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Weird West Tales #4
The Doctor and the Dinosaurs
Steampunk wild west stars Doc Holliday, with zombies, dinosaurs, robots, and cowboys. April, 1885 Leadville, Colorado. Near death, Doc Holliday coughs blood in a sanitarium bed. But supernatural medicine man and great chief Geronimo offers one year of restored health to stop renegade Comanche medicine men from reincarnating dinosaurs against American paleontology, spearheaded by two brilliant men, Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, whose genius is only exceeded by their hatred for each other. Now, with the aid of energetic Theodore Roosevelt, gunslinger Cole Younger, and showy Buffalo Bill Cody, dying Doc Holliday must save Cope and Marsh from Comanches, living dinosaurs, and each other. Not an easy task.
303 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
9 people are currently reading
405 people want to read
About the author
Mike Resnick
812 books552 followersMichael "Mike" Diamond Resnick, better known by his published name Mike Resnick, was a popular and prolific American science fiction author. He is, according to Locus, the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short science fiction. He was the winner of five Hugos, a Nebula, and other major awards in the United States, France, Spain, Japan, Croatia and Poland. and has been short-listed for major awards in England, Italy and Australia. He was the author of 68 novels, over 250 stories, and 2 screenplays, and was the editor of 41 anthologies. His work has been translated into 25 languages. He was the Guest of Honor at the 2012 Worldcon and can be found online as @ResnickMike on Twitter or at www.mikeresnick.com.
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January 24, 2026
This is the fourth and final book in Mike Resnick's Weird West Tales, published in 2013. I think it could be called "steampunk." Maybe some would disagree...? Resnick has fun with the historical characters he used in his story, most notably Doc Holliday, Teddy Roosevelt, and Geronimo. And the focus is on the two paleontologists, Marsh and Cope, who had a rivalry to see who could find the most dinosaur specimens. It was a competition that has gone down in history as "the Bone Wars." I would have liked to have seen more of them in the story--and more about the dinosaurs.
It seems some Comanche medicine men have brought the dinos back to life to scare the whites off their land ( in Wyoming? The Comanches were located in Texas!). Anyway, the dinosaurs coming back to life give Doc and Teddy the opportunity for some good target practice. I was rooting for the prehistoric animals but they stood no chance against modern firepower. Sadly, no one thinks of setting aside a reservation for the dinosaurs and letting them live. These were, after all, the days when the bison were being hunted to near extinction... As you can tell from this very brief summary of the book, it's light reading, just for fun. If you're interested in learning more about the West and historical figures like Teddy Roosevelt, there are certainly much better books to go to, including novels!
Resnick includes bios about the historical characters mentioned in the book.
It seems some Comanche medicine men have brought the dinos back to life to scare the whites off their land ( in Wyoming? The Comanches were located in Texas!). Anyway, the dinosaurs coming back to life give Doc and Teddy the opportunity for some good target practice. I was rooting for the prehistoric animals but they stood no chance against modern firepower. Sadly, no one thinks of setting aside a reservation for the dinosaurs and letting them live. These were, after all, the days when the bison were being hunted to near extinction... As you can tell from this very brief summary of the book, it's light reading, just for fun. If you're interested in learning more about the West and historical figures like Teddy Roosevelt, there are certainly much better books to go to, including novels!
Resnick includes bios about the historical characters mentioned in the book.
May 27, 2015
And so ends a highly entertaining journey into alt-history Wild West staticpunk.
This final installment closes everything pretty well, though the ending seemed a bit rushed. I especially like the addition of the Cope/Marsh "Bone Wars" into the storyline.
(In fact, if anybody knows of any decent fiction written about the "Bone Wars" please o please throw it in the comments section.)
I just can't get enough of Doc Holliday or Theodore Roosevelt, it seems.
This final installment closes everything pretty well, though the ending seemed a bit rushed. I especially like the addition of the Cope/Marsh "Bone Wars" into the storyline.
(In fact, if anybody knows of any decent fiction written about the "Bone Wars" please o please throw it in the comments section.)
I just can't get enough of Doc Holliday or Theodore Roosevelt, it seems.
July 3, 2015
3 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum: http://bibliosanctum.blogspot.com/201...
The Doctor and the Dinosaurs is my first venture into Mike Resnick's Weird West Tales, and actually my first exposure to the author, period. Like many kids growing up, I went through a phase in my childhood where I was just nuts for dinosaurs. I suppose a part of that love has stayed with me all this time, because when I saw the cover and description for this one I just couldn't resist.
This is the fourth book of the series starring Doc Holliday of American Old West fame, but if I'm not mistaken, each installment can be read on its own. We seem to be catching our protagonist at a pretty bad time though, as the book opens on Doc bedridden and coughing out his lungs in a sanitarium, dying of the dastardly consumption. But then he is visited by the medicine man and great chief Geronimo, who grants him one more year of life in exchange for a favor.
Doc Holliday is tasked to stop two paleontologists who have been carrying out their digs on sacred Comanche burial grounds in Wyoming. Sounds easy enough. But that was before Doc learned that the two scientists involved are none other than Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, two men who hate each others' guts and are locked in eternal competition. Time is running out and the Comanche medicine men have made things clear: stop desecrating their lands or they will unleash a horde of monsters, the kind our world has not seen in 65 million years.
A crazy blend of steampunk, fantasy, alternate history and western, this book was as much fun as I thought it would be! I've never had the pleasure of reading a "true" dime novel from the latter half of the 1800s, but I wouldn't be surprised if Mike Resnick is in some way emulating the spirit and style of the popular fiction in those days. As you would expect from the above synopsis, the book's story and characters are more sensational than deep, with an entertaining plot that contains more clever, snappy dialogue than exposition. Nevertheless, that's the kind of book it was intended to be. In that sense, it does the job and does it well.
This book was also such a treat for the part of me that still loves dinosaurs. We all know there's no shortage of stories about the Old West featuring famous gunfighters like Doc Holliday, Wild Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp, Cole Younger, and the list goes on. But while this series also features an impressive list of shootists, I loved how this particular story directed its focus to another significant event that took place during America's Gilded Age -- the Great Dinosaur Rush. For one, the hatred between Cope and Marsh was so intense, their rivalry so frenzied, that the two men actually spawned a period in paleontological history known as the Bone Wars. It's fascinating stuff! I was happy to see a spotlight on this idea, and an entire story built around it.
Is The Doctor and the Dinosaurs a little over the top? Perhaps. But is it fun? Definitely. I picked up this book hoping for an afternoon of fun, light reading, and that's exactly what it delivered.
