Dragon Teeth

by Michael Crichton

The year is 1876. Among the warring Indian tribes and lawless gold-rush towns of America's western territories, two paleontologists pillage the Wild West. They are hunting for dinosaur fossils, while surveilling, deceiving and sabotaging each other in a rivalry that will come to be known as the Bone Wars. Into this treacherous territory plunges the arrogant and entitled Yale student William Johnson. Determined to survive a summer in the west to win a bet, William has joined world-renowned paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh on his latest expedition. But Marsh becomes convinced that William is spying for his nemesis, Edwin Drinker Cope, so he abandons him in Cheyenne, Wyoming, a locus of crime and vice. Soon William joins forces with Cope and stumbles upon a discovery of historic proportions. The struggle to protect this extraordinary treasure tests William's newfound resilience, and pits him against some of the West's most dangerous and notorious characters.

• ISBN10: 0062473360
• ISBN13: 9780062473363
• Publish Date: 28 November 2017 (first published 23 May 2017)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

I desperately wanted this book to be Jurassic Park, despite absolutely everything about it flailing and telling me that it would not, in fact, be Jurassic Park. Rather, Dragon Teeth is western. Do then uncover dinosaur bones? Sure. Do the dinosaur bones present a constant problem for protagonist William Johnson? Ayup.

Ultimately, this was a shoot-em-up western that leaned heavily toward an historical fiction action story and lacked the fascination of Crichton’s science fiction thrillers. Additionally, it’s worth knowing that Native American racial stereotypes are definitely perpetuated and the rep is TERRIBLE. I assume that the intention was to remain true to the western genre of the first half of the 20th century, but we are better enlightened of our racism now and this all could have been easily prevented? It bothers me.

As far as storytelling goes, I wasn’t inspired to DNF this at any point. The Native American rep is unacceptable, but otherwise the storytelling is solid and intriguing. It’s not Crichton usual fare, but it’s not a bad story. It wasn’t really my cup of tea, but I think it’s quite readable.