Technically, this is a picture book, but it isn't just for kids. The texts tends to be fairly substantive paragraphs, and while there's isn't anything inappropriate, there are a few jokes and references that older readers would be more likely to catch. For example, when Arthur and Will attend a performance of hadrosaurs, Arthur remarks that he hasn't heard such a ruckus since he sat-in on a meeting of congress. The text and illustrations work together to tell the story. As such, I consider this to be something of an honorary comic book.
James Gurney used to work as an illustrator for National Geographic, and it certainly shows in his art. All of the illustrations are photorealistic oil paintings. Gurney even went as far as to build miniatures and models just to make sure that the visions in his head were represented in their full glory. The man has some serious dedication to his craft, and the book is all the better for it.
I'm not sure that I'd call this book alternate history per se. Other than the existence of Dinotopia, and they made a point of stay out of world affairs, the world isn't too different than our own. It's more akin to those 19th Century adventure stories where the heroes find lost world's and exotic new lands. In fact, the framing story is that the book is an adaption of a long-lost journal that Gurney found at a library. Thus, history went just as it did in our world. That having been said, this book should appeal to alternate history fans. Dinotopia is home to shipwrecked people from across the world, and consequently, is home to a wide variety of cultures.
The reason Dinotopia avoided detection is that it is surrounded by a massive storm system and an equally massive reef. Hey, it's called Shipwreck Reef for a reason. Thankfully, friendly dolphins are at the ready to escort new arrivals to shore. In fact, new arrivals to Dinotopia are called Dolphinbacks. This is how you know this book was written in the 1990s. If it was written today, some nitwit would probably wrongly assume Gurney was making racist remarks about Mexicans with a name like that.
The plot is mostly just there as an excuse to explore the world the Gurney has created. Hey, I've got no complaints. I had an absolute blast getting to explore the wonders of Dinotopia. Why don't we discuss some of that? So, the only animals on Dinotopia, besides humans and dolphins, are extinct animals. Most obviously, you see the dinosaurs, but there are also ice age mammals up in the high mountains. Hmm, I wonder is there are any animals that were driven extinct by humans such as dodos, quaggas, and moas on Dinotopia? Anyway, all of the dinosaurs and ice age mammals have human-level intelligence. However, only a few, such as protoceratops, are capable of human speech. This is because they have parrot-like mouths. Naturally, protoceratops, such as the Denisons' friend Bix, often works as translators.
As you can imagine, having so many sentient species creates some dietary restrictions. Pescatarianism is pretty much mandatory for everyone who needs to eat meat. Though, curiously, we never see anyone eating eggs. Maybe dinosaur find the concept too icky, and humans follow suit? Also are extinct humans like Australopithecus and Neanderthals somewhere out there in Dinotopia? There are certain carnivorous dinosaur who can't do this, or don't like civilized society, and choose to live in the Rainy Basin. We're talking dinos like tyrannosaurus, allosaurus, carnotaurus, giganotosaurus and the like. I liked that these predators aren't demonized as is so often the case in fiction. It's just part of who they are, and it's treated as an alternative lifestyle more than anything else. In fact, some dinosaur who are close to the end of their lives will journey to the Rainy Basin to donate their bodies as their final gift to the world. All the same, it is best to bring offerings of fish and eels when journeying through the Rainy Basin.
Though I have to ding some points for teosinte being a major crop. It is explained that it was brought over by a shipwrecked Aztec. To honor his contributions, many plates have miniature drawings of the Aztec riding a dolphin. Problem is that teosinte isn't a very good crop. Oh, it was useful for teaching the Mesoamericans the basics of agriculture, but it had a lot of room for improvement. Teosinte is very small, way smaller than corn, and you only get a few grains per stalk. Said grains are also very tough. Thankfully, through years of selective breeding, and a lot of patience, the Mesoamericans bred teosinte into the corn we know today. It is a testament to Mesoamerican civilization that they were able to do this. I'm not so sure we'd have the skill of patience to do such a thing today. Point being, there's no way teosinte would be a major crop on Dinotopia.
In many ways, Gurney was ahead of the curb when it came to Dinotopia. For example, he portrays oviraptors as loving parents and devoted nurses at hatcheries. At the time, paleontologist assumed that fossil of oviraptors clutching eggs were because they stole from other dinosaurs. This is why their name means "egg thief" in Latin. However, we now know that these eggs were in fact oviraptor eggs, and Gurney was right all along.
