Rating: 
Summary: Footprints of Blunders
Review: I was, honestly, about three quarters way through this book before I literally threw it across the room with a gratifying smash against the far wall. Why? Especially after so many people have given this book such excellent reviews? I had just finished Michael Crichton's "The Lost World" - and I wanted more. Unfortunately, James F. David's book does not deliver. Not even close. Some would say that this is good writing - and it is - but David uses this formula throughout the book - introducing characters, giving them life, making them somewhat interesting, then killing them off without a second thought. Over and over again. He is,obviously, a pessimistic individual. And by judging from other reviews, this is how the book ends - "not a Hollywood ending". I'm not going to read the rest of this book. It makes me angry and frustrated. It puts a light at the end of the tunnel and as you make your way towards the light, the whole thing caves in. I understand that this is David's first book. Maybe he should take a hefty dose of Prozac before he writes his next. END
Rating: 
Summary: This book is definitly fast paced. AMAZING WRITING!!!!!
Review: I'm a 12 year old reader and this book was the best one I've read yet. From people getting eaten by dinosaurs andpeople on dinosaurs to love scenes and missles in the sky. The one fault with this book is that the ending was all that great. I wish James F. David could have wrote how the people got along with T-Rex and other dinosaurs living in their back yard. I say he should make a sequel. If he did I would buyit and readit in two days. This book is a book that I couldn't put down.
Rating: 
Summary: Unfortunately, most characters are snackfood...
Review: I'm a pretty forgiving reader. I'll gladly give up good characters and logical premises if the story is good. FOT, at first, seemed interesting enough. Dinosaurs are brought in the present world by "time displacement." Disaster movie meets Jurassic Park (one of my favorite novels). However, FOT proves the old cliche about never judging a book by its cover. Characters are bland (even by my standards) and seem to serve no purpose other than snackfood (despite the author's comments). The various storylines are hard to follow. David rarely describes his dinosaurs, so it is hard to imagine what they look like (I'm not talking about dinosaur names, he simply chooses to leave out what they looked like). Also, the author never takes full advantage of the possibilities of his plot. We rarely see dinosaurs causing choas in the human world, but there are too many stories about people in the dinosaur worlds (one or two would have been enough). I give this book an average rating because it does have its good moments and leaves the reader shocked by its suprise ending (it is glad to see David defied the traditonal Hollywood ending). Still, the book is a disappointment. Nevertheless, David shows potential and should be an author to keep an eye on in the future
Rating: 
Summary: A top-notch dinosaur thriller!
Review: If you love dinosaurs, whether they're fierce and terrifying or cuddly and sympathetic, this book is for you. If you like violent, bloody, non-stop action, this book is for you. If you like big budget, end-of-the-world disaster epics, this book is for you. If you want a plot that weaves Big Foot, UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster, weird falling objects, the Bermuda Triangle, spontaneous human combustion, and ancient Babylonian prophecies into one tidy paranormal thread, this book is for you. If you're looking for a convincing science fiction story about time travel . . . forget it! The plot is outright ridiculous! Billions of people, all over the earth, are transported -- overnight -- into the Late Cretaceous because of hydrogen bomb tests carried out in the 1950s and 60s? I mean . . . really! But if you're willing to suspend your disbelief, this book is fast-paced and entertaining. The dinosaurs themselves are a real treat. I actually liked this book better than Jurassic Park.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining escapism!
Review: In "Footprints of Thunder", author James F. David, creates an apocalyptic view of present-day Earth overrun by dinosaurs brought to the future through a time warp. Author David gets to show off his knowledge of dinosaurs by making them come to life for the reader. Apatosauri, Pteridacti, T-Rexs, you name it...they're all in this book. It's great fun for those who have an interest in that "world". Along the way, though, there's a pretty good story here as well. David weaves a number of different sub-plots involving a variety of characters as they cope with this world "gone upside down". The human element (as these folks struggle to explain what has happened and how they will survive) is the real engine that drives this novel. As one reviewer already noted, it was fairly easy to keep the sub-plots separate from one another. To help in that department, David has included a "cast of characters" page at the front of the novel that the reader can refer to from time to time. While not on the same plane as Stephen King's "The Stand" or Robert McCammon's "Swan Song", this novel is pretty good book. It's quick to read and open-ended enough at the conclusion to make the reader think that a sequel could be in the offing. Definitely recommended for Jurassic Park fans and those who enjoy books of the apocalyptic genre'.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining escapism!