The Doctor and the Dinosaurs is my first venture into Mike Resnick's Weird West Tales, and actually my first exposure to the author, period. Like many kids growing up, I went through a phase in my childhood where I was just nuts for dinosaurs. I suppose a part of that love has stayed with me all this time, because when I saw the cover and description for this one I just couldn't resist.
This is the fourth book of the series starring Doc Holliday of American Old West fame, but if I'm not mistaken, each installment can be read on its own. We seem to be catching our protagonist at a pretty bad time though, as the book opens on Doc bedridden and coughing out his lungs in a sanitarium, dying of the dastardly consumption. But then he is visited by the medicine man and great chief Geronimo, who grants him one more year of life in exchange for a favor.
Doc Holliday is tasked to stop two paleontologists who have been carrying out their digs on sacred Comanche burial grounds in Wyoming. Sounds easy enough. But that was before Doc learned that the two scientists involved are none other than Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, two men who hate each others' guts and are locked in eternal competition. Time is running out and the Comanche medicine men have made things clear: stop desecrating their lands or they will unleash a horde of monsters, the kind our world has not seen in 65 million years.
A crazy blend of steampunk, fantasy, alternate history and western, this book was as much fun as I thought it would be! I've never had the pleasure of reading a "true" dime novel from the latter half of the 1800s, but I wouldn't be surprised if Mike Resnick is in some way emulating the spirit and style of the popular fiction in those days. As you would expect from the above synopsis, the book's story and characters are more sensational than deep, with an entertaining plot that contains more clever, snappy dialogue than exposition. Nevertheless, that's the kind of book it was intended to be. In that sense, it does the job and does it well.
This book was also such a treat for the part of me that still loves dinosaurs. We all know there's no shortage of stories about the Old West featuring famous gunfighters like Doc Holliday, Wild Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp, Cole Younger, and the list goes on. But while this series also features an impressive list of shootists, I loved how this particular story directed its focus to another significant event that took place during America's Gilded Age -- the Great Dinosaur Rush. For one, the hatred between Cope and Marsh was so intense, their rivalry so frenzied, that the two men actually spawned a period in paleontological history known as the Bone Wars. It's fascinating stuff! I was happy to see a spotlight on this idea, and an entire story built around it.
Is The Doctor and the Dinosaurs a little over the top? Perhaps. But is it fun? Definitely. I picked up this book hoping for an afternoon of fun, light reading, and that's exactly what it delivered.
May 27, 2015
I'm not sure how you can take a story with Doc Holliday, Teddy Roosevelt, Geronimo, Thomas Edison & dinosaurs and flop with it...yet here we are. Initially, I thought I was reading a young adult novel. Nothing against those, they just tend to have a certain flavor...but when the characters started using F-bombs & shooting people without remorse, I realized that I was incorrect in my assumptions about the intended audience. The characters were amazingly one-dimensional. And that's saying something since they were all REAL PEOPLE.
Roosevelt spent the whole time tearing around like he was on uppers, Edison whipped up some amazing ray gun on the spur of the moment & brought it to Holliday with a railroad baron/friend, and Holliday spent the whole time coughing up blood & shooting people.
This book isn't the first in the series & there are a few references to prior adventures, but it didn't ruin anything. The entire rest of the writing did. I really didn't care what happened to the characters. The story is that Cope & Marsh (two famously feuding paleontologists) are digging in a sacred burial ground of the Comanche. Geronimo is afraid that their shamans will resurrect dinosaurs to kill the two bone-digger parties, but won't be able to control them, resulting in the deaths of Apaches. Holliday is partially healed of his tuberculosis to go & deal with Cope & Marsh.
Blah. Skip this one.
Roosevelt spent the whole time tearing around like he was on uppers, Edison whipped up some amazing ray gun on the spur of the moment & brought it to Holliday with a railroad baron/friend, and Holliday spent the whole time coughing up blood & shooting people.
This book isn't the first in the series & there are a few references to prior adventures, but it didn't ruin anything. The entire rest of the writing did. I really didn't care what happened to the characters. The story is that Cope & Marsh (two famously feuding paleontologists) are digging in a sacred burial ground of the Comanche. Geronimo is afraid that their shamans will resurrect dinosaurs to kill the two bone-digger parties, but won't be able to control them, resulting in the deaths of Apaches. Holliday is partially healed of his tuberculosis to go & deal with Cope & Marsh.
Blah. Skip this one.
March 3, 2014
Today's post is on The Doctor and The Dinosaurs by Mike Resnick. It is fourth volume in his Weird West Tales and is published by PYR. It is 301 pages long; including nine appendixes. The cover has Doc Holliday looking cool with a T-Rex behind him. The intended reader is someone who has read the other books in this series and is older than about 13. There is language, violence, but no sex in this book. The story is told from third person close following Doc Holliday. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the back of the book- The time is 1885, Doc Holliday lies in bed in a sanitarium in Leadville, Colorado, expecting to never leave his room again. But the great Apache medicine man Geronimo needs him for one last adventure. Renegade Comanche medicine men object to the newly signed treaty with Theodore Roosevelt, and they are venting their displeasure on two white men who are desecrating tribal territory in Wyoming. Geronimo must find a way to protect the two men or renege on his agreement with Roosevelt. He offers Doc one year of restored health in exchange for taking on this mission.
Doc leave the sanitarium and enters the world of American paleontology, a field that is being spearheaded by the brilliant Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, two men whose genius is exceeded only by their hatred for each other. It is said that the third most important position on any dig sponsored by either of these independently wealthy giants is chief paleontologist. The second most important is the man who rides shotgun and holds the Indians at bay. And the most important is chief saboteur.
Now, with the aid of Theodore Roosevelt, Cole Younger, and Buffalo Bill Cody, Doc Holliday must save Cope and Marsh not only from the Comanches and living, breathing dinosaurs but also from each other... which won't be easy.
Review- I have read and loved every volume in this series. It is well written, great dialogue, and takes both the reader and Doc Holliday to places never seen before. I hope that Resnick writes more in this world but if he does not that is okay because he ended it a great place. Some people may not like the ending because it can be read as unclear but I loved it. Resnick left himself room to write more or not. I did like Dinosaur better than Rough Rider because we stay with Doc Holliday the whole time in this story. I like Roosevelt just fine but he is just not as interesting as Holliday. In my opinion that is because Roosevelt is a good man who care about others and himself. Holliday is a dying man who does not in general care about others. Holliday cares about some that is what makes the difference in the two characters. Holliday is the reason that I read this books and I think that is same for most people. Again the appendixes in the back of the book have interesting and useful information. I highly recommend this series and Resnick as an author.
