Customer Reviews

Tyrannosaur Canyon

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(46)
3 star:		(34)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This new adventure from Douglas Preston, set against the backdrop of the remote American Southwest canyon country, is an enthralling bit of story-telling from a master of the genre. Tyrannosaur Canyon is an odd mix. The story is a little implausible and a bit over the top, but that doesn't detract much from the fact that it is fun and addicitively readable. While it lacks any gritty realism, that's true of most rip-snorting good adventure yarns from Treasure Island on. As with all good adventure novels this one excels in pacing, tension, and accelerating story-line. Frankly, the book grabbed me from the opening page and didn't let go until I had finished. In literary terms this one is a roller-coaster thrill ride at a theme park as opposed to an introspective day of art appreciation at the museum. Gripping and exciting, I believe the book will please most followers of the author and also delight new readers.

In this story we are introduced again to Tom Broadbent (from the Codex) as he stumbles across a dying, gunshot man. Before the man dies, he passes on a dark secret within a notebook of numbers and importunes Broadbent to see the notebook returned to his daughter. This task, difficult because Broadbent does not know who the man is, soon involves great personal peril to both Broadbent and his wife as people begin to try killing them. Lots of people actually. An entire cast of scary bad guys, from crazed ex-cons, soldiers, sociopathic creepy scientists, government agents, and others come crawling out of the woodwork looking to end the Broadbents in various terminally nasty ways, for the notebook itself turns out to be something of a treasure map. The Broadbents find help in some unlikely places and people, and make many improbable escapes as they race to determine what secrets the notebook holds and what to do when the secrets are revealed. This is a lively and fun adventure trip with a writing style that inexorably sucks you from page to page like a verbal riptide. It's tense, action-packed, crammed with scientific research, and really I liked it.

What really killed the dinosaurs? Theories have abounded for years, with recent discoveries making for some interesting reading. Douglas Preston (who, with Lincoln Child, has written novels like Relic, Still Life with Crows, and this year's Dance of Death) attempts to promote his own theory in Tyrannosaur Canyon.

Tom Broadbent is out horseback riding one night and hears gunshots. As he investigates, he finds a dying old man clutching a weathered leather notebook. With his dying breath, the old man tells Broadbent to take the notebook and "Give it to Ronnie. She'll know what to do with the treasure," along with an admonition to avoid the police and any other interested parties. Broadbent discovers the notebook contains nothing but a series of numbers. Obviously a code, but what "treasure" was the old man trying to protect? The answer stretches all the way back to one of the Apollo missions years ago, and is a secret many people are willing to kill for.

Preston's previous solo novel, The Codex, was a real treat. The characters were rich and the story detailed, with plot twists galore coming left and right. The story progressed well and seemed to build on each previous page. It was obvious he was having a good time writing it. Tyrannosaur Canyon, on the other hand, seems to fall a little flat in many places. It's obvious he did a ton of research in preparing for this novel. Preston had a theory about the way the dinosaurs died, and he wanted to present it in an interesting way. Unfortunately, it seems he had little more than that theory in mind when he wrote this story.

I can't really give you many plot details without spoiling something for you. The numerous characters are two-dimensional for the most part. For some reason, there never really seems to be a climax to the story-just a lot of scenes of people chasing each other through the whole thing. What serves as the end of the book really feels like it should have been one of the earlier chapters with a lot more plot to go. The most jarring part of the story is the death of a major character and sudden introduction of a new villain when the whole thing is almost over. It's an odd thing when you consider how many consistently good novels he's turned out with Child over the past few years.

While The Codex was a five-star novel, this one would have to rank as half that. It's worth a read just because of the fascinating theories presented here, but we've seen him write better. Hopefully his next book will pick up with the same excitement we found in his first.

I listened to the unabridged audio edition of this novel. Basically it's a veterinarian who,while riding out in the canyon country hears a gunshot and discovers a murder victim. The wounded man gives him a treasure map to take to his daughter. The hero inexplicably promises to do so.

