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Tyrannosaurs #1
The Running of the Tyrannosaurs
"Somewhere outside this orbital spin-gravity cylinder burn a billion billion stars, but I burn brighter."
On a far future space station, once each year, nano-engineered young women run genetically engineered tyrannosaurs in a race as brutal and bloody as any witnessed in the Roman Circus 3,000 years before.
Egret thinks she is ready for this day. She has been brainwashed for it, trained for it, shaped and reshaped into a sacrificial model of beauty for the entertainment of millions. Her world is one of strict regimen and fierce competition, one in which others can only be competitors or worshippers, never friends, where lack of perfection is punished by burial beneath the red sands and the thundering feet of tyrannosaurs.
But Egret can’t imagine how this day might change her. How the scream of a tyrannosaur and the cries of the other sacrifices running beside her might break open the steel surface of her world.
It is not a day you will forget.
"Wielding elegant prose and tightly-focused characters, Stant Litore cuts deep into the science-fiction realm of bio-engineered dinosaurs and high-tech bread and circuses with a physically enhanced female gladiator whose personal tragedy is as powerful as her victories in the arena. Her story echoes in the heart long after it is told." - Richard Ellis Preston, Jr., author of Romulus Buckle & the City of the Founders
On a far future space station, once each year, nano-engineered young women run genetically engineered tyrannosaurs in a race as brutal and bloody as any witnessed in the Roman Circus 3,000 years before.
Egret thinks she is ready for this day. She has been brainwashed for it, trained for it, shaped and reshaped into a sacrificial model of beauty for the entertainment of millions. Her world is one of strict regimen and fierce competition, one in which others can only be competitors or worshippers, never friends, where lack of perfection is punished by burial beneath the red sands and the thundering feet of tyrannosaurs.
But Egret can’t imagine how this day might change her. How the scream of a tyrannosaur and the cries of the other sacrifices running beside her might break open the steel surface of her world.
It is not a day you will forget.
"Wielding elegant prose and tightly-focused characters, Stant Litore cuts deep into the science-fiction realm of bio-engineered dinosaurs and high-tech bread and circuses with a physically enhanced female gladiator whose personal tragedy is as powerful as her victories in the arena. Her story echoes in the heart long after it is told." - Richard Ellis Preston, Jr., author of Romulus Buckle & the City of the Founders
29 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 9, 2014
8 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Stant Litore
49 books216 followersStant Litore is the author of Ansible, The Running of the Tyrannosaurs, The Zombie Bible, and Dante’s Heart. Besides science fiction and fantasy, he has written the writers’ toolkits Write Worlds Your Readers Won’t Forget and Write Characters Your Readers Won’t Forget, as well as Lives of Unstoppable Hope and Lives of Unforgetting, and has been featured in Jeff Vandermeer’s Wonderbook: An Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction. He has served as a developmental editor for Westmarch Publishing and holds a Ph.D. in English. He lives in Aurora, Colorado with his wife and three children and is currently at work on his next novel.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
March 22, 2018
I think one of the main premises of this story relies considerably on
That said this is a an exciting short story with some original ideas , well written with great characterisation of the main protagonist. I really enjoyed it and like a few short stories lately I will be investigating the author further
That said this is a an exciting short story with some original ideas , well written with great characterisation of the main protagonist. I really enjoyed it and like a few short stories lately I will be investigating the author further
April 19, 2018
The story tells the tale of Egret, a 16 year old girl who has spent the last ten years of life training to run with the tyrannosaurs, a contest that is as dangerous as it sounds. Egret has trained hard and believes herself to be the best, and has every intention of winning the "race." Her confidence grows, but an incident during the race causes doubt to rear its ugly head. Can Egret win, or will she fall foul of her own fears?
The premise sounds bizarre, but it's a fine concept, well drawn out by the author. Egret is an interesting character, running the whole gamut of the emotional spectrum as she runs with the tyrannosaurs, and our emotions follow accordingly.
I would really like to see a full-length version of this world. I believe there is one in the mix, but this is a good taste of hopefully what is to come.
The premise sounds bizarre, but it's a fine concept, well drawn out by the author. Egret is an interesting character, running the whole gamut of the emotional spectrum as she runs with the tyrannosaurs, and our emotions follow accordingly.
I would really like to see a full-length version of this world. I believe there is one in the mix, but this is a good taste of hopefully what is to come.
October 22, 2018
I've got an ARC copy of Nyota's Tyrannosaur sitting around, but I'm saving it for a challenge next week so I thought I would give this a try while I wait. I think it's definitely a good introduction to the world and even though it's very short, it's something that really packs a punch and sticks with you. I'm not sure how the first person narration and general vulgarity would fair in a longer novel, but for this short story it is exactly what is need to make it stand out and come together.
September 20, 2017
Short but powerful.
Terrific descriptions bring the story to life, but it's the emotional notes that will stick with you.
Crazy as it might sound, I think Frankenstein, from 'Death Race 2000', might understand Egret well.
Terrific descriptions bring the story to life, but it's the emotional notes that will stick with you.
Crazy as it might sound, I think Frankenstein, from 'Death Race 2000', might understand Egret well.
