Fishing for Dinosaurs and Other Stories

by Joe R. Lansdale

From Wild to Wilder, you are offered a journey into the Worlds of Joe R. Lansdale. Go on a fishing trip for dinosaurs in the arctic and meet numerous characters from adventure novels and pulps, as a man unsure of his identity awakens to discover he has a job to do, if he only knew what it was and who he was. Cave men. Secret lairs. The strange group who rule the world, and She Who Must Be Obeyed, all come together in a rollicking adventure on an icy lake that contains an unexpected secret.

Visit the old West and be at the famous fight of Adobe Walls with Nat Love and his friend Black Hat Jack. Trapped in a adobe hut, a nest of crusty buffalo hunters battle angry Comanches who want to drive the hunters off their land, and make sure they don't come back. Be witness to the epic battle that occurred there. Dark, funny, adventurous, with bad language.

Visit an island graveyard for super criminals. It's just across the bay from a secret prison for those criminals, as well as deadly monsters. One of the executed villains, an executed creature made of will and mud, is about to be buried on the island. But not everything dead stays dead, and when it awakens, it definitely gets up on the wrong side of the grave.

Find out the true story of the Ape Man, as told by his Australopithecus brother, as they venture from their hidden jungleworld of dinosaurs, to the modern world of an alternate universe New York where Zeppelins sail the skies and movies are still made on film.

Find out how the Ape Man falls for The Woman, and how a venture into film fails dramatically, ends with death and a humiliating act that no one wants to name. Watch as the primitive falls from grace, and the New World offers temptations, disappoints, and some hard-core adventure. Out in the Old West there are tons of myths and legends, and sometimes those legends just might be true. A young bartender named Rabbit, teams up with a beautiful sawmill worker, Sally Bleedhead, and sets out to lead some of the nastiest villains in existence to a hidden valley, as well as stolen gold, and a quest to fill sixty-eight barrels with a strange treasure that will reveal the deadly secrets of the lost valley.

Fishing for Dinosaurs and Other Stories by Joe R. Lansdale is an all-novella collection that features 'Sixty-eight Barrels on Treasure Lake', an original that clocks in at over 28,000 words. The collection proper is preceded by a general introduction by hisownself, while each of the novellas are introduced by, variously, Robin Hobb, Poppy Z. Brite, Richard Chizmar, David J. Schow, and Norman Partridge.

Genres: Fiction, Westerns, Horror, Short Stories, Collections, Anthologies

381 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2020

About the author

Champion Mojo Storyteller Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over forty novels and numerous short stories. His work has appeared in national anthologies, magazines, and collections, as well as numerous foreign publications. He has written for comics, television, film, newspapers, and Internet sites. His work has been collected in more than two dozen short-story collections, and he has edited or co-edited over a dozen anthologies. He has received the Edgar Award, eight Bram Stoker Awards, the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award, the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy, and many others. His novella Bubba Ho-Tep was adapted to film by Don Coscarelli, starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis. His story "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" was adapted to film for Showtime's "Masters of Horror," and he adapted his short story "Christmas with the Dead" to film hisownself. The film adaptation of his novel Cold in July was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and the Sundance Channel has adapted his Hap & Leonard novels for television.

He is currently co-producing several films, among them The Bottoms, based on his Edgar Award-winning novel, with Bill Paxton and Brad Wyman, and The Drive-In, with Greg Nicotero. He is Writer In Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University, and is the founder of the martial arts system Shen Chuan: Martial Science and its affiliate, Shen Chuan Family System. He is a member of both the United States and International Martial Arts Halls of Fame. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas with his wife, dog, and two cats.

Reviews

[Char]

When I saw this was available on Netgalley, I clicked it at once! I thought there was no way I could go wrong with a collection of Joe R. Lansdale's novellas and I'm happy to say that I was right!

BLACK HAT JACK concerns a man of the American west and his traveling companion, Nat Love. Being that I've already read and ADORED Paradise Sky, I had a feeling I would love this tale, and I did.