Later, he lies to the police, hides the map and goes to a monastery to ask a secret-agent turned monk-in-training for help. When his wife is kidnapped by a crazed ex-con, he'll do anything to get her back.

This was an action-packed, if somewhat implausible story. I found the villains to be kind of lame. The evil ex-con who runs a convict dating service, the evil Museum curator, the coldly impassive Asian government agent. All seemed a little over the top. I particularly disliked the ending which seemed trite and hokey. Especially the sappy honoring of the treasure hunter who was nothing more than a thief, and the mousey gal who became a Smithsonian employee. Meh.

3 stars. Could've been better.

You know you're in trouble when the jacket blurb mentions another author, but I guess it worked. Claiming it was in the style of a Michael Crichton book made me buy it, as I used to like Crichton before he went to the Dark Side.

The trouble is the book is poorly written, and is simply a cross between "Jurassic Park" and "The Andromeda Strain." Chapters are on average 2 to 3 pages in length to create an artificial sense of being a "page turner," technical, scientific and military terms are thrown in by the bushel with often no relevance to plot as if to trumpet "see how much research I did?" at every turn, the characters are implausible (and many of their names are downright goofy) and the whole thing simply runs out of gas by the end. (The bad guy still coming after the heroes with a weapon while engulfed in flames after they thought he was dead? That is such a bad movie cliche they don't even do that in movies anymore!)

Yes I knew it would be trash, and got it as simply something to read on the plane, but it still irritated me because ... well, it should have been better.

Although it is a solo effort, for those who have read with the other works of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, "Tyrannosaur Canyon" will be a familiar experience. The book follows the standard formula in that there is a big natural/scientific/archeological mystery, someone finds it but doesn't know exactly what it is, other people know what it is and will kill for it. If you enjoyed "Rip Tide," "Thunderhead," "The Codex," or "Deception Point" by Dan Brown, you will likely enjoy this book as well.

"Tyrannosaur Canyon" is a very quick read, much more so for me than previous Preston or Child novels. There is a lot of action, and the "mystery" of this book is pretty exciting, especially for archeology fans. My only problem with the story was that the characters are a little one-dimensional. They aren't fleshed out as well as I would expect from a Preston novel and I didn't feel much of a connection with them. Even so, I really enjoyed "Tyrannosaur Canyon" and would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick book to read with a lot of intrigue.

Lying in the middle of the desert with a couple of shotgun holes in his back, a dying prospector hands Tom Broadbent, the hero of "Tyrannosaur Canyon," a worn notebook with pages of neatly handwritten numbers on it and beseeches him to take it to his daughter. A decent enough start for a typical thriller. But this book is "Tyrannosaur Canyon" and the sleeve tells us that something from the galactic dark is hiding in a remote cleft in the southwest U.S. This is supposed to be a Michael Chrichton beater! Well, "Tyrannosaur Canyon" is not a bad read. The author is proven and gifted, his premise intriguing. But this is a squandered tale, a stock plot of good guys being chased around the scorching New Mexico desert by improbable bad guys, all of them seeking a buried Tyrannosaurus Rex, albeit the largest specimen ever discovered. The hinted idea that the fossil is contaminated with sixty-five million year old alien germs is brilliant...but the idea fizzles out to a tired whimper at the end. Missing is the largesse of "Jurassic Park" and "Andromeda Strain," absent is the big story. Left is a chase, a romp around the scorching desert. After reading the last page, I had the feeling that what I read was sadly, half-baked.

Tyrannosaur Canyon has a decent premise to its start and an even better one at its end, but the book is marred by implausible plot events, an overly-long chase scene, and a failure to develop what is probably the most interesting part of the book.
The story begins when Tom Broadbent, hearing shots in an isolated New Mexico canyon, comes across Stem Weathers, an old prospector who with his dying breath hands Tom a notebook filled with strange numbers and makes him promise to get his "treasure" to his daughter.
Broadbent is soon caught up in the ensuing murder investigation as a suspect, a reasonable idea. He also becomes the target of an assassin hired by an established paleontologist who is willing to kill to get his hands on the perfectly preserved T-Rex fossil Weathers found. A much less believable plot but not so bad as far as these type of novels go and one which I'm willing to suspend my disbelief for to a point. Unfortunately, as the book went on that point got crossed quite a bit. Finally, into the mix at the end is tossed a rogue/super-secret military group. Here the implausibility really reached its peak.
There were problems as well with character, some poorly developed, others just too over the top. And some just too neatly contrived, such as the CIA man turned monk who conveniently lives nearby, conveniently is an expert in code, and conveniently knows the area, isolated though it is, extremely well. There are just too many of these contrivances by the end of the book.
The ending is also marred as mentioned by a chase scene that starts off strongly but goes on far too long for a book of this type and pace. And finally, it's really only in the last third of the book that the most interesting aspect of this race to the Rex gets mentioned but it is hardly developed at all and most of that is swamped by the silly commando squad out to blow up everything and everyone in sight. Preston would have been better served to focus more on this aspect and tone down some of the boom-boom parts.
Not an awful book, but not particularly good and so not recommended.

It is readable and you will enjoy it.
But when I think back, how much I was thrilled when reading
other books from Preston or Preston/Child , this work is just average.
UNFORTUNATLY

Douglas Preston's earliest solo efforts have mostly been based on historically accurate tales, ranging from Cities of Gold and Dinosaurs in the Attic to his amazing Jenny. Tidbits of real-life epiphanies have made their way from his Dinosaurs in the Attic into his last solo novel The Codex.

With four solo efforts taking place in the American Southwest, a 1000 mile horseback trip in the same deserts, and the southwest-based Thunderhead (co-written with Lincoln Child) all under his belt, it was only a matter of time before "Hoss" Preston returned to archaeology, astronomy, paleontology, geology, and meteors (remember The Ice Limit?); this time, the evidence is found on another celestial body.

Tyrannosaur Canyon is 100 pages shorter than this past summer's release Dance of Death and slightly shorter than The Codex. Preston's style, however, promises to deliver, packing a wallop of an adventure story. Expect intricate details interconnecting millions of years--eons of geologic change, a time now petrified--together. Some of the best chapters are those told by the perspective of a female T. Rex.

The plot is metamorphically original and will leave you speechless when you turn the last page. The body of Preston's novel, however, suffers from an unfortunate lack of intriguing characters, two of whom return from The Codex (although this is not a sequel of sorts). The bulk of the story is also a chase through the desert; a chase that grows really old, really quickly. Preston keeps our attention with cutaways to the multiple antagonists (a move Bobby Fischer would be proud of) that threatens the story-line from nearly every possible angle.

As a fan of Preston's works, both solo and co-authored, I feel this is an improvement since The Codex. Alas, it drags on for too long and ends briefly at a point that, were he to extend the last few chapters, would have made one of the best third acts in any book published this year.

By the way, probably due to the so-called "similar" title, Publisher's Weekly compared this book to Crichton, only embarrassing the reviewer in the end. Crichton's and Preston's style have absolutely nothing in common, aside from the "written word." Ignore all "alter-title references" (e.g. "Raiders of the Lost Ark meets The Amazing Race" - Entertainment Weekly) as this is the most insulting form of praise. Read the book for what it is.

I am a big fan of the Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child stories, but have been less impressed by their solo efforts. However, this book changes that. This story is very complex with many interesting characters with diverse backgrounds. There are vivid descriptions of the environment and highly technical jargon for specialized fields such as geology, paleontology, cryptography, etc. There is just the right blend of description, mystery, and action to keep the story rich and interesting. This one is a real page-turner and I highly recommend it.