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Summary
Summary
It's the year 1947, and two film makers and a circus trainer are looking to return the last of the dinosaurs discovered by Professor Challenger to their natural home, the plateau of El Grande in Venezuela.
Author Notes
Greg Bear was born in San Diego, California, on August 20, 1951. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from San Diego State University in 1973. At age 14, he began submitting pieces to magazines and at 15 he sold his first story to Robert Lowndes' Famous Science Fiction. It would be five years before he sold another piece, but by 23 he was selling stories regularly.
He wrote more than 30 science fiction and fantasy books and has won numerous awards for his work. In 1984, Hardfought and Blood Music won the Nebula Awards for best novella and novelette; Blood Music went on to win the Hugo Award. The novel version of that story, also called Blood Music, won the Prix Apollo in France. In 1987, Tangents won the Hugo and Nebula awards for best short story. He also won a Nebula in 1994 for Moving Mars and in 2001 for Darwin's Radio. Both Dinosaur Summer and Darwin's Radio have been awarded the Endeavour for best novel published by a Northwest science fiction author.
He is also an illustrator, and his work has appeared in Galaxy, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Vertex, and in both hardcover and paperback books. He was a founding member of ASFA, the Association of Science Fiction Artists.
His works include City at the End of Time, Hull Zero Three, The Mongoliad, Mariposa, Halo: Cryptum, Halo: Primordium and Halo: Silentium. His most recent works included Take back the Sky, and The Unfinished Land, published in February 2021.
Greg Bear died on November 19, 2022, from a series of strokes, caused by clots. His wife, Astrid, was by his side. He was 71.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Dispensing with his usual futuristic fare, Bear (Slant) looks backward for some old-fashioned SF with a modernist spinand mixed results. His premise is strong: in 1947, an American expedition travels to the Venezuelan plateau explored by Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger in order to return to their natural habitat the handful of dinosaurs surviving from among the many taken long ago from the plateau for human amusement. The spin comes not only from Bear's mixing of science fact and fiction but also from his blend of fictional principals with real-life ones. Focal character Peter Belzoni is made up, though his 15-year-old mind and heart seem real enough and give the book a warm YA feel and an effective coming-of-age turn. So is Peter's photographer father, who's shooting the expedition for National Geographic and who invites Peter along. Peter's chief expedition companion, however, legendary Hollywood model-maker Ray Harryhausen, is very real (and still alive), as are other film and circus folk (Merian Cooper, John Ringling, etc.) involved in the trip. The book has a winsome, boy's-adventure spirit to it, and Bear lavishes considerable care on his characters, human and dino. But the pacing lacks vigor. The book's first half, detailing the expedition's progress to the plateau, generates little suspense. After Peter and others are marooned on the plateau, tension builds, but there's no serious payoff until the book's gory climax. In a subgenre dominated by Jurassic Park and that seems aimed at teens (in body or in spirit), that is, even given the novel's many other charms, too little, too late. Illustrations (color and b&w) by Tony DiTerlizzi. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Fantasy built on a fantasy--in Bear's alternative 1947, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World wasn't fiction, but fact!--mingling real and imaginary characters with a quite unbelievable hodgepodge of defiantly unextinct beasties from the Carboniferous on up. Circus Lothar, the last dinosaur circus, is closing down, and its animal trainer, Vince Shellabarger, is determined to return his charges to their home, the isolated Venezuelan plateau of El Grande discovered by Professor Challenger in 1912. National Geographic's Anthony Belzoni will cover the event, assisted by his 15-year-old son Peter. Filming the cavalcade will be Willis ""OBie"" O'Brien (of King Kong fame) and special effects/animation genius Ray Harryhausen. The tough journey is made more difficult by the Venezuelan Army's quarrel with both the politicos and the local Indians. Still, the expedition reaches the rickety bridge leading on to El Grande, and most of the animals cross safely. But Dagger, a vicious predator, escapes from his cage; predictably, the bridge falls, marooning Peter, Anthony, Obie, Ray, and Billie, an Indian pursuing a spirit quest. After various adventures--the group is menaced by critters ranging from giant salamanders and hungry therapsids to huge ""death eagles""--they make it back, minus assorted limbs and teeth, bearing a couple of precious eggs. Amiable, sometimes stirring incident-packed baloney: a yarn that screams I wanna be a movie! Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.