Boy, with Accidental Dinosaur

by Ian McDonald

Come one, come all to the dinosaur circus!

Tif Tamim wants nothing more than to be a dinosaur buckaroo. An orphan in search of a place to rest his head and a job to weigh down his pockets, Tif has bounced from circus to circus, yearning for a chance to ride a prehistoric beauty under the sparkling lights of a big-top.

To become a buckaroo, Tif needs to learn the tools of the trade, yet few dino maestros want to take a scrawny nobody from nowhere under their wing. But when Tif frees a dino from an abusive owner and braves the roving gangs of the formerly-American west to bring the dino to safety, he catches someone’s eye. And boy, how those eyes dazzle Tif from the back of a bucking carnotaur.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Novella, Adult, Dinosaurs, LGBT, Queer

128 pages, Paperback

First published February 3, 2026

About the author

Ian Neil McDonald was born in 1960 in Manchester, England, to an Irish mother and a Scottish father. He moved with his family to Northern Ireland in 1965. He used to live in a house built in the back garden of C. S. Lewis's childhood home but has since moved to central Belfast, where he now lives, exploring interests like cats, contemplative religion, bonsai, bicycles, and comic-book collecting. He debuted in 1982 with the short story "The Island of the Dead" in the short-lived British magazine Extro. His first novel, Desolation Road, was published in 1988. Other works include King of Morning, Queen of Day (winner of the Philip K. Dick Award), River of Gods, The Dervish House (both of which won British Science Fiction Association Awards), the graphic novel Kling Klang Klatch, and many more. His most recent publications are Planesrunner and Be My Enemy, books one and two of the Everness series for younger readers (though older readers will find them a ball of fun, as well). Ian worked in television development for sixteen years, but is glad to be back to writing full-time.

Reviews

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

Great concept, great cover, great title, but holy hell, the writing style is impenetrable.

Seriously, I really wanted to like this book because queer dinosaur cowboys (!!!) but it was like trying to hold a bar of soap under a waterfall. Every time I thought I maybe understood what was happening I would come across some completely unfamiliar term or baffling dialogue and it would all slip out of my head.

I also kind of wonder about the choice to have this character/world based strongly in Hispanic culture and language. It would be one thing if it was incorporated into the narrative (for example, our cultural idea of cowboys largely draws inspiration from Mexican rancheros in the late 1700s to mid 1800s, despite cowboys often being depicted as White All-Americans) or if the author was Hispanic (he is Irish and Scottish). As it is, it just makes the text harder to follow because it's loaded with Spanish and culture-specific terms. Again, I don't usually have a problem with this and don't think authors of color should scrub their culture or language from their books to make it easier for people outside those cultures to read, but this book is not exploring/celebrating that culture and the author does not belong to that community as far as I can tell. It's not my place to say whether this is a real issue or offensive—I can only say that it makes the already-difficult reading experience even more frustrating and I don't understand why the author made that choice.

The dino nugget thing was a little funny, I'll give you that.

[Cyrus · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think this may be one of the worst books I have ever read. I rarely say this. I read a lot of bad or mediocre books, but it is rare that one is so terrible I consider it one of the worst.

I love Westerns and "Weird West" concepts. Dinosaurs in Westerns has always been a fun notion, so I was excited when I saw this book at work. I was promised dinosaur rodeo, I did not get dinosaur rodeo. I mean, the main guy definitely works for a dinosaur rodeo but that is definitely a background concept to the point that I sat there wondering why the fuck dinosaurs were even in this book, because it kind of has nothing to do with anything. It's bizarre.

This book is complete nonsense. The worldbuilding is barely intelligble. A lot of it doesn't make sense, and what does make sense feels like a retread of many other dystopia books. I was confused for a good chunk of the book because so much is thrown at you with no rhyme or reason. And there's no anchor in the story. The characters aren't likable or interesting because there's nothing to them. There's insta-love for characters who have had 1.5 conversations at most and then it gets dropped and is never brought up again.

I don't like the main character because he's nothing. He gives us nothing the whole time except being kind of pathetic. The love interest might be a vampire but it's so confusing I'm not really sure what McDonald was trying to get at with him being unable to go in sunlight. Characters come and go from the story and you're supposed to care but you know nothing about them so it doesn't really mean anything.

Main guy doesn't even ride the fucking dinosaur he's with for 99% of the book. The first time he does dino rodeo is the very last page of the book and he learned how to do it in like four days.

The fact that this book is a novella is to its severe detriment. Instead of it being a fast-paced, tightly woven short tale, it feels like it's short because the author doesn't know what he's talking about and certainly doesn't want to develop or explain anything he's set up. He keeps throwing ideas at the wall and hoping they stick, but each one makes less sense than the last. It's difficult to consider this a book when it's more like a tangled mess of extremely underdeveloped ideas, plots, and characters.

I dislike the prose quite a lot. I think the confusion stems also from the very vague and strangely-worded prose. The dialogue is cringe-inducing, clunky, and even childish at points. He throws in a lot of smatters of Spanish, but I feel like it's done in that way of someone who doesn't really understand how bilingual people talk in real life so it's just random words and phrases thrown in haphazardly. Doesn't add much. I wouldn't take any issue with that if I felt the execution was sensible-- of course lots of people in the American West and people involved in vaquero culture speak Spanish. It just doesn't work in this book at all.

There's a semen tarot card. I don't know where else to put this information.

I think the premise is interesting, but that's it. The novella does nothing with it any of it. I never thought it'd be possible for a book that's about 100 pages and some change to waste my time from start to finish, but this book is truly and utterly a complete waste of time. I can't recommend this to anyone.

[Sophia]

A dystopian land where factions fight over commodities and territory- and where dinosaurs perform in circus and rodeo because of a time portal discovered in what was once known as the US. Ian McDonald, a new to me author, drew me in with his coming-of-age tale of a young man with a long-held dream of becoming a dinosaur rodeo star and the lessons he learns along the way in a quick-read novella format. And, yes, I freely admit that the dazzling cover was what drew me in at the outset.

My full review will post at Books of My Heart on 2.25.26.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely loved this vibe-based book. could read pages and pages more of Tif living with his ragtag circus found family

[Cee]

I will never be tired of fantasy dinosaur books. And this is a post-apocalypse western where they ride dinosaurs instead of broncos?
Please, I need.

[Erin Aley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

Boy, with Accidental Dinosaur by Ian McDonald is a science fiction novella set in a post-apocalyptic version of the United States that has found a way to bring dinosaurs from the Cretaceous period to the present day. It follows Tif Tamim, an orphaned boy who grew up wanting to be a dinosaur buckaroo and is traveling to return a dinosaur to the time it came from.

I was really excited about the concept of this book and very drawn in by the cover art and title. A queer man riding dinosaurs in the future sounded right up my alley. However, I was not quite as enamored with the book as I had hoped. Tif Tamim is a very interesting character, as pieces of his story are revealed, however I think that maybe due to the writing style I could not entirely immerse myself in the world and relate to the characters. As I continued to read the book, the language used began to click more but because it was such a short book, I didn’t ever fully feel settled. I would have loved to get to spend more time with Tif as he explores his relationships with the characters around him, and I also to get more about his queer identity.

I would recommend this book to people that may be more attuned to how Ian McDonald writes, or who read more dystopian fiction than I do.

[Robiok · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ian McDonald writes in a way that does not allow u to be distracted, u have to focus on the words and work for the image that they paint, but it’s always worth it.
I may have rated this a high 4 stars but i saw some very infuriating reviews and i said over my dead body.
The language in this novella is a work of art, the characters are bright and alive despite how little pages they had to show themselves to the reader and the story is evocative, sad and triumphant.
One day i’ll keep my promise to myself to pick up the Luna Trilogy and see what an author of this caliber than do in full lenght novel space

[Andrew Kline · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tear in time-space exists where dinosaurs can appear in the present day. A boy with dreams of training in dinosaur rodeo escorts an aging dinosaur to the rift to return to its time. A mix of story-specific language and Spanish phrases made it a little hard to get started, since you're thrown right into the world, but it is a sweet, abbreviated coming-of-age story in a unique setting. The cover and the tagline "Mad Max meets How to Train Your Dragon" are pretty deceptive, though; I didn't get vibes from either of those stories.

[Mandy Beyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm as obsessed with the idea of a dinosaur rodeo as the main character in this story. The entire setting is intriguing, with the dystopian governments and the two timelines next to each other. My only quibble is that I could have used a little more - I wanted more about Prince, more time with the dinosaurs, and more back story overall. I felt like I understood the world just in time for the novella to end. But, the way Tif's Tarot card fortune played out was perfect. 3.5 stars

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't help but feel this is an homage to Ray Bradbury.

