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Dinosauria #1
A Memory of Time
Dinosaurs were wiped out sixty-five million years ago. But what if they weren’t? What if we traveled back in time and changed history, allowing them to survive and evolve alongside humans? What then? What would they grow up to become?
Dinosauria is a character-centric, post-apocalyptic, scifi time travel novel.
Dinosauria is a character-centric, post-apocalyptic, scifi time travel novel.
- GenresScience FictionFantasy
162 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 10, 2010
12 people are currently reading
75 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 8, 2011
This book was seriously one of the worst books I've ever read, and I'm amazed I managed to finish it.
It wasn't ALL bad; the plot had some interesting points, and it could have been a good story.
Unfortunately, however, the characters were lacking any depth whatsoever, and even after finishing the book, I don't really know what kind of people the characters were. I know someone has a temper, another was a bit of a scaredy-cat, and a third one had an awful mother and suffered from an eating disorder, but that's pretty much the extent of it. There were many characters, some died, some didn't, but I can't even tell you how many characters there were in total, and I don't even remember the names of some. The fact that four of the male characters had somewhat similar names (Jack, Jason, James, Joshua) didn't help with distinguishing between them.
I couldn't identify with any of the characters, because there was nothing to identify with. The characters simply flowed through the events in the book. You would think that crash-landing and extremely scary situations would cause all kinds of strong emotions and friction and differing opinions between characters, but they were mostly just cursing at each other and then kept going normally, as though stuff like this happened to them every day.
It also felt like there was no "main" character, and the plot followed the point of view of different characters seemingly in a very random order. Sometimes you'd get Jack's point of view, sometimes Andie's, sometimes Tyler's, sometimes Rhino's. I would have liked it if the book had one character it would have concentrated on a bit more, OR if the book had been well sectioned into different points of view. The point of view just kind of jumped from character to character at random.
The characters kept referring to things that had happened to them before, and these things made some of the characters hate some other characters, but it was never explained in the book what it was that had happened. I understand that it adds to the excitement of a book to not reveal everything immediately and to refer to past events only vaguely, but you have to explain them at SOME POINT, otherwise it just gets old, and confusing to boot. Halfway through the book I was already really annoyed by the references and thought, "yeah, I get it, just TELL ME ALREADY", but I never got to know.
Many things in the book were just brushed aside by "not now" or "I'll explain later, now is not the time", but the explanations never came up in the first book. Judging by the way the first book was written, I wouldn't be surprised if these things were never explained in the sequels either. It felt like the author was trying to skip explaining things he can't explain by making the characters say "now is not the time", and hoping that the reader will forget about those points. Having not read the sequels I can't say if this is true or not, but that's how I feel after the first book.
The language was sometimes nice, but mostly pretty bad. The descriptions were often confusing, and I really hope the author will get someone to edit his future books properly. There were more grammatical errors than I could count. Being a foreign speaker of English, I probably don't notice the finest grammatical errors in English texts, but this book kept messing up the most basic things in the English language. There were occasions when "its" was written as "it's", "your" was "you're", and I even spotted "an nearly" in one sentence. I understand mistakes like this are easy to make when you write the first version of your book, but you MUST take care to not leave them in the finished version. People might normally be more forgiving of grammatical mistakes on the screen than when they are printed on paper, but in my opinion, eBooks are still books and should be edited with as much care as books that will be published in print. Also, Steven Hawking? It's Stephen Hawking. If you're going to refer to real people, at least spell their names correctly.
In addition, some phrases were used a bit too much in my opinion. It felt like every time the author described a feeling, he wrote "(feeling) painted on his/her face" or "his/her face painted with (feeling)" or something similar. It was always painted. Why not "etched", or "written", or just plain old "showing" sometimes? There were other occasions too when it felt like the author was stuck with only one way of saying something, and at worst, one phrase was used several times in a paragraph, making the language sound repetitive and awkward. Again, a good editor would have spotted all this.
