- Rivers of Time
: Contains the original 1956 L. Sprague DeCamp short story "A Gun For Dinosaur", which was so popular that he revisited the setting and viewpoint character many years later with an anthology's worth of short stories. Paleo buffs will enjoy the juxtaposition of the dinos from the lumbering tail draggers of the '50s in the original story and the post-Bakker renaissance science of the rest of the 1990s era collection.
- Time Safari
: Another short story collection. This time it's David Drake, with his gritty, flawed hero slinging a Garand converted to use BAR mags while PH'ing for hunting expeditions in the Mesozoic. What's not to like?
Books. Bikes. Boomsticks.
“I only regret that I have but one face to palm for my country.”
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
A Gun For Dinosaur
People asked about the prehistoric time travel hunting books I'd mentioned in the past. Here they are:
Funny coincidence, I just ran across "A Gun For Dinosaur" a couple of weeks ago in audio form. Episode 397 at EscapePod.org. Great podcast, as are their horror and fantasy sister sites.
ReplyDeleteSort of off-topic, but have you by any chance tried the "His Majesty's New World" series by Kenneth Tam? Alternate history with a twist.
ReplyDeleteI've read the first two and they are really well done. Kind of expensive at $9.99 a whack, but shoot, I'm on statins and shouldn't be drinking all that evil bourbon anyway...
Both are great stories, another good read is The Gun Without A Bang by Robert Sheckley sorry no dinos but a hostile alien world.
ReplyDeleteI will need to check these out. I still have a copy of "Mastodonia" by Clifford Simak, if it has not turned to dust yet.
ReplyDelete"A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury was my favorite. It's why I bought my Weatherby Mark V deluxe in .460. Just in case, ya know.
ReplyDeleteI gotta get the Drake one, didn't know it'd ever been published. Thanks!
ReplyDeletenewer SF writer Robert Buettner tops all that- in one novel the ultra rich hunter goes after something so big he uses an update M1A1 Abramas Tank. Overkill is the title.
ReplyDeleteThis book is a bit similar:
ReplyDeleteConquistador
http://www.amazon.com/Conquistador-S-M-Stirling/dp/0451459334/
A group of former Marines in 1945, with Garands, Mosquito F/Bombers, Sabertooth Tigers, and a multiverse Earth courtesy of a Gate!
I bought the DeCamp novel on your recommendation and thoroughly enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteGerry
Would 'An IED for Dinosaurs' be considered unsporting?
ReplyDeleteA gun for dinosaurs?
ReplyDeleteHow'z 'bout Larry Corriea's hand-held 20mm? Not enough for a tons-o-fun T-Rex?
Old NFO --
ReplyDeleteDrake expanded the initial story into a novel-sized collection. Next time you're near Nancy's, you can borrow my copy.
Rick
Ah! So NOW we know why they went extinct. -- Lyle
ReplyDeleteBullet placement, think of Bell shooting elephants with a 7x57. Any of you old enough to remember Science Fictions books you turned over and read the second one. I lived on and in those old back to back wonderful books in the late 50's and 60's.
ReplyDeleteOn another blog (Joe Huffman) it is stated that time travel dino hunts would result in overwhelming numbers of hunters per dino, because all future hunters, an essentially limitless pool of gunners, would be drawn to a finite number of dinos to shoot.
ReplyDeleteI suggest in return that while there are African safaris for the Big 5, most hunters shoot dove, quail, rabbits, squirrels and deer. A smaller number go for elk, boar, antelopes and puma.
Only a rarefied few ever went for lion, leopard, rhino, Cape Buff and elephant.
The same would be true of dino hunts by time travelers.
Or they would "shoot" the same dino again and again, as in that strange movie a while back.