Rating: 
Summary: Below-par Effort
Review: I think one either praises this book to the high heavens or one condemns it. I'm in the latter category. Despite the excellent quality of the writing--which made this book a quick read--the plot is all a jumble. At first it's a story about dinosaur hunters. Then it becomes a political/religious thriller involving sabotage by conservative religious terrorists (a subplot that is very quickly abandoned as if Swanwick didn't want to go there). Then it becomes a typical time-travel paradox novel with aliens in the future testing human beings "in the field". The problem here is that a group gets stranded in the early Triassic and rather than face the ugly fact that they'll be stranded there forever, they set about to "do science". Meanwhile in the future, a rescue effort takes its time being mounted. And even though the future people literally have all the time in the world to rescue the stranded group, Swanwick stretches the novel out unbearably with unrealiztic characterization and wasted SF tropes. Then the conclusion is one of these: this is what happens to character A; this is what happens to character B; and so on. Swanwick is a fantastic writer but this isn't one of his best efforts. I did like the Bird People though, particularly their noncommunicative arrogance.
Rating:
Summary: Save your money!
Review: I won't rehash the story as, by now, you have read a few of the other reviews. Yes, Swanwick is a well awarded author. Yes, it would appear he did his homework. But Good Lord, this is not a good book. The writing is poor - Swanwick needs to brush up on his syntax and should use a dictionary along with his thesarus, and the editing is spotty at best. The characters change personality more times than Sibyl, and I'm still unsure of the story line, even though I'm now 2/3 the way through the book. If you must buy this book, then wait until it shows up used somewhere at atleast half the original price. Otherwise, use your hard earned money to some better end.
Rating:
Summary: Not Much Meat on Bones
Review: I'd been holding Bones of the Earth in reserve as a treat for myself. Swanwick's other work, particularly Stations of the Tide and the delicious darkly twisted anti-Tolkienesque Iron Dragon's Daughter had given me reason to expect a treat when I finally started Bones. I expected depth, ambiguity, imagination and cleverness. Maybe even a bit of kink. I got considerably less than that. Clearly, Swanwick did his homework for Bones. As has been stated in other reviews, this book revolves around archaeology and time travel, and the archaeology is certainly done well enough to convince this non-archaeologist. Indeed, Bones is fairly suffocated by the minutiae of archaeological practice. Obsession with detail also suffuses Swanwick's treatment of time travel: it seems that only stringent bureaucratic procedures and oceans of memos can keep things from becoming hopelessly fouled up as people move from one time to another. Unfortunately, there are no similar procedures to help the reader keep things straight, and I found temporal confusion settling in quite early in the book. Were Bones a better book, I would have been upset by this. As it is, I just didn't much care. It's a pity that so little of interest happens amid so much detail. Sure the characters get to make detailed (so detailed!) observations of dinosaurs, and there's even a standard marooned-in-time subplot. But at no point do I care about any of the characters; they hardly seem human at all--the dinosaurs seem more warm-blooded. One of the central plot elements is an ambiguous (and ambivalent) relationship between two of the characters. However, the characters are so bloodless and the erotic tensions between them so perfunctorily drawn that I could not work up the slightest interest in what this couple does or what happens to them. I _know_ that Swanwick can do eroticism better than this. Read Stations of the Tide if you doubt me. As for the ending, well it was a real shrugger. That is, it made me shrug. I couldn't care less if the entire universe of Bones got sucked into a black hole. I must assume that Swanwick was shooting for a somewhat different effect.
Rating: 
Summary: Fundamental discoveries
Review: I'm a dinosaur fan, so I liked the paleontology coming to life in this story. However, I'm not much on time travel gimmicks. It is interesting how each author's dinosaur novels differ in the way the animals come to confront humanity. In Jurassic Park it's cloning. In Bones, it's time travel. In Dinosaur Wars it's a spacefaring dino civilization. All have their merits and side issues. As far as realistic portrayal of dinosaurs Jurassic Park has more to recommend it than Bones, and Dinosaur Wars, despite the premise, has an incredible depth of knowledge of dinosaurs -- more than either Bones or JP.
The other important issue where dinosaurs are concerned is the creationist/evolutionist debate. Each author has a different take: Crichton, being strictly commercial, avoids alienating any readers by avoiding any mention of the subject. Swanick brings it center-stage, with a decided pro-evolution bias, for the simple fact that he makes a villain out of a creationist. The middle ground is held by Hopp, who in Dinosaur Wars: Counterattack, offers a reconciliation of creationism with evolution in a fascinating scene where an old paleontologist philosophizes about mortality and deity while awaiting his turn to be a ritual sacrifice and meal for his dinosaurian captors. Heady stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Swanwick finally drops a dud. I guess it had to happen.
Review: I've loved every Swanwick book to date, and tracked down every short story of his I could find. I've evangelized his work to friends. But this book seemed to be completely lacking that "magic" that makes his writing so much more than typical science-fiction. And that's what's so shocking about "Bones of the Earth" -- that it's such a typical, moldy piece of sci-fi. I only made it through the first 4 chapters before losing interest completely, which is UNTHINKABLE in a Swanwick story! I'm talking wooden characters and dialogue, weak humor, a straining plot, and a profoundly uninteresting, beaten-to-death premise. I hope this is just an aberration in an otherwise stunning career.
Rating: 
Summary: My First Michael Swanwick Book....
