The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of Their Lost World Paperback – Illustrated, April 30, 2019

This is a review from a reader who has purchased the hardcover, Kindle, and Audible editions of the book: the former for my bookshelf, the second for convenient reading, and the third just to complete the set since I had an Audible credit to burn at the time. Initially I bought Dr. Brusatte's book on a whim: it had occurred to me that paleontology had advanced by leaps and bounds since the nineties when I was actively learning about these prehistoric creatures. I thought, "Gee, it would be interesting to see how far it's all come since I was checking out books at the school library and playing '3D Dinosaur Adventure' on that crusty old PC." It certainly does a good job of catching one up on modern views of dinosaurs among paleontologists.First off, if you're the type of person who expects books on scientific subjects to be a drag to read, have no fear in this case. Steve Brusatte is clearly writing with a mentality very close to what an effective teacher needs to keep students engaged, which is to say: be entertaining, present the information in a lively way, give the audience's enthusiasm room to effectively drive their learning forward. This is not a dry fact-dump, but a "story," for want of a better description. It tells the history of the dinosaurs with vigor, often stepping into side-stories about the paleontologists who work to uncover and deduce the details of that story. Thus you learn not only about the dinosaurs, but about the many and varied intrepid men and women who work to find out all they can about them and other aspects of natural history.The book begins with a colorful description of what the world must have been like in the Permian period, transitioning into the Triassic, where dinosaurs were (contrary to previous belief) bit players, and this is a strong way to open, because it ties in with those side-stories about paleontology, and here we begin to see some discussion on the changing views about dinosaurs and how paleontologists can indeed be mistaken about their findings. It continues on from there. Readers of this book who are willing to and interested in learning about these topics will find this to be an excellent place to begin learning about dinosaurs and paleontology, and those already in the know will likely enjoy it as a refresher course.The hardcover edition is well-formatted, with a fitting selection of visually-pleasing yet easy-to-read text fonts and a fairly generous use of illustrations, photographs, and occasional diagrams where needed. The Kindle version is a little dodgier by the nature of what it is. The first paragraph or so of any given chapter sub-section has an oddly larger text font than the following paragraphs, but the only difficulty arises from those illustrations and such, which tend to be shrunk-down to fit whatever your display screen is... as is the case with most e-books, these elements do not make the smoothest transition, but this is a perfectly serviceable way to enjoy the book if you are reading it, say, on public transit, or on break at work.The audiobook's reading works quite well, though I note that at the time of this review Audible narration does not work for the Prologue chapter, even though it is indeed in the audiobook. I assume there was an oversight in programming, and have reported this to customer service. It may even have been fixed by the time you read this review. Other than that and the obvious lack of photographs and images in the audiobook, the manner in which this reading is presented may strike listeners as a tiny bit too geared toward younger audiences, with some exaggeration in voice tone when the reader wants things to sound exciting or intriguing that was quite a long way from how my mental voice vocalized the text while reading it independent of audio accompaniment. That said, it's a pleasant listen. I just hope they fix that Audible narration problem with the prologue.All in all, I highly recommend this book for those interested in the subject, especially in hardcover, as it's a very nice addition to anyone's bookshelf. Readers be forewarned, however. Paleontology is an advancing science at all times, and the information in this book is likely to go out of date in a surprisingly short span of time, as the educational material from the nineties and 2000's did. If you find it interesting enough to pursue, however, you might consider staying up-to-date on paleontological finds and theories on your own time by following the works of both Dr. Brusatte and others in his field. It certainly can't hurt to know more about the planet you were born on, yes?

I bet it is not very hard for the majority of people to grasp the content of this book just by scanning its title. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte is an epically written summary of the amazing history of the dinosaurs, from their modest beginnings in the Triassic supercontinent called Pangea, through their remarkably widespread dominance all across the Earth, to the tragic demise of most of them at the end of the Cretaceous Period, around 66 million years ago. It is probably not easy to crunch over 150 million years of dinosaur existence in the Mesozoic Era into a single book in an organized and comprehensive way, but the author has proven himself by successfully executing this noble, monumental task.The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is a thrilling journey both in the present and ancient past. Steve takes readers from place to place on the globe, using his personal experiences and stories to guide the dinosaur-curious minds through the long, wondrous evolutionary tale of our distant reptilian cousins. Along the way, you'll meet many paleontological figures – before reading the book I had known or at least heard of many of them and it is nice to have furthered my knowledge of them through the oft witty descriptions given by the author. Steve presents the story in this book with his amazing rhetorical writing skills, producing a fantastic marriage between art and science that keeps the readers riveted along the ride. Throughout the book you will bone-deeply feel his immense passion for dinosaurs, and science more generally, as well as clearly see that Steve is a man of humility – I'd really love to chew the fat with him over a ketoprak dinner in Jakarta, if I have the chance. Tyrannosaurus rex is undoubtedly the most famous non-bird dinosaur and Steve treats us to one chapter fully devoted to the "tyrant lizard king". The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs certainly deserves a place on any dinophile's bookshelf and is too good to be left unread.

Displayed fine on Kindle Paperwhite and iPad Pro. 4 stars for Kindle Unlimited, would only give 3 stars for $15.99.A lot of text regarding author and his colleagues, some of which might be considered objectionable by un-woke parents for children or young adults. Many attempts at humor, some brought a smile but a number of groaner jokes - in a few cases wasn't sure it it was a joke or the author was serious. I skimmed over these parts.A readable summary but with a number of internal inconsistencies and some significant differences with other sources, such as Oxygen levels in Mesozoic same as now and food consumption per ton of body weight of T Rex more than 10 times that of a Sauropod.The author's focus is on genealogy and the family tree of dinosaurs. Convincing summary arguments that birds are the remaining family tree branch of dinosaurs. The beginning of the last chapter describing the asteroid impact ending the Cretaceous from the author's thesis is the best.There are a number of references cited at the end and recommendations on text for further detail. I plan to follow through on some of these before returning to Kindle Unlimited.