Speaking of Dinosaurs

by Philip E. High

Beyond Evolution.

A certain gifted engineer accepted the Theory of Evolution until he wandered by chance into a museum. In that museum was the skeleton of a dinosaur, and the skeleton got him thinking and enquiring, with terrifying results.

Attempts are made on his life and then, in a horrifying time-shift, he finds himself naked and unarmed in the distant past, facing one of the very creatures which had aroused his interest - a dinosaur!

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

196 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Chris Weidner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished reading Speaking of Dinosaurs this morning. Another good one! I’ve read 4 of his books in a row now and have yet to feel disappointed. I hate to reveal much of the plot in case you pick it up. I was glad I had no clue where it was going for the first half of the story. I’ll just say that there aren’t many dinosaurs.

War. Violence. Empathy. Racism. As usual, the book nails topics and conflicts of conscious that we are currently battling in our own society and in a round about way offers his own view of how to change things. Good stuff.

[Gerd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not his best work, but entertaining as usual no less.

The titel and description are, well, misleading to say the least and for the most part of the story you don't really know where it's headed - only that dinosaurs do play but a very minor role in it all.

[Brendan Hough · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye read 2023
7.5/10 Reminds me of the book Slan. Writing was good and i could mostly juggle all the characters in my tiny head. Dinosaurs were at the periphery of this story, just mostly talked about in passing. So if you are looking for dino action scenes, look elsewhere.

[Chris Sudall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd never heard of High and have to admit I bought this because it features dinosaurs! I love a dinosaur book!
Sadly dinosaurs only really feature on a couple of pages, but this is a great tale of evolutionary meddling, amoral aliens and the intervention of higher intelligences. All set against a schism in humanity that could lead to redemption or destruction.
It was really good! I'd read him again for sure!

[Dan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am primarily reviewing this book as a time travel novel. Why? Consider the following: 1) The title is "Speaking of Dinosaurs". 2) The cover of my version shows a bunch of dinosaurs and some pteranodons. 3) From the blurb on the back cover "...in a horrifying time-shift, he finds himself naked and unarmed in the distant past...facing...a dinosaur!" So you might be tempted to think, as I did, that this is one of those books that deals with the fairly classic combination of time travel and dinosaurs, right? Unfortunately you would be wrong. Here are the problems, and I suppose you might consider some of the following to be spoilers, but I was so disappointed with this book that I want to warn off anyone who is tempted to read it as a time travel novel: 1) The above-mentioned "time-shift" did not really happen; 2) the incident pertaining to this "time-shift" is approximately 4 pages of the book; 3) aside from these 4 pages, and a few other digressions, there are no dinosaurs in the book. So we have an apparent time travel with dinosaurs book that has no time travel and essentially no dinosaurs. Hence on the basis of thinking I was reading a time travel novel I have to rate this as a "1" at best. Now, let's step back and consider the book as what it really is, a somewhat wacky novel about evolution involving an alien race. All I will say here is that if you happen to find the idea of a race named "Yewmans of Terth" as being the predecessors of "humans of earth" a clever/witty concept you might enjoy this book. Anyone else should steer clear. Pay attention to the other reviews of this book. Although it has a reasonable rating score, the people who bothered to review it note how poor it is and give it a much lower rating than the average. If you are interested in a very good novel about genetic engineering and "evolution" of organisms. I suggest "Startide Rising" by David Brin. [Tej, I wrote this with you in mind, as I knew you would get a kick out of my having fallen for the misleading advertising.]

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A mildly compelling but silly story depicted with some of the worst grammar ever published. Be aware dinosaurs only appear via illusion in one scene early on; the majority of the book rather concerns a struggle between unambiguous good and evil conducted by aliens using humans as pawns. There's a weird conspiracy angle that is never remotely plausible, and random scenes and characters tumble past kaleidoscopically with little to connect them. What little enjoyment there is to be had here stems from the unintentional outrageousness on display.

Overall the book feels like a published first draft, a half-developed idea haphazardly typed up and sent to press without any copy or grammar editing. Recommended only to diehard sf aficionados or historians. Definitely not recommended to dinosaur fans, or people who like cohesive stories with relatable characters, or people who understand grammar, etc.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I tried reading this one before and didn't finish it-- The first half was familiar to me, but the second half wasn't, and I'd rated it on GoodReads. I'd given it three stars, and I have no idea at all what I was thinking. This is not a good book by any stretch of the definition. It's fairly dull, without much story tension. The science is silly (and was even when the book was first written). It has the features that seem to be common to most of High's books in terms of alien meddling, the emergence of homo superior, and the existence of soul mates. I really enjoyed some of High's books in high school and college. I'm not sure if those were better books or if I'm pickier now.