Review: I've usually been a medical thriller, horror type of reader, and have only recently began dipping my toe into the sci-fi/fantasy sections of the library, routed that way by Mr. Tolkien himself. The inside flaps of Mr. Swanwick's book seemed interesting, so I just decided to jump right in. I did not come up for breath, food, water, or even bathroom breaks. I could not put this book down. Palentology and time travel, love triangles and paradoxes, science and thriller, all lead me to love this book. In my opinion, it's a "Thinking" book - kind of like JRR Tolkien. You can't just skim leisurely through this. You have to think, and take it all in, and learn, almost a study, unless you're already familiar with palentology. But, I've always been one ready to learn something new, and while learning, I thoroughly enjoyed every last word of it. Thank you Mr. Swanwick!
Rating: 
Summary: DIZZYING TIME TRAVEL ADVENTURE
Review: If you were a paleontologist and a man entered your office offering the opportunity of a lifetime-along with a fresh stegosaurus head in a cooler-what would you say? I'd say sign me up! Richard Leyster does just that and thus embarks on a journey across time (both in the distant past and the distant future) in "Bones Of The Earth." The result is a mostly satisfying time travel romp. I do have a few "bones" to pick however.
Leyster himself is a well developed character. We come to know much about what makes him tick. His nemesis/lover Dr. Gertrude Salley fares somewhat less well but it is the enigmatic Griffin (he with the stego cooler) who comes across as truly two dimensional. (By the way, I can easily imagine Michael Ironside sneering his way through the role of Griffin should it ever become a movie. Actually, it would make a dandy "SciFi Original Miniseries Event." It would certainly beat another tired space opera.) Also on the downside, there is a little gratuitous Late Cretaceous group sex (human, not dino!) that reads like an post-adolescent male fantasy. I could do without that.
The real strength of the novel is two-fold; First, Swanwick demonstrates considerable paleontological chops throughout in his depictions of Dinosaurian lifestyles. The speculation he lays out about infrasonic communication between dinos and its connection with dino migration and eventual extinction is a hoot. Second, the decidedly nonlinear narrative makes for a disorienting yet intriguing ride. True, this will strike some as a strength while it will drive others batty. But either way you cut it, it makes for a singular reading experience, somewhat akin to watching the movie "Memento" (what a cool movie, too!).
All in all this book definately belongs on any dino aficionado's shelf. A solid, creative effort that holds up just fine against others in the genre.
Rating:
Summary: After finishing this, I wonder why I bothered to read it
Review: My title is not meant to slight the many positive elements of the novel. To me, it was a work on two levels. On one level, I found it to be a first-rate tale about dinosaurs told from an amusing perspective (paleontologists and the titanic tiffs of academia). I do not presume to be even an amateur paleontologist, but many of the details within the novel struck me as intriguing, revealing a familiarity with some of the latest theories about "thunder lizards". Interspersed through this is a broader view of the whole evolution/creation debate, and it isn't difficult to see where Swanick stands on THAT. His ideas of how access to the prehistoric past might affect that debate were also very thought-provoking, even if his villains (as other reviewers pointed out) were caricatures. On another level, this is a time-travel novel and it is here where the novel suffers. Time travel is one of the thorniest areas in science fiction, and Swanick does to a good job of addressing some of the paradoxes inherent within it that have hamstrung many a lesser writer. When it comes to the actual DEVELOPMENT of time travel, though, after explaining the perceived impossibility (according to our contemporary science) of such a capability, he resorts to a "deus ex machina" by having more advanced beings simply gift the technology to humans. His explanation for why they do this is actually pretty interesting, but at the end these beings decide to go back and UNDO THEIR GIFT. It left me with a sense of futility, wondering why I bothered to read about a chain of events that the author himself simply decided to have never happen. It seemed like a colossal cop-out, especially after the exciting events of the earlier chapters.
Rating:
Summary: Michael Swanwick's Great Time Travel Tale
Review: Next to William Gibson, Michael Swanwick may be the most interesting writer to have emerged from the 1980's cyberpunk movement; he's certainly as fine a literary stylist as Gibson. Judging from the rich vein of Swanwick's work, from cyberpunk to fantasy, and now, time travel, it's possible one could argue that Swanwick may be the better writer. "Bones of the Earth" is one of the finest time travel tales I've ever read. It certainly has the best depiction I've seen of dinosaurs in fiction; it seems far more realistic than the dinosaurs depicted in Michael Crichton's "Jurassic Park" novels. Swanwick combines a gripping time travel tale with a splendid elegy to science as a grand quest in search of knowledge. I am pleased that his most despicable character is a diehard fundamentalist Christian terrorist, whose world view is diametrically opposed to the one subscribed by the scientists - and by Swanwick himself - in this exciting, well-written tale. Without a doubt, "Bones of the Earth" is one of the finest science fiction novels published this year.
Rating: 
Summary: Made it to page 87
Review: Normally I never give up on a book until at least 100 pages. This was an exception. The opening and first chapter seemed so promising! Then, in the second chapter, it fell apart with weirdness. Not one of the characters was is any way normal or likeable. The "action" was nonexistant. Worst of all, it started introducing lesbian characters, atheism and other unsavory content. I can honestly say I found nothing redeeming in this book. If it was supposed to have a message, it totally escaped me. I read several hundred books a year, and was bitterly disappointed in this lemon.
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