Tyrannosaur Canyon (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "STEM WEATHERS SCRAMBLED to the top of the Mesa de los Viejos, tied his burro to a dead juniper, and settled himself down on a..." (more)
Key Phrases: high mesa country, high mesas, basement lab, New Mexico, Tyrannosaur Canyon, Chama River (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

About the Author

DOUGLAS PRESTON has worked for the American Museum of Natural History as well as with his frequent collaborator, Lincoln Child. He has authored such bestselling thrillers as Brimstone, The Cabinet of Curiosities, and Relic. His latest solo novel is The Codex.

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Rex-ommended Reading
You won't need to do any research before reading Douglas Preston's exciting novel Tyrannosaur Canyon, but it's easy to see he did plenty. Check out his list of recommended reading to learn more about the mighty T. Rex and the fascinating world of dinosaurs in general.

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of this improbable thriller from bestseller Preston (The Codex), innocent bystander Tom Broadbent is riding his horse through a New Mexico canyon when he comes upon prospector Stem Weathers, who's just been shot. Before Weather dies, he gives Tom a notebook filled with mysterious numbers, asking him to pass it on to his daughter. Taking this assignment to heart, Tom puts himself and his wife at ever greater, more pointless risk as he tries to deliver the notebook. Soon the Broadbents find themselves the target of the prospector's assassin—a jailbird hired by an evil British paleontologist seeking the perfectly preserved remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex—as well as a rogue government operative who's trying, with a commandeered army squad, to kill almost everyone in the book. Lively yet ridiculous, the narrative loses all plausibility as it becomes clear that the characters do what they do solely in order to keep the plot churning to its conclusion. The recent real-life discovery of a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil containing soft tissue makes this particularly timely.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (August 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765311046
• ISBN-13: 978-0765311047
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (128 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #361,597 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

91 of 111 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An electrifying race against the odds!!!!, August 23, 2005

By	Colin P. Lindsey (Manchester, NH) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars burdened by implausibility, weak development--low 3, November 17, 2005

By	B. Capossere (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Desperately seeking T-Rex., August 26, 2005

By	E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"Tyrannosaur Canyon," Douglas Preston's new science fiction thriller, is set in the desert of New Mexico. A grizzled old prospector, Marston "Stem" Weathers, has made an astonishing discovery--the location of the largest and most well preserved dinosaur fossil ever found. He would like to keep his secret under wraps until he can cash in on it. Little does Weathers know that that an unscrupulous scientist has already hired a vicious ex-con to track him down and steal his notes. As luck would have it, Stem's notebook somehow falls into the hands of an innocent bystander named Tom Broadbent.

Tom approaches a former CIA agent and monk-in-training named Wyman Ford to help break the notebook's code. However, there are ruthless and powerful people who are equally interested in solving this puzzle, and "Tyrannosaur Canyon" involves a lengthy and deadly race between the good guys and the bad guys. Who will find the reptile first? Which characters will die trying? Preston peppers his narrative with fascinating facts about the biology and history of the great T-Rex, making her a central character in the story. Another key player is Dr. Melodie Crookshank, a brilliant and underappreciated scientist with an advanced degree in geophysical chemistry, who faces the greatest intellectual challenge of her so far undistinguished career.

The action never flags. There are thrilling chase scenes, several murders, breathtaking moments in the laboratory, amazing military hardware, and some really cool science. Preston writes evocative descriptive passages describing the lonely and forbidding vistas of the vast desert, and when the heroes go for a long stretch without water, the reader feels their horrendous thirst. The book's premise is pure fantasy and the ending is way over-the-top. Still, "Tyrannosaur Canyon" is an entertaining and escapist adventure novel, with colorful characters risking their lives to get their hands on the biggest fossil of them all.