Rating: 
Summary: Dino Dribble
Review: The promise of time travel mixed with dinosaurs seemed like a no lose proposition. Not so with this book. One would need a chart to keep up with the characters as they zip back and forth in time. But my main problem with the book is not the overly complex time travel/paradox angle but the authors sheer wrongness about certain things and the sheer ridiculousness of some of the characters actions. In one sequence, a band of scientists are stranded in time and one of them dies. Finding a "New Testament" in her bag, they begin to try to choose a verse to read at the funeral. Their choices include a passage from Genesis and another from Psalms, two Old Testament books that would not be included in a New Testament. Sometime later, the scientists build a house and proceed to, after a night of singing hokey songs, have an orgy. Necessary? I think not. It's not that I'm a prude, I just found the entire action to be stupid and totally unnecessary for the story. I invested 200 pages of my time into this book. It was a waste of time. I wish I had a time machine so I could go back and not have bought it.
Rating:
Summary: Just plain lousy.
Review: The start of BotE is great, but don't be fooled. The novel soon loses focus, and by the time I was finished, I was hoping that there was some way that I could send Swanwick into the Mesozoic. Do yourself a favor, and read something, anything, else.
Rating: 
Summary: I hoped for a lot more from this book
Review: There were some interesting ideas in this book but I just plain got bored. I couldn't figure out why the characters weren't worried about contamimating the Past and, when I did find out, it was like "Gee, none of this matters!"
Having realized this, I had absolutely no interest in the scientists "marooned in the past" storyline. I felt really disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Chrono based confusion
Review: This book started with so much potential and then quickly became mired in confusing timelines and characters.
The dinosaurs are the most interesting aspect but that is about it. The whole time travel issue becomes so twisted and there are so many jumps both forward and back that it's difficult to keep track of who is who and where. The fact that the author allows his characters to meet themselves as well as intearact provided they do not pass sensitive information and cause a paradox does not help. Not to mention that at least one paradox is allowed but never really explained.
There are some interesting theories tossed about as to dino evolution as well as their lives but it is really too little to save this book.
Rating:
Summary: Bland and Unexciting Reading
Review: This is a book where no tension builds up, nothing really "happens", there are no plot twists or turns, and very little action. An ending that could have been grandiose with all sorts of cosmic implications, is instead rather simplistic with no awe inspiring implications.
Rating: 
Summary: Dino Time Machine
Review: Time traveling to see dinosaurs is not new, but this book does perhaps the best job of it. Swanick is a master of the subgenre, although I've probably read one too many time-travel stories, considering nobody really gets to travel that way. I prefer dino novels that don't need time travel, such as Crichton's Jurassic Park or Hopp's incredibly original take on the subject in Dinosaur Wars.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the Time
Review: Very impressive adult time travel/dinosaur story. A little slow off the mark, but gets up to speed quite nicely toward the middle. I especially enjoyed the "marooned in the T Rex era" subplot. Swanwick knows his material, writes intelligently, and eventually hooks you with the mystery of the Unchanging. This book reminded me of a Piers Anthony novel from the 70's called ORN. It's the second of a trilogy, I think, but it can be read as a stand alone and it is a brilliant parallel world/dinosaur novel also with the requisite marooning. If you like BONES OF THE EARTH, you'll like ORN.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Characters
Review: What would you do if you went far into the past to live with dinosaurs? How would you survive?
This book was very interesting because of the dynamic relationships between the characters. A dozen men and women went into the past to visit the dinosaurs and make good research. But they also made love! They had a lot of fun and then the bad news came. Read the book to find out.
Rating: 
Summary: A time-travel trip with dino-power and other surprises
Review: You could describe "Bones of the Earth" as "Jurassic Park" for the serious science-fiction reader. Michael Swanwick gives the reader not only a well-researched look at dinosaurs (mixed with plenty of pure speculation) but also a trippy story about time-travel and paradoxes. I've never encountered a time-travel story where the author is so free and fast with overlapping timelines and crisscrossing eras. The characters time hop so fast and frequently that the novel covers a period from the Triassic to eras billions of years in the future. Plus you get some juicy confusion such as characters meeting older versions of themselves, or celebrations where people from the future can ask famous authors to sign books they haven't written yet! The time-travel method itself never receives close attention; Swanwick presents it, and then lets the story go along its bizarre, non-chronological way. In the mid-21st century, the government suddenly makes known its mastery of time-travel, and lets scientists from all times travel to stations placed throughout the Mesozoic to study dinosaurs. But where did time-travel come from, and why is it being used only for research purposes? These questions bother some of the scientists, and one in particular wants to shake up the time-travel scene in ways that could be dangerous. Meanwhile, fundamentalist groups plan terror strikes to stop the time-traveling project, and a large group of scientists finds itself possibly stranded forever in a rough part of the Cretaceous. Where is the way out of this confusing tangle of time streams...and who ultimately pulls the strings? "Bones of the Earth" reads quickly, even with its cornucopia of overlapping stories and time periods. Swanwick holds it together with his fine eye for character, detail, and excitement. Each chapter offers tantalizing encounters with ancient creatures, new mysteries of the past, or weird experiences with the paradoxes of time travel. It's a romp, no doubt about it, and you'll have as much fun as Swanwick does with the possibilities. Dinosaur fans (adult ones at least, due to some sexual content) will love this, and the hard-science reader will also find much to embrace. But there are enough energy and excellent characterizations to appeal to wide spectrum of readers. Think of as "Jurassic Park" with half the calories, twice the brains.
Rating:
Summary: Time-Travel with Dinosaurs
Review: _Bones of the Earth_ is perhaps Michael Swanwick's most accessible work of fiction. The writing is straightforward with a minimal amount of literary technique. It's a good, strong novel, but it's one that can be enjoyed by the masses, not just the literary elite. As such, this is the novel that is likely to catapult Swanwick into the consciousness of the bookstore SF crowd; the ones who don't read fiction magazines or small-press books. This is a long overdue development. Swanwick has been one of SF's premier authors for almost 20 years. His cumulative body of work is tremendous, making him a strong candidate for grandmaster status (in a few decades). _Bones.._ is a highly entertaining novel. It's a spin-off from the Hugo-winning story "Scherzo with Tyrannosaur" (which is fantastic in its own right). _Bones.._ will likely appeal to both hardcore SF readers and novices to the genre. No one will confuse this novel with _Jurassic Park_. The dinosaurs play only a minor part in the story. They're essentially background setting, allowing the humans to interact with one another. Brief Summary: Humanity has been given time travel by a strange alien-looking race called The Unchanging. The Unchanging claim to be from Earth's future. A team of scientists gradually discover that The Unchanging are synthetic creations. Additionally they find that there is only one Unchanging and that he's looped through time thousands, if not millions, of times to provide the illusion of a large number of them. Eventually humanity discovers the truth behind the gift of time travel. To recap: Highly entertaining novel. Very accessible. Likely to be a 2003 Hugo nominee. Very nice way to spend a few hours.
| 
