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Bone Wars
Montana, 1876. Othniel Charles marsh, one of the two top palentologists in the world, is in the state's Judith River fossil beds, doing what he does digging up the bones of dinosaurs. Montana is a big state, but Marsh can't rest easy. Edward Drinker Cope, his biggest rival, and the other top paleontologist in the world, is also in the area, and there simply aren't enough bones for both of them, leading them to play dirty tricks. And time itself is against the fierce snows of winter are on the way and rumor has it, so is Sitting Bull, fresh from his triumph at little Big Horn.Another two foreign scientists are also competing for the bones. One says he's from Sweden, the other says he's from Iceland. One of them enlists Cope to help him, while the other befriends Marsh.
Marsh and Cope don't want the fossils to leave the country, so they decide to bury the hatchest and work together to outwit the visitors. This turns out to be harder than they thought. The foreign scientists possess amazing technology, but that's because they are much more foreign than they claimed. They don't just want to take the bones out of the country--they're fighting over who will get to take them clean off the planet........
Marsh and Cope don't want the fossils to leave the country, so they decide to bury the hatchest and work together to outwit the visitors. This turns out to be harder than they thought. The foreign scientists possess amazing technology, but that's because they are much more foreign than they claimed. They don't just want to take the bones out of the country--they're fighting over who will get to take them clean off the planet........
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1998
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About the author
Brett Davis
20 books7 followersBrett Davis is a lifelong writer of both journalism and fiction. Growing up in north Alabama, he learned both about the Tuskegee Airmen and the German rocket scientists in Huntsville who helped put men on the moon. He’s glad to be able to bring their stories together in his latest novel, The Moon Above.
Brett is the author of five science fiction and fantasy novels but spends most of his time writing nonfiction about robots and drones. He studied journalism and photography at the University of North Alabama and the University of Missouri and has lived in Washington longer than anywhere else, but it doesn’t seem to have done him any harm.
He’s an avid runner and biker and likes to spend as much time underwater as possible. He also bakes a mean scone. Follow him on Twitter at Brett_Davis and Instagram at Bsivad.
Brett is the author of five science fiction and fantasy novels but spends most of his time writing nonfiction about robots and drones. He studied journalism and photography at the University of North Alabama and the University of Missouri and has lived in Washington longer than anywhere else, but it doesn’t seem to have done him any harm.
He’s an avid runner and biker and likes to spend as much time underwater as possible. He also bakes a mean scone. Follow him on Twitter at Brett_Davis and Instagram at Bsivad.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 9, 2008
Once you decide, like I have, that you're gonna read science fiction with dinosaurs in it, you gotta figure that you're in for alot of crap. This is by far the best book I've come across so far, the caricatures of Cope and Marsh are spot-on, the jokes are funny, and it's got not only dinosaurs but space aliens too.
August 7, 2017
Rating: A- : Aliens stole our fossils! A fine and funny alt-hist tall tale.
There's not a great deal of geological science-fiction extant, so I'm pleased to report that Bone Wars is worthy of your attention.
Montana Territory, 1876: Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope are both digging in the Judith River fossil beds, with no great success, and spying on each other's camps. They learn of another bone-digger, who shields his camp behind a "ghost wall," and has found some truly magnificent dinosaur specimens. A fourth paleontologist appears, an odd-looking fellow who claims to be from Iceland, and wants help to save the prize bones from being shipped off to "Sweden"....
Stir in a cowboy who's really a girl, a Sioux who's a Yale graduate, a deserter from the Little Big Horn, and a wild ride on a ceratopsian -- all done in impeccable late-19th century prose -- and you have a most entertaining confection. Recommended, with the usual caveat that others' reaction to (alleged) humor is notoriously unpredictable.
Brett Davis, whose writing I haven't previously encountered, has clearly done his historical homework. He writes in a spritely mock-Victorian style that's just right for the tale. This is a very amusing book. Fluff, but *good* fluff. I picked this one up on a whim, having heard of neither author nor title. I'm glad I did.
There's not a great deal of geological science-fiction extant, so I'm pleased to report that Bone Wars is worthy of your attention.
Montana Territory, 1876: Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope are both digging in the Judith River fossil beds, with no great success, and spying on each other's camps. They learn of another bone-digger, who shields his camp behind a "ghost wall," and has found some truly magnificent dinosaur specimens. A fourth paleontologist appears, an odd-looking fellow who claims to be from Iceland, and wants help to save the prize bones from being shipped off to "Sweden"....
Stir in a cowboy who's really a girl, a Sioux who's a Yale graduate, a deserter from the Little Big Horn, and a wild ride on a ceratopsian -- all done in impeccable late-19th century prose -- and you have a most entertaining confection. Recommended, with the usual caveat that others' reaction to (alleged) humor is notoriously unpredictable.
