Bones of the Earth

A good time travel novel - particularly one involving dinosaurs - is quite rare and it was a real treat to read "Bones of the Earth." Time travel can be a hard subject to tackle successfully, and so much in the popular media about dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals is wrong; it is wonderful to see a science fiction author do a good job with both. The novel begins with a scene where the protagonist, paleontologist Dr. Richard Leyster, is working in his office at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Into his office comes a stranger by the name of Griffin, bearing with him an intriguing proposal; he is to set aside his duties at what essentially is his dream job (or so he thought) and work for him on a top secret project, a project Griffin cannot reveal any information at the time about and any information Leyster uncovers working for them cannot be published. Leyster at first of course refuses. Griffin leaves Leyster's office, having placed an Igloo cooler on his desk. After Griffin left, Leyster opens it and is astounded by what he finds; the head of a very freshly killed stegosaur. After verifying that it was real Leyster does make contact again with Griffin and agrees to work on his project. The project is indeed a most impressive one, with Griffin apparently the chief administrator for am ambitious effort to study the Mesozoic from the earliest Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous, shortly before whatever event ended the reign of the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and the various prehistoric marine reptile species. The organization manages a number of stations throughout the Mesozoic and undertakes extensive studies of the fauna of the era, uncovering a wealth of information and many new species. Unfortunately a lot of mystery surrounds both time travel and the organization that Leyster is now working for. Both the origin of time travel and the very nature of how it works are closely guarded secrets. Leyster cannot openly publish his research, and indeed the very existence of time travel and that people have seen living dinosaurs must remain a secret from the public (though we find later that in the future it does become public knowledge and Leyster and others are free to publish their findings at that point). Even more mysteriously there are many rules and regulations regarding time travel. Much effort is made to prevent paradoxes from forming, as apparently one can change the past to a degree, causing immense problems in the future. Griffin and his associates work hard to prevent such paradoxes from forming, a difficult task considering that researchers are recruited from the future to work on the project, working alongside with what are to them often legends, aware of books that the people of Leyster's time haven't even written yet. Sometimes there are teams where some of the researches weren't even born yet in the current time frame of the oldest members of a particular team, having come from that far into the future. There are even occasion

PERSPECTIVE: sci-fi/fantasy fan, new to Swanwick's workWhile "time travel" and "dinosaurs" are two themes often in sci-fi circles, Bones of the Earth is a skillful, intelligent, and refreshing adventure.To expound on the plot would give too much away, but in summation Swanwick has developed an interesting take on time travel that gives a tight, internally consistent order to the story. His dinosaurs represent the forefront of current paleontological thinking, with a few added conjectures of his own, that gives a new and exciting view of both individual dinos and their social interactions. In addition, Swanwick's environmental descriptions bring to life both the modern era and the distant past with economical vibrancy.For the most part, the main characters are interesting because their growth and change is followed throughout time travel, providing a greater contrast in how each is change by pivotal events of the story. However, he introduces a team of grad students in the tale, only a few of whom (Tamara, Lao-tsz, Jamal) I feel like I actually get to know. While I understand that to expound upon their characters would have resulted in a significant increase in book length, as well as unnecessarily overburdening the story, it still would have given me more of an immersion during some crucial moments. Also, the ending is a bit anti-climatic with regards to "wrapping" up the fate of the main characters, although for reasons I cannot spoil, this is appropriate, given the finale.An interesting point to me is that apparently, some feel that Swanwick is at least intolerant of, if not outright hostile towards, both Christianity and creationism in this book, likely secondary to the fact that he includes a "villainous" creationist character. This I can't understand, given that fact that he goes to great pains to separate his villain (and motives) from all but a radical sect of creationism, resulting in a logical and suitable antagonist given the plot. And, any sort of anti-Christian or religious bias is just not present in this novel; Swanwick deals with religion in a balanced and peripheral manner, insomuch as it isn't central to the tale he is telling.Overall, this was great novel! Despite a few minor quibbles as noted above, Bones of the Earth is smart, engaging, and a great way the spend a chunk of your time.FINAL WORD: Read this book! Buy it, check it out from the library, or buy it and donate it to your local library.

