Book Review: Dinotopia: First Flight by James Gurney

I've been on a Dinotopia kick as of late, and you guys know it. As such, I'm going to get right to the point of today's review. We're taking a look at Dinotopia: First Flight by James Gurney.

First Flight is set thousands of years in Dinotopia's past. It was an age when Dinotopia was divided among several warring empires. In particular, there is the Empire of Poseidos. They are technologically advanced, with everything from robots to flying cars. They also hate dinosaurs and are seeking to replace them with machines. The story follows a boy named Gideon Altaire. Unlike most of Poseidos, he loves dinosaurs and is fascinated by them. His life changes forever when he takes in an injured pterosaur named Razzamult. Gideon soon finds himself wrapped up in a plot to save the dinosaurs of Dinotopia from certain destruction.

The framing device is that Gideon's story is a scroll that Will Denison is reading in the library of Waterfall City. This is the shortest of the main four Dinotopia books, but it certainly packs a punch. I loved how First Flight expanded upon the worldbuilding of Dinotopia. We see that there was a time when things weren't so idyllic and utopian. One of the big themes is how Poseidos is so obsessed with technology that they've forgotten the importance of the natural world. Apparently, they've given up actual food in favor of nutrition pellets. The message is there, and yet Poseidos certainly looks glorious thanks to Gurney's artwork. I loved how science fiction elements like robots and flying cars were incorporated into the world of Dinotopia. I also loved how all of the machines were modeled off of living creatures. It gave them a nice aesthetic.

The generally aesthetic of Poseidos kind of reminded me of Star Wars. This is amusing, as First Flight was published in 1999. That was the same year The Phantom Menace came out. Back in the review of A Land Apart from Time, I noted how George Lucas homaged the parade in Sauropolis with the parade on Naboo the end of The Phantom Menace. It certainly makes for an amusing parallel.

One thing I noticed is that the military officials all wear hats vaguely similar to the one that Lee Crab wears. Now, consider that Lee Crab hates dinosaurs, and that the Poseidons were trying to commit genocide against the dinosaurs. Hmm, I wonder what Gurney could possibly be suggesting?

First Flight does have a bit of an anti-technology message. However, unlike The World Beneath, I feel like it was more organic to the story. It is also mitigated somewhat by one of Gideon's allies being a robot. In hindsight, it is rather amusing that the Skybax that Gideon bonds with is named Avatar. We've got a male hero from a technologically advanced society who joins a less advanced, but more in-tune with nature, society and defends them from the invading technology users. Oh, and he defeats a large flying machine with the help of his loyal pterosaur, and the use of a primitive weapon via his friends. When Gideon makes it to mainland Dinotopia he befriends some lemurs and a mammal-like reptile from the Permian. It is always good to see some non-Ice Age mammals get some representation, and the same goes for pre-dinosaur reptiles.

If this book does have a weakness, it's that it is shorter than the other books in the main series. Gideon's story clocks in at a mere sixty pages, less than half the length of the other books. Granted the 20th Anniversary edition of First Flight does mitigate this somewhat by including a fair bit of bonus material. Still, even with all that the book sits at 112 pages, compared to the 192 pages of the other books.

Speaking of the bonus material, let's discuss it. We get a mostly prose bonus story about a hero named Blake Terrapin. Like Gideon, he grew disillusioned with life in Poseidos and traveled to mainland Dinotopia to defend the dinosaurs. It is written in present tense, and feels a bit like a script for a book that never materialized. Still, it does help to flesh-out Dinotopia's past, and we do learn some very interesting things. For example, apparently Waterfall City began life as a military fortress. During this age, know as the Heroic Age, Dinotopia was divided into four empires. We already know about Poseidos, and Chandara will be important in the next book. We also have Armakia, the forerunners of those who live in the high mountains with the Ice Age mammals. Finally, there is Pelledrine; they're a tribal confederation that has befriended the predators of the Rainy Basin. Blake goes to train with them.

At first I thought that it was a bit odd that Blake dress like a European knight, given that his story is set over 4000 years in the past. Then I remembered back to A Land Apart From Time, and how it mentioned various people who left Dinotopia over the years. It isn't that he looks like a medieval knight, it's that knights look like Dinotopians. I should have mentioned this before, but I liked how the buildings in Poseidos have a vaguely Ancient Indian look to them.

We also get a series of sepia-tone sketches that, while certainly interesting, also hint that there was going to be more to this book than what we got. In fact, we also get some concept art that seems to support this hypothesis. I wonder if there was pressure on Gurney to rush this book before it was ready. Don't get me wrong, what we got was great, but it could have been even better.

This all kind of gives the book the feel of a lost historical document. A lot of times, historians will have to deal with primary sources having gaps, or only being preserved in fragments. It's like looking at a dried-up riverbed to try and determine what a river was like, and where it went. You have to make educated guess, and sometimes accept that you might never truly know the answers. This gives an air of authenticity to First Flight, but it is still a bit frustrating.

Well, I think that should do it. First Flight is a good book, but it is a bit on the short side. It feels like it could have been even better if it had been expanded properly. I hope you guys have been enjoying our look at Dinotopia as much as I have. I will see you guys next time.