Ian McDonald doesn't usually write about teenage boys. He doesn't usually write about dinosaurs and time travel. He doesn't usually write about circuses. Bradbury has done all those things, and this short novel feels very 'Bradburyian', if I can use the term.

It's not billed as a YA but could easily fit that category. This doesn't denigrate it from being a perfectly enchanting story of a young man trying to find his way in the world and save an aging dinosaur from execution, and returning it to its proper time and place.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the concept of this story. Who wouldn’t love a story about a dinosaur buckaroo in a world where dinosaurs come out a hole in the timeline, allowing for dinosaurs to be extracted from the past. They return them to the past once they’ve gone around on the rodeo circuit for a while. I could not find myself caring much for Tif, our main character, who is actually not yet a buckaroo, but just wanting to be one. There was a some good queer rep in this, which was a nice highlight for this book.

3.5 stars

Thank you to @tordotcompub for my eARC. All thoughts are my own.

[Julie Alberts · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wanted to read this as a fun little palate cleanser and boy was it definitely NOT THAT. I never thought I would feel so stupid reading a book about gay dinosaur cowboys and yet, I did.

[Kit Garton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for a review.
Even more ridiculous than the summary led me to expect! I loved it! A very timely dystopia and DINOSAURS!!!

[KatieLee · Rating 4 out of 5]

the fundamental difference between Tif's world and ours is the existence of the B2T2. a literal hole in the timeline, the B2T2 allows technicians to extract live dinosaurs from the distant past; and to return them to the same second they stole them from approximately seven years down the line, once they've been ridden into the ground for the rodeo circuit.

yes, I said rodeo circuit. the dinosaur rodeo circuit, of course. I have complicated (and overwhelmingly negative) feelings about our current timeline, in-real-life rodeos, so you can imagine that wrapping my brain around this version was staggering. but the book gentles you into it; the book holds your hand and tells you about the different rodeos and their caravans, the tremendously bizarre existence of Silver Clowns, the emergence of buckaroos and parades. honestly there's not a whole lot of world-building but I thought for this novella it worked. all Tif cares about are the rodeos; why should we learn about anything else?

the beginning of the book sees Tif on a long walk with an old carnotaur who needs to be returned to his original timeline. you might think you know what to expect from this book. you might be thinking: this is an easy equation. boy plus dinosaur equals riding in the rodeo! but no. it's swiftly explained that the carnotaur is simply too old, that riding him would be a death sentence, and that actually, Tif isn't a buckaroo at all, because he's never been trained.

in order to return the carnotaur, Tif must find a circus that can bring both of them to the B2T2. he ends up running with Memphis Red's Tatterdemalion Circus when Memphis herself offers them a spot. here he meets Prince, one of my favorite love interests of all time.

"And Tif is in love. In an instant, for all time. His heart stolen by the wink of rhinestone."

making Prince a lowkey terrible person was such a fantastic choice for this book. he's awful and gorgeous and sleeps all day because he's allergic to the sun. he rides the dinosaurs with an ease that suggests he can talk directly to them. he's the best buckaroo this circus has seen for a long time. and at one point, everyone has been in love with him.

"He really is the most beautifully selfish creature. He can't help it."

the rest of the crew includes the so-named Silver Clown, mysteriously trained and never seen without his trademark silver outfit, Whistling Matilda, a Canadian whose country has not devolved into feudal kingdoms and/or dinosaur rodeos and so kind of wants to go home, Memphis Red, leader of the pack and collector of strays, and Prince himself. the found family vibes are lovely.



🌈 queer rep: queer/achillean mc, queer/achillean love interest
thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc ✨

[Marlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

The opening scene of this book is absolutely, even cinematically, iconic. To the point where the reader can almost see it as the opening of a new Mad Max movie – except for one rather large detail.

It’s the scene of a young man pedaling a dusty but serviceable bicycle on a cracked and ruined highway in a blasted post-apocalyptic landscape. With a DINOSAUR walking beside him.

That’s right, a dinosaur. What’s that doing here? There? Whichever. Dinosaurs and humans never coexisted. At least not yet.

The story begins a bit in its middle, but in a way that absolutely does work. Because it starts with the boy and the dinosaur that he has definitely acquired by accident. Not that he didn’t always WANT a dinosaur, just that he never expected to be walking down the road with one.