I give this book a Five out of Five Stars. I get nothing for my review and I bought this book with my own money.
April 14, 2014
Not my cup of tea for several reasons.
I really have a hard time with books that are saturated with historical figures. When I start a book based on real personalities, the writer is already entrenched in an uphill battle to get me to go along with the story. Having not just one historical figure, but ten, this particular book was an uphill battle through a mountain of quicksand.
Judging from the cover, The Doctor and the Dinosaurs is supposed to fall into the steampunk genre. Unfortunately, the book failed to live up to its claims. Granted, this is the fourth book in a series, which the earlier installments, hopefully, had much more of a steampunk presence. The only references to the genre in this book were brief implications of robotic prostitutes, and the electrical weapons created by Thomas Edison (Yes, THAT Thomas Edison).
The biggest complaint I had with the book was the plot itself. No, not the resurrecting dinosaurs, or the Wild West drama. My problem comes from the fact that Geronimo gave Doc Holiday an extra year of life in order to convince Marsh and Cope to stop digging up the Comanche’s burial ground BEFORE they started resurrecting dinosaurs. Here’s the big problem: he doesn’t try to get them to stop, nor does he try to talk with the Comanche until AFTER they started resurrecting dinosaurs. Before, he plays bodyguard and bitches about how sick he is, while commiserating with Theodore Roosevelt (Yes, THAT Theodore Roosevelt) about concocting a super weapon in order to be able to kill the dinosaurs that they are supposed to prevent from happening in the first place.
Personally, I found this book to be full of holes, and not something I’d recommend to others. However, it’s not a badly written book. It’s a fast pace piece of fluff science fiction that lighter readers may very well enjoy. I was just very much not the audience the author had in mind.
I really have a hard time with books that are saturated with historical figures. When I start a book based on real personalities, the writer is already entrenched in an uphill battle to get me to go along with the story. Having not just one historical figure, but ten, this particular book was an uphill battle through a mountain of quicksand.
Judging from the cover, The Doctor and the Dinosaurs is supposed to fall into the steampunk genre. Unfortunately, the book failed to live up to its claims. Granted, this is the fourth book in a series, which the earlier installments, hopefully, had much more of a steampunk presence. The only references to the genre in this book were brief implications of robotic prostitutes, and the electrical weapons created by Thomas Edison (Yes, THAT Thomas Edison).
The biggest complaint I had with the book was the plot itself. No, not the resurrecting dinosaurs, or the Wild West drama. My problem comes from the fact that Geronimo gave Doc Holiday an extra year of life in order to convince Marsh and Cope to stop digging up the Comanche’s burial ground BEFORE they started resurrecting dinosaurs. Here’s the big problem: he doesn’t try to get them to stop, nor does he try to talk with the Comanche until AFTER they started resurrecting dinosaurs. Before, he plays bodyguard and bitches about how sick he is, while commiserating with Theodore Roosevelt (Yes, THAT Theodore Roosevelt) about concocting a super weapon in order to be able to kill the dinosaurs that they are supposed to prevent from happening in the first place.
Personally, I found this book to be full of holes, and not something I’d recommend to others. However, it’s not a badly written book. It’s a fast pace piece of fluff science fiction that lighter readers may very well enjoy. I was just very much not the audience the author had in mind.
January 9, 2015
I'm formatting this review---appropriately---after the greatest Western movie of all time: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
The Good: I read The Doctor and the Dinosaurs quickly because I couldn't put it down. If Sergio Leone did a mashup of Jurassic Park and Tombstone you'd get this story as a result. What's not to love about that, right? I'm an amateur fossil collector and dinosaur lover, so I was immediately interested in a plot revolving around the infamous Marsh Vs. Cope 'bone wars' of the 19th century. Mix in Doc Holliday, Buffalo Bill, Thomas Edison and Theodore Roosevelt and that makes it some whopper of a tale. Mike Resnick is very good at portraying distinctive characters through well-crafted dialogue and also does a nice job creating plot.
The Bad: The story is comprised almost entirely of discussion between the characters (though as I said above, this dialogue is well phrased). Description of places and events--in contrast--is very scant: it almost feels as though the rest of the story is a stage set for characters to stand around and chat in it. I would believe this takes place in Wyoming if there were at least a few adjectives describing the setting. Furthermore, the dialogue at times is a somewhat obvious device for exposition of facts, and at those points it seems forced. Bear in mind that I spent too many years teaching college classes resulting in the unfortunate tendency to analyze writing as if I were grading it, rather than just enjoying the tale. I doubt that other readers would pick up on my criticisms of the writing style.
The Ugly: The dinosaurs are wicked ugly--especially as portrayed in the illustrations (and that is actually good!)
The Good: I read The Doctor and the Dinosaurs quickly because I couldn't put it down. If Sergio Leone did a mashup of Jurassic Park and Tombstone you'd get this story as a result. What's not to love about that, right? I'm an amateur fossil collector and dinosaur lover, so I was immediately interested in a plot revolving around the infamous Marsh Vs. Cope 'bone wars' of the 19th century. Mix in Doc Holliday, Buffalo Bill, Thomas Edison and Theodore Roosevelt and that makes it some whopper of a tale. Mike Resnick is very good at portraying distinctive characters through well-crafted dialogue and also does a nice job creating plot.
The Bad: The story is comprised almost entirely of discussion between the characters (though as I said above, this dialogue is well phrased). Description of places and events--in contrast--is very scant: it almost feels as though the rest of the story is a stage set for characters to stand around and chat in it. I would believe this takes place in Wyoming if there were at least a few adjectives describing the setting. Furthermore, the dialogue at times is a somewhat obvious device for exposition of facts, and at those points it seems forced. Bear in mind that I spent too many years teaching college classes resulting in the unfortunate tendency to analyze writing as if I were grading it, rather than just enjoying the tale. I doubt that other readers would pick up on my criticisms of the writing style.
The Ugly: The dinosaurs are wicked ugly--especially as portrayed in the illustrations (and that is actually good!)
December 10, 2013
originally posted at: http://thebookplank.blogspot.com/2013...
The Doctor and the Dinosaurs is already the 4th story set in the Weird West Universe of Mike Resnick. When I discovered this first book, The Buntline Special, I knew it was a story for me, and so far Mike Resnick has made each addition just a great to read as the last one. Set in an alternate USA in the 1880’s the Weird West Tales follow the adventures of mainly the infamous Doc Holliday and several other key players in the US history such as Thomas Edison, Billy the Kid and Theodore Roosevelt. When I finished the third book in the series, The Doctor and the Roughrider I had no clue as to what the fourth book would entail. In the first three books the story centered around historical events and pushing one important things, the Mississippi boundary stop, the Indians with help of their medicine men halted a stop, that the US couldn’t cross. Ned Buntline and Thomas Edison were called into action to find the solution. However this was mostly done and dealt with. As for the fourth book, I will admit, I did a dance, when I read the title of the book and saw the cover art! DINOSAURS! I raised my hopes up high, I was really really looking forward to reading what Mike Resnick could do with these extinct creatures.
The story of The Doctor and the Dinosaurs picks up in 1885 and Doc Holliday has been in the sanitarium for a while now and is counting down his last days, it seems that the consumption has finally takes the toll on the dentist turned shootist. However, coming totally as a surprise to Doc is the interference of Geronimo, the medicine men that had helped Doc a few times earlier. Doc is now tasked with stopping two other white men from desecrating an ancient burial ground. Now you might say, Doc is just minutes or even seconds from dying how can he possibly help? Well Geronimo still has a lot of tricks up his sleeves and restores Doc’s health, well sort a. With his health back, Doc Holliday sets out, although with a huge reluctance, to Wyoming and try to stop Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh from desecrating the burial site even further.
Several characters that have made introduction in the earlier books of the series like Ned Buntline, Thomas Edison, Theodore Roosevelt all play again an important role in The Doctor and the Dinosaurs. But there are plenty of other iconic figures that make an appearance like Cole Younger and Buffalo Bill. I am going to be honest, I don’t really know a lot about these characters in how they originally were, so I cant relay anything as to how they act in Mike Resnick’s stories and how they originally were. But what I can say is that they, each and every character is great to read about, even though we have seen a lot of characters come and go already, the characters do stay pretty interesting and with the witty and snappy banter between the lot, they and the storyline are kept fresh and interesting. The one character that keeps on putting a smile on my face is Doc Holliday, he is fast on his feet, smart and knows his stuff. I particularly like his nonchalance towards almost everything in life. And of course when people ask if he is the infamous Doc Holliday he answers with a simple “probably”.
Ok now for the best part of the book. Dinosaurs! I did have a few reservations as to how this theme would be implemented, we all know Jurassic Park, but The Doctor and the Dinosaurs isn’t set in the future but the past. So how is this theme used? This really goes down to the beginning with dig sites and excavations, well then you might say: what is there to fear, it’s just bones... well on the first it might seem so, but if you have seen the full force of the medicine men in the earlier books, it’s a small feat for them to do something with these bones! With this threat around the corner, Thomas Edison and Ned Buntline are again called to action in produce something to fend these guys off. And they again pull off to create something wacky and utterly cool, normal bullets just won’t do. On the whole I was very pleased with how the dinosaur theme was used, it was cool and inventive and was spot on in the premise of the storyline. This takes together with the setting and the characters produced another blast to read.
If you haven’t read any of the Weird West Tales, you are really missing out on something. They aren’t your average steampunk stories, Mike Resnick really aims to show something different and combines steampunk with an rich alternate universe were almost everything seems to be possible, but luckily there are still boundaries to keep everything in check. The stories of all the Weird West Tales have dealt with a lot of exposition of the world but also show a great focus on the characters, the historical, ones. The Doctor and the Dinosaurs and all the other stories aren’t heavy to digest, they are light and highly, highly enjoyable reads. It’s really something new. And it seems that for the fans of this series, the fun isn’t over yet (!) as Geronimo still has his eyes set on Doc Holliday. Bring on the next one!
The Doctor and the Dinosaurs is already the 4th story set in the Weird West Universe of Mike Resnick. When I discovered this first book, The Buntline Special, I knew it was a story for me, and so far Mike Resnick has made each addition just a great to read as the last one. Set in an alternate USA in the 1880’s the Weird West Tales follow the adventures of mainly the infamous Doc Holliday and several other key players in the US history such as Thomas Edison, Billy the Kid and Theodore Roosevelt. When I finished the third book in the series, The Doctor and the Roughrider I had no clue as to what the fourth book would entail. In the first three books the story centered around historical events and pushing one important things, the Mississippi boundary stop, the Indians with help of their medicine men halted a stop, that the US couldn’t cross. Ned Buntline and Thomas Edison were called into action to find the solution. However this was mostly done and dealt with. As for the fourth book, I will admit, I did a dance, when I read the title of the book and saw the cover art! DINOSAURS! I raised my hopes up high, I was really really looking forward to reading what Mike Resnick could do with these extinct creatures.
The story of The Doctor and the Dinosaurs picks up in 1885 and Doc Holliday has been in the sanitarium for a while now and is counting down his last days, it seems that the consumption has finally takes the toll on the dentist turned shootist. However, coming totally as a surprise to Doc is the interference of Geronimo, the medicine men that had helped Doc a few times earlier. Doc is now tasked with stopping two other white men from desecrating an ancient burial ground. Now you might say, Doc is just minutes or even seconds from dying how can he possibly help? Well Geronimo still has a lot of tricks up his sleeves and restores Doc’s health, well sort a. With his health back, Doc Holliday sets out, although with a huge reluctance, to Wyoming and try to stop Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh from desecrating the burial site even further.
Several characters that have made introduction in the earlier books of the series like Ned Buntline, Thomas Edison, Theodore Roosevelt all play again an important role in The Doctor and the Dinosaurs. But there are plenty of other iconic figures that make an appearance like Cole Younger and Buffalo Bill. I am going to be honest, I don’t really know a lot about these characters in how they originally were, so I cant relay anything as to how they act in Mike Resnick’s stories and how they originally were. But what I can say is that they, each and every character is great to read about, even though we have seen a lot of characters come and go already, the characters do stay pretty interesting and with the witty and snappy banter between the lot, they and the storyline are kept fresh and interesting. The one character that keeps on putting a smile on my face is Doc Holliday, he is fast on his feet, smart and knows his stuff. I particularly like his nonchalance towards almost everything in life. And of course when people ask if he is the infamous Doc Holliday he answers with a simple “probably”.