Of course, there's also a couple things that now look inaccurate with our current paleontology knowledge. For example, when the Denisons are in Waterfall City they meet a troodon time keeper named Malik and a deinonychus librarian named Enit. Both of them have no feather, which is probably why they don't appear in the later books, when Gurney added feathered dinosaurs. Though, personally, I think they look perfect just the way they are. Plus, you could always chalk any differences up to evolution. After all, Dinotopian dinosaurs have been around for an extra sixty-five million years. There's bound to have been at least some evolutionary changes that happened in that time. Gurney was aware that the dinosaurs should have evolved more, and that it didn’t make sense to have them basically unchanged from the Mesozoic era. However, he didn’t want to get bogged down in the details. Hey, you’ve got no complaints from me.
Gurney also portrayed deinocheirus as being the Dinotopian equivalent of a race horse. In fairness, only the arms has been discovered at the time. Little did paleontologist know that deinocheirus had a prominent hump, a skull like a hadrosaur, and claws like a therizinosaur. In fact, its overall body plan was like therizonosaurs, but Gurney couldn’t have known that.
I should probably talk about Waterfall City, and the many other destinations throughout Dinotopia. Waterfall City, as its name suggest, is a city located directly on top of a waterfall. There were three paintings that served as the basis for what would become Dinotopia, and one of them was of Waterfall City. It has a somewhat European feel, brining to mind Venice, but it also has Mayan pyramids. It is the cultural and intellectual heart of Dinotopia, though not the capital. You can only enter the city via special gliders.
Moving along, there's also Canyon City. It is built into the tops and walls of a massive canyon. It is the home of the Skybax Riders. Skybax is what Dinotopians refer to quetzalcoatlus as. I always did find it a little weird that Skybax were the only creatures not referred to by their scientific name. It does make sense that quetzalcoatlus would be giving humans rides, given that they were the largest pterosaurs. Plus, most series would probably have given the role to pteranodon, though I do love my pteranodons. Oh, but pteranodons do exists too. They're the guardians of the World Beneath; the underground cavern the ancestors of the Dinotopians used to survive the K-T extinction. More on it when we review the next book in the series.
Treetown is, unsurprisingly, a series of giant tree houses. It is where young people get a taste of independence under the watchful eye of resident cool old lady Nora. Youths who do well in Treetown have the opportunity to be Habitat Partners. Habitat Partners are a pair, one human and one animal, that protect the various ecosystems across Dinotopia.
Sauropolis is the capital of Dinotopia. It is built in the style of an Ancient Roman city. The larger dinosaurs prefer the large streets and wide avenues of Roman architecture. There's a scene towards the end where there's a big dinosaur parade in Sauropolis. This was another painting that served as the basis for Dinotopia. This one scene was so influential that George Lucas used it as the basis of the parade at the end of The Phantom Menace. Well, he's more or less admitted to it. For his part, James Gurney doesn't mind. He's just glad that his books are providing others with inspiration.
There's some interesting architecture throughout Dinotopia. For example, engineers have been able to build more efficient bridges by studying sauropods. Certain cities, like Pooktook, have a very Art Nouveau style to them. Dinotopia is, in many ways, a utopia where humans and dinosaurs live in harmony. This makes its name slightly ironic, as Dinotopia means "terrible place" in Greek. Though, admittedly, that’s more in the archaic sense of the word. Terrible as in, awe inspiring in a way words can’t properly articulate. Think like how the wizard in The Wizard of Oz is called Oz the Great and Terrible.
I should probably talk about Waterfall City, and the many other destinations throughout Dinotopia. Waterfall City, as its name suggest, is a city located directly on top of a waterfall. There were three paintings that served as the basis for what would become Dinotopia, and one of them was of Waterfall City. It has a somewhat European feel, brining to mind Venice, but it also has Mayan pyramids. It is the cultural and intellectual heart of Dinotopia, though not the capital. You can only enter the city via special gliders.
Moving along, there's also Canyon City. It is built into the tops and walls of a massive canyon. It is the home of the Skybax Riders. Skybax is what Dinotopians refer to quetzalcoatlus as. I always did find it a little weird that Skybax were the only creatures not referred to by their scientific name. It does make sense that quetzalcoatlus would be giving humans rides, given that they were the largest pterosaurs. Plus, most series would probably have given the role to pteranodon, though I do love my pteranodons. Oh, but pteranodons do exists too. They're the guardians of the World Beneath; the underground cavern the ancestors of the Dinotopians used to survive the K-T extinction. More on it when we review the next book in the series.