He was hoping to RIDE dinos in the dino rodeos. (A phrase that needs serious unpacking – and gets it – in this story.)

So, first, the story backtracks to how Tif Tamim found himself on the road with an old, rather beat up, dinosaur, heading towards the nearest dino rodeo or circus so that he can deliver the poor dino back to its home in the Triassic era by way of the B2T2 time machine.

Even more to unpack there – and unpacking all of it forms the backbone of the rest of the story.

And it’s a doozy.

Escape Rating B: I picked this one up purely for the title. Seriously, there’s just so much to unpack in those four words, and whatever it was, I NEEDED to know.

What I got is one of those ‘story blender’ books – and it has to be a ‘story’ blender instead of a ‘book’ blender because not all the stories that got thrown into this blender are – or ever were – in books.

So start with the Mad Max movies, because the scenario is very much a Mad Max style blasted landscape, post-apocalyptic, dystopian setting. With perhaps a touch of Junkyard Cats for the distinctly American brand of the way that the country split into regions and races and religions and factions. (I’m not so sure about that reference to How to Train Your Dragon. You’d have to mentally squint a LOT to make that work IMHO and your reading (and viewing) mileage may definitely vary.)

Then add in a combination of The Kaiju Preservation Society or Julian May’s Saga of Pliocene Exile. Both are stories where portals open up between contemporary Earth and either times or places or both where either humanity hasn’t effed up the planet – YET – or where the ultimate in charismatic megafauna are the dominant species. Or both.

The question that pops up almost instantly is the one about ‘for every action there’s an equal or opposite reaction.’ Or the Jurassic Park version of ‘just because we could doesn’t mean we should.’

It’s possible that the time grabbing machine that’s picking up dinosaurs and depositing them on this near-future Earth is at least part of the cause of the current post-apocalyptic dystopian mess of the place.

But however much the time traveling dinos may be the cause of this mess, the story is about the effect. Not necessarily the effect on either the planet or on humanity – although both certainly play into it.

The story is about the effect on individual humans, which is how we wind this back to the boy doing his damndest to take the dinosaur to where it can get all the way home. Because the story is about him doing the same thing. Only in his case, it’s both forward and back to his found family, the brother he was forced to leave behind and the circus that adopts him into their hearts – along with his dinosaur.

And allows him one, bright, shining moment to be who he’s always wanted to be. A rhinestone buckaroo riding a dino.

While there’s a romance that doesn’t quite work (at least not for this reader) buried in the story of the boy and the dino and the circus, the thing as a whole worked pretty damn well, and absolutely did manage to live up to its fantastic title.

Originally published at Reading Reality

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an advance copy of this new novella that takes place in a barren and dying United States, where traveling groups of circuses travel the wasteland bringing the joy of dinosaur rodeos to the people.

I liked dinosaurs as a kid. Had some toys, I think a file card collection of facts and figures about the big creatures. Jurassic Park and the movies blew dinosaurs up in the public imagination. I was in the book stores at the time, and people could not get enough. Books, calenders, Dinotopia, anything with big creature, big teeth sold. My nephews are still riding that wave, able to list stats and figures about dinosaurs that I never knew, especially since the science has changed so much over the years. As a Godzilla fan though, I have always been partial to stories about dinosaurs. Devil Dinosaur for one, the aforementioned Godzilla and his buddies. These are always fun, and interesting. Just like this story, which also is more topical, and filled with lots of interesting ideas. And big gnashing teeth dinosaurs. Boy, with Accidental Dinosaur by Ian McDonald is a story of finding one's place in society, our possible future, and of course big thunder lizards, and long treks across a failed United States.

The time is the future. The United States exists only on maps, a broken country, devastated in many ways, barren and dry. Warlords control areas, militias based on whatever idea they feel at the time. Across this area groups of entertainers pass, circuses full of entertainment, including dinosaur rodeos. These dinosaurs are real, brought from the past with time travel technology. IN control of these beasts are dinosaur buckaroos, people who train, ride, control and take care of the dinosaurs, and when the time comes, send them back to die in the far past. Tif Tamim wants nothing more than to be a buckaroo, to have money to spend, and a place to feel safe, not used to the wild world Tif has found himself in. However bad luck follows Tif, causing him to wander from circus to circus, currently with a bicycle that is blood keyed to himself. A situation arises and Tif finds himself with a dinosaur, miles to cross, and bad people to avoid. And an uncertain welcome at the end.

