Title: Dragon Teeth

Author: Michael Crichton

Release date: May 22nd, 2017

Growing up, I read a lot of Michael Crichton books. I loved his brand of action/thriller fiction always mixed with science. Books like ‘Jurassic Park,’ ‘Sphere,’ ‘The Lost World,’ ‘Congo,’ & ‘The Andromeda Strain’ prominently lived on my early reader book shelf and I always knew I’d be lost in any world of his.

I purchased ‘Dragon Teeth’ a few years back but never got around to reading it until recently. If you follow me on any of my social media pages, you’ll know I’m a huge dinosaur fan, but my fandom doesn’t come anywhere near the love of dinosaurs my son has. I loved dinosaurs as a kid, but it was 1993’s ‘Jurassic Park’ movie that really blasted my love – and let’s face 99% of all kids born in the 80’s became dino fans because of that movie – and I soon read the book after.

After Michael Crichton’s death in 2008, two novels were released in short succession – 2009’s ‘Pirate Latitudes’ and 2011’s ‘Micro,’ this one completed by another author. Then in 2017, ‘Dragon Teeth’ was released and it was revealed to have been completed all the way back in 1974. It was interesting to read this book, with the understanding that here Crichton was, writing about the dawn of fossil hunting and dinosaur discoveries, after he’d already brought them into the future and back to life in ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘The Lost World.’

What I liked: ‘Dragon Teeth’ was an interesting book in that it reads as almost completely non-fiction, though it is a highly fictionalized account of Professor Marsh and Cope’s fossil feud from the late 1800’s. From the 1870’s to the end of the 1890’s, Cope and Marsh had a heated rivalry, both men wanting to find the most and name the most newly discovered dinosaurs. They travelled around the US, digging and cataloging, all the while disparaging the other along the way.

The novel follows a fictional Yale student, William Johnson, who, after taking a bet for $1000, heads West with Marsh to dig for fossils. Along the way, they encounter harsh landscapes and the very real historical battle between the Army and the Indigenous. It made for a tale that will have the reader feeling dusty and dirty while also frantically Googling about what actually happened, which was partly what made me take longer with this book.

As the story progresses, fossils are found and, after Johnson survives an attack and is separated from Cope, whom he was working for after Marsh left him behind, Johnson decides he needs to do whatever it takes to get these bones back to Cope. Especially the Brontosaurus teeth they found, which Cope declares are the first one’s ever found of this new, massive species.

We end up in Deadwood, and a number of historical figures make their appearance. From Wyatt Earp to Calamity Jane to Wild Bill Hickok and more. We see Johnson grow from an innocent, pampered rich student, to a gun-totting, walking-with-swagger frontiers man.

This book feels like a relic of the past but updated with a fresh prose and rollicking narrative. It was tough to put down, the next chapter always beckoning me to just keep reading.

The story follows the logical conclusion and there won’t really be anything unexpected, but it works perfectly to tie things up and the epilogue/postscript of what happened to the real historical figures was great.

What I didn’t like: This might sound a bit lame, but I honestly felt like the novel spent far too much time in Deadwood. I get that the town has become larger than life over the years and everyone seems to be drawn to it, but in this case, I wanted more dinosaur discovery and digging and less dealings with myriad of real folks who seemingly arrived page after page. Granted, Johnson was essentially ‘stuck’ in Deadwood due to funds and weather, but it felt like 75% of the book was set in the town.

Why you should buy this: If you love the origins of fossil discovery and dinosaur information, this will be a perfect book for you. The pacing is great, the characters are a lot of fun and seeing the growth and change in William Johnson was fantastic. Crichton created one helluva story here, and the fact that it wasn’t released for forty years after it was written, is just amazing.

Crichton fans will love this.

Dinosaur fans will love this.

And those who just want a gripping, edge-of-your-seat historical fiction novel will definitely want to read this.