The plot had some good parts, but sometimes I felt like I was reading a book about Lost or some other popular TV series or movies. The story bore a bit too much resemblance to Lost in many ways, but then again, it's not like Lost was the first story of its kind. Still, I would have hoped for a bit more originality.
All in all, I felt like I was reading a sequel to another book, because so many things were left unexplained. The plot was confusing and characters lacked depth. The language was rough, and sometimes it felt like I was reading the first draft instead of a published book. Perhaps I should have just ignored the grammatical errors and enjoyed the ride, so to speak, but I simply couldn't find myself enjoying a ride as bumpy as this book's was. I'm sure the story was good and the characters well formed in the author's head, but he just failed to convey that to the reader. Too many things were left unsaid.
It wasn't ALL bad; the plot had some interesting points, and it could have been a good story.
Unfortunately, however, the characters were lacking any depth whatsoever, and even after finishing the book, I don't really know what kind of people the characters were. I know someone has a temper, another was a bit of a scaredy-cat, and a third one had an awful mother and suffered from an eating disorder, but that's pretty much the extent of it. There were many characters, some died, some didn't, but I can't even tell you how many characters there were in total, and I don't even remember the names of some. The fact that four of the male characters had somewhat similar names (Jack, Jason, James, Joshua) didn't help with distinguishing between them.
I couldn't identify with any of the characters, because there was nothing to identify with. The characters simply flowed through the events in the book. You would think that crash-landing and extremely scary situations would cause all kinds of strong emotions and friction and differing opinions between characters, but they were mostly just cursing at each other and then kept going normally, as though stuff like this happened to them every day.
It also felt like there was no "main" character, and the plot followed the point of view of different characters seemingly in a very random order. Sometimes you'd get Jack's point of view, sometimes Andie's, sometimes Tyler's, sometimes Rhino's. I would have liked it if the book had one character it would have concentrated on a bit more, OR if the book had been well sectioned into different points of view. The point of view just kind of jumped from character to character at random.
The characters kept referring to things that had happened to them before, and these things made some of the characters hate some other characters, but it was never explained in the book what it was that had happened. I understand that it adds to the excitement of a book to not reveal everything immediately and to refer to past events only vaguely, but you have to explain them at SOME POINT, otherwise it just gets old, and confusing to boot. Halfway through the book I was already really annoyed by the references and thought, "yeah, I get it, just TELL ME ALREADY", but I never got to know.
Many things in the book were just brushed aside by "not now" or "I'll explain later, now is not the time", but the explanations never came up in the first book. Judging by the way the first book was written, I wouldn't be surprised if these things were never explained in the sequels either. It felt like the author was trying to skip explaining things he can't explain by making the characters say "now is not the time", and hoping that the reader will forget about those points. Having not read the sequels I can't say if this is true or not, but that's how I feel after the first book.
The language was sometimes nice, but mostly pretty bad. The descriptions were often confusing, and I really hope the author will get someone to edit his future books properly. There were more grammatical errors than I could count. Being a foreign speaker of English, I probably don't notice the finest grammatical errors in English texts, but this book kept messing up the most basic things in the English language. There were occasions when "its" was written as "it's", "your" was "you're", and I even spotted "an nearly" in one sentence. I understand mistakes like this are easy to make when you write the first version of your book, but you MUST take care to not leave them in the finished version. People might normally be more forgiving of grammatical mistakes on the screen than when they are printed on paper, but in my opinion, eBooks are still books and should be edited with as much care as books that will be published in print. Also, Steven Hawking? It's Stephen Hawking. If you're going to refer to real people, at least spell their names correctly.
In addition, some phrases were used a bit too much in my opinion. It felt like every time the author described a feeling, he wrote "(feeling) painted on his/her face" or "his/her face painted with (feeling)" or something similar. It was always painted. Why not "etched", or "written", or just plain old "showing" sometimes? There were other occasions too when it felt like the author was stuck with only one way of saying something, and at worst, one phrase was used several times in a paragraph, making the language sound repetitive and awkward. Again, a good editor would have spotted all this.
The plot had some good parts, but sometimes I felt like I was reading a book about Lost or some other popular TV series or movies. The story bore a bit too much resemblance to Lost in many ways, but then again, it's not like Lost was the first story of its kind. Still, I would have hoped for a bit more originality.
All in all, I felt like I was reading a sequel to another book, because so many things were left unexplained. The plot was confusing and characters lacked depth. The language was rough, and sometimes it felt like I was reading the first draft instead of a published book. Perhaps I should have just ignored the grammatical errors and enjoyed the ride, so to speak, but I simply couldn't find myself enjoying a ride as bumpy as this book's was. I'm sure the story was good and the characters well formed in the author's head, but he just failed to convey that to the reader. Too many things were left unsaid.
September 26, 2020
This is first book from the series Dinosauria. What drew me to read it is interesting premise of the book - What would happen if dinosaurs haven't perished. What I don't like is when the story from the book one is not rounded (at least in some part) but forces you to read another...
This is my assessments of this book The Memory of Time by J. Rock according to my 7 criteria:
1. Too long and Strenuous action - exciting - 3 stars
2. Boring - fun - 2 stars
3. Not difficult to read (as for non English native speaker] - 4 stars
4. Predictable (common) - good story (unusual) - 2 stars
5. Shalow story - has a deeper meaning - 3 stars
6. The story is mass and Unfinished - The story is clear, understandable and well rounded story - 2 stars
7. Dry and uninspired style of writing - Smooth style with humorous and fun characters - 2 stars
Total 2.57 stars
This is my assessments of this book The Memory of Time by J. Rock according to my 7 criteria:
1. Too long and Strenuous action - exciting - 3 stars
2. Boring - fun - 2 stars
3. Not difficult to read (as for non English native speaker] - 4 stars
4. Predictable (common) - good story (unusual) - 2 stars
5. Shalow story - has a deeper meaning - 3 stars
6. The story is mass and Unfinished - The story is clear, understandable and well rounded story - 2 stars
7. Dry and uninspired style of writing - Smooth style with humorous and fun characters - 2 stars
Total 2.57 stars
October 24, 2014
Jack Patrick Pennywise lived in Banff, Alberta (ski resort) with his parents; Martin Pennywise (dad, park warden) & Jennifer Pennywise (mom, teacher, Banff Springs Hotel Spa).
Jack missed the bus to his guitar lessons with Frank who lived in Canmore.
Martin & Jack were riding in the Pathfinder & the next thing was Martin looked over & Jack went through the windshield.
Dr. Jason Vedder (Cassé-Horlage co.) had invented time travel machine (Egg) & now time can be altered.
Earth as one had known it had now became Dinosauria.
In 65 million BC the Egg crash lands on what the paleontologist, grad students & military soldiers thought was a deserted jungle island.
Dr. Jonathan Crane (paleontologist, University of Alberta) observed a Dromaeosaur.
Their expedition crew & Cassé-Horlage crew consisted of Dr. Tempelman (psychologist), Corporal Johnson, Private Newman, Private Steven Harper (Cassé-Horlage lab tech), Dr. Jason Vedder (Dr. Crane brother), Andrea Lee Vibert (Cassé-Horlage Bacteriologist, different era), Andie Lee Vibert (Cassé-Horlage microbiologist, Dr. Jason Vedder ex), Dr. Scott Bon (University of Toronto Professor physics), Chezick (technician), Rhino Knowles (University of Alberta, paleontology), Tyler Ty Brown, & of course Jack Pennywise (teaching assistant).
The next creature the group encounters is a Deinonychus.
The Night Terror Virus (NTV) had wiped out most of the dinosaur & human population.
Brian Goodwin (Cassé-Horlage security officer), Lisa Cho (Cassé-Horlage computer scientist), Diane Patrick (Cassé-Horlage scientist) had joined up with the other expedition crew members.
Andrea, Andie, Jack & Dr. Jonathan Crane get to meet Joshua Trajand (149, Garden of Canaan, Warders) & Trillian Trajand (f, 149, Garden of Canaan, Warders, Dushku). They tell the crew the tale about the Great War (Paradox of Madness), the Blackening of the World & the Saurians who live in the Twin Cities Elysium & Dis. Avi Soco (tete, leader of the Padri) had sent Joshua & Trillian as spies in preparation for the earthlings to come.
When the 6 of them arrived back at the crews campsite fishapods were everywhere on beach. Rhino (Big Boy), Tyler, Lisa, Brian & Dr. Vedder also watched in horror as the creatures kind of mutated.
Tyler, Jack (25), Andie, Andrea, Dr. Crane, Dr. Vedder, Lisa, Joshua & Trillian were aboard the Muskeg Express Henry Edward was the conductor headed for Sottaluna (town).
As they journeyed they saw nothing but ruins of deserted cities such as Sodorrah (Megatropolis) with mutants running rampaged.
The trip did not quite go as planned & they ended up in Elysium & later Dis. What a site Kimberlite towers, Blastlands (nuclear waste) & mutant creatures running everywhere.
The crew later found out if a war was to break out there were a million Dushku & 250 million Saurians worldwide.
What do the Saurians like to eat?
What happened to Andre?
Will the crew ever get to Sottaluna?
Will their journey take them to Garden of Thoth (Sea of Tranquility)?
A very awesome book cover, great font & writing style. A fairly well written flip back/forth YA prehistoric sci-fi book. It wasn’t always very easy for me to read/follow from start/finish. But never a dull moment. There were a few grammar/typo errors, & several repetitive situations but no out of line sequence sentences. There were lot/lots of what I call excessive chapter fillers (pages of blah, blah, blah). There were numerous exciting scenarios, with several twists/turns & an enormous amount of unique characters to keep track of. This could also make another great YA prehistoric sci-fi movie (Jurassic Park), animated cartoon, or mini TV series (Lost). I’ve always had a love for dinosaurs since I was 6. In my undergrad I enjoyed biology (lab) & earth science (lab). But the 65 million yr. old creatures could have been more realistic. It was just OK for me. To be continued. With all that said I can only rate it at 4/5 stars.
Thank you for the free book (Booklikes)
Tony Parsons MSW (Washburn)
Jack missed the bus to his guitar lessons with Frank who lived in Canmore.
Martin & Jack were riding in the Pathfinder & the next thing was Martin looked over & Jack went through the windshield.
Dr. Jason Vedder (Cassé-Horlage co.) had invented time travel machine (Egg) & now time can be altered.
Earth as one had known it had now became Dinosauria.
In 65 million BC the Egg crash lands on what the paleontologist, grad students & military soldiers thought was a deserted jungle island.
Dr. Jonathan Crane (paleontologist, University of Alberta) observed a Dromaeosaur.
Their expedition crew & Cassé-Horlage crew consisted of Dr. Tempelman (psychologist), Corporal Johnson, Private Newman, Private Steven Harper (Cassé-Horlage lab tech), Dr. Jason Vedder (Dr. Crane brother), Andrea Lee Vibert (Cassé-Horlage Bacteriologist, different era), Andie Lee Vibert (Cassé-Horlage microbiologist, Dr. Jason Vedder ex), Dr. Scott Bon (University of Toronto Professor physics), Chezick (technician), Rhino Knowles (University of Alberta, paleontology), Tyler Ty Brown, & of course Jack Pennywise (teaching assistant).
The next creature the group encounters is a Deinonychus.
The Night Terror Virus (NTV) had wiped out most of the dinosaur & human population.
Brian Goodwin (Cassé-Horlage security officer), Lisa Cho (Cassé-Horlage computer scientist), Diane Patrick (Cassé-Horlage scientist) had joined up with the other expedition crew members.
Andrea, Andie, Jack & Dr. Jonathan Crane get to meet Joshua Trajand (149, Garden of Canaan, Warders) & Trillian Trajand (f, 149, Garden of Canaan, Warders, Dushku). They tell the crew the tale about the Great War (Paradox of Madness), the Blackening of the World & the Saurians who live in the Twin Cities Elysium & Dis. Avi Soco (tete, leader of the Padri) had sent Joshua & Trillian as spies in preparation for the earthlings to come.
When the 6 of them arrived back at the crews campsite fishapods were everywhere on beach. Rhino (Big Boy), Tyler, Lisa, Brian & Dr. Vedder also watched in horror as the creatures kind of mutated.
Tyler, Jack (25), Andie, Andrea, Dr. Crane, Dr. Vedder, Lisa, Joshua & Trillian were aboard the Muskeg Express Henry Edward was the conductor headed for Sottaluna (town).
As they journeyed they saw nothing but ruins of deserted cities such as Sodorrah (Megatropolis) with mutants running rampaged.
The trip did not quite go as planned & they ended up in Elysium & later Dis. What a site Kimberlite towers, Blastlands (nuclear waste) & mutant creatures running everywhere.
The crew later found out if a war was to break out there were a million Dushku & 250 million Saurians worldwide.
What do the Saurians like to eat?
What happened to Andre?
Will the crew ever get to Sottaluna?
Will their journey take them to Garden of Thoth (Sea of Tranquility)?
A very awesome book cover, great font & writing style. A fairly well written flip back/forth YA prehistoric sci-fi book. It wasn’t always very easy for me to read/follow from start/finish. But never a dull moment. There were a few grammar/typo errors, & several repetitive situations but no out of line sequence sentences. There were lot/lots of what I call excessive chapter fillers (pages of blah, blah, blah). There were numerous exciting scenarios, with several twists/turns & an enormous amount of unique characters to keep track of. This could also make another great YA prehistoric sci-fi movie (Jurassic Park), animated cartoon, or mini TV series (Lost). I’ve always had a love for dinosaurs since I was 6. In my undergrad I enjoyed biology (lab) & earth science (lab). But the 65 million yr. old creatures could have been more realistic. It was just OK for me. To be continued. With all that said I can only rate it at 4/5 stars.
Thank you for the free book (Booklikes)
Tony Parsons MSW (Washburn)
November 16, 2012
This book was okay. I was interested in reading this because of a tv program that was on briefly with the same name. I thought the program was cute. The book was really Sci-Fi when I wasn't expecting it to be, in hindsight, not too brillant of me. But I kept reading to see what happened. The author tried to cram too much detail into too short of a book. The basic storyline was okay, but it was odd the way the book hopped around, and told some background on the characters, but these little offshoots didn't really tie back into the story. Maybe he was setting it for sequels, which I guess there is at least one more to this one. I was confused through the whole book, because it starts out with Jack and his dad having a car crash, then cuts ahead about 15 years to Jack's future. You keep hearing the outcome to the accident, but then the story is present day, but keeps jumping around then too. It's been 2 weeks they've been on the island, then 3 days, then 6 weeks. And the chapters were numbered weird too. Did anyone else notice that. I'd almost think the book came through the Kindle in the wrong order (chapters I mean), but then the storyline wouldn't make sense for when the "egg" crew meets the 2 superhumanoids, or whatever you call them.
April 12, 2011
I read this book in about four days. I could not put it down! It has many believable characters which we get to know quite well as well as dinosaurs. If you ever wondered what the world could be like if dinosaurs did not go extinct... you will love this book. Eat your heart out Jurassic Park! This book is not for the faint of heart as it is quite graphic in it's detail. I highly recommend this book and hope the author writes another.
February 21, 2012
It was a great premise but I have to say I didn't really like all the f-- words used. I am not a prude but that just seemed overdone and in fact jarring because I really wasn't expecting that.
April 22, 2012
a very good book . a mix of jurassic park and time travelling quite different to anything ive read before . i reccommend it
May 16, 2011
Excellent scifi- time travel- alt history twist
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews