music," but here I think he forgot the whole point of an homage: to recreate the spirit of the original work. Still, I'm glad I read "Dinosaur Summer," if only because it sent me back to the originals again (which is another goal of homage, of course).

I'm not surprised that this book has been underrated by many readers. It comes from another age, when Doyle and Burroughs were the hottest adventure writers around. It was a big challenge for Bear to satisfy the old hard-liner of "Lost World" but the "exercice de style" was achieved to the perfection. But don't be surprised if under the apparent naivete inherited from the Lost World a very clever, educated and gripping story is developping. After all, that's the Bear Touch.

In what we are pleased to think of as our reality, such men as Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack (producers of the 1933 KING KONG), special effects geniuses Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen, President Harry S Truman, and circus impresario John Ringling North, to name only a few, are-or, for most of them, at least were-very real. On the other hand, such men as George Edward Challenger are inhabitants of the vast realms of fiction-in this instance, Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 classic, THE LOST WORLD.

Now Greg Bear-author of such major SF novels as MOVING MARS, EON, / (Slant), and many others, provides in his new novel DINOSAUR SUMMER a world wherein our reality and Doyle's speculative adventure collided head-on and merged, eighty-six years ago, with the return from Venezuela of the Challenger expedition-complete with real, live dinosaurs. And the result is quite a reading experience. (An added bonus: the novel is illustrated, both with fine line drawings and excellent full-color paintings reflecting a style of illustration of over fifty years ago, by Tony DiTerlizzi.)

In DINOSAUR SUMMER it's 1947, and dinosaurs are passé; a world in which they still lived lost interest in them after only a few decades (unlike our world's continuing fascination with the creatures of a vanished epoch). The last dinosaur circus still extant is out of business, its facilities sold to John Ringling North, its last remaining sad living exhibits destined for an uncertain fate...until the National Geographic steps in, offering to fund an expedition to return the dinosaurs to the massive prehistoric plateau, the tepui of El Grande, known to the nearby Indians as the sacred Kahu Hidi. Along for the ride, to preserve this quixotic journey's high points on film, are movie expert Willis O'Brien, the young Ray Harryhausen, photographer Anthony Belzoni, and Belzoni's son Peter, the novel's focal character.

I don't want to give much away, but I can say that the first half of the novel moves relatively slowly but steadily, quietly getting under way; after the expedition at last arrives at the gateway to Kahu Hidi, events really start to rock and roll like a runaway train, hurtling toward a powerful and emotionally resonant conclusion. Greg Bear, in addition to considerable knowledge of his subjects (prehistory, history, politics, movies, people), obviously has great affection for them as well.

I must have read Doyle's LOST WORLD more than a dozen times when I was a kid, my favorite movie of all time may well be the `33 KONG, and I've seen every O'Brien and Harryhausen fantasy film many times since as a result, not to mention JURASSIC Park and its sequel. That said: for readers like me, DINOSAUR SUMMER-which despite its Bradbury-esque title contains significant (and by no means gratuitous) scenes of graphic violence at its climax, and is not really for younger kids-is a real treat, and one I expect to return to again. Like Doyle's novel and KONG, it more than fulfills Cooper and Schoedsack's Three Ds-"Keep it Distant, Difficult, and Dangerous"-in a way that happens all too rarely, a way I can really prize.

-Michael E. Stamm is a clerical worker in the English Department at the University of Oregon; he has been reviewing science fiction, fantasy, horror, and genre fiction for various publications for nigh onto twenty years now.

A departure from Bear's usual hard sf, Dinosaur Summer is a love letter to the thunder lizards and to those who brought them to life in literature and on the silver screen. Bear posits an alternate reality where Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger actually did visit The Lost World in 1912, bringing dinosaurs back to the outside world. The result? Boredom, as the novelty of these strange creatures quickly fades. In the end the great dinosaurs, removed from their ecological niche in Venezuela, are relegated to sideshow status.

The book chronicles the adventures of Peter Balzoni, a young man on the cusp of adulthood. It's 1947, and Peter's photojournalist dad Anthony has been hired by National Geographic to record the efforts of Circus Lothar to return their dinosaurs to the Venezuelan plateau of El Grande. Also filming this extraordinary event are Willis O'Brien (who did the special effects on a box office flop called King Kong) and his protégé, Ray Harryhausen.

Bear sets a leisurely pace, taking his time getting his cast to El Grande, but, once they arrive, the book moves very fast. Peter and friends are trapped on the plateau and have to find their way out before they are devoured by the saurians and other creatures stalking them. The last third of the novel is non-stop action, as its stalwart heroes hurtle from one peril to the next, on their way towards a (mostly) happy ending.

The book pays homage to pulp fiction and the action/adventure genre in general, with particular reference to writers like Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Rice Burroughs. What seems like a straightforward adventure story conceals some deeper points, however. Bear brings a nineties' sensibility to his text, indirectly commenting on man's tendency to exploit lesser beasts, and questioning the rights of superpowers to interfere in the political affairs of smaller nations. Bear also delves into the spiritual lives of the Amazon tribesmen, giving them more depth than they would have received if this story had been written several decades ago. The closed environment of El Grande also allows Bear to speculate on what might have evolved there. Doing so, he updates and justifies Doyle's science, and carries it so far as to create his own species, among them lizard-monkeys and the hive dwelling communisaurs.

For an adventure story, the book's pace was almost unforgivably slow--at times I found myself wishing that the expedition would finally reach Venezuela so the real action could begin. Also, except for Peter and Anthony, there was little depth to the characters in the novel; Bear, for the most part, ignores the rest of his cast. Still, I was willing to overlook these faults and indulge the eight year old dinosaur lover in me, the kid who thrilled to movies like King Kong, The Lost World (the Irwin Allen version) and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Displaying an utter lack of pretension, Bear delivers an enjoyable yarn that ultimately satisfied both that eight year old and his older, stodgier incarnation.

Some readers think that this is the greatest book since sliced bread. I disagree. I have always liked dinosaurs, since small I liked reading about these big animals and all. I read Lost world, and I love it. When I saw this book from Greg Bear, I was excited. Especially knowing the writer was an award winning author. Well, now I read it, and I sure wouldnt read another book written by him. I'll tell you why. The book, first of all, is more dedicated to young children, apart from the death of one of the characters in the end. Not even a single romance. But I am not complaining. As some of the readers have said, its really nothing much untill more than half of the book. At least it could have shown more of the characters in those wasted space. But no, the first half of the book is a travel log. And a usual one at that, with dinosaur for a baggage. Nothing exciting, I think any experience in the airport nowadays would be about the same. Then comes the character. There are some funny comments alright, but it is mostly showing a bunch of guys feeling brave, making silly jokes in front of death staring at them. Like any other science fiction, bear tried to put the effect of indian beliefs inside the story, and have Peter the main character dream about some legends. There is problem to this, which is that there is no precedence of this in the Lost story. Second, I took the book for the dinosaurs.... third, seeing that he did put dreams after all, he could have told us the meaning. Instead of just making the character dream of changing body shape from maggot to jaguar to ants and all, and not letting us know what it meant. One of the indians was in a sidequest, and the way he talks didnt even get cleared. We never knew what or who odosha really was, was it a god, or a tree, or an animal? what the death door was , whether its a challenge, or anything? Then, in the story, the characters would see animals, and we'd be given some latin names. none of the character was a scientist of some sort, yet they seem to be naming the animals anyhow. not really realistic. Then the way Greg Bear writes his story. its all from one character's point of view, which is Peter. it would have been much nicer if when he got separated from his friends and dad, that the view changes from him to his dad's group. And to the producer who came at last to save the day. But no, its all from one point of view. the whole adventure was about peter, and then he'd meet back with his friends, and his friends would tell him their story in about a page or so. Then for the final blow, Greg Bear put a "What's real , and What's not" section in the end of the book. While it is being truthful to his readers, but it confirmed my suspicions while I was reading the book. Many , almost all the dino's was made up. I like made up things, I read science fictions a lot. Only when I prefer to have it made up. When I took a book about some dinosaur story, thats exactly what I wanted....a story of dinosaur. And there are more than enough dinosaurs to fill up a whole book for predators and all, and yet he had to made up his own. This disappoints me. I think Lost world's dinosaurs was real. Or was it? Now that I read Greg Bear's book, I got a little doubt.