A packed book for a novella with a lot of world building, ideas and character growth. One kind of wishes the book could be a little longer, to breath a bit, but that's why there could be more books. One can tell the writer is not from America, there is a little too much drawing on the myth of the United States and the west, but one can't complain when there are dinosaurs walking around in the future. The story moves well, and quickly starting fast and never really letting up. Tif is an interesting character, a stranger in a strange land, a bit naive, but a good person. There are thrills and quite a lot of big ideas, ones that I would like to see more of. Especially about the science and why the United States seems to be in the place that it is in.

A good novella, quick to read, easy to get into and fun. The dinosaurs are a very nice touch. My first book by Ian McDonald, but a world I would like to read more about.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

After sitting on it for a bit, I've decided 2 stars is the best grade I can give this book. Originally I was going to do 3, but I've become so disappointed with it that I'm beinging it down to a 2. My review will have spoilers in it so probably avoid beyond this if you care to read it. Although, if I'm frank, I don't recommend it.

The premise is a young boy finds a Carnotaurus that has been abused, in a western-style post-apocalyptic world, and he really wants to be a dinosaur buckaroo, the best he can be. So I thought this was going to be a story of him and this Carno growing and learning together for him to achieve this dream. Instead what I got was a wonky coming-of-age story where the dinosaurs are mostly background characters. This is a novella, so it's only 116 pages, but I think it should've been longer. The pacing is whack, some aspects of the lore doesn't make sense, and I just don't think this coming-of-age story works well in this short format. At least, not how it's done here. The world was admittedly somewhat interesting, with the USA now just a bunch of fundie "kingdoms" and such. But for some reason, the Spanish language is utilized for a lot of words. It's never really explained why, just a bunch of people speak Spanish now. They created this machine, the B2T2, which can go back in time but only to the paleo ages. So they get dinosaurs from those eras, bring them to live in our world for like 7 years or so, and then put them back exactly where they came from to "protect the timeline." It's a bit odd, but had the rest of the book been good, I could've forgiven it.

I also just did not care about Tif. He's like 17 or 18, and while I understand he's still a dumb horny teenager, there were times when sexual comments were made that had no place being there. One of the characters is using tarot cards with textures on them, and for some reason, we're told one of them feels like semen. There's another moment when he sees his best friend from childhood again, and we're told that he thinks he came in his pants. Like...what? It makes zero sense when we're told these things, and it very quickly got old. Because the pacing is so whack, I didn't feel like he really was getting closer to these circus folk. By the end of the story, he sees them as family, but I never felt that way. He experiences his first love (he's queer) with one of them named Prince, but I guess he breaks his heart because he...walked off? We're told he doesn't like super bright light, and they were near a light or something, and Prince is TERRIFIED. He tells Tif "its not you" and I guess that's him calling things off with Tif? For some reason? Maybe I'm stupid, but I don't understand what on earth happened. I also find it very strange to establish that these circus people care about their dinosaurs to where letting them go is hard. But then they exploit more anyway so it's like...what was the point?

If you were looking for a Western themed dinosaur book, I'm sorry to say that this is not it. The dinosaurs are hardly there. Hell, I forgot this kid even had a Carno because he didn't really do anything with it. Needless to say, a VERY disappointing read.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Under a high blue heaven, under the zealous sun, the kid and his dinosaur travel a hot, empty highway. [first line]

Tif (short for Latif) is an orphan of Arab descent, whose ambition is to become a buckaroo at one of the dino rodeos. The novella's opening presents him, with his dinosaur, on a journey: only gradually are we shown where he's going, and why -- and where he's come from.

This is the post-apocalyptic future of the country formerly known as the United States of America, now a dangerous wilderness of miliciano gangs, religious states, and aggressive Dominion raiders. Tif's parents were killed in the South Dakota purification. He's recently been sacked from Dino! Dino! after a Timursaur escaped and wreaked havoc. Subsequently he's undertaken to return an old, maimed Carnosaur to the B2T2 time portal in the mountains of Colorado, and let it live out its remaining years 'under its own sun'. En route, he joins Memphis Red’s Tatterdemalion Circus; falls in love (or lust) with its star, the enigmatic Prince; and, perhaps, finds family.

