Dinosaur Summer

Greg Bear's Dinosaur Summer was a real change for the usual fare from Bear that I've been reading. He's probably been more known for sweeping tales involving grand themes like revolution on Mars (Moving Mars), altering humanity (Slant) or his more recent set of books revolving around genetics (Darwin's Radio, Darwin's Children) and others.

Dinosaur Summer returns him to the field of books written for young adults (like his earlier duo of The Forge of God and Anvil of Stars). However, there's a caveat: this (as with the two earlier) are written for young adults, with emphasis on the adult. There are occasional adult themes, adult language; these aren't watered down books.

The book is set in the same world as Arthur Conan Doyle's tales of Professor Challenger, specifically the book The Lost World. In that tale, Professor Challenger journeyed to South America and found an immense mesa populated with dinosaurs. Bear's book is set shortly after World War II. Numerous expeditions went to El Grande and brought back dinosaurs for museums, but also for circuses. The book opens at the last show for one dinosaur circus; the decision has been made to return the remaining dinosaurs to El Grande. The story follows the expedition as they try to bring the dinosaurs back to the wild, battling tin-pot dictators, saboteurs, the elements, revolutionaries and more all the way.

The characters are a mix of real and imagined. The main character is teenaged Peter Belzoni, who is taken on the journey by his father, Anthony (a freelance photographer). A number of real people are thick in the action of the book,notablyy Meriam Cooper, Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen.

My copy of the book was a hardcover from Warner Aspect from 1998. I hope they made money on it, because they put some nice touches into the book. The book is sprinkled with black-and-white illustrations by Tony DiTerlizzi as well as a number of color plates by the artist depicting various scenes of the book. Other than specialty books like the recent Del Rey series of books by Robert E. Howard, you don't see an effort like this too often!

Not a heavyweight book of grand themes like man of Bear's other books, but a fun tale. I can't wait to loan it to my daughter in a few years.