Ok now for the best part of the book. Dinosaurs! I did have a few reservations as to how this theme would be implemented, we all know Jurassic Park, but The Doctor and the Dinosaurs isn’t set in the future but the past. So how is this theme used? This really goes down to the beginning with dig sites and excavations, well then you might say: what is there to fear, it’s just bones... well on the first it might seem so, but if you have seen the full force of the medicine men in the earlier books, it’s a small feat for them to do something with these bones! With this threat around the corner, Thomas Edison and Ned Buntline are again called to action in produce something to fend these guys off. And they again pull off to create something wacky and utterly cool, normal bullets just won’t do. On the whole I was very pleased with how the dinosaur theme was used, it was cool and inventive and was spot on in the premise of the storyline. This takes together with the setting and the characters produced another blast to read.
If you haven’t read any of the Weird West Tales, you are really missing out on something. They aren’t your average steampunk stories, Mike Resnick really aims to show something different and combines steampunk with an rich alternate universe were almost everything seems to be possible, but luckily there are still boundaries to keep everything in check. The stories of all the Weird West Tales have dealt with a lot of exposition of the world but also show a great focus on the characters, the historical, ones. The Doctor and the Dinosaurs and all the other stories aren’t heavy to digest, they are light and highly, highly enjoyable reads. It’s really something new. And it seems that for the fans of this series, the fun isn’t over yet (!) as Geronimo still has his eyes set on Doc Holliday. Bring on the next one!
Read
March 17, 2014Reviewed by John Dodds at Adventures in Scifi Publishing: http://www.adventuresinscifipublishin...
It’s April, 1885, and famed shootist, John “Doc” Holliday, is dying of consumption. He is visited at his sick bed by shape-shifting medicine man and great Comanche chief, Geronimo, and offered a deal: another year of life in exchange for completing a mission to prevent the desecration of sacred Indian ground by paleontologists Edward Cope and Charles Marsh.
In Mike Resnick’s fun, fast-faced weird western, The Doctor and the Dinosaurs (Pyr), the Wyoming territory has more complexities in store for Holliday than warring bone hunters. There are Comanches who object to Geronimo’s newly signed treaty with Theodore Roosevelt, and they are venting their displeasure on the paleontologists.
What’s more, the fact that sacred burial grounds are being dug up in the search for dinosaur bones sets in train an even more disturbing response from the native Americans – they start bringing the dinosaurs themselves back to life, especially to tear the white men limb from limb.
Theodore Roosevelt, Cole Younger, Buffalo Bill Cody and Doc Holliday must save Cope and Marsh not only from the Comanches and rampaging tyrannosaurs, and other prehistoric monsters, but also from each other. And that won’t be easy.
The future president Roosevelt, a two-fisted hero in real life as much as in his fictional manifestation, is well up to the challenge. Holliday is somewhat more reluctant, though his surly, cynical demeanor is counterbalanced by Roosevelt’s optimism and have-a-go attitude.
In the spirit of the old dime novels (what us Brits would call a “penny dreadful” or a “ripping yarn”), though infinitely better written, Doctor and the Dinosaurs takes real world characters on a wildly imaginative and perilous adventure.
Multiple Hugo-winner, Resnick, wastes not a single word in his narrative. It’s all about pace, adventure and, perhaps my favorite component, sparkling dialogue. The witty repartee between Holliday and Roosevelt is a delight, and full of acerbic wit. If anything, I enjoyed the interplay of the characters more than the battle scenes with the dinosaurs. Given that the creatures don’t actually appear until well after the halfway point in the book, I suspect the author felt the same way.
By way of bonus material, Resnick gives us not one, but five appendices, from bibliographical references, to a list of actors who played the movie versions of the characters in the book, to true life accounts which speak to the nature and character of Holliday and Roosevelt. But the author wears all this research lightly. In fact, he can give a perfect summary of each of his characters in a line or two of description or a few throwaway lines of dialogue; truly an art to be able to do so.
Illustration and cover: J. Seamus Gallagher
This is the latest in Resnick’s Weird West Tales, and a fine addition to the oeuvre. The author has won an impressive five Hugos and has been nominated for thirty-one more. He has also written the Starship series, the John Justin Mallory series, has sold sixty-nine novels and more than two hundred fifty short stories and has edited forty anthologies. His Kirinyaga series, with sixty-seven major and minor awards and nominations to date, is the most honored series of stories in the history of science fiction.
If I were to describe The Doctor and the Dinosaurs as an erudite pot-boiler, I mean that entirely as a compliment.
It’s April, 1885, and famed shootist, John “Doc” Holliday, is dying of consumption. He is visited at his sick bed by shape-shifting medicine man and great Comanche chief, Geronimo, and offered a deal: another year of life in exchange for completing a mission to prevent the desecration of sacred Indian ground by paleontologists Edward Cope and Charles Marsh.
In Mike Resnick’s fun, fast-faced weird western, The Doctor and the Dinosaurs (Pyr), the Wyoming territory has more complexities in store for Holliday than warring bone hunters. There are Comanches who object to Geronimo’s newly signed treaty with Theodore Roosevelt, and they are venting their displeasure on the paleontologists.
What’s more, the fact that sacred burial grounds are being dug up in the search for dinosaur bones sets in train an even more disturbing response from the native Americans – they start bringing the dinosaurs themselves back to life, especially to tear the white men limb from limb.
Theodore Roosevelt, Cole Younger, Buffalo Bill Cody and Doc Holliday must save Cope and Marsh not only from the Comanches and rampaging tyrannosaurs, and other prehistoric monsters, but also from each other. And that won’t be easy.
The future president Roosevelt, a two-fisted hero in real life as much as in his fictional manifestation, is well up to the challenge. Holliday is somewhat more reluctant, though his surly, cynical demeanor is counterbalanced by Roosevelt’s optimism and have-a-go attitude.
In the spirit of the old dime novels (what us Brits would call a “penny dreadful” or a “ripping yarn”), though infinitely better written, Doctor and the Dinosaurs takes real world characters on a wildly imaginative and perilous adventure.
Multiple Hugo-winner, Resnick, wastes not a single word in his narrative. It’s all about pace, adventure and, perhaps my favorite component, sparkling dialogue. The witty repartee between Holliday and Roosevelt is a delight, and full of acerbic wit. If anything, I enjoyed the interplay of the characters more than the battle scenes with the dinosaurs. Given that the creatures don’t actually appear until well after the halfway point in the book, I suspect the author felt the same way.
By way of bonus material, Resnick gives us not one, but five appendices, from bibliographical references, to a list of actors who played the movie versions of the characters in the book, to true life accounts which speak to the nature and character of Holliday and Roosevelt. But the author wears all this research lightly. In fact, he can give a perfect summary of each of his characters in a line or two of description or a few throwaway lines of dialogue; truly an art to be able to do so.