Treetown is, unsurprisingly, a series of giant tree houses. It is where young people get a taste of independence under the watchful eye of resident cool old lady Nora. Youths who do well in Treetown have the opportunity to be Habitat Partners. Habitat Partners are a pair, one human and one animal, that protect the various ecosystems across Dinotopia.
Sauropolis is the capital of Dinotopia. It is built in the style of an Ancient Roman city. The larger dinosaurs prefer the large streets and wide avenues of Roman architecture. There's a scene towards the end where there's a big dinosaur parade in Sauropolis. This was another painting that served as the basis for Dinotopia. This one scene was so influential that George Lucas used it as the basis of the parade at the end of The Phantom Menace. Well, he's more or less admitted to it. For his part, James Gurney doesn't mind. He's just glad that his books are providing others with inspiration.
There's some interesting architecture throughout Dinotopia. For example, engineers have been able to build more efficient bridges by studying sauropods. Certain cities, like Pooktook, have a very Art Nouveau style to them. Dinotopia is, in many ways, a utopia where humans and dinosaurs live in harmony. This makes its name slightly ironic, as Dinotopia means "terrible place" in Greek. Though, admittedly, that’s more in the archaic sense of the word. Terrible as in, awe inspiring in a way words can’t properly articulate. Think like how the wizard in The Wizard of Oz is called Oz the Great and Terrible.
About the only person with any complaints is Lee Crab. He's convinced that it's all a sham, and that the humans are slaves to the dinosaurs. Though his main gripe seems to be that there's no red meat to eat. He claims to have tamed a pair of pachycephalosaurs, but in reality, they only pretend to be under his control. They're keeping an eye on him to make sure he doesn't get into too much mischief.
Overall the places and cultures we see in this book have a somewhat European feel to them. Granted, the characters do visit a Tibetan-style monastery in the mountains, they meet a Yoruba blacksmith, and there are plenty of non-white background characters. Maybe Gurney was trying to evoke fantastical settings like Middle Earth or Narnia, or maybe that's just what he felt like painting. We also see some ruins that look like something out of Ancient Egypt. However, it's the other way round. Over the years some Dinotopians ventured out into the wider world and founded civilizations such as Ancient Egypt, the Indus Valley, the Minoans, and Sumeria. And not just humans, dinosaurs got in on the action too. In fact, one dinosaur traveled to Egypt and inspired the myths of the god Thoth. I wonder if all those tales of dragons were actually misremembered encounters with travelers from Dinotopia.
I actually watched the Hallmark Channel miniseries adaptation of Dinotopia before I read the books. Having now read the books...wow, Hallmark Channel did not do this series justice at all. I might eventually review the miniseries, but maybe not for a while.
Well, I don't think there's anything more to add. James Gurney has created a world as rich, detailed and varied as anything you might find from J.R.R. Tolkien or George R.R. Martin...well, it's way more idealistic and lighthearted than anything Martin has written. Also, nobody gets killed or...oh, you know what I mean. If I haven't made it clear by now, pick up Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time today. You'll be glad that you did.
I will see you guys next time.
Overall the places and cultures we see in this book have a somewhat European feel to them. Granted, the characters do visit a Tibetan-style monastery in the mountains, they meet a Yoruba blacksmith, and there are plenty of non-white background characters. Maybe Gurney was trying to evoke fantastical settings like Middle Earth or Narnia, or maybe that's just what he felt like painting. We also see some ruins that look like something out of Ancient Egypt. However, it's the other way round. Over the years some Dinotopians ventured out into the wider world and founded civilizations such as Ancient Egypt, the Indus Valley, the Minoans, and Sumeria. And not just humans, dinosaurs got in on the action too. In fact, one dinosaur traveled to Egypt and inspired the myths of the god Thoth. I wonder if all those tales of dragons were actually misremembered encounters with travelers from Dinotopia.
I actually watched the Hallmark Channel miniseries adaptation of Dinotopia before I read the books. Having now read the books...wow, Hallmark Channel did not do this series justice at all. I might eventually review the miniseries, but maybe not for a while.
Well, I don't think there's anything more to add. James Gurney has created a world as rich, detailed and varied as anything you might find from J.R.R. Tolkien or George R.R. Martin...well, it's way more idealistic and lighthearted than anything Martin has written. Also, nobody gets killed or...oh, you know what I mean. If I haven't made it clear by now, pick up Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time today. You'll be glad that you did.
I will see you guys next time.
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