Rating: 
Summary: More fun than a barrel of 'compys'
Review: (Yes, you know what 'compys' are. cf. Jurassic Park.)
So, OK, ART (all caps) this may not be, but it's a great deal of fun to read and a very welcome relief from any serious reading one might be doing. And also a relief from 'serious' science fiction.
It's slightly stylistic, a bit of Conan Doyle and perhaps Simak thown in with an intent to be acceptable for young readers, but it stops short of getting smarmy. Or maybe I was just in the mood for smarm.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun adventure story, captivating
Review: A great adventure story of a boy growing to be a man, facing adverseries he never thought he'd meet in a world that has all the problems of today and DINOSAURS! Greg Bear has expanded upon a wonderful myth and given it a new life. His portrayal of a young boy being thrust into a world he is woefuly unprepared for and learning to love himself and trust others while growing into a man is a great story, add into to that beautifully evoked scenery and a lost world and it is a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Better than Jurassic Park!
Review: As I read this book, I kept thinking what a fantastic movie it would make, and I hope someone takes up that challenge. One concept it addresses is rarely discussed - if dinosaurs had survived, they would not have stopped evolving. What really made me a fan of this book, though, is the ending - just when you think it's done, a bigger and better climax comes along. As I read about the titanic battle at the end, I could the roars in the distance.
Rating: 
Summary: A mixed bag of fun and disappointments
Review: As somebody who spent his early adolescence watching old monster movies like "King Kong" and reading old science fiction like "The Lost World" by Arthur Conan Doyle (the creator of Sherlock Holmes, if you don't know), I was truly excited when I picked up "Dinosaur Summer." It was such a great idea, to treat the tale of Professor Challenger as if it actually happened. But when I was done reading it, I was curiously disappointed. I had loved the premise, and even enjoyed parts of the narrative, but when it was done, I felt like I'd been cheated. I think the mixed reviews this book has received come from this: we were led into the book expecting a kind of Golden Age science fiction, with lost worlds and intrepid professors and risks and dangers and escapes, and we were presented with a 1990s sensibility of moral and environmental failures. Nobody succeeds at much of anything in this book, which runs directly counter to the genre it's attempting to revive. I love Greg Bear's work, especially "Blood Music," but here I think he forgot the whole point of an homage: to recreate the spirit of the original work. Still, I'm glad I read "Dinosaur Summer," if only because it sent me back to the originals again (which is another goal of homage, of course).
Rating:
Summary: A mixed bag of fun and disappointments
Review: As somebody who spent his early adolescence watching old monster movies like "King Kong" and reading old science fiction like "The Lost World" by Arthur Conan Doyle (the creator of Sherlock Holmes, if you don't know), I was truly excited when I picked up "Dinosaur Summer." It was such a great idea, to treat the tale of Professor Challenger as if it actually happened. But when I was done reading it, I was curiously disappointed. I had loved the premise, and even enjoyed parts of the narrative, but when it was done, I felt like I'd been cheated. I think the mixed reviews this book has received come from this: we were led into the book expecting a kind of Golden Age science fiction, with lost worlds and intrepid professors and risks and dangers and escapes, and we were presented with a 1990s sensibility of moral and environmental failures. Nobody succeeds at much of anything in this book, which runs directly counter to the genre it's attempting to revive. I love Greg Bear's work, especially "Blood Music," but here I think he forgot the whole point of an homage: to recreate the spirit of the original work. Still, I'm glad I read "Dinosaur Summer," if only because it sent me back to the originals again (which is another goal of homage, of course).
Rating:
Summary: Dinosaur Summer entertaining and environmentally conscious
Review: BOOK REVIEWDINOSAUR SUMMER ©1998 by Greg Bear Illustrations by Tony DiTerlizzi Warner Books, hardcover, $23.00 ISBN 0-446-52098-5 Reviewed by Nicholas Dollak I've always felt that books that would make visually entertaining films should be illustrated. Well, Dinosaur Summer is just that: a rousing adventure tale with pictures to delight the eye. I found it a quick read, tightly constructed and embellished with fascinating detail. Inevitably (since I've read no other works by Greg Bear with which to draw fair comparisons), I found myself comparing it to Michael Chrichton's Jurassic Park and The Lost World. Though Chrichton's books have their moments, I found Dinosaur Summer consistently more entertaining. The clearly-drawn characters often reveal their personalities in their first speaking lines. Characters with hidden agendas are noticeably more mysterious. The premise: It's the late 1940s, decades after the events chronicled in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's ! The Lost World. Many dinosaurs have been removed from the plateau and exhibited in circuses. Now the public has tired of dinosaurs and circuses in general. The last dinosaur circus, in a magnanimous gesture (and last-ditch publicity stunt, with National Geographic coverage) is returning its prehistoric animals to their home. Along with dinosaur trainer Vince Shellabarger, camera bum Anthony Belzoni and his growing son Peter, the expedition is rounded out by real-life animators Willis O'Brien (The Lost World and King Kong) and Ray Harryhausen (Jason & the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans), the latter of whom gives this book a hearty thumbs-up! Other historical figures from the time lend a further veneer of realism. Of course, the trip to the Lost World is fraught with problems, and upon arrival all heck breaks loose. O'Brien and Harryhausen find themselves caught up in an adventure worthy of (and often superior to) their own movies. I guess when you grow up with th! ese guys' work, you find yourself wondering what they'd do ! if confronted by a hungry dinosaur... And, of course, the dinosaurs! This book very effectively uses the dinosaurs-as-animals angle which made Jurassic Park work. Any student of animal behavior will find the realism astounding. It helps to know your dinosaurs, of course, but the illustrations and vivid descriptions do a good job of filling you in. Incidentally, the obscure venator is the fellow on the front cover. The particular species mentioned in the book, though, is fictitious, as are a number of other denizens. The Lost World, remember, has been isolated for millions of years. The book acknowledges the symbiotic wholeness of ecosystems. Our heroes face not only large dinosaurs and the odd therapsid or enormous bird, but lots of little creatures, edible and toxic plants and many bugs. In fact, some nasty fire-ant bites cause Peter to experience a trippy fever dream / vision quest which is the book's centerpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Dinosaur Summer entertaining and environmentally conscious
Review: BOOK REVIEW DINOSAUR SUMMER ©1998 by Greg Bear Illustrations by Tony DiTerlizzi Warner Books, hardcover, $23.00 ISBN 0-446-52098-5 Reviewed by Nicholas Dollak I've always felt that books that would make visually entertaining films should be illustrated. Well, Dinosaur Summer is just that: a rousing adventure tale with pictures to delight the eye. I found it a quick read, tightly constructed and embellished with fascinating detail. Inevitably (since I've read no other works by Greg Bear with which to draw fair comparisons), I found myself comparing it to Michael Chrichton's Jurassic Park and The Lost World. Though Chrichton's books have their moments, I found Dinosaur Summer consistently more entertaining. The clearly-drawn characters often reveal their personalities in their first speaking lines. Characters with hidden agendas are noticeably more mysterious. The premise: It's the late 1940s, decades after the events chronicled in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's ! The Lost World. Many dinosaurs have been removed from the plateau and exhibited in circuses. Now the public has tired of dinosaurs and circuses in general. The last dinosaur circus, in a magnanimous gesture (and last-ditch publicity stunt, with National Geographic coverage) is returning its prehistoric animals to their home. Along with dinosaur trainer Vince Shellabarger, camera bum Anthony Belzoni and his growing son Peter, the expedition is rounded out by real-life animators Willis O'Brien (The Lost World and King Kong) and Ray Harryhausen (Jason & the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans), the latter of whom gives this book a hearty thumbs-up! Other historical figures from the time lend a further veneer of realism. Of course, the trip to the Lost World is fraught with problems, and upon arrival all heck breaks loose. O'Brien and Harryhausen find themselves caught up in an adventure worthy of (and often superior to) their own movies. I guess when you grow up with th! ese guys' work, you find yourself wondering what they'd do ! if confronted by a hungry dinosaur... And, of course, the dinosaurs! This book very effectively uses the dinosaurs-as-animals angle which made Jurassic Park work. Any student of animal behavior will find the realism astounding. It helps to know your dinosaurs, of course, but the illustrations and vivid descriptions do a good job of filling you in. Incidentally, the obscure venator is the fellow on the front cover. The particular species mentioned in the book, though, is fictitious, as are a number of other denizens. The Lost World, remember, has been isolated for millions of years. The book acknowledges the symbiotic wholeness of ecosystems. Our heroes face not only large dinosaurs and the odd therapsid or enormous bird, but lots of little creatures, edible and toxic plants and many bugs. In fact, some nasty fire-ant bites cause Peter to experience a trippy fever dream / vision quest which is the book's centerpiece.
Rating: 
Summary: Formula, predictable, tired...
Review: Definitely the weakest of all of Greg Bear's books. Not up to his usual standards of originality or depth. It'd be a good book for Jr. High kids interested in dinosaurs, and it'd make a great 'really bad B-movie'. But generally, you can feel free to skip this work.
Rating:
Summary: THE REAL LOST WORLD REVISITED!
Review: Fans of the films of Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen (King Kong, Mighty Joe Young, Vally Of Gwangi etc.) must not miss this wonderful book. Bear has payed loving homage to those masters of the lost art of stop-motion animation in a thrilling, beautiful story that begs to be read again and again. A sequel to the original "The Lost World" by Arthur Conan Doyle, this book is tailor-made for those like myself who grew up glued to the TV on Saturday afternoons whenever the local UHF station treated us to any of the aforementioned films (often with a dog-eared copy of "Famous Monsters Magazine" clutched in our hands.).Indeed, reading "Dinosaur Summer" was like watching the lost O'Brien-Harryhausen film that you never knew existed.
But even if you have no idea who O'Brien, Harryhausen, Merian C. Cooper or Ernest Schoedsack are, if you love dinosaurs and/or adventure this book is a can't-miss winner. And as an added bonus the art of Tony DiTerlizzi found throughout the book-in B/W and Color-captures wonderfully the spirit of adventure and imagination that fuels the story.
As an aside, to those who have complained that the creatures inhabiting the plateau are not the dinos they would like to see; What do you want? More of Crichton's Velociraptors and rexes? Hey, don't tell me the Altovenator wasn't cool (and pretty darn close to the real-life Afrovenator.) Likewise, the Death Eagle is quite a remarkable beast and not too far removed from actual prehistoric counterparts in Titanis walleri, Phorusrachus, etc.
So if you love dinos but were dissapointed by some of the less-than-stellar efforts lately (Crichton's "Lost World", both page and screen, come to mind as well as JP3 and Dismal's...er...uh...Disney's "Dinosaur") "Dinosaur Summer" is just the ticket. Dig up those old "Famous Monsters" magazines, pop some popcorn and dig in!
Rating: 
Summary: Captivating premise, dragged out plot!
Review: Greg Bears new book is a test! A test of one's patience, intelligence and SF devotion. The first half reads like a poorly written travel log and than the plot takes a very predictable turn with a less than satisfying ending. The illustrations make you feel as though you're reading a childrens book! And does anyone really care about the political "subplot"? If you must read this book,Here is some advice: 1.Read "book" 1, Chapters 1-4, chapter 5: Just page 79. 2. Skip to Chapter 12 and Then read the rest of the book!
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