Dinosaurs in Fantastic Fiction | |||||
Allen A. Debus | |||||
McFarland & Company, 230 pages | |||||
A review by Steven H Silver
Each of the essays in the book stands on its own, generally without reference to the other chapters. In the earliest chapter,
where Debus focuses his attention on Jules Verne's A Journey to the Center of the Earth, it looks at the rise
of graphical interpretations of dinosaurs from their first identification. In many of these cases, Debus describes the
illustrations he is discussing, but their lack of inclusion sometimes makes his discussions difficult to follow. While in the case of
newer illustrations, there may be copyright issues, with the older issues discussed in the first chapter, the drawings should
all be in public domain.
In his chapter "Time-Relativistic Dinosaurs: Bradbury's Legacy," Debus argues that Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" strongly
influenced all time-travel stories dealing with dinosaurs that came after it. It is a strong, and at times convincing argument,
but Debus weakens his own argument by the vigor with which he proposes it, going so far as the apply the argument to Frederick
Pohl's "Let the Ants Try," which predates Bradbury's story by a year. But Debus does admit that Pohl was
merely "foreshadowing elements of Bradbury's 'A Sound of Thunder.'" He also notes that while all dinosaur time travel
stories since 1950 are paying homage to "A Sound of Thunder," in some cases that homage may be unconscious or incidental.
Other themes in dinosaurs tales that Debus identifies and discusses include the lost world saga (as defined and named by Arthur
Conan Doyle), the dinosaur as cautionary figure (such as the Gojira series), and dinosaurs in space. In some of these cases,
especially when films have been made based on texts, Debus isn't always entirely clear as to whether he is referring to the
cinematic or the textual version of a story. This is a recurring problem, most notable in his discussion concerning Michael
Crichton's Jurassic Park and Conan Doyle's The Lost World and the films based upon them.
The survey ends with a look at the rise of raptors in dinosaur-related fiction. While previously T. Rex and triceratops
were the dinosaurs of choice, with Michael Crichton's use of velociraptors in Jurassic Park and its sequels (both
in text and on film), the velociraptor, and more importantly Crichton's interpretation of them, have come to the
forefront. Debus discusses this in terms of the scientific knowledge of dinosaurs and looks at Robert Bakker's work, both
in fiction and non-fiction, on the animals.
While Debus's writing isn't always smooth and he doesn't always make his case, he does provide a look at how dinosaurs have
evolved in the public consciousness from their earliest days as slow-moving giant lizards to the present, when they are often
seen as intelligent. Over the course of time, they change from being an unknown monster to representing humanity at its worst
and most dangerous. His lengthy appendix of dinosaur fiction, along with a detailed bibliography, notes, and index, add to
the usefulness of the book and serve to point the interested reader in a variety of directions to see exactly what Debus
has been discussing.
Steven H Silver is a five-time Hugo Nominee for Best Fan Writer and the editor of the anthologies Wondrous Beginnings, Magical Beginnings, and Horrible Beginnings. He is the publisher of ISFiC Press. In addition to maintaining several bibliographies and the Harry Turtledove website, Steven is heavily involved in convention running and publishes the fanzine Argentus. |
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