Illustration and cover: J. Seamus Gallagher
This is the latest in Resnick’s Weird West Tales, and a fine addition to the oeuvre. The author has won an impressive five Hugos and has been nominated for thirty-one more. He has also written the Starship series, the John Justin Mallory series, has sold sixty-nine novels and more than two hundred fifty short stories and has edited forty anthologies. His Kirinyaga series, with sixty-seven major and minor awards and nominations to date, is the most honored series of stories in the history of science fiction.
If I were to describe The Doctor and the Dinosaurs as an erudite pot-boiler, I mean that entirely as a compliment.
February 23, 2014
This is the fourth of Resnick's Weird West Tales, and is another very enjoyable volume in the series. It's based on the rivalry of Cope and Marsh, the 19th century fathers of paleontology, told from the viewpoint of Doc Holliday, as are the previous books in the series. Other main characters include Resnick's alternate versions of Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, Ned Buntline, Geronimo, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Cole Younger. The steampunk flavor of this one isn't as strong as the previous books, but the weaving of magic with real and alternate history is very cleverly done, and his writing is always humorous and interesting. He has written about Roosevelt many times before, and always does so with tremendously infectious enthusiasm. This book contains several appendices, as have all of the previous volumes, which are both fact-filled and entertaining.
April 25, 2016
I wanted to read this when it first came out but life and other books distracted me. It finally popped into my head it was time to read it so I did. I had forgotten how much I love these books so it was a treat to read.
Alternative history with famous people like Doc Holliday, Roosevelt, Edison and so many more. Add a few steampunk elements. dinosaurs, and magic and you got a great book!
Alternative history with famous people like Doc Holliday, Roosevelt, Edison and so many more. Add a few steampunk elements. dinosaurs, and magic and you got a great book!
November 25, 2017
Published 2013. Not deep, mildly exciting and fanciful. That's about it.
March 26, 2018
Good ending to a fun series. I'm glad I knew about Marsh and Cope before reading this, it made their feud a little more real. What a pair of tools.
September 3, 2022
If the idea of a steampunk-tinged alternate history of the wild west doesn't catch your attention; if a band of heroes that includes Doc Holliday, Buffalo Bill, and Theodore Roosevelt doesn't make you curious; and if the idea of the infamous Cope and Marsh coming face-to-face with living, breathing, man-eating dinosaurs doesn't already have you reading . . . well, I don't know what the heck is wrong with you, but maybe you should just mosey on down that there lonely path and don't you even think of looking back.
Yes, boys and girls, that is The Doctor and the Dinosaurs in a nut shell. Actually, toss in a little a Geronimo's medicine man magic, and one of of Buntline & Edison's scientific marvels, and you've pretty much got the whole story. It's not particularly deep, and there's no significant character development, but that's okay because it's got Doc, it's got Dinosaurs, and it's a heck of a lot of fun.
As a huge dinosaur fan, I loved the scenes with Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh. Theirs is probably one of the most famous rivalries in all of science, and Mike Resnick absolutely nails both their professional passion and personal antagonism. It's a ridiculous rivalry, make no bones about it (pun intended), but one that drove the field further and faster than any sort of cooperative friendship ever could. Resnick recognizes that, and even has characters comment on it once or twice, but he certainly does enjoy exploring that passionate hatred.
Doc Holliday is great, with his fatalistic sarcasm making for some of the best moments in the book, especially when he's paired with an early, pre-Presidential Teddy Roosevelt. The banter between characters is laugh-out-loud funny at times, and the moments of action are just as exciting as if there'd been any real sort of danger involved. Let's face it, we all know Doc and Teddy are going to walk away from the T-Rex unscathed, but seeing how they do it is all the fun.
If you haven't read any of Mike Resnick's previous Weird West Tales, then don't let that stop you. This is my first as well, and I don't think I could have enjoyed it any more for having the experience of the back story. The Doctor and the Dinosaurs an over-the-top sort of dime-store adventure that never tries to be anything more. Sit back, suspend your disbelief, and strap in for one heck of a wild ride.
Originally reviewed at Beauty in Ruins
Yes, boys and girls, that is The Doctor and the Dinosaurs in a nut shell. Actually, toss in a little a Geronimo's medicine man magic, and one of of Buntline & Edison's scientific marvels, and you've pretty much got the whole story. It's not particularly deep, and there's no significant character development, but that's okay because it's got Doc, it's got Dinosaurs, and it's a heck of a lot of fun.
As a huge dinosaur fan, I loved the scenes with Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh. Theirs is probably one of the most famous rivalries in all of science, and Mike Resnick absolutely nails both their professional passion and personal antagonism. It's a ridiculous rivalry, make no bones about it (pun intended), but one that drove the field further and faster than any sort of cooperative friendship ever could. Resnick recognizes that, and even has characters comment on it once or twice, but he certainly does enjoy exploring that passionate hatred.
Doc Holliday is great, with his fatalistic sarcasm making for some of the best moments in the book, especially when he's paired with an early, pre-Presidential Teddy Roosevelt. The banter between characters is laugh-out-loud funny at times, and the moments of action are just as exciting as if there'd been any real sort of danger involved. Let's face it, we all know Doc and Teddy are going to walk away from the T-Rex unscathed, but seeing how they do it is all the fun.
If you haven't read any of Mike Resnick's previous Weird West Tales, then don't let that stop you. This is my first as well, and I don't think I could have enjoyed it any more for having the experience of the back story. The Doctor and the Dinosaurs an over-the-top sort of dime-store adventure that never tries to be anything more. Sit back, suspend your disbelief, and strap in for one heck of a wild ride.
Originally reviewed at Beauty in Ruins
July 30, 2022
I should have read 1-3 first but this one seemed to stand OK on its own.
This should have been called "Doc Holliday's flask." Take out the flask and it's a novella. Take out the coughing blood and it's a short story.
There are some other ridiculous parts to this, BUT .... if you know Resnick, you know that whatever faults he may have he ALWAYS does his homework. It's pretty clear from the end pieces here that most of the stuff about the historical characters is TRUE.
Geronimo and the Comanche, maybe not so much. Indeed, all the rigour seems to have been expended on the White characters. Certainly there wasn't any effort to develop the characters.
Working from the back, we have Tall Bear effortlessly tossing off a move at the end that would have made John Dee blanch from its scope and power.