This book picks you right up, puts you on its shoulders and strides strongly forth for a REAL adventure. Scenes of wonder captivate from the start and the unique array of dinosaurs quickly found a place in my heart. The real-life characters are as fine and fascinating a mix as I've ever come across. How I wanted to go along for the trip! And of course I did, through the eyes of young Peter, gasping and cheering as he surely must have on the road to El Grande; fascinated and terrified as he must have been on the plateau itself. Since finishing this book I have been filled with dreams of the lush and exotic plateau, as well as with a deep longing to return to its dangerous depths. A great read!

Fans of the films of Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen (King Kong, Mighty Joe Young, Vally Of Gwangi etc.) must not miss this wonderful book. Bear has payed loving homage to those masters of the lost art of stop-motion animation in a thrilling, beautiful story that begs to be read again and again. A sequel to the original "The Lost World" by Arthur Conan Doyle, this book is tailor-made for those like myself who grew up glued to the TV on Saturday afternoons whenever the local UHF station treated us to any of the aforementioned films (often with a dog-eared copy of "Famous Monsters Magazine" clutched in our hands.).Indeed, reading "Dinosaur Summer" was like watching the lost O'Brien-Harryhausen film that you never knew existed.
But even if you have no idea who O'Brien, Harryhausen, Merian C. Cooper or Ernest Schoedsack are, if you love dinosaurs and/or adventure this book is a can't-miss winner. And as an added bonus the art of Tony DiTerlizzi found throughout the book-in B/W and Color-captures wonderfully the spirit of adventure and imagination that fuels the story.
As an aside, to those who have complained that the creatures inhabiting the plateau are not the dinos they would like to see; What do you want? More of Crichton's Velociraptors and rexes? Hey, don't tell me the Altovenator wasn't cool (and pretty darn close to the real-life Afrovenator.) Likewise, the Death Eagle is quite a remarkable beast and not too far removed from actual prehistoric counterparts in Titanis walleri, Phorusrachus, etc.
So if you love dinos but were dissapointed by some of the less-than-stellar efforts lately (Crichton's "Lost World", both page and screen, come to mind as well as JP3 and Dismal's...er...uh...Disney's "Dinosaur") "Dinosaur Summer" is just the ticket. Dig up those old "Famous Monsters" magazines, pop some popcorn and dig in!

Good story. Slow to start but pace picks up. Nice addition to have Ray Harryhausen and Willis O'Brien in story. Do not know why this was never made into a film. Steven Spielberg, where are you?

A half century after Professor Challenger and his team of explorers discovered "The Lost World," with its isolated population of dinosaurs and other living fossils, the last dinosaur circus has finally gone bankrupt. The show can no longer go on, but what will happen to the animals? Why not return them to their home, releasing them to their native habitat? And, as a bonus, film the expedition, turning it into a money-making theatrical event?

This book follows from the premise of Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost World", where Challenger discovers his dinosaurs, and like Doyle's work, it is an adventure story. Fully half the story is about the journey, as the expedition faces challenges both phyiscal and political as they embark on their quest. The prose here isn't as flowery as Doyle's, but the story is equally compelling, as the story builds to a dramatic climax on the plateau. Greg Bear also shows a better developed understanding of evolution, providing an array of animals that might be plausible evolutionary descendents of the original dinosaurs that found themselves isolated in this Lost World. Fans of adventure stories and of dinosaurs should all find this book satisfying.

I enjoy this book, even though it's juvenile fiction. I love the premise, and wish that it were true...

A remote tepui in South America is home to creatures from the past...the way past. This lost world is a dangerous one, yet a wondrous place for a boy and a returning group of dinos that have spent years in a traveling Dinosaur Circus.

It would make a fantastic movie, something done like "The Valley of Gwangi" with lots of cool dinos. Sure, CGI could do it, but I like the vintage look of stop-motion, and it has that B-movie sense to it.

If you like this one, move to the adult section and get Eric Flint's collaborative effort, "Boundary," which is another specimen of Dinosauria literature.