Sauria Monstra: Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, and Other Fossil Saurians in Classic Science Fiction and Fantasy [Paperback]

Chad Arment (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 27, 2009

This anthology collects a wide range of early stories involving dinosaurs and other fossil reptilians come back to life. The short stories include The Last of the Vampires, The Lizard, The Monster of Lake LaMetrie, The Slaying of the Plesiosaurus, The Pterodactyl, The Monster of "Partridge Creek," The Diplodocus, The Last Haunt of the Dinosaur, The Great Beast Of Kafue, The Lizard God, The Beast of the Yungas, The Paradise of the Ice Wilderness, The Ancient Horror, and Report on the Status Quo. Also included is Arthur Conan Doyle's classic, The Lost World.

Product Details

• Paperback: 420 pages
• Publisher: Coachwhip Publications (March 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930585772
• ISBN-13: 978-1930585775
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,747,195 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Prehysteria!, March 18, 2010

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Dino Dan (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Sauria Monstra: Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, and Other Fossil Saurians in Classic Science Fiction and Fantasy (Paperback)

Contained in this anthology collection are 14 classic tales and one novel of prehistoric survivors. The majority were originally published in the first two decades of the 20th Century, with a few prior to 1900, a few later than that, and one from the mid-50's.

Although most of the stories are entertaining, I was disappointed that HALF the book is a reprint of Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The Lost World'. If you don't have a copy of this classic adventure tale, or haven't read it yet, this isn't likely to be a problem. It IS a good novel. However, I found the novel's inclusion odd, considering Coachwhip's other anthologies normally incorporate lesser known or hard to find stories. Perhaps there weren't enough good short stories out there to fill an entire book.

Aside from that, some of the best stories include Charles John Cutcliffe Hyne's 'The Lizard', about a bizarre subterreanian relic within a cave. Wardon Allan Curtis' 'The Monster of Lake LaMetrie', involving a plesiosaur, and in a Frankenstein-like plot twist, receives a human brain transplant. The most recently published tale, Terence Robert's 'Report on the Status Quo' from 1955, involves entire Mesozoic ecosystems (complete with diseases and vermin) returning after World War III. It has a very similar feel to Max Brook's 'World War Z', as it's given in a report form, where initial warnings go unheeded, disasterously unprepared military forces are overwhelmed, and ending in a changed globe. Substitute zombies with dinosaurs, and you could have World War D.

Interestingly, the aforementioned 'The Monster of Lake LaMetrie' and Georges Dupuy's 'The Monster of "Partridge Creek" ', about a bristly Alaskan ceratosaur and included in this collection, have both been occasionally mentioned in cryptozoology lore as factual rather than fiction. However, the veracity of these claims has been disputed by Dr. Karl Shuker and others.

On the less positive, some stories took frustratingly long to involve their prehistoric survivors, often with little payoff (in regards to prehistoric mayhem at least). The stories are still atmospheric, but the saurian relic aspect seems minimal. Willis Knapp Jones' 'The Beast of the Yungas', Richard Dehan's 'The Great Beast of Kafue', and especially Charles Finger's 'The Lizard God' best typify this.

However, the only story I truly disliked was Porter Emereson Brown's 'The Diplodocus', about an animal bred from various creatures. It's a farce obviously not intended to be taken seriously.

In short, there are some great stories, and some good stories included. A few I've read in the past, but many I'd only heard of, so I recommend this tome for many good, classic tales of dinosaurs, plesiosaurs and pterodactyls.