Of course, we've already accepted that these guys can take us from a few bones to Jurassic Park in three seconds, with no apparent effort. Geronimo has to pay a price for his magic, but the Comanche gots POWER. So much so that you have to wonder why they couldn't just make it all didn't happen.
I'm calling it a light summer read, and I suspect that's all it was meant to be.
This should have been called "Doc Holliday's flask." Take out the flask and it's a novella. Take out the coughing blood and it's a short story.
There are some other ridiculous parts to this, BUT .... if you know Resnick, you know that whatever faults he may have he ALWAYS does his homework. It's pretty clear from the end pieces here that most of the stuff about the historical characters is TRUE.
Geronimo and the Comanche, maybe not so much. Indeed, all the rigour seems to have been expended on the White characters. Certainly there wasn't any effort to develop the characters.
Working from the back, we have Tall Bear effortlessly tossing off a move at the end that would have made John Dee blanch from its scope and power.
Of course, we've already accepted that these guys can take us from a few bones to Jurassic Park in three seconds, with no apparent effort. Geronimo has to pay a price for his magic, but the Comanche gots POWER. So much so that you have to wonder why they couldn't just make it all didn't happen.
I'm calling it a light summer read, and I suspect that's all it was meant to be.
August 16, 2022
Doc Holliday is dying when Geronimo came calling. He had a proposition for him, restore his health for a year if Doc would take care of a problem for him. Doc agreed to venture north to Comanche territory to try and get two bone hunters (Prof. Marsh and Prof. Cope) to stop digging up dino bones in Comanche sacred land before the Comanche medicine men decided to bring the dinos back to solve the problem for them. Doc Holliday is joined by Teddy Roosevelt, Tom Edison, and Ned Buntline on this adventure. And what an adventure it was facing down two obsessed men who hate each other plus the occasional dino with inadequate weapons. A fun read!
May 13, 2024
So, let’s see how many historical figures we can cram into one narrative and have them do not much of anything for the first half of the book.
Actually the most interesting part of this novel is the appendices that tell the real-life stories of the characters.
The thing about stories using magic is that the solution to the problem is just to throw in more magic. Doc Holliday’s skill as a gunslinger plays very little role.
Actually the most interesting part of this novel is the appendices that tell the real-life stories of the characters.
The thing about stories using magic is that the solution to the problem is just to throw in more magic. Doc Holliday’s skill as a gunslinger plays very little role.
February 26, 2019
I read a free review copy of this book.
This has a lot of fact behind it! I've never heard of some of these characters, but I'm glad to have met them. The extensive appendices are much appreciated! There's not as much bad language and violence as I'd have expected from a tale of the wild west. I'll have to check out the author's other work.
This has a lot of fact behind it! I've never heard of some of these characters, but I'm glad to have met them. The extensive appendices are much appreciated! There's not as much bad language and violence as I'd have expected from a tale of the wild west. I'll have to check out the author's other work.
May 3, 2020
Streampunk western
This is the first book I read by this author only to find its number four in the series. But that said it did not distract from the story. The use of real people mixed well in the streampunk alternative story . Would really recommend. Now I off to read the rest of the adventures of steampunk western Doc Holliday.
This is the first book I read by this author only to find its number four in the series. But that said it did not distract from the story. The use of real people mixed well in the streampunk alternative story . Would really recommend. Now I off to read the rest of the adventures of steampunk western Doc Holliday.
July 16, 2020
More Mike Resnick alt-history/steampunk goodness with Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison (complete with an electromechanical arm), Doc Holliday, dinosaurs, and angry Native American shamans...lather, rinse, repeat and you get another good Resnick sci-fi romp in the reimagined Old West.
August 7, 2017
creativ premise and execution.. can't help visualizing Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday. silly and entertaining.
February 2, 2025
Hilarious concept, but poorly executed. Tedious, meaningless dialogue was frequent. I did enjoy the historical references and resurrected dinosaurs though. 2.5/5 stars
July 20, 2025
What a fun romp through history! Picked this up on a whim and I'm glad I did~
December 24, 2025
#4 in the series of steampunk Westerns featuring Doc Holliday.
December 14, 2013
Originally posted at The Qwillery, on 12/14/13
The story starts out with Doc Holliday a day away from death when his friend Geronimo shows up needing his help. Two paleontologists are digging on the Comanche’s sacred burial ground in Wyoming, and the Comanche medicine men are making plans to resurrect the very dinosaurs the professors are digging up back to life. Doc agrees to help if Geronimo restores his health. Doc makes his way north to Wyoming and along the way runs into his friend Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Edison, and together they devise a plan to stop the digs. Unfortunately for Doc, the Comanche lose their patience and unleash a horde of dinosaurs on the two dig sites and it's up to Doc and his friends to save the paleontologists and the west from living rampaging dinosaurs.
I grew up in Wyoming, and growing up in Wyoming means you learn a lot about the Wild West in school and by watching and reading Westerns. So, when I saw a book promising the wild west with a mixture of steampunk, I couldn't resist reading it. The cover promises a nice blend of pulpy goodness, with Doc Holliday brandishing a steampunk pistol and a T-rex in the background. What more could I want?
This is the fourth book in the Weird West Tale series, and I've not read any of the prior books. The characters make a few minor comments of past adventures, but I didn't ever feel like I missed out by not reading them. Mr. Resnick does a great job giving the reader all the information we need to enjoy the story and enough of a tease to entice the reader to seek out his other books. I found the story premise to be very imaginative and his portrayal of the historical figures spot on. In fact, I had more fun reading his nine appendixes at the end of the book than the actual story. I think Mr. Resnick should write a few non-fiction books on the west. The only complaints I have are the pacing and the lack of character development. The first half of the book has a slow pace. Once the dinosaurs arrive, (I hope that's not a spoiler, but come on we all knew and hoped they would) the pacing speeds up and the last half of the book is a great ride. Since there are no original characters there is only so much character development that can take place within the book. If he would have added one original character to the series, he could have shown growth by being able to change at least one character throughout the series.
There is violence, but not graphic (we're dealing with gunslingers, mad Indians and killing dinosaurs), a brief implied sexual encounter, and a few instances of strong language (it is the wild west after all), but they are not graphic or frequent.
Even with the slow start and lack of character development, the accuracy in historic research is enough to tempt me into reading more of the series. I would recommend The Doctor and the Dinosaurs to any reader who enjoys old pulp science-fiction, genre blending, and even historical fiction, as the series is 80% historical fiction with 20% Sci-Fi.