Brett Davis, whose writing I haven't previously encountered, has clearly done his historical homework. He writes in a spritely mock-Victorian style that's just right for the tale. This is a very amusing book. Fluff, but *good* fluff. I picked this one up on a whim, having heard of neither author nor title. I'm glad I did.
August 4, 2018
Amusing, fun romp. I always wondered what a fiction book could say about paleontology, and boy this book answered my question.
April 19, 2012
It's...just not very good.
I like the premise, I really do. Cowboys and aliens and dinosaurs? How can you not like that? And I do appreciate the author's attempts to weave in real historical figures and events. But overall it is very poorly executed. Characters are fairly hollow. The pacing is poor, switching between long, arduous exposition and action sequences that happen so fast and with so little description that its over just about as soon as its begun. The main "antagonists" are the alien characters, but they are very poorly constructed. Their motives and behavior seem to morph to whatever the scene calls for at the time, and their relationship with each other is perplexing. The background on the aliens is a little more explained in the second book, but if they were introduced in this book then there should have been a little more info here. As it stands, they just seem to run around, advance the plot occasionally, and then disappear at the end.
I can forgive the poor writing execution, since it is a relatively early novel for this author, but I cannot excuse the extreme lack of any sort of editing or writing guidance that should have helped tighten a lot of these issues up. For example, there is a scene toward the end, where a character is very explicitly described as disappearing into thin air, its a major point in the entire scene, and then IN THE VERY NEXT PARAGRAPH that SAME character is described as being part of the background. I kid you not: page 298, first two paragraphs.
All in all, some good ideas, a couple well-worded jokes, but really not worth the time overall.
I like the premise, I really do. Cowboys and aliens and dinosaurs? How can you not like that? And I do appreciate the author's attempts to weave in real historical figures and events. But overall it is very poorly executed. Characters are fairly hollow. The pacing is poor, switching between long, arduous exposition and action sequences that happen so fast and with so little description that its over just about as soon as its begun. The main "antagonists" are the alien characters, but they are very poorly constructed. Their motives and behavior seem to morph to whatever the scene calls for at the time, and their relationship with each other is perplexing. The background on the aliens is a little more explained in the second book, but if they were introduced in this book then there should have been a little more info here. As it stands, they just seem to run around, advance the plot occasionally, and then disappear at the end.
I can forgive the poor writing execution, since it is a relatively early novel for this author, but I cannot excuse the extreme lack of any sort of editing or writing guidance that should have helped tighten a lot of these issues up. For example, there is a scene toward the end, where a character is very explicitly described as disappearing into thin air, its a major point in the entire scene, and then IN THE VERY NEXT PARAGRAPH that SAME character is described as being part of the background. I kid you not: page 298, first two paragraphs.
All in all, some good ideas, a couple well-worded jokes, but really not worth the time overall.
August 20, 2015
A science-fiction western with dinosaurs? Count me in. Adding in Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Marsh and tying it to the Bone Wars (Cope and Marsh's various fossil collecting expeditions) was an interesting twist. Also fun to see other historical figures, like Sitting Bull and Charles Sternburg.
Would Cope and Marsh have actually acted like this (Even with the more bizarre happenings in the book)? Probably not. I don't know how much they actually would have actually been in the field, especially that close to each other, anyway but I did not come into this book expecting a serious dissertation on the Bone Wars. It almost feels like it could be a classic Twilight Zone episode.
The plot moves fast enough and if you like dinosaurs, or the Great Dinosaur Rush, this book is a fun enough way to kill some time.
Would Cope and Marsh have actually acted like this (Even with the more bizarre happenings in the book)? Probably not. I don't know how much they actually would have actually been in the field, especially that close to each other, anyway but I did not come into this book expecting a serious dissertation on the Bone Wars. It almost feels like it could be a classic Twilight Zone episode.
The plot moves fast enough and if you like dinosaurs, or the Great Dinosaur Rush, this book is a fun enough way to kill some time.
January 14, 2013
what is my issue with this book? What would cause me to not finish it? It's not that this book is bad. It is, but I've read way worse. It's that this book is almost aggressively uninteresting. I read a touch more than a third of the book and I didn't care about a single character in any way. I didn't like them and I didn't care enough to hate them. It was slow to built to it's premise and by the time it finally arrived I had stopped caring about it.
June 25, 2014
This book is pretty much pure fun. An excellent beach read for nerds, and by "beach read" I mean "book to read indoors or in an otherwise shady place because your skin is too pale to sunbathe, also you hate the beach".
January 22, 2016
Dinosaurs, paleontologists, and space man, what can a dinosaur nut want more in books? Well, perhaps a little more reality, but still, I don't have to read for anything but entertainment any more. This is a good light hearted read,
June 14, 2013
A little too silly for me...
October 5, 2008
A bit farfetched. And the logic not all that convincing.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews