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Title: Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick ISBN: 0-380-81289-4 Publisher: HarperTorch Pub. Date: 25 February, 2003 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.17 (35 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent and worthwhile dino-SF
Comment: PERSPECTIVE: sci-fi/fantasy fan, new to Swanwick's work
While "time travel" and "dinosaurs" are two themes often in sci-fi circles, Bones of the Earth is a skillful, intelligent, and refreshing adventure.
To expound on the plot would give too much away, but in summation Swanwick has developed an interesting take on time travel that gives a tight, internally consistent order to the story. His dinosaurs represent the forefront of current paleontological thinking, with a few added conjectures of his own, that gives a new and exciting view of both individual dinos and their social interactions. In addition, Swanwick's environmental descriptions bring to life both the modern era and the distant past with economical vibrancy.
For the most part, the main characters are interesting because their growth and change is followed throughout time travel, providing a greater contrast in how each is change by pivotal events of the story. However, he introduces a team of grad students in the tale, only a few of whom (Tamara, Lao-tsz, Jamal) I feel like I actually get to know. While I understand that to expound upon their characters would have resulted in a significant increase in book length, as well as unnecessarily overburdening the story, it still would have given me more of an immersion during some crucial moments. Also, the ending is a bit anti-climatic with regards to "wrapping" up the fate of the main characters, although for reasons I cannot spoil, this is appropriate, given the finale.
An interesting point to me is that apparently, some feel that Swanwick is at least intolerant of, if not outright hostile towards, both Christianity and creationism in this book, likely secondary to the fact that he includes a "villainous" creationist character. This I can't understand, given that fact that he goes to great pains to separate his villain (and motives) from all but a radical sect of creationism, resulting in a logical and suitable antagonist given the plot. And, any sort of anti-Christian or religious bias is just not present in this novel; Swanwick deals with religion in a balanced and peripheral manner, insomuch as it isn't central to the tale he is telling.
Overall, this was great novel! Despite a few minor quibbles as noted above, Bones of the Earth is smart, engaging, and a great way the spend a chunk of your time.
FINAL WORD: Read this book! Buy it, check it out from the library, or buy it and donate it to your local library.
Rating: 5
Summary: Powerful, bittersweet, novel about dinosaurs and time travel
Comment: combines several well-integrated (and rather original) SFnal ideas with some neat scientific speculation, interesting characters, a compelling plot, and a powerfully argued theme about the nature of science and the human urge to do science.
The novel concerns a program to send paleontologists back to the Mesozoic Era to study dinosaurs in their natural environment. As such it is both a dinosaur novel and a time travel novel. Perhaps unexpectedly, the thematic heart of the book is in the time travel aspect, though the dinosaur speculations are worthwhile and fun in themselves. The three main characters are Richard Leyster, a brilliant and studious scientist; Gertrude Salley, brilliant herself but manipulative and unbound by law or rules; and Griffin, the tormented administrator of the Mesozoic time travel program.
One key plot thread concerns a scheme by Christian fundamentalists to sabotage the time travel efforts, which ends up marooning a number of paleontologists in the Late Cretaceous. Griffin and his assistants try to loop back and forth through time to forestall this sabotage, but they are frustrated by the insistence of the sponsors of the time travel program that no paradoxes be created: thus anything they know to have "already happened" they cannot stop from happening. The other key thread involves Salley's attempts to subvert that law -- right at the beginning we see hints that she is trying to cause paradoxes, and her attempts continue, though her motive remains unclear to the reader for some time.
The scenes in the Cretaceous involve some well-handled "primitive survival" scenes, and some fascinating speculation about dinosaur social life and about the real causes of their extinction. The other thread involves some very clever handling of time loops and paradox, and an eventual trip far into the future to meet the Unchanging -- the mysterious beings who have offered the boon of time travel to humans. The resolution is surprising, logical, and achingly sad, or at least bittersweet. Swanwick is convincing treating human curiosity, our love of science. He is convincing treating human reactions to the possibility of fixing our past mistakes. The characters are well-drawn, particularly Griffin and his boss, the Old Man. Leyster and Salley are well done as well but a bit less fully realized -- or perhaps too clearly idealized to fit their parts. The minor characters are interesting, too. I loved the book, and I was quite moved by it.
Rating: 1
Summary: Just plain lousy.
Comment: The start of BotE is great, but don't be fooled. The novel soon loses focus, and by the time I was finished, I was hoping that there was some way that I could send Swanwick into the Mesozoic.
Do yourself a favor, and read something, anything, else.
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Title: Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer ISBN: 0765345005 Publisher: Tor Science Fiction Pub. Date: 17 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson ISBN: 0553580078 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 03 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Humans by Robert J. Sawyer ISBN: 0765346753 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 15 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Kiln People by David Brin ISBN: 0765342618 Publisher: Tor Science Fiction Pub. Date: 07 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan ISBN: 0345457684 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 04 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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