combines several well-integrated (and rather original) SFnal ideas with some neat scientific speculation, interesting characters, a compelling plot, and a powerfully argued theme about the nature of science and the human urge to do science.The novel concerns a program to send paleontologists back to the Mesozoic Era to study dinosaurs in their natural environment. As such it is both a dinosaur novel and a time travel novel. Perhaps unexpectedly, the thematic heart of the book is in the time travel aspect, though the dinosaur speculations are worthwhile and fun in themselves. The three main characters are Richard Leyster, a brilliant and studious scientist; Gertrude Salley, brilliant herself but manipulative and unbound by law or rules; and Griffin, the tormented administrator of the Mesozoic time travel program.One key plot thread concerns a scheme by Christian fundamentalists to sabotage the time travel efforts, which ends up marooning a number of paleontologists in the Late Cretaceous. Griffin and his assistants try to loop back and forth through time to forestall this sabotage, but they are frustrated by the insistence of the sponsors of the time travel program that no paradoxes be created: thus anything they know to have "already happened" they cannot stop from happening. The other key thread involves Salley's attempts to subvert that law -- right at the beginning we see hints that she is trying to cause paradoxes, and her attempts continue, though her motive remains unclear to the reader for some time.The scenes in the Cretaceous involve some well-handled "primitive survival" scenes, and some fascinating speculation about dinosaur social life and about the real causes of their extinction. The other thread involves some very clever handling of time loops and paradox, and an eventual trip far into the future to meet the Unchanging -- the mysterious beings who have offered the boon of time travel to humans. The resolution is surprising, logical, and achingly sad, or at least bittersweet. Swanwick is convincing treating human curiosity, our love of science. He is convincing treating human reactions to the possibility of fixing our past mistakes. The characters are well-drawn, particularly Griffin and his boss, the Old Man. Leyster and Salley are well done as well but a bit less fully realized -- or perhaps too clearly idealized to fit their parts. The minor characters are interesting, too. I loved the book, and I was quite moved by it.

Next to William Gibson, Michael Swanwick may be the most interesting writer to have emerged from the 1980's cyberpunk movement; he's certainly as fine a literary stylist as Gibson. Judging from the rich vein of Swanwick's work, from cyberpunk to fantasy, and now, time travel, it's possible one could argue that Swanwick may be the better writer. "Bones of the Earth" is one of the finest time travel tales I've ever read. It certainly has the best depiction I've seen of dinosaurs in fiction; it seems far more realistic than the dinosaurs depicted in Michael Crichton's "Jurassic Park" novels. Swanwick combines a gripping time travel tale with a splendid elegy to science as a grand quest in search of knowledge. I am pleased that his most despicable character is a diehard fundamentalist Christian terrorist, whose world view is diametrically opposed to the one subscribed by the scientists - and by Swanwick himself - in this exciting, well-written tale. Without a doubt, "Bones of the Earth" is one of the finest science fiction novels published this year.

Not another time-travel-dinosaur book? Ever since Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder," fifty years ago, and doubtless even before that, time travelers have been going back to the Mesozoic to mingle with dinosaurs. Well, yes, but this tale is told by Michael Swanwick, and that makes all the difference in the world, any world. Swanwick is a virtuoso writer, equal to any in the genre. He has taken that hackneyed old theme and crafted something magical and compelling from it. His prose is as clear and prismatic as crystal, his characters are maddeningly complex. As for the paradoxes that bedevil time travel, which most dabblers in the Mesozoic sweep under the moss, Swanwick rolls them all up in a ball and clobbers us with them. He revels in them. He skirts the edge of farce with them, yet he spins us along in a rollicking page-turner of a yarn that ultimately comes to a poignant and deeply logical ending.He is up to date with all the latest thoughts on dinosaurs and throws in some marvelous ecological speculations for good measure. Go there and breathe the air of the Mesozoic; hear it, feel it, smell it.After one career as a geologist and another as a professional writer, I do feel competent to review this particular book. I found it extremely satisfying. I cannot recommend it more highly.