Rating:

Humans and Dinosaurs, Together Again

Author: James F. David

What’s better than dinosaurs? Dinosaurs running amok among people, of course!

Footprints of Thunder is a science fiction / techno thriller in the vein of a Michael Crichton epic. Science and adventure/action survival merge here when time waves, caused by humanity’s reckless use of nuclear weapons, brings parts of the past into the present and parts of the present into the past. This is happening on a global scale – suddenly and viciously. Cities have gone missing – including Portland. In their place, primordial forests and savannahs have emerged, populated by strange creatures.

In amongst this chaos, we have a large, complex, and mostly engaging group of characters. They are bisected evenly – a goodly portion of them are just in the wrong place at the wrong time, trying desperately to survive. The other half are scientists and government employees, looking for an answer and a solution. The story alternates between the two, with the best and most exciting moments taking place with the regular people and in-field scientists as they come face to face with Cretaceous creatures.

First – for the one sour spot in an otherwise engaging tune – the science. While Michael Chrichton made Jurassic Park eerily probable, giving us the right mix of genetic science and dino rampage action, author James F. David’s science is more sketchy, harder to capture, and ultimately unbelievable, despite the complicated explanations. Fluctuations in time being caused by nuclear bombs, as prophesied by Nostradamus – ehhhh, not buying it. And I wanted to buy it. I TRIED to buy it.

The government goons and their “solution” is equally improbably. Actually, the President’s knee-jerk emotional decision is ludicrous and takes us out of the narrative. Admittedly politicians and stupidity are usually synonymous – but this goes beyond the pale. Risking the entire world and all existence to get his wife back from the now missing Portland? I’m calling BS Mr. President.

Still, those logical discrepancies and the easy villainy of reactive governments to up the stakes (which frankly didn’t need upping), only slightly impair an otherwise epic story. And I really do mean epic.

Footprints of Thunder is a dense, dense book. I’m not sure if it is bigger than Jurassic Park, but it reads slower and has far more plotlines going concurrently. At first, I was concerned about this. I don’t like keeping up with huge casts of characters in survival situations. Usually, they all just blur together, but David kept it edge-of-the-seat here and made us invested in everyone’s struggle, their encounters, their interrelations, and the creatures they met along the way. And there are a lot of varying different stories. We have an average family stranded on a swimming Apatosaurus, trying to survive. We have a team of scientists who predicted this outcome exploring the new land and encountering some adorable (small) dinosaurs and some decidedly less adorable, less friendly, bigger dinosaurs, with disasters effects and a lot of tense near-miss scenes (and plenty of deaths – no one’s safe in this book). We have a lonely old lady stranded in her apartment who befriends an Iguanodon. And (less exciting) we have a searching mother being chased by a rapey gang of Rambo wanna-bes (which has been overdone and wasn’t needed, but I was into the story, so whatever).

Image by Sarah Richter from Pixabay

I didn’t want the book to end. I didn’t like transitioning to the “problem solvers” who were trying to bring time into alignment again. I just wanted to be stranded in the strange new lands with the survivors and explorers. Every moment there was something new, terrifying, and yet somehow magical and wonderful. Whether it’s a Plesiosaur coming to a popular beach to lay eggs, a hungry Carnosaurs snacking on some scientists, a Pterodactyl with a taste for kids, a baby Triceratops that likes fruit, or an Iguanodon with a sugar addiction, the moments capture our hearts and imaginations and make us think: how terrible and terrific it would be to see such beasts, and how utterly unprepared we are.

At the conclusion, there is room left for a sequel, which I’ve already gotten. While I noted that not everything is perfect here – it is nearly so. This combines the best of thrillers and adventures with good characters. Unlike many thrillers, we actually care if these people get eaten – and not just because it will service the plot. We’re invested in their survival and in their stories, and we are delighted and horrified in equal measures by the intersection of the ancient past with the dramatically unprepared present. Highly recommended. Drop everything, re-indulge your inner dinosaur fan, and pick up Footprints of Thunder.

 

– Frances Carden

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Frances Carden
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