Helpful Score: 9
Douglas Preston is truly an artist with words (he's smart enough not to have to resort to prefanity-filler text - surely a very pleasant rarity to encounter as a reader! An added bonus for me - he didn't resort to cheap sleazy sex scenes, I don't even remember a single sex scene, the story stood on it's own without any kind of tawdriness.) and he didn't disappoint in that regard with this story. I was THERE while reading this book, I felt the intensity of the western desert heat and felt the thirst of the characters. I "saw" the ancient American dwellings. I "saw" the ancient Tyrannosaurus and other dinos and their habitat and way of living.
While Preston is creative and imaginative, he has a unique flair of mixing those qualities with true facts perfectly, much like Crichton and Koontz. His books always make me think WOW! it's certainly feasible something like that is possible...and it continues to make me think & learn new things.
Also he is extremely knowledgeable in the field of archaeology and incorporates that knowledge into his stories masterfully. He's an archaeological correspondent for THE NEW YORKER magazine and travels worldwide to archaeological sites. I have a love of archaeology, mysteries, and sci-fi, all of which Preston uses to a certain extent (not so much sci-fi as the others).
He's an expert long-distance horseman and a member of the Long Riders Guild; he knows the western U.S. up close and personal and bases many of his stories there.
I do have a few complaints, one is that the story was a bit slow in the beginning, another is that I thought it would be similar to Jurassic Park, but that was just my assumption. The last "complaint" is I was unable to tie a few things together by the end, but again that was probably my fault. If I read it again before it's ordered I might be able to tie up the loose ends :)
While Preston is creative and imaginative, he has a unique flair of mixing those qualities with true facts perfectly, much like Crichton and Koontz. His books always make me think WOW! it's certainly feasible something like that is possible...and it continues to make me think & learn new things.
Also he is extremely knowledgeable in the field of archaeology and incorporates that knowledge into his stories masterfully. He's an archaeological correspondent for THE NEW YORKER magazine and travels worldwide to archaeological sites. I have a love of archaeology, mysteries, and sci-fi, all of which Preston uses to a certain extent (not so much sci-fi as the others).
He's an expert long-distance horseman and a member of the Long Riders Guild; he knows the western U.S. up close and personal and bases many of his stories there.
I do have a few complaints, one is that the story was a bit slow in the beginning, another is that I thought it would be similar to Jurassic Park, but that was just my assumption. The last "complaint" is I was unable to tie a few things together by the end, but again that was probably my fault. If I read it again before it's ordered I might be able to tie up the loose ends :)
Helpful Score: 6
I'm a big fan of the Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston duo. Once I read all of their collaborative books, I started on their individual writings. This book is just as suspenseful and fun as all of the ones they wrote together. It starts out with a murder and one witness. AND as you can guess the one witness becomes key to solving the crime. And, like all good suspense novels, the murderer is focused on finding the witness. Preston keeps you turning pages until the very end. I love his style of writing and couldn't put the book down.
Helpful Score: 1
Another excellent book by Douglas Preston. If you like dinosaurs, suspense and a little violence, this is the book for you. A great read, finished it in one day
Helpful Score: 1
This is a page-turner! I couldn't figure out until late in the story how two major pieces fit together, and it was a great surprise.
A good read that keeps you turning the pages. I felt the style was a cross between Michael Crichton and Dan Brown. Enjoy!
I enjoyed reading this book. It was exciting and adventurous. My favorite kind of reads.
This book is really good. It keeps you intrigued and trying to figure out what is going on. The only thing I didn't like is the mentions of evolution, which I don't agree with, but if you do, then you will like this book completely.
Very interesting tale with a page turning twist near the end.
Great book! Even though it is not part of the Pendergast series, it is still very good and keeps you interested until the very end. Definatly would recommend this book!
For sci fi and history lovers alike! Great read!
Fun thriller; nicely paced; an overall quick, enjoyable read.
"Preston's exhilarating and absorbing science-based effort will thrill readers from the first page to the last.__Library Journal
If you liked Michael Crichton you will love this.
If you liked Michael Crichton you will love this.
This is a great book. A story rooted, at least pretending to be rooted!, in science--a little like a Michael Crighton. Great characters, great dialog. Very hard to put down.
rp
rp
Blown away? Yes. Socks knocked off? For sure. This is the kind of a book that takes you deep into the night and will not let you go. It begins on the moon with a very real conversation between astronaut Eugene Cernan and Apollo Ground Control in 1971, and goes from there to an eerie canyon in New Mexico. Then you think you're on a contemporary treasure hunt. But Douglas Preston has a surprise for you...and it is not a small one, no, not at all. I will not forget Tyrannosaur Canyon. Nobody who reads it will, not for a long, long time.
Whitley Strieber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Communion
Whitley Strieber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Communion
Good read i would recoment it
Quite an adventure, hidden 65 million years under stones!
Tom Broadbent, known form "The Codex" hears some shots while riding through the canyons. He discovers a dying man who entrusts him a diary full of numbers, demanding the promise to give it to his daughter Robbie. Without knowing who the man is, the police in his neck, a killer capturing his wife, Tom tries to do the right things along with his new friend, a former CIA agent while someone, far away, very much unknown and at the end of the foochain, makes the discovery of the century that changes the history of life and science.
Tyrannosaur Canyon´s a well researched thriller. The reader clearly notices Prestons background through his way of explaining complicated things in an easy way and building around that a thriller that knocks you off.
Having studied mathematics, biology, physics, anthropology, chemistry, geology and astronomy and his work at the American Museum of Natural History I can´t imagine someone better than him to write about fossils and dinosaurs.
Tyrannosaur Canyon deserves five stars !
Tom Broadbent, known form "The Codex" hears some shots while riding through the canyons. He discovers a dying man who entrusts him a diary full of numbers, demanding the promise to give it to his daughter Robbie. Without knowing who the man is, the police in his neck, a killer capturing his wife, Tom tries to do the right things along with his new friend, a former CIA agent while someone, far away, very much unknown and at the end of the foochain, makes the discovery of the century that changes the history of life and science.
Tyrannosaur Canyon´s a well researched thriller. The reader clearly notices Prestons background through his way of explaining complicated things in an easy way and building around that a thriller that knocks you off.
Having studied mathematics, biology, physics, anthropology, chemistry, geology and astronomy and his work at the American Museum of Natural History I can´t imagine someone better than him to write about fossils and dinosaurs.
Tyrannosaur Canyon deserves five stars !
Very good book. I read it in 2 days.
My first Douglas Preston book...was impressed. I'll be looking for more of his work from now on.
Excellent read. You will have a hard time putting this book down. Douglas Preston is an excellent storyteller. The ending will absolutely surprise you.
I found this book to be a light read, but pretty decent.
Entertaining read, but suspend your reason.
A treasure hunter is found shot in a remote New Mexico area. With his dying breath he hands Tom Broadbent (from "The Codex") a notebook, asking him to give it to his daughter. The notebook contains nothing but numbers, so Tom consults with a monk at a nearby monastery (who just happens to be ex-CIA, and experienced in cryptology). He is able to decipher it as the resting place of an exceptional T. rex fossil.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the treasure hunter's killer who was after the notebook, but got to his victim just a tad too late, and thus only ended up with a weird rock, kidnaps Tom's wife Sally (who is, of course, a beauty as well as a fighter), in order to force Tom to give him the notebook. The killer is indebted to a renowned paleontologist who helped him get out of prison (yeah, it's totally believable how they made contact!), and who wants the fossil. Instead, all the killer brings him is the strange rock. Which is given to a technician (actually an overqualified, but underappreciated Ph.D.) who examines it and finds out some astonishing things about the fossil. It seems it has something in common with a vanished lunar rock sample, AND points to another explanation of the dinosaurs' demise 65 million years ago.
The book starts out suspenseful, but sags a bit midway through. I like stories that are at least somewhat plausible and don't rely too much on coincidences and luck. It's just amazing how everybody just happens to have the exact skills needed, and how they keep getting out of impossible situations. Crichton's Jurassic Park is better, because it's more plausible.
A treasure hunter is found shot in a remote New Mexico area. With his dying breath he hands Tom Broadbent (from "The Codex") a notebook, asking him to give it to his daughter. The notebook contains nothing but numbers, so Tom consults with a monk at a nearby monastery (who just happens to be ex-CIA, and experienced in cryptology). He is able to decipher it as the resting place of an exceptional T. rex fossil.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the treasure hunter's killer who was after the notebook, but got to his victim just a tad too late, and thus only ended up with a weird rock, kidnaps Tom's wife Sally (who is, of course, a beauty as well as a fighter), in order to force Tom to give him the notebook. The killer is indebted to a renowned paleontologist who helped him get out of prison (yeah, it's totally believable how they made contact!), and who wants the fossil. Instead, all the killer brings him is the strange rock. Which is given to a technician (actually an overqualified, but underappreciated Ph.D.) who examines it and finds out some astonishing things about the fossil. It seems it has something in common with a vanished lunar rock sample, AND points to another explanation of the dinosaurs' demise 65 million years ago.
The book starts out suspenseful, but sags a bit midway through. I like stories that are at least somewhat plausible and don't rely too much on coincidences and luck. It's just amazing how everybody just happens to have the exact skills needed, and how they keep getting out of impossible situations. Crichton's Jurassic Park is better, because it's more plausible.
Exciting book, read it cover to cover in one sitting.
Drum up a willing suspension of disbelief and have a good time with this suspense tale.
This is a great entertaining read. Well written with science, thrills and a treasure hunt you won't forget!
Best Book I have read in a while! From the start it keeps you on the edge. Introduces more to the plot as you go along. Lots of different elements in this story. Very interesting concept on why the dinasours disappeared. Actually agrees with the Bible.
I love Preston/Child books and this one by Preston only is a good read. Not a big fan of dinosaurs but the story line is suspenseful with just a smidgen of science.
This was a new author for me. I really liked his work and look forward to reading more.
Great, fun read!
Dinosaur hunters, stealers & buyers,kidnappers and murder.Very interesting.Makes you feel you are right there with what is going on.Never read any of his books and this is Great....
very good story! sequel to his novel: the codex
Prose is fairly good, but pacing of story is spotty.
This is a good thriller! It is about dinosaur hunters and treasure.
Science based book, reminds me of Michael Crichton.
New York Times bestseller...
very good techno-thriller, a mix of astronautical and paleontological themes with a modern day thriller
Great, quick read. If you liked Jurassic Park then this one is right up your alley.
REally good read!
Really love the books by this author and the ones by Preston and Lincoln Child.
Clever--don't miss this
i really liked this book.
A moon rock missing for thirty years...
Five buckets of blood-soaked sand found in a New Mexico canyon...
A scientist with ambition enough to kill...
A monk who will redeem the world...
The greatest scientific discovery of all time...
A dark agency with a deadly mission...
What fire bolt from the galactic dark shattered the Earth eons ago, and now hides in that remote cleft in the southwest U.S. known as Tyrannosaur Canyon?
Five buckets of blood-soaked sand found in a New Mexico canyon...
A scientist with ambition enough to kill...
A monk who will redeem the world...
The greatest scientific discovery of all time...
A dark agency with a deadly mission...
What fire bolt from the galactic dark shattered the Earth eons ago, and now hides in that remote cleft in the southwest U.S. known as Tyrannosaur Canyon?
Excellent read!
Could not go to bed till I finished this story
NY Times Bestseller
A good story, keeps you reading. A moon rock missing for thirty years....Five buckets of blood soaked sand found in a New Mexico canyon...A scientist with ambition enough to kill...A monk who will redeem the world....A dark agency with a deadly mission...The greatest scientific discovery of all time...........
A moon rock missing for thirty years ... Five buckets of blook-soaked sand found in a New Mexico canyon ... A scientist with ambition enought to kill ... A monk who will redeem the world ... The greatest scientific discovery of all time ... What fire bolt from the galactic dark shattered the Earth eons ago, and now hides in that remore cleft in the southwest U.S. known as ... Tyrannosaur Canyon?
A moon rock missing for 30 years... Five buckets of blood-soaked sand found in a New Mexico canyon... A scientist with ambition enough to kill.. A monk who will redeem the world.. A dark agency with a deadly mission. The greatest scientific discovery of all time. What fire bolr from the galactic dark shattered the Earth eons ago and now hides in that remote cleft in the southwest U.S. known as...TYRANNOSARU CANYON?