FISHING FOR DINOSAURS. This narrative blew me away! Mr. Lansdale has the imagination and the chops to write just about anything, and I knew that going in. However, this story has such outstanding world building, I don't even know how to describe it. Fishing for dinosaurs is the perfect title for this perfectly presented insane world.

PRISONER 489. Set on an island where the executed convicts from the island next door get buried. A tension-filled story is woven through the eyes of the gravediggers when they realize that what they buried didn't STAY buried.

THE APE-MAN'S BROTHER was a pulpy sort of tale wherein King Kong's brother, (of Australopithecus origin), tells a story of his own. This is another example of a wonderfully built world where zeppelins fly about and ape-men have film careers.

The only story original to this collection is: SIXTY-EIGHT BARRELS ON TREASURE LAKE. A young, recently orphaned man named Rabbit joins, (somewhat unwillingly), with a band of highly suspect robbers, to help them relocate gold they stole several years previous. Once again, this is a beautifully imagined world, rich in color, description and on-the-money human observation. This is where Joe R. Lansdale really shines-never once do you question the motivations of characters because they're so real, you can relate to them. You might BE them, in some other world, time or place.

The introductions to these stories were fun to read. Poppy Z. Brite, Richard Chizmar, David J. Schow, Robin Hobb and Norman Partridge each had something to say about the tales and about Joe Lansdale himself. All of which served to prove that even other writers admire and enjoy Lansdale's wide and varied works.

I've never, ever been disappointed in a story from Mr. Lansdale. He writes stories that cannot be pigeon-holed into certain genres or styles, because he's a genre hisownself. They don't call him the Champion Mojo Storyteller for nothing!

Highly recommended!

Available on November 30th, 2020, but you can pre-order here: https://amzn.to/3kJGzc0

*Thanks to NetGalley, Subterranean Press and the author for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*

[Paul Preston]

This collection of five novellas by Joe R. Lansdale is an eclectic mix of stories. He writes such interesting characters and has them in unique situations.
Joe seems to get an idea and let it run around, crashing into other thoughts, and then sends it falling off a cliff to be smashed together into a working story.
Joe writes like Gordy from Stephen King’s The Body. Almost adolescent thoughts but with a mastery of words and vision from a honed skill.
Take this quote from the first story Black Hat Jack.
-Some more Indians took to chopping up White Eagle’s horse, and now they was all pulling out their Johnson’s and pissing on White Eagle while he lay on the ground.
“They sure don’t like him” Millie said.
“Seems that way.” Jack said.
-
He’s like your best friend telling a story around a campfire, no inhibitions and no fear of embarrassment, just spinning a yarn that almost seems made up as it goes, but with a completeness of a thought out tale.
Thank you to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for a copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review.

[Cody]

A collection of five novellas I didn’t expect to like nearly as much as I did (then again, this is the excellent Joe Lansdale we’re talking about), Fishing for Dinosaurs collects a few of Lansdale’s longish stories printed in recent years by speciality presses—stories that are now hard to find at affordable prices these days—and a new tale is included, too.

Subterranean Press did a bang-up job on this collection: each story featured an introduction from a different author, and there’s a fantastic foreword by the Mojo Storyteller himself. And what about that beautiful cover!

On display is everything Lansdale does, and does well: “Black Hat Jack” kicks off the collection. A riveting, tense, and gleeful dirty western partially based on historical events, it’s a fun romp. I’m not usually a western fan, but I certainly am when it’s Lansdale telling the tale.

The title story and “The Ape Man’s Brother” follow, and I really didn’t expect to like these as they sounded just a little too wacky for my tastes. Surprise: loved ‘em both. Especially the title story, which borders on horror (and a good bit of sci-fi) and could’ve maybe fit in By Bizarre Hands.

“Prisoner 489” is my favorite in the collection. It’s the closest to horror here. A special sort of prison inmate refuses to die, even after facing the electric chair . . . and he wants revenge.

“Sixty-Eight Barrels on Treasure Lake”, the only story original to this collection, closes the book out and is another winner. I’m still ruminating on it. Featured herein is Lansdale’s typically excellent character work and some hilarious dialogue. As the wrap-up of the collection it works well, featuring elements touched on in precious stories: the western flavor of “Black Hat Jack”, the otherworldly feel of the title story, the unapologetic zaniness of “The Ape-Man’s Brother”, and some scares like in “Prisoner 489”.

Lansdale never disappoints! If one is looking to check this author out, this collection can be found for an affordable price on Kindle.

[LIsa Noell "Rocking the chutzpah!"]

My thanks to Subterranean Press, Joe Lansdale and Netgalley. I was tickled pink by this collection! Except for Prisoner 489, which I've read before and rated at 4 stars, every other novella was 5 stars. They are also novellas that I never would have bought, because I wouldn't have figured I'd like them. Wrong! I loved them!

[Alicia Hilton]

Joe Lansdale writes wonderful weird fiction. Each of the 5 novellas in this collection was suspenseful and engaging. The characters were quirky yet seemed realistic. Excellent dialogue shot full of insights about life. I don't typically like westerns, but Black Hat Jack was marvelous. My other favorite stories were Fishing for Dinosaurs and Sixty-Eight Barrels on Treasure Lake.

[Thaydra]

I really enjoyed this book. Longer than a short story, these novellas were the perfect length. Long enough to really get to know the characters and world, but short enough to get through in a sitting.

Five different stories, and there wasn't a single one I didn't like. It's difficult for me to even choose a favorite. Or a least favored, for that matter.

[Wayne]

Another great read from Joe R Lansdale. Novellas this time, which is perfect for him. Nice tight stories, and a variety of genres, adventure, science fiction, and horror. Of course, I've been spoiled by Lansdale, as his novels and short stories are always good reads. And he can hop around genres, and mix them up, with the best of them. As always, can't wait for the next read from him.

[Craig Childs]

The annual release of a new Joe R. Lansdale short story collection feels like it should be a national holiday. He is one of the top three short story writers working today, alongside Ted Chiang and Joyce Carol Oates.

Three of the five novellas in this collection were originally published as limited-edition hardbacks. I wrote long reviews for those titles individually. Below are abbreviated reviews:

1. Black Hat Jack (2014)

Joe R. Lansdale brings back one of his best characters Nat Love, the African-American cowboy whom many scholars believe was the original inspiration for the fictional Deadwood Dick character that became popular at the turn of the 20th century. This story is a fairly accurate retelling of the Second Battle of Adobe Walls, the skirmish that finally broke the back of the Comanche in West Texas. Nat rubs shoulders with famous historical figures like Billy Dixon, Bat Masterson, and Chief Quanah Parker, as well as less-known real-life residents of Adobe Walls at the time of the battle, like Mr. and Mrs. Olds who ran the general store. The story mixes a heady blend of history, action, and humor. There is also some nice historical commentary on the role of former slaves and free black men at the edge of the Western frontier, where they were treated much differently than in the cities and settlements. Nat Love has also appeared in two other Lansdale short stories, "Hide and Horns" and "Soldierin' ", as well as the brilliant novel Paradise Sky, which won a 2016 Spur Award for Best Western Historical Novel.

2. Fishing for Dinosaurs (2014)

A homeless man finds employment through a mysterious job placement service, which eventually lands him at the South Pole alongside Alan Quartermain and Ayesha (from the novel She, as in "She Who Must Be Obeyed"). Global warming is melting the glaciers, which has resulted in two giant plesiosaurus breaching the barrier between Pelucidar and the surface of the earth. The job is to capture the dinosaurs in order to experiment on them and also to protect the secret of the Land that Time Forgot. I love how Lansdale merges the fictional universes of H. Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs in this tale. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the ending, which felt recycled from some of his earlier works, particularly the novel Tarzan: The Lost Adventure, the graphic novel Red Range, and the novella "Way Down There". Won a Bram Stoker award.

3. The Ape Man's Brother (2012)

This is Lansdale’s second take on the Tarzan myth. First, he was hired by Edgar Rice Burroughs’ estate to complete the author’s final novel posthumously, Tarzan: The Lost Adventure (1996), which I found to be a satisfying official conclusion to the original series. Ape Man’s Brother does not fit into the official Tarzan cannon but is instead a retelling from Nkima’s point of view (or Chimpanzee-Mike, if you prefer the movie incarnation). The name Tarzan is never used since, as the story goes, that was not his real name. There is a lot of revisionist history, mostly played for laughs: Tarzan is a drunk, Jane falls for the ape, etc. A little bit of violence and bawdy humor. It’s a rather fun story, not serious at all, and it has some minor connections to other Lansdale works.

4. Prisoner 489 (2014)

Joe R Lansdale writes in a variety of genres including horror, which he excels at. This is a short novella, only around 90 pages, but he builds a world that feels complete: an eerie atmosphere, characters full of quiet desperation, and hints of a larger mythology lurking behind the shadows. Prisoner 489 blends a slightly surreal camp-fire ghost story with believable action sequences, tinged throughout by the moral ambiguities of a prison system where criminals are held without trial and executed without compassion. I am still shocked this did not win a 2015 Bram Stoker Award.

5. Sixty-Eight Barrels on Treasure Lake (2020)

An eighteen year old boy named Rabbit comes of age when his father dies and leaves him a mining town saloon. He goes off looking for gold and adventure with a trio of dangerous bank robbers and a beautiful girl. The author sucks you into this story with his rough homespun prose ("The rest of the night I was as nervous as a female goat in a miner's hut"). The story morphs from a traditional Western into horror, then finally into a first contact sci-fi story worthy of Arthur C. Clarke. The transition is so smooth and seamless, the reader never realizes until the end that this story is not at all what it seemed to be at the beginning.

[Randal White]

This was an unusual read for me. I don't often venture off into this genre. Boy, am I glad that I did! Lansdale writes fantasy/sci-fi/speculative fiction that will make you burst out laughing. And, here, in five short, tight, well written novellas, each one that can be read in a single sitting. I am definitely going to take a break from my usual fare of non-fiction, political, and serious tomes and indulge further in some of his books! Especially today, with the combination of non-stop awful politics and virus coverage! A real breath of fresh air!

[Gregory Bastianelli]

Vintage Lansdale. The novella form suits him well. Every tale has that unique Lansdale quirkiness and pulp quality. Fun stuff

[Jiří Pavlovský]

Je to fascinující. Před pár lety jsem se s hrůzou díval na to, co všechno Joe R. Lansdale napsal a říkal si, kašlu na to, to nemá cenu se do toho pouštět, co je moc, to je moc. A teď už mám skoro všechno v knihovně a proklikávám stránky a hledám ještě nějakou zapomenutou knihu, kterou jsem nečetl.
Naštěstí je to fakt plodný autor… byť s touhle novou knížkou je to trochu komplikovanější.

Především, není to nová knížka. Je to soubor krátkých novel, které už předtím vyšly samostatně. Western Black Hat Jack zabírá většinu místa a je to pořád skvělá věc. Vychází ze skutečně historické události a věnuje se Lansdaleovým oblíbeným černošským pistolníkům (což nebyl na Divokém západě zase tak ojedinělý jev). Je to přesně to, co od Lansdalea čekáte – opulentní, barvité, legrační a krvavé vyprávění, které je tak někde na hranci reality a rodokapsu.

Což je mimochodem téma celé knihy – pulp ve všech jeho podobách. Na začátku je western, po něm následuje příběh Fishing for Dinosaurs, po kterém se jmenuje celá knihy a který pracuje se Ztraceným světem. Tenhle příběh mi přišel asi nejslabší, možná proto, že je hrdina celkem normální.

To o vypravěči dalšího příběhu říct nemůžu. The Ape Man´s Brother vychází z Tarzana a popisuje to z pohledu „Tarzanova“ opičího kámoše. Tedy, on je to spíš spojovací článek mezi člověkem a opicí, ze zapomenutého kmene uprostřed džungle… kmene, který se svého času rozhodl obětovat své pohlavní orgány za účelem uklidnění bohů, což mělo za následek jak téměř vyhynutí kmene, tak radikální odklon od náboženství, což všem jenom prospělo. Je to prostě Tarzan, kdyby všichni pobíhali nahatý, bez bederní sukénky, a měli sex se vším, co se pohne. Příběh tady není dobrodružný, ale víc emoční a funguje velmi dobře.

Prisoner 489 je zase variace na Frankensteina a také jsem to už četl dříve. Jako samostatná kniha mě to zase tolik nevzalo, to člověk přece jen čeká trochu víc, ale takhle, ve sborníku podobných věcí, je to pohoda. Souboj s monstrem na opuštěném vězeňském ostrově? To je cool.

A finále je opět western, tentokrát na téma výpravy za schovaným lupem. A je to fakt ukázkový Landsale. V kolika westernech čtete větu „Promiň, ale asi jsem se ti vykadil na ženu“? Má to tedy slabší konec, čekal jsem větší střetnutí, ale průběh je zábavný a co se týče násilí, tak pořádně přepálený.

Všeobecně mi z tohohle přijde, že Lansdale je nejsilnější, když jeho hrdinové nejsou civilní postavy, ale hospodští vypravěči. Takoví ti, u kterých víte, že jim nemůžete věřit každé slovo, ustavičně odbíhají od tématu, ale stejně vás to, co říkají, baví. A tady tihle vypravěči převažují.

[John Bruni]

I've read most of these in the past, but there were two new stories for me in this one.

"Fishing for Dinosaurs" is a wonderful pulp adventure. If you love Haggard and Burroughs (the Tarzan one, not the junkie), then you're in luck. This has your name written all over it. Our narrator is recruited by a super secret agency that probably has nothing to do with any government but also happens to be run by the same people who secretly rule the world. There is a passage into an underground world where the sun never sets (sound familiar?), but a dinosaur recently escaped into our world. That's the bare bones of it because there are several surprises you will absolutely not see coming. Only Lansdale could have written this one.


"Sixty-Eight Barrels on Treasure Lake" kind of reminds me a bit of From Dusk Till Dawn. While in the movie, it starts out as an action crime flick, and halfway through it turns into a horror movie with vampires, this novella starts as a straightforward western and halfway through turns into a horror story. No vampires, but there are a lot of humanoid hairy beasts. This young kid who works at his father's saloon gets recruited by two vicious outlaws to help them get to a steamboat where they have hidden a lot of gold . . . and maybe something else. Then a third outlaw shows up. And then there is Sally Bleedhead. And . . . that's all you need to know from me. It's a lot of fun.

The other stories in this book are also great, but I've reviewed them elsewhere. A cool addition is a selection of horror authors making introductions to each story. I liked that.

[Mike]

Great collection of novellas from the mojo storyteller Joe R. Lansdale (aka His Ownself). Not only is there not a bad one in the bunch but they are all 5-star quality. An eclectic bunch of tales that defy categorization other than to say, "It's Lansdale." Those who know will know and those who don't should take a chance...

Joe R Lansdale has been mashing, crossing, mixing, and disregarding genre for some years now (at least 35 years of published work), it's not unusual for someone unfamiliar with his style to read one of his books and say, "That wasn't what I was expecting." His writing style leans more towards campfire stories and back porch yarns; good entertaining tales sprinkled with thrills, chills, adventure, humor, and the occasional life lesson. He is a down-home (but not dumb-downed) counterpart to Stephen King, a tongue-in-cheek successor to both Mark Twain and Edgar Rice Burroughs, often referred to as the Bard of East Texas.

There truly is something for just about everyone in this superior collection. The only thing missing is some of Lansdale's more contemporary crime fiction but you can't have everything. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys a good tale well told.

*Contains strong language, adult situations, violence, and some dark humor. Not for the overly sensitive, faint of heart, or humorless.

***Thanks to NetGalley, Subterranean Press, and author Joe R Lansdale for providing me with a free digital copy of this title.

[Cheryl]

Bad drug dreams

I consider myself to be a huge Joe Lansdale fan. I have read a good portion of his standalone books and his stories. In fact, a couple THE BOTTOMS and A FINE, DARK LINE are in my all-time favorites list. I have never read his Hap and Leonard series, which I regret, but there's so many books and so little time.

I always thought Lansdale was ingesting some sort of hallucinogenic drugs when he wrote THE DRIVE-IN books. I liked them but they were quite a bit crazy. Well, I think he found his drug stash again when he was writing this group of stories.

Sure wrecked the pictures in my head when I imagine Doc Savage and Tarzan now. These stories seemed to be a bit more kinked than normal too. I'm not saying that's all bad - just different.

So, as usual, Lansdale has put together an eclectic group of stories. Western, adventure, lost world - with bits of nightmares in them all.

If you enjoy Lansdale's storytelling abilities (and you should), I highly recommend this collection. I enjoyed the preface by him for the book and then the individual preface for each story by different authors.

I received this book from Subterranean Press through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

[Joshua]

This is a collection of novellas by Joe R. Lansdale, so I will rate each story separately.

Black Hat Jack: ***
I am an easy mark for Lansdale stories about Nat Love, and I found it less striking than others. Still a good western romp with plenty of laugh out loud dialogue.

Fishing for Dinosaurs: ***
A fun little science fiction story with a slight twist, but I did not connect with the characters.

The Ape Man's Brother: ****
I do not know how this story reads for a casual reader, but as a fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan stories, I rather enjoyed it. Pulpy and self-aware, with laugh-out-loud dialogue, it was a hard one to put down. It is classic Lansdale and one I would recommend to anyone who likes Tarzan or Joe R. Lansdale.

Prisoner 489: ****
A dark, moody tale with some fun dialogue and an ominous, foreboding presence that kept me unnerved until the denouement.

Sixty-Eight Barrels on Treasure Lake: *****
A weird west tale that has everything I want in a story. A likeable protagonist, quirky characters, period setting, a little bit of romance, and dark humor. A strong finish for this book.

[Ollie-Lee Regan]

You can not go wrong with this book. Lansdale is king when it comes to short fiction. I really enjoyed all of the stories in this collection, but my most favorite is "The Ape-Man's Brother." In this story Joe Lansdale tells the true tale of "Tarzan" without using the name Tarzan. It's from the point of view of his monkey sibling but in this story he's not really a monkey or an ape but something in between that and a human. Funny and a little disturbing.
Other favorites in this collection, "Sixty Eight Barrels on Treasure Lake" and "Black Hat Jack."

[John Weagly]

While I love Lansdale's novels and really love his short stories, this is where he excels - the novella.

[Sercalunna Pautasso]

Love Lansdale style of writing and every story in this anthology is excellent. Great world building and excellent storytelling.
I received this arc from the publisher via Netgalley

[Andrew]

Outrageous Lansdale. Sci fi, horror, sexy, intelligent and pulpish. Every story a gem. If you love Lansdale you will love this book. If you’ve never read him before this is admin place to start.

[Susan]

Black Hat Jack •
Fishing for Dinosaurs • Jan23/2026
The Ape Man's Brother •
Prisoner 489 • Jan26/2023
Sixty-Eight Barrels on Treasure Lake •

[Graham Dauncey]

This was the first book by Joe Lansdale that I have read and I'm not sure this was the best introduction. The stories cover quite a variety of topics, ranging from alt science to subtle takes on the vagaries of fame. There was little connecting sense of theme between the novellas included. The writing was interesting enough, the topics where sometimes sillier than others. It was an interesting dabble into a mind that obviously has plenty of weird and wild ideas. I think I need to try one of his novels to see how the ideas carry through a bit more though.

[Ralph Blackburn]

Fishing For Dinosaurs and Other Stories by Joe R. Lansdale- Five novellas by pulp impresario Lansdale. All have already seen print or digital form except "Sixty-Eight Barrels on Treasure Lake". There's a range of stories from westerns, horror, and a bit of fantasy are all included. The Titles are: 1-Black Hat Jack, 2-Fishing For Dinosaurs, 3-The Ape-Man's Brother, 4-Prisoner 489, 5- Sixty-Eight Barrels on Treasure Lake. Some of the characters appear in other Lansdale stories, especially cowboy Nate Love from "Black Hat Jack", who would be featured later in "Paradise Sky". These are easy to digest, fun stories with all the run-on sentences and twisting plots that make up Lansdale's cannon. Maybe not for everyone, but a fun trip if you buy a ticket