Subject: DINOSAUR SUMMER by Greg Bear

From: "Evelyn C Leeper" <[email-masked]>
Date: 09 Apr 1998 13:46:55 -0400

DINOSAUR SUMMER by Greg Bear
         Warner Aspect, ISBN 0-446-52098-5, 1998, 325pp, US$23
                   A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		    Copyright 1998 Evelyn C. Leeper

     This is billed as an alternate history, and it is in the sense that
its premise is that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's LOST WORLD was non-fiction,
and dinosaurs did survive on a Venezuelan plateau.  But it's not alternate
history in the sense of looking at what changes there would be in society
because of the change.

     This is not so much a complaint as a warning.  If you like alternate
histories for that sociological aspect, you will be disappointed in
DINOSAUR SUMMER.  It is more aimed at the person who enjoyed THE LOST
WORLD and wants to read more about dinosaurs and the lost plateau.  The
story starts out in a dinosaur circus, but that seems mostly to allow Bear
to introduce his human, reptilian, and avian characters before heading
back to the plateau.  Some of the latter two are real, others are
fictitious, and you probably can't tell the players without a scorecard,
which Bear provides in an afterword.

     I was really looking forward to this book, but found it a
disappointment.  Perhaps I was looking for more change in society than the
fact that KING KONG flopped.  As an adventure novel, it starts off very
slowly, and doesn't offer the reader much to carry hold her interest.  I
suppose if you really like dinosaurs, they will carry the book, but I
found DINOSAUR SUMMER a disappointment.

%T      Dinosaur Summer
%A      Greg Bear
%C      New York
%D      February 1998
%I      Warner Aspect
%O      hardback, US$23
%G      ISBN 0-446-52098-5
%P      325pp

Evelyn C. Leeper    |  [email-masked]
+1 732 957 2070     |  http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4824
"What has the study of biology taught you about the Creator, Dr. Haldane?"
"I'm not sure, but He seems to be inordinately fond of beetles."