November 7, 2019
This book pulled me in and kept me right to the end. The story is original and well told, looking forward to reading more of Stant’s works.
October 8, 2019
This story grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go. The author's use of POV is genius; it provides a powerful, gut-wrenching experience. I really enjoy Litore's work but this is my favorite so far. Highly recommend!
December 8, 2017
Totally new world and set of ideas. Masterful.
February 26, 2018
It's a short novel, not a lot of pages at all. But the writing and wording is compelling, and full of emotions.
Would recommend it, to get a glimpse of the author's style.
Would recommend it, to get a glimpse of the author's style.
December 12, 2020
A quick, enjoyable read of adventure with a hint of a dystopia behind it.
Anything with genetically engineered dinosaurs used for entertainment has got to be fun.
Anything with genetically engineered dinosaurs used for entertainment has got to be fun.
December 25, 2014
“The Running Man” and “The Long Walk” are two stories by Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman that describe deadly games as national entertainment. In each case the losers suffer greatly, in general they die or are killed by the monitors of the game. King of course inserts excitement, danger and action into the stories. This one is also in that genre and in many ways the literary premise is more challenging.
In the society that is providing the context, the powerful carnivorous lizards Tyrannosaurus Rex have been recreated. The great game is for a set of physically and chemically enhanced athletes to ride one or more of the unrestrained, untrained and unmodified monsters from one location to another. The contestants are women in their late teens and they compete naked to better stimulate the crowd. The contest takes place on Patriot Day and the race is narrated by one of the contestants.
It is a very dynamic story, the players are very much gladiators, although their opponents are their mounts, the smallest of wrong moves and their ride becomes the instrument of their death. Fortunately, the Tyrannosaurs are not very bright, so their response to stimuli and other rides is fairly predictable. The narrator’s most formidable competitor is Alicia, an “old” seventeen-year-old that won the race the year before.
The excitement comes clearly through the prose, the seemingly implausible event of riding unmodified, untrained and untamed Tyrannosaurs is made reasonable enough for valid suspension of disbelief. It is a great story in the tradition of the deadly game dystopia, an area that people who study history know was once part of everyday life in Rome.
This story was made available for free for review purposes.
In the society that is providing the context, the powerful carnivorous lizards Tyrannosaurus Rex have been recreated. The great game is for a set of physically and chemically enhanced athletes to ride one or more of the unrestrained, untrained and unmodified monsters from one location to another. The contestants are women in their late teens and they compete naked to better stimulate the crowd. The contest takes place on Patriot Day and the race is narrated by one of the contestants.
It is a very dynamic story, the players are very much gladiators, although their opponents are their mounts, the smallest of wrong moves and their ride becomes the instrument of their death. Fortunately, the Tyrannosaurs are not very bright, so their response to stimuli and other rides is fairly predictable. The narrator’s most formidable competitor is Alicia, an “old” seventeen-year-old that won the race the year before.
The excitement comes clearly through the prose, the seemingly implausible event of riding unmodified, untrained and untamed Tyrannosaurs is made reasonable enough for valid suspension of disbelief. It is a great story in the tradition of the deadly game dystopia, an area that people who study history know was once part of everyday life in Rome.
This story was made available for free for review purposes.
January 1, 2015
This review is a tough one to write, because everything I want to say would be a spoiler. There’s a lot I’d like to say about this short book. I see this as a work of horror, although not as it is usually defined. There is a kind of horror in reading of a fictional future civilization with skewed ideals and values, and realizing that it’s not that big a stretch from some elements of our current society.
Egret is a product, as much as the bio-engineered tyrannosaurs. She is proud and confident, the end result of years of brutal training. She is the embodiment of fashion and style to the spectators, artificially altered constantly to fit the most recent ideals of beauty. She has but one goal in her life – to win the race. She has never thought for herself or wondered about her future before now. She is fearless, and her race will be fearsome.
Stant Litore does a masterful job of bringing Egret vividly to life. I felt sympathy and pity for the girl. I think loss of freedom is worse when a person doesn’t know what they have missed and been denied. This story illustrates that point and more. I’m very glad I read it.
Egret is a product, as much as the bio-engineered tyrannosaurs. She is proud and confident, the end result of years of brutal training. She is the embodiment of fashion and style to the spectators, artificially altered constantly to fit the most recent ideals of beauty. She has but one goal in her life – to win the race. She has never thought for herself or wondered about her future before now. She is fearless, and her race will be fearsome.
Stant Litore does a masterful job of bringing Egret vividly to life. I felt sympathy and pity for the girl. I think loss of freedom is worse when a person doesn’t know what they have missed and been denied. This story illustrates that point and more. I’m very glad I read it.
March 15, 2015
YES!
A good, and rather exciting short story. Unusual. A bit repetitive, strains belief but overall, not bad at all. This author improves with each read! Next, the long awaited Ansible stories 1-4.
