The New Dinosaurs (Paperback)

by Byron Preiss (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
"Nothing changes like the past." No part of the past has changed more in the last few decades than our picture of the dinosaurs. When William Stout drew the pictures for the first edition of Dinosaurs, in 1981, the ancient reptiles were big, lumbering brutes, cold-blooded slowpokes driven to extinction by the wily mammals eating their eggs. Now they're still big, but that's almost the only point that hasn't changed. Warm-blooded, feathered, nest-building, under attack from outer space; what's not to like? No wonder dinosaurs have become so popular.

Stout is a comic book and record album artist who has been a designer for movies such as Dinosaur! His dinosaur paintings have an Art Nouveau quality, with strong, flowing lines and glowing colors. Not hyper-naturalistic, they are beautiful and dramatic, like the highest-quality manga or illustrated novels. The book's text is in the present tense, and is vivid and novelistic:

Othnielia slowed down when he came to the bank of a wide creek. Near it, a neuropteran was perching in mid-air. The span of its wings was close to that of othnielia's fingered feet, which spread as he crept up on the dragonfly.

The New Dinosaurs will fire the imaginations of dinosaur lovers of all ages. --Mary Ellen Curtin

Product Description

A FANTASTIC NEW VIEW OF A LOST ERA

Here are dinosaurs as you've never seen them before in a dramatically expanded new edition of the book that started the renaissance in dinosaur books. Here are dinosaurs that are swift, stunning, scary and stupendous, presented in a lavish format. Using the latest paleontological research, The New Dinosaurs presents a scientifically accurate look at the way dinosaurs lived: how they moved, ate, dueled, drank and mated. From ten-ton brontosaurus to thirty-foot hadrosaurus, here is a story more fantastic than fantasy itself!

The Dinosaurs -- A Fantastic New View of a Lost Era, by William Stout, with narration by the late William Service, is considered to be a classic in illustrated naturalist books. Featured in Life magazine, it helped spark the worldwide interest in dinosaurs that culminated in Jurrasic Park.

William Stout's prehistoric life murals are on permanent display at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences and at Walt Disney's Animal Kingdom. William Service was the author of Owl, which Time magazine called, "one of the most elegant and perceptive pieces of natural writing." Edited by Byron Preiss.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: I Books (October 31, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743407245
• ISBN-13: 978-0743407243
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,213,254 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Author Review, July 17, 2001

By	William Stout (Pasadena, CA USA) - See all my reviews

THE NEW DINOSAURS is an updating (with 32 added pages of new pictures and information) of my 1981 book THE DINOSAURS - A Fantastic New View of a Lost Era.

It's been said by many critics that this was the book that sparked the public resurgence in its interest in dinosaurs. I think it most certainly helped; Michael Crichton was nice enough to list my work as an inspiration for his book JURASSIC PARK.

The styles of the book's pictures change from illustration to illustration and are influenced by the great children's book illustrators of the past, artists such as Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Edward Detmold and N. C. Wyeth. THE NEW DINOSAURS not only gave me a chance to update the 1981 book's information and include exciting recent finds (like Giganotosaurus and the Chinese feathered dinosaurs), but to update readers as to my progress and development as an artist as well, displaying what I've learned in the last twenty years.

My "Sue" mural for Walt Disney's Animal Kingdom is included in the new book. This is the very first depiction ever painted of the famous Tyrannosaurus rex "Sue". It is also what I consider to be a "breakthrough" picture in that it is also the very first painting ever made of a specific dinosaur. I consulted with the chief Field Museum paleontologist overseeing the preparation of "Sue" to learn the nature of her pathologies. I incorporated "Sue's" wounds and injuries into my painting so that what the public would finally see was not just a painting of a Tyrannosaurus representing "Sue", but an actual portrait of "Sue" and only "Sue" --- that very specific Tyrannosaurus rex.

In the past twenty years a lot of people have come up to me and told me that they are now paleontologists because they received a copy of THE DINOSAURS as a child. My hope is that THE NEW DINOSAURS influences and inspires another generation of budding scientists.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book back in print., July 4, 2001

By	C. Moon (Valley Village, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I really can't express how happy I am to see this book in print again. This book has always stood out in my mind as something truly special--I owned a copy at the age of 10, but somehow in the 'intervening decades', I lost track of it and felt it was gone forever. But just today I saw this on the shelf, and within a glance or two of the illustrations knew this was the book I had lost. For the 10 year olds in all of us, I can say that Stout has really made the dino's come alive on the page--its enough to make even hesitant readers devour the book. I do not believe the publishers are overrating the importance of rekindling the world's interest in dinosaurs, as my memories of if have persisted all this time, despite so many other works which should have displaced it.

Stout's art is nothing short of fantastic--certainly there are a fair number of minor works here, but there are also paintings and illustrations here that are simply georgous. Scientific detail, emotion, rich and beautiful backgrounds, and sometimes even humor--they all come through here. While I am a great fan of the 'Walking with Dinosaurs' series, there is something not achieved in that film which is accomplished here because the images convey more than merely a depiction of dinosaurs. It is so blindingly clear that Stout must be a great dinosaur fan because he draws them in a way that is very passionate while also showing some incredible skill.

In the end, if you are looking for a good scientific book on dinosaurs, The Complete Dinosaur remains the ultimate tome, but many will find it unapproachable, and I would expect the size and reading level to be too much for all but the most dedicated high school student. Given this limitation, The New Dinosaurs is a book that could be read and understood by enthusiastic 8th graders (though probably with some help), and would provide no difficulty to high school age--which isn't to say that the text is dumbed down, but that instead it isn't bogged down with more science than the layman needs. More importantly though, children of most ages will find the illustrations compelling, and even the little ones will probably read parts of the text and try to understand the stories being presented. Once again, I know that as a 10 year old, I found the original edition nothing short of incredible, and I'm sure I read a good chunk of it.

Of course, there is the potential down-side for getting this book for kids--there is an illustration of dinosaur sex (nothing terribly detailed) and another of a dinosaur deficating. Perhaps it was just a matter of being raised by a mother who loved biology and was a teacher, but the inclusion of these topics as points of scientific interest, never seemed like an issue.

So to wrap this up, The New Dinosaurs seems the perfect book for several different people--fans of dinosaur art (or nature art), fans of dinosaurs (who might appreciate a more art-oriented book), younger readers with an interest in science and/or dinosaurs who would find large science texts intimidating, and really, just about any kid, because they all love dinosaurs.

Lastly, this edition looks to have an additional 30 pages or so of 'introduction' which not only includes some great new illustrations by Stout, but also some more detailed descriptions of the Mesozoic period.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic refurbished., May 10, 2001

By	Caitlin R. Kiernan (Birmingham, AL United States) - See all my reviews

The first edition of this book was released while I was in high school and, as an aspiring paleontologist, I immediately fell in love with Stout's beautiful, Art Nouveau dinosaurs. Now this classic has been updated, with new artwork and the inclusion of recent discoveries, making it even more wonderful. This is absolutely some of the most inspiring dinosaur art ever!