Review: In "Footprints of Thunder", author James F. David, creates an apocalyptic view of present-day Earth overrun by dinosaurs brought to the future through a time warp. Author David gets to show off his knowledge of dinosaurs by making them come to life for the reader. Apatosauri, Pteridacti, T-Rexs, you name it...they're all in this book. It's great fun for those who have an interest in that "world". Along the way, though, there's a pretty good story here as well. David weaves a number of different sub-plots involving a variety of characters as they cope with this world "gone upside down". The human element (as these folks struggle to explain what has happened and how they will survive) is the real engine that drives this novel. As one reviewer already noted, it was fairly easy to keep the sub-plots separate from one another. To help in that department, David has included a "cast of characters" page at the front of the novel that the reader can refer to from time to time. While not on the same plane as Stephen King's "The Stand" or Robert McCammon's "Swan Song", this novel is pretty good book. It's quick to read and open-ended enough at the conclusion to make the reader think that a sequel could be in the offing. Definitely recommended for Jurassic Park fans and those who enjoy books of the apocalyptic genre'.
Rating:
Summary: A B-grade book that can hold the reader's interest.
Review: In a plot taken almost directly from the Topp's card series
"Dinosaurs Attack!", David gives reader's his first full-
length novel to date. The story is simple: suddenly, one night, vast tracks of land and sea dissappear and are replaced with their prehistoric equivalents. Many of the new
areas abound with dinosaurs. The reader follows the stories
of several characters as they struggle to survive in the "New World." The scientific explanation on why this is happening is absurd and seems to come straight from a 50's
B-movie. The characters themselves must come from the same
movie, since they are very one-dimensional. Also, it is apparent that David has done little research for the book in that he often places dinosaurs from different time periods side-by-side and that he describes many of the dinosaur locales abundant with grass (grass didn't evolve until after
dinosaurs dissappeared). Still, unlike Jurassic Park, it is hard to tell which characters will survive until the end. This uncertainity keeps the reader from using the book as a
support for that short leg on the kicthen table, at least until he or she has read the entire thing. Also, the idea
of dinosaurs roaming a ruined modern earth is appealing to both the survilalist and the child in all of us. This book
may be worth wasting your time with, if you can stomach the
quirkiness of story.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting premise, sputters at the end
Review: Interesting premise - the time quilt effect leading to chunks of the past exchanged with chunks of the present. While this is a good 'hook', the book leaves a lot (A LOT) of questions unanswered. Why this time in the past? (because dinosaurs eating people are cool) What happens to the people that got sent back in time? (good question) What is that on the moon? (Another good question) Did Atlanta come back? (Who knows). These are only a few of the unanswered questions in this book. On the positive side, the characters are interesting and consistently portrayed, and as noted above, it is an original idea.
However, the number of unresolved subplots outweighed the positives in my opinion, leaving what could have been a great novel only an average read.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent First Novel
Review: James F. David's first novel, "Footprints of Thunder," is thebest modern novel to deal with the intrusion of living dinosaurs intothe present. (Fans of certain other novels using this plot device are challenged to read it and find out for themselves.) Unlike most first novels, David's was assured, briskly paced, convincing and exciting.------Dan Hays, Books, Statesman Journal, Salem, OR
Rating:
Summary: Touching, unique, exciting
Review: Of the many dinosaur and sci-fi books that I've read, this is one of my faves. The fact that the fabric of time allows modern man and these fearsome beast to interact is nothing new, but how David handles it is clever. I especially like the little old lady who befriends a giant herbavore.
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