Minus one star for bring so short when there was material aplenty to enrich and lengthen the story but that's just my personal opinion. It is, after all, a SHORT story! I'm being greedy but only because I liked what I read and wanted more. Maybe Litore will come back and expand the entire piece into a 350 page novel! That would be exciting - to explore the sailing cylinder worlds, their culture with the Goddess religion, politics , laws and general societal rules and regs. I, for one, would like to read Litore's descriptions of who, what, why, where and how much of these humans ... if that's what they are!
Fast. Fun. Different. Very well-written.
KUDOS, Mr. Litore. You are like a drug that makes me want ever more, more, MORE!
A good, and rather exciting short story. Unusual. A bit repetitive, strains belief but overall, not bad at all. This author improves with each read! Next, the long awaited Ansible stories 1-4.
Minus one star for bring so short when there was material aplenty to enrich and lengthen the story but that's just my personal opinion. It is, after all, a SHORT story! I'm being greedy but only because I liked what I read and wanted more. Maybe Litore will come back and expand the entire piece into a 350 page novel! That would be exciting - to explore the sailing cylinder worlds, their culture with the Goddess religion, politics , laws and general societal rules and regs. I, for one, would like to read Litore's descriptions of who, what, why, where and how much of these humans ... if that's what they are!
Fast. Fun. Different. Very well-written.
KUDOS, Mr. Litore. You are like a drug that makes me want ever more, more, MORE!
December 12, 2014
Again Stant Litore brings a vivid and unique vision to life. This short story paints a provocative picture of the entertainment world of the future. Short enough to read in a sitting, but long enough to satisfy.
Highly descriptive. The sights, sounds, tastes and sensations of an intense, unexpected event. I never imagined that one day I would stand on the red sands, running before the hot breath of a ravenous tyrannosaur trained to chase me down. The heroine of the story did, though. She has trained for the moment her entire young life, since being selected for it as a child. But she never expected that her moment of triumph would feel the way it does.
The story lingers long after it ends.
NOTE: If you prefer to avoid stories with profanity and frank thoughts about sex, death and other facts of life, you might give this one a pass.
Highly descriptive. The sights, sounds, tastes and sensations of an intense, unexpected event. I never imagined that one day I would stand on the red sands, running before the hot breath of a ravenous tyrannosaur trained to chase me down. The heroine of the story did, though. She has trained for the moment her entire young life, since being selected for it as a child. But she never expected that her moment of triumph would feel the way it does.
The story lingers long after it ends.
NOTE: If you prefer to avoid stories with profanity and frank thoughts about sex, death and other facts of life, you might give this one a pass.
December 9, 2014
Stant did it again... The story is so tightly written that anything about it would be tantamount to spoilers, so I will just stay saying that I was blown away.
Just the right length to fill an extended lunch break, and just the right content to give you things to think about for the next hours. Let me just cite his dedicatation, "for the young women of this generation: no matter what a magazine cover may tell you, you are each more beautiful already than you know". I can only stand amazed at the time and thoughts that must have went in the story.
Thank you Stant. Thank you so much.
Just the right length to fill an extended lunch break, and just the right content to give you things to think about for the next hours. Let me just cite his dedicatation, "for the young women of this generation: no matter what a magazine cover may tell you, you are each more beautiful already than you know". I can only stand amazed at the time and thoughts that must have went in the story.
Thank you Stant. Thank you so much.
July 31, 2015
I loved the message of empowering women to the point of them not viewing themselves as public pleasure. This story, in my interpretation, tackles economic issues. Models, actresses, women in high-income careers would definitely take a whole lot from this story. Life is not what others make for you, God created you for so much more. You are more beautiful inside than out.
June 22, 2016
one day Stant Litore will be an author that is taught in literature classes, because his writing is as meaningful and significant as Vonnegut, Huxley, Orwell and Clarke. Litore is also what I consider to be a “writer’s writer” and worth studying for form and content by anyone who is interested in writing fiction.
July 1, 2016
A young Tyrannosaur rider surpasses her rival in a "running with bulls" event featuring T-Rex instead bovines. Great voice narration by Amy McFadden reflects the excitement and sadness of the piece. Great story and writing from Stant Litore! Highly Recommend! (I cheated and listened to the audio book version.)
September 15, 2015
So much adrenaline and heart break in 29 pages. Litore creates a whole world I was drawn into. I could feel Egret's heartbeat in my heartbeat. I experienced her every memory and emotion. I ran the race with her, dancing along the way. Thank you for the ride! You were fantastic.
March 9, 2017
Interesting Read
An interesting writing perspective that allows the love/ hate of the character to shine through.
Racing dinosaurs for entertainment in a futuristic world is a unique idea and it's well crafted. It's like time flipped on it's head and remixed with technology.
An interesting writing perspective that allows the love/ hate of the character to shine through.
Racing dinosaurs for entertainment in a futuristic world is a unique idea and it's well crafted. It's like time flipped on it's head and remixed with technology.
May 3, 2017
Super short read, and so hard to put down. Stant did a great job with world-building, without shoving it down your throat. And the main character, Egret... just wow. As you're reading, you know there's SO much wrong with that world and the situation she's in, but because she's so proud of what she's doing, you're happy for her. The way he presents her and what she wants and how she's going to get it, it's hard not to root for her even as you're cringing at how wrong it is.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews