Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 10/12/2017 + 1184 more book reviews

Several years ago, I read Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything which I thought was a great introduction to science and the history of the earth. Included in this book was a section on the quibbling and antagonism between Professors Edward Cope and Othniel Marsh over the discovery and credit for discovering various species of dinosaurs. Well, this posthumous novel of Crichton's gives a fictional account of one summer's expedition in the badlands of Montana in search of dinosaur fossils by the two scientists. It is told from the perspective of a fictional Yale student, William Johnson, who loses a bet and has to travel with Marsh on one of his summer expeditions. He signs on as a photographer for Marsh but Marsh soon suspects he is a spy for Cope who is also in Montana looking for fossils. Marsh abandons him and luckily he is able to join Cope's party. Thus ensues a great competition for the bones amidst the wilds of Montana with danger all around including attacks from the Sioux Indians who had just recently defeated Custer at Little Big Horn as well as from outlaws and Marsh's party. Johnson, at one point, is left for dead with several boxes of fossils and is able to make his way to Deadwood in the Black Hills where he meets Wyatt Earp among others.. Along the way Johnson evolves from an Eastern greenhorn into a Wild West gunslinger! I really enjoyed this novel that was part science, part historical, and part western. Based on the postscript, this was actually written prior to Jurassic Park and was probably what seeded Crichton's idea for that blockbuster. Overall very enjoyable.

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