Cretaceous Dawn

Part Jurassic park and part survival literature with a healthy dose of sci fi physics. An unusual survival group but the scenes are well described to put yourself in the story.

I am going to give this book four stars, and I do recommend reading. However, I found strengths and weaknesses that made this less than the perfect read.First the strengths. I thought the description of the cretaceous environment was well done, extremely accurate to what we know of the period with careful and interesting speculation beyond what is known. Once the adventurers end up in the cretaceous the book is really quite enjoyable.On the weaknesses: I found character development to be extremely weak. The authors should have spent considerably more time developing the major characters, both before the 'action' starts and throughout the book. Also, the overall impression of the writing (vocabulary, sentence structure, etc..) reminded me of the kind of adventure book I would have liked to read when a teenager than an older adult. The romanticism within the novel was wooden and stiff to some extent. I think the authors had it in them to really flesh out this book, but possibly the publisher or other pressures curtailed its development.For me, as a scientist, the greatest weaknesses were the physics/engineering used to justify and motivate the time travel elements of the story. I just could not suspend my disbelief of many of the nonsense physics contrivances to which the authors resorted to get their actors into the cretaceous and then explain various nuances of the plot. After writing their first draft of this novel, I think they really should have more carefully researched what is known about time travel and what would be necessary to create a believable mechanism to explain their story elements, some of which critically depended on believing the physics. For me, the authors' physics was just unbelievable, and I think the critical part was the lack of consideration of energy. If time travel is ever to be possible, it will not occur by a simple accident in a typical lab. It will require enormous expenditures of energy and massive disruptions of entropy and momentum. Too many inconsistencies otherwise cannot be ignored, like the effect of the different positions of Earth in the universe now and 65 million years ago. I think with time travel one can resort to magic, unknown physics, or known physics, but if one resorts to known physics, be careful.Despite my reservations, I still recommend this book.

Cretaceous Dawn (Or as originally titled Hell Creek) is an interesting book in many ways, and there were times I found it enjoyable. This book has been praised for its scientific "accuracy" as opposed to other "dino" adventures with less "realistic" environments. While I can appreciate this fact, and the knowledge that went into making this book, I also recognized that it falls short in pretty much ever other area***Spoilers***This is a book for "dino-geeks." If you are into dinosaurs, and feel like you understand the exact conditions that existed on the earth 65 million years ago, including dinosaur/mammalian behavior patterns, then this book is a panacea for your underdeveloped imagination. All kidding aside, the author(s) attempt is merely to present the environment more realistically than it has been done in the past when we understood less about dinosaurs. Now, we have a much better understanding due to computer modeling etc, but of course, our knowledge is incomplete. To suggest that anyone's idea of exact conditions at any geographic location 65 million years removed is accurately represented is ridiculous. This is an improved revised prehistory, which is far better than past descriptions of prehistory, but as always, it will remain a "best guess."The funny thing is the best of the book is the environment. It does "feel" somewhat realistic, and the predator level is not overdone for dramatic effect. But the rest of the book is absurd.The premise is absurd. Traveling 1000 miles in 60 days to find a potentially inaccurate coordinate without a compass, so they could return to the present. On foot. Or upriver on a "barge" type raft made of sticks. The characters are just bad. They manage to kill the only useful member of the party early on, and leave only the scientists. The scientists bicker about silly things, waste lots of time, while one ponders how much he likes a girl for chapters and chapters without ever getting up the nerve to do anything about it. Albeit, this might be a reasonable model for the scientific community, but they as a team, collectively, they have less charisma than a rock.As you read the book, you realize it has no sense of time. When they first arrive, they just wander about aimlessly, and somehow manage to miss a 50 foot crocodile eating a deceased member of the team. And suddenly they have a camp, built out of stones. And suddenly, but much later, they decide to find out where they are by climbing trees. And oh, they are on an island. But it has been days. How big is the island? We don't know. But it better have been 16.7 miles times the number of days they have been there or they would be falling behind. They never are in a hurry. They don't worry about falling behind. They only figure out to travel at night after days, even though their expert tells them it would be safest early on. Nothing flows naturally in the sense of time in regards to the plot.The characters are idiots. The girl says "You look like a drowned rat," and the response is "you look like a drowned primate." The characters speculate as to the location of a headless dinosaur corpse that has had its belly split open. Did it run away after it was injured? Without its head and a belly split open? The dialogue is some of the worst I've ever read.I could easily go on, but you get the idea. This books is okay if you really are into dinosaurs, and think your favorite species deserves to be mentioned in a book in as accurate an environment as humanly possibly AT THIS TIME. But the story is horrible. I'd rather watch an unrealistic movie with interesting characters than read a long book with characters who would better serve the story as dino-chow.I'll add a star for the science content.Avoid. It is more entertaining to read a well researched textbook.

There is 1 reason and 1 reason only that I give this book a full 5 star rating instead of what would have been a 4, and that is that fact that this "genre" is so sparse that within it this is surely the best you're going to get right now.Scientists get sent back in time to the cretaceous and despite a few minor missteps the authors manage to create a living, breathing, realistic and frightening world around you in such vivid detail that any minor flaws are soon forgiven.The book in not perfect, not at all, but what it does right is highly praiseworthy and anyone with an appreciation for the genre will enjoy it IMMENSELY.Up there with Micheal Crichtens "Jurassic Park" novel in my opinion.Give it a read, you won't be disappointed.