The story starts out with Doc Holliday a day away from death when his friend Geronimo shows up needing his help. Two paleontologists are digging on the Comanche’s sacred burial ground in Wyoming, and the Comanche medicine men are making plans to resurrect the very dinosaurs the professors are digging up back to life. Doc agrees to help if Geronimo restores his health. Doc makes his way north to Wyoming and along the way runs into his friend Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Edison, and together they devise a plan to stop the digs. Unfortunately for Doc, the Comanche lose their patience and unleash a horde of dinosaurs on the two dig sites and it's up to Doc and his friends to save the paleontologists and the west from living rampaging dinosaurs.
I grew up in Wyoming, and growing up in Wyoming means you learn a lot about the Wild West in school and by watching and reading Westerns. So, when I saw a book promising the wild west with a mixture of steampunk, I couldn't resist reading it. The cover promises a nice blend of pulpy goodness, with Doc Holliday brandishing a steampunk pistol and a T-rex in the background. What more could I want?
This is the fourth book in the Weird West Tale series, and I've not read any of the prior books. The characters make a few minor comments of past adventures, but I didn't ever feel like I missed out by not reading them. Mr. Resnick does a great job giving the reader all the information we need to enjoy the story and enough of a tease to entice the reader to seek out his other books. I found the story premise to be very imaginative and his portrayal of the historical figures spot on. In fact, I had more fun reading his nine appendixes at the end of the book than the actual story. I think Mr. Resnick should write a few non-fiction books on the west. The only complaints I have are the pacing and the lack of character development. The first half of the book has a slow pace. Once the dinosaurs arrive, (I hope that's not a spoiler, but come on we all knew and hoped they would) the pacing speeds up and the last half of the book is a great ride. Since there are no original characters there is only so much character development that can take place within the book. If he would have added one original character to the series, he could have shown growth by being able to change at least one character throughout the series.
There is violence, but not graphic (we're dealing with gunslingers, mad Indians and killing dinosaurs), a brief implied sexual encounter, and a few instances of strong language (it is the wild west after all), but they are not graphic or frequent.
Even with the slow start and lack of character development, the accuracy in historic research is enough to tempt me into reading more of the series. I would recommend The Doctor and the Dinosaurs to any reader who enjoys old pulp science-fiction, genre blending, and even historical fiction, as the series is 80% historical fiction with 20% Sci-Fi.
June 22, 2014
Rebecca Muir reviewed this book; for more reviews by Bec, see Rebecca Muir on Dark Matter Zine. To see all reviews on Dark Matter Zine, go to Dark Matter Zine's reviews.
The Doctor and the Dinosaurs is the fourth instalment in Mike Resnick’s Weird West series. Doc Halliday, the dentist turned shootist, is dying of TB in a sanitarium when his old acquaintance, the Apache medicine man Geronimo, turns up.
Geronimo extends his life expectancy from about a day to about a year in exchange for his help. Some palaeontologists, Professor Cope and Professor Marsh, are digging for bones in sacred Comanche burial grounds. The Comanche medicine men have a plan to stop them, which Geronimo fears will end in war between the white settlers and the American Indians. He sends Doc to stop the professors digging. Along the way, Doc meets his friends Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison and Ned Buntline who agree to help him.
Doc must find a way to persuade the palaeontologists to leave – but they are too busy competing with each other for discoveries to listen to what he has to say. Before Doc knows it, the Apache medicine men have their plan underway. Doc needs all his bravery, skill with a rifle and problem solving ability if he is going to be able to enjoy any of his extra year.
This is the second Weird West book I’ve read. I’ve found them to be a light read but funny and clever. The characters are portrayed in a warm, dryly humorous way. Doc Halliday pays little attention to such niceties as politeness or hygiene but you can’t help liking him. The way history and fantasy have been blended together is very clever – and appendices helpfully sort them back out again.
The Doctor and the Dinosaur is a fun read even though the plot was a little predictable. Having said that, the solution Doc came up with at the end did manage to surprise me. You could easily read this book as a stand-alone book (any back story you need is nicely worked in) although the main characters do follow through from the other books.
The Doctor and the Dinosaurs is the fourth instalment in Mike Resnick’s Weird West series. Doc Halliday, the dentist turned shootist, is dying of TB in a sanitarium when his old acquaintance, the Apache medicine man Geronimo, turns up.
Geronimo extends his life expectancy from about a day to about a year in exchange for his help. Some palaeontologists, Professor Cope and Professor Marsh, are digging for bones in sacred Comanche burial grounds. The Comanche medicine men have a plan to stop them, which Geronimo fears will end in war between the white settlers and the American Indians. He sends Doc to stop the professors digging. Along the way, Doc meets his friends Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison and Ned Buntline who agree to help him.
Doc must find a way to persuade the palaeontologists to leave – but they are too busy competing with each other for discoveries to listen to what he has to say. Before Doc knows it, the Apache medicine men have their plan underway. Doc needs all his bravery, skill with a rifle and problem solving ability if he is going to be able to enjoy any of his extra year.
This is the second Weird West book I’ve read. I’ve found them to be a light read but funny and clever. The characters are portrayed in a warm, dryly humorous way. Doc Halliday pays little attention to such niceties as politeness or hygiene but you can’t help liking him. The way history and fantasy have been blended together is very clever – and appendices helpfully sort them back out again.
The Doctor and the Dinosaur is a fun read even though the plot was a little predictable. Having said that, the solution Doc came up with at the end did manage to surprise me. You could easily read this book as a stand-alone book (any back story you need is nicely worked in) although the main characters do follow through from the other books.
April 14, 2014
This book has a really fun premise–dinosaurs in a steampunk-ish Wild West–but that premise is about all it has going for it. The prose is clunky. The characters, despite almost all being actual historical figures, are mostly rather flat. Often it feels like the author is just trying to cram in as many familiar names as possible rather than actually developing characters or telling a good story. The plot drags, especially in the too-large portion of the book before the dinosaurs show up, and then when the resolution comes it's way too rushed.
The Native American characters such as Geronimo feel more like plot devices than people. There are almost no female characters, just mention of some women who don't actually appear and a few extremely minor parts like the nurse who appears in the first chapter in order to provide a foil for Doc Holliday's black wit. (The banter, by the way, is rarely funny.) If anyone is tempted to say that a more diverse cast would be unrealistic for this time period, please remember that this alternate version of the Wild West features steampunk energy weapons, magic, and actual DINOSAURS. Also, it bugged me that Doc Holliday promised Geronimo that he'd stop the paleontologists from desecrating the Comanche's burial ground, but then when he got there and discovered that the paