Dino-thon underway

Heat and flu permitting, I shall be trying to read through and review all four of Kathryn Meyer Griffiths Dinosaur Lake series in one day. Should I finish, I will add a few of the other bargain Dinosaur attack books.

I have already read and reviewed Dinosaur Lake last year, which you can find here: Dinosaur Lake

If anyone wants to add a book, suggest it here. If it is not free, gifting it to bookangel through Amazon.co.uk would be prefered, as I have a small budget.

 

Good luck!

 

Dinosaur Lake II

Set five years after the events of Dinosaur Lake, Crate Lake finds itself host to mysterious inhabitants again. This time, they can fly...

Most of the main surviving cast returns, and one thing I do like is that the characterisation follows across from the first book with no sudden shifts. They may be older, a little more tired, and a lot more cynical, but the rangers of crater lake, Zeke, Ann and the others are still recogniseable from the first book. Ellie Stanton is a nice addition to the cast, although the only slight complaint I have is that as a veteran/spiritualist/Native American/catowner/guide she seems to be just about everything in the plot. Ann's side story kept me reading, even though it was unlikely to be resolved in the book.

There's little suspense here, as the story goes straight into dinosaurs attacking people, but the attack scenes are effective and disturbing, and I have to give credit for the trolley car attack which is truly horrific. Helicopters and the army replace the submersible and FBI of the first book. The attacks are less action and more horror, as it is obvious that they can end only one way and like the Rangers, the reader can only watch. If nothing else, this author can write combat scenes!

It doesn't escalate as far or as fast as the first book - one attack and they are taking the fight to the dinosaurs - but that seems reasonable since they'se seen what happens when these things are allowed to spread. There's a plot thread about a disease that is touched on and not really used, but that might be something for the next book.

Over all, a strong and enjoyable sequel that fans of pulp, gore and dinosaurs should enjoy.

On to book 3...

 

Not falling off of a cliff then? Looking up.

 

Would that be the series or the people?

 

The people prolly are. The series isn't.

 

Dinosaur Lake III

And its is only months later, not years. With the flying gargoyles exterminated, and his wife's cancer in remission, Ranger Henry Shore was hoping for a quiet year. No suck luck. Strange, huge creatures have been sighted in the lake, but they might have to take second place to the new enemy that's turned up on land.

Set a lot closer to the second book, than the second was to the first, it feels like a more direct sequel. Several supporting characters return and the action escalates. The dinosaurs are back in force, and while the characters are expecting them to stalk and pounce like last time, this time the attacks are brute force and in mass. The army shows up in force.

Some of the attacks are amazingly direct, and in this book, if someone is missing, everyone knows they are dead. In a move I haven't seen before, the fate of two rangers, one a named and near lead character is stretched out through the book with the readers knowiung what has happened, but the other characters not and proceeding realistically on that basis. It makes it an uncomfortable read in parts.

I have one minor complaint: the cat, Sasha, curls up on someone's lap part way through and then I don't think I saw her again during the book. However otherwise I can't fault the characterisation. The people who make dodgy decisions are ill and under pressure, most of the rest make sensible choices and often die because they were surprised or simply didn't have enough force for what they were facing.

It doesn't end at a natural breakpoint like the others. Instead it feels like the end of a chapter rather than a book. No status quo has been restored, and little has been resolved. I'm going straight on to book four, but otherwise that might irritate me.

And on to Dinosaur Lake IV

 

so buy the series not just one book?

 

Dinosaur Lake IV

Following on almost immedoately from the last book, the rangers, armed forces, and families have holed up in the base by Crater Lake. Beset by dinosaurs of various types, knowing that there are now attacks across the country and the world, how will humanity survive?

Right upfront this book stamps its characters with a big declaration of "Anyone can die". There is a change of tone, from monster horror to survival horror, rather like the difference between Alien and Aliens. It is good, just very different.

The characterisation, such as it is, remains largely consistent. I did get annoyed with one character, who's wife had died, and almost immediately starts getting into a romance while insisting he isn't. The line that he waited a long time before marrying again (and guess who he marries) in the epilogue made me laugh. I was actually disappointed that one character turned up alive after being graphically shown in a non-survivable situation. In book one, I think he'd have been munched.

It does pick up plot threads that I had thought abandoned early in the series and is very tightly plotted. Events may seem out of control but they are a logical progression to the events from earlier in the series. And (minor spoiler) Sasha and Miss Kitty Cat show up as part of the plot. I wasn't as sure about the dinosaur POV chapters, a new device in this book compared to the earlier ones, but as the book goes on they fit in well and provide some additional information for the reader.

It's a good ending to the series, and satisfying if not entirely conclusive (but what monster series would be without its post-credits scene?)

And on to....?

 

You are going to hate hate Hate dinosaurs by the end of today!

 

So you are the reason more books arrived on my kindle while I was reading number IV. I'll remember that.

 

@jessica it is official: I hate you. This may yet be Reader reviews Romance for a book with no romance (aside from the exclusively lesbian engineer having a friends-with-benefits relationship with the male captain at her request, a concept which baffles me).

Also the idea that sex for grades is not something that professors get offered on a regular basis bespeaks a certain innocence about the way academia works.

 

It can't be that bad. It had three star reviews. If you want to drop it, do. Sorry,sorry,sorry?

 

I am NOT being defeated by this. I have not finished it yet, but so far...

Night of the Kraken

This book reminds me of the book version of Jaws, and that is not a good thing (Steven Spielberg famously ended up rooting for the shark). We have a couple of attacks up front and then onto the small town and life histories of his main characters.

This seems to be a trend: every time a character is introduced we get a digression into their life history that has little to do with the story. We also get, as part of her intro, the fact the lesbian engineer is screwing the male captain. There are so many things wrong with this it is daft.

I was beginning to root for the kraken by location 292. of 5909.

Expect a lot of softcore sex, with the focus on things like how a woman got into prostitution and of course, explicit details of the main characters' sex lives, instead of on the more interesting issue of the monster.

This is more softcore with a monster in the background than a monster attack. Words like "pert", "bronzed", "leggy" are used repeatedly, and far too many characters apparently need lipsil from the number of them that moisten their lips. By Chapter Six, two chapters have ended on characters about to have sex (again) rather than on monster attacks. I feel cheated.

This giant squid is also an undiscovered genus as it is always slimy and black. An image search disagrees. It also exclusively feeds on people who are engaged in sexual practices.

Point of view changes between paragraphs, headhopping, showing the innermost thoughts of one character then the next, which I don't mind but some people dislike intensely. My problem with it here is that it makes it hard to build suspense, as you don't feel it building with the character or group, it is just snapshot and onto the next.

When we got to the police sergeant and had three pages of description on his background, I quit. I was getting a headache.

For a better squid attack book, read Peter Benchley's Beast. Or Dinosaur Lake, which doesn't have a squid in it.

--

I am still going to finish this. I am on loc 1909 of 5909, and praying this book has aftermatter. Lots of aftermatter.

 

I finished it.

1909 of 5909 - a miracle. A character is introduced without his life story.

Also it is 2017. People do not think that Giant Squids are myths. Lack of physical evidence is no longer a thing, like the photos, cell samples, corpses...there's a lot. And we know three genuses. The only thing that would be baffling is what it is doing in these waters. And the author is unaware that the tentacles have teeth.

Also it likes eating drug smugglers, or people thinking about sex.

There are also some continguity issues. Don't send a camera away for pictures to be developed, then talk about its digital memory...

And the ending? Yes, this is very close to Peter Benchley's Beast: let's go out on a boat to try and destroy it and have an epilogue where it has offspring...

And it doesn't have lots of aftermatter.

 

And now on to...?

 

I am so very, very, sorry.

 

I am taking a break and a stiff drink before the next one. Please, let it be a good one.

P.S. you are wrong. I don't hate dinosaurs. I hate quasi-undiscovered-genus-kraken.

 

I have to say, I'm not. It has a while since I read such a comprehensive put down. It is less a review and more an objection.

 

I have just finished one of Steve Vernon's Sea tales, which are always good palette-cleansers, and good to read. The review will follow after Dinothon.

And now unto the breach with Goliath.