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The Dinosaur Four (2000)

by Geoff Jones(Favorite Author)

3.76 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1499677014 (ISBN13: 9781499677010)

languge

English

genre

Science Fiction

review 1: I saw a lot of good reviews for this book and the premise seemed interesting enough, so I gave it a shot. Overall, I liked the book, but I did not really like it. A lot of reviewers remarked that it would make a great movie. I think it would make a made-for-TV movie, probably on SyFy. In other words, lots of action, heroic and dastardly deeds left and right, and an ending that, on some level, is happy. Yeah, kind of par for TV movies.The premise is that 10 people in a cafe in the morning get teleported back to dinosaur times. As they struggle to survive, they find out that they weren't the only ones who got sent back. What's more, there's an escape route. All they have to do is survive the dinos (who seem intent on eating them) and themselves. And in the end, it's... more the humans who are the most treacherous.The good. If you like dinosaurs, you'll like parts of this book. There is definitely a lot of drama thrown in, but there is also some realistic behavior too. The characters as well, with the glaring exception of the guy who turns out to be the hero, are also well defined, complete with their quirks and motivations.The bad. I'm not opposed to blood and gore where necessary, but there seemed to be an awful lot of gratuitous descriptions of blood and body parts here. There also seemed to be some preoccupation with sex (although there are no sex scenes). Also, some of the characters seem cut from a cookie-cutter mold. I know that's usual and not really a bad thing, but how many times do I need to hear that this guy wants to get back home to his teenage kids and hug them? But I think the part that threw me most was the animal behavior. I understand that wild animals eat when they can, but they don't eat everything in sight when they can, especially when they have a full belly. Oh, and some people seemed to have gotten killed just for the sake of killing characters. All in all, the book reads like you'd expect a made-for-TV movie to play out. It's not great literature, and you might even feel guilty for reading it, but like a TV movie you'll find yourself reasonably entertained as you go through it. I can't say that I recommend this book, but I can say that if you read it you won't hate it or yourself.
review 2: 10 people being brought back to prehistorical age, where everything can happen if you have the time. Blood, dinosaurs and fucked up relations, that makes a fantastic book. They have 14 hours to rectify the mess of scientists, will they make it or will they all die? The story was pretty well written, it is really captivating and gets you in the mood.The end could have been better, but the entire story makes it a 4, close to 5 stars book. The personality of every personage makes it really interesting and, I tell you, you won't be able to stop. Gore enough to make you want to close your eyes, but the story is too good so you can't really do it.Thanks to Geoff Jones for the giveaway.Received the book through GoodReads First Reader Giveaway. Yannick Serres (your favorite french quebecer reviewer!) less

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