That's the novella in a nutshell, but there's a novel's-worth of worldbuilding and characterisation here. McDonald doesn't waste time explaining the post-Chaos future, or the cyberpunk-flavoured Silver Clowns, or the Dust Tarot with which a Clown reads Tif's future. The B2T2 portal is a natural phenomenon, 'a place where two times lay up against each other, close as kittens, separated only by the finest layer of space-time fur, that could be stroked, and parted' [loc. 515]. That's where the dinosaurs are captured, and where they must be returned: 'leave no dangling timelines'. Naturally, the approach to the B2T2 is festooned with various flavours of protest camp.

There is danger, chaos and glamour; there is a strong sense of the cruelty involved in parading living creatures for entertainment. And there is so much emotional honesty and truth, in the backstories of the characters Tif encounters as well as his own journey. I would have loved this even more at novel length: but kudos to the author for keeping it tightly focussed and leaving the reader wondering about the wider world, the stories that happen outside the scope of Boy, with Accidental Dinosaur.

Something wild and magnificent and innocent is trapped and caged. Betrayed. For stardust, for floodlights, for the ronda and the roar of the crowd. For beer and nuts and nachos. [loc. 958]

[Jacqie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a sort of "vibes" piece and I wasn't sure how I felt after I read it.

We're in a world where time travel can work in that dinosaurs can be brought forward from their original time. Once they are here, they are auctioned off to traveling rodeos who then parade them through town, do "bronc' busting" events and generally are entertaining. Because what else would you do with a dinosaur? Well, I can think of quite a few things but that wasn't the point of the story.

The dinosaurs and their handlers travel the fragmented former United States, trying not to run afoul of warlords, trying to find enough water and money, and trying to survive in a desolate land. The USA isn't the world, though. One of the characters has ended up in this Mad Max world from Canada, which is still a functioning polity. I can definitely see that the USA would have difficulty with getting the center to hold in extremity, considering the point we're at now.

Anyway, our POV character is a boy who just wants to be a dinosaur rider. Luck just doesn't go his way, but he does end up with an elderly carnotaurus who must be returned to the time travel facility so that it can return to its own time.

In this bewildering landscape that doesn't feel like it holds together for me (although maybe the author has thought it through, or maybe he just wanted dinosaur riders and wasn't worried about the details) the thing that got me to feel the most was how the dinosaur wranglers said goodbye to their beasts. They all knew that they weren't going to have these creatures forever, they all attached to them anyway, and they all had to suffer loss every few years when their creatures were returned. Reading these scenes felt to me just like it feels to say goodbye to a beloved pet.

Of course, then the wranglers purchase new beasts and start the cycle of exploitation all over again, so I'm not sure how to handle that. I also had the feeling that I have in some of this author's work that he and I understand how people work very differently and so his characters don't always make sense to me. Maybe it's just that he has more hope for the human race than I do.

[Siavahda · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest, this was a mess. The author had a very cool premise – dinosaur rodeos! – and clearly had no idea what to do with it. This novella can’t decide what kind of story it is, and the result is that it tries to do half a dozen things and fails at all of them. Is it coming-of-age? Is it whimsical fun? Is it a romance? Is it a dystopia? Is it a boy-and-his-beast story? Is it found-family? No, to all of the above. I was constantly asking myself what the point of this book was; it ended up so wishy-washy that it was mind-numbing. It took me weeks to read what I should have been able to finish in a day, because it kept putting me to sleep.

In the future, the USA has completely broken down into a bunch of little religious fiefdoms and militia-run territories and everything is terrible. Except humans kind of discovered time-travel, and naturally decided dinosaur circuses-and-rodeos should be a thing. I am not exactly opposed to this – who could be?! – but McDonald waffled on every aspect, unable to commit. One moment we’re being subjected to loving descriptions of the pageantry of the dino circuses, the costumes of the dino rodeo-riders, the wonder seeing a dino in the flesh inspires – the next it’s musings on whether this is all terribly demeaning and unnatural for the dinosaurs, flirting with the idea that maybe this is Wrong without confronting the idea head-on. As promising as the the various secondary characters are, the pagecount is too low to really get to know any of them properly, or for the protagonist to bond with them, so the found-family vibes the author’s clearly going for just fizzle out pathetically. Etc.

At 70%, the main character goes off to rescue a best friend we’d never heard a whisper of prior to that. His mentor up and leaves the circus they’re both a part of with no warning, effectively ‘just because’. What is the deal with Prince? Is anyone ever going to explain what the Silver Clowns are? Nope and nope.

Wonderful cover I would love to have on my wall; a book it’s not worth wasting your time on.

[Adrian Torres · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the plot summary of the book, I thought I would get a Neo Western with Dinosaurs. What I instead got is what happens when you take elements of A Sound From Thunder but you put them into a world similar to Robert Evan’s After The Revolution. The world of this story is terrifying in a social and existential way, with the time displacement of Dinosaurs in our future brought about like entertainment while the background hints at a United States that is indulging in terrorism and ethnic cleansings. While these two subjects don’t seem to go hand in hand, the reasoning for how this world came to be puts the story on a path that becomes terrifying to think about.

Now, due to my busy schedule, I thought that the pacing was slow but the truth was I was adjusting to Ian Malcolm’s writing style, which was a distinct writing style that requires that you take your time to read the story. Once you do, the characters, their backstories, and the plot become easier to follow. I admit that i needed to restart the story because I got lost trying to read through the book. By the end, I like the found family dynamic that these characters had, especially with how all of them are victims of the war that destroyed their lives and it made me curious to want to see more of them in the future.

That being said, I guess I didn’t fully clicked with the characters (aside from maybe Matilda) and Tif’s goal of wanting to be a Dino rider doesn’t seem as important to him as the summary makes it out to be (again, this might just have been my busy life preventing me from sitting down and enjoying the novella). We get one small scene with Tif spending time with the Carnosaur and I guess I wanted to see more of that, more of Tif bonding with an ancient reptile. I just like it when things have their little details.

All in all, I would say I had a good time with this book. If there is a sequel to it, I would definitely check it out in a heart beat.

[Audrey S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating: 3.5 stars
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How can you not be utterly charmed by this cover?? The bestest carnotaur boy doing his best job, a flipping dinosaur cowboy being broody and mysterious. This cover is one of the best I’ve seen this year. All the props to the artist.
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I will say that the synopsis makes this novella seem like it will be much more romantic than it is. There is also not that much dinosaur rodeo despite the cover, title, and what the synopsis would suggest. Instead it feels like the post-apocalyptic wasteland storyline takes up the majority of the plot. Not that it is a bad thing, it just definitely was not what I expected going in based on the synopsis.
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I did enjoy the direction the story took (that said I still missed the dinosaur rodeo time with the broody gay cowboy). Without spoilers, cause this is a novella so time does go by very quickly, Tif has to navigate around those who have taken control in the shattered country in order to get his friend across the Canadian border (a character from Québec, yay!) and to reunite with his brother - what happens after that? Well, you’ll have to read and find out for yourself.
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The diverse outcast family of the dinosaur rodeo is still the heart of this story and I was left wanting to learn more about every member and wanting to continue on the road with them. There is magic and potential in this world and I would love to see more stories come out of it from this author - and also more gorgeous covers too, that would be so cool.
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Boy, with Accidental Dinosaur is definitely worth checking out, but I would suggest not reading the synopsis so your expectations are not set by it.
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*I received an eARC from Tor Publishing Group | Tordotcom & NetGalley. All opinions are my own*‌ ‌

[rose ✨ · Rating 1 out of 5]

“all endings are sudden. no sooner do you find family than it changes.”

it’s safe to say i did NOT enjoy my first dino book of 2026 😔

boy, with accidental dinosaur offers an intriguing premise for anyone interested in either dinosaurs or dystopian westerns (me! specifically me!) but reads like a rough draft of a rough draft. i still have no clue what mcdonald was trying to do here—this book skitters from idea to idea like a dinosaur attempting to escape the rodeo.

it’s a lot of disorganized vibes and dropped plot threads centered around a very cool concept: a rift in time itself that allows people to bring dinosaurs to the present (where they’re used for rodeos, of course) and then return them to their own time. there’s something depressingly believable about both the setting (a dystopian future where the former US is now a lot of warring territories controlled by various factions, religious cults, and gangs) and the idea that humans, upon gaining access to dinosaurs, would gleefully profit off of using and abusing them for rodeo entertainment and then pat themselves on the back for returning them to their own time… but this is apparently Not Really A Bad Thing because, you see, our MC really wants to be a dinosaur buckaroo. (there is, like, one page where he contemplates if maybe this might be unethical or cruel. and then it never comes up again.)

it’s a perfect example of an author trying to do too much in too little time and never properly developing or following through on any of it. if this is intended to be a Just Vibes book, mcdonald should have stayed away from some of the (many!) deeper themes he touches on before failing to explore, and if not, it really needs more structure and development.

i received an ARC from the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

rating: 1.0/5.0 stars

[Hart · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really, really wish I liked this novella more. The world building is strong and the writing is neat (barring a few spelling errors, which I do hope get fixed before publication), but it felt like the story lacked soul. I couldn’t get into any of the characters other than Tif and the plot felt a little nonsensical. Part of it was the way that half the plot seemed to be explaining the world and how it worked. This was interesting, but a novella it did not make. It was also painfully obvious that this author is not American, which is usually not a problem, but this novel is very clearly an Americana sature written by someone who doesn’t really understand the nuances of American culture or it’s geography. Ultimately, the strong premise feels undermined by weak character writing and a strange lack of direction. 3/5 stars. Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for an advance review copy of this title.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a weird little science-fiction novella. Set in a world where dinosaurs can be transported through time, this story follows Tif on his journey to become a dinosaur buckaroo (essentially a dinosaur rider in a rodeo/circus). There is a lot going on in this story, and most of it is not explained. At its core, this is an adventurous, queer found family story set in an eclectic dystopian future. With dinosaurs. But there are many topics that feel haphazardly included, namely explorations of race, religion, and identity. I think that the author is trying to be inclusive, but some things just feel uncomfortably stereotypical. Overall, I do think that this novella will appeal to fans of dinosaurs and short, weird science-fiction stories.

Thanks to Edelweiss and Macmillan for providing me with an eARC!

[Chris Quinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

S/O and TY to NetGalley and the publisher Tor publishing group for the eARC of this title.

A really interesting premise combining rodeo culture, time travel, dinosaurs, and sci-FI, magi-tech, that’s a little aimless slice-of-life, though very depressing, in the beginning but inevitably comes together into a cohesive narrative. If you think that’s a lot of commas you won’t love this writing style. Pardon the pun but a bit more incubation time would have been good for this story. I did appreciate the minutiae at times and the author spends a lot of the short time with this story world building and raising questions rather than answering them. It does come to a satisfying conclusion though and I’d say the pieces really came together at about the 75% point.

I’d recommend this to readers who enjoy stream of consciousness, machismo, and alternate history.

3.5/5 stars.

[Timothy Grubbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just trying to get the dino back home…

Boy, with Accidental Dinosaur by Ian McDonald is a peculiar story…

I am still not entirely sure what this world means.

Tif has dreams about being a Dino cowboy…

Set in the future where the United States has broken up into a wasteland and two feuding government entities…dinosaurs also live among humans.

Through an odd time travel quirk, many circuses and rodeos operating across the American wasteland for entertainment.

Tif has been seeking employment but it’s only when given the chance of guiding a carnosaur home that Tif decides to step up…

Trying to keep calm and focused…it’s gonna be an odd trek…just to get the carnosaur back under its own sun millions of years ago…

Just a very odd tale…and I didn’t quite get elements of the world…but it was ok…

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tif is an orphan who dreams of riding a dinosaur in an alternate southwest rodeo. We follow Tif learning the ropes, and freeing a dinosaur from an abusive owner. This is just the smallest bit of the story as a whole and it is very worth reading. It has lgbt rep, some humor, and is definitely is made for those of us that grew up with Jurassic Park. For being a novella, it has packed in every single thing it possibly could and this is a complement. I had a lot of fun and only wished it was longer so I could keep within this world. This book is out in February 2026 and thank you to @Tor Publishing Group for my ARC.

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise of the this novella is so solid - a futuristic United States functioning Mad Max style with a temporal rift thrown in that mean people can bring dinosaurs forward in time to be part of rodeos and circuses. However, I think the author tried to pack to much into this little book. There seemed to be a lot of attempts at making commentary on several current hot button issues, but they were half hearted at best. The writing style leaned almost literary which felt a little confusing for what the piece was about. Still a great concept, but ultimately I was left wanting a little more here.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC of this book available for my review.

This was an enjoyable chaotic mess of a book. Set in a future United States where everything has fallen apart into a set of conflicting regions. What do they have in common? Why, dinosaur rodeos, of course! This book has: dinos (of course), mercenaries, time portals, dino parades, dino-bronc busting, dino auctions, unrequited love, biker gangs, found family, missing family, robots, gatling guns, but sadly no aliens. Way too much for one short novella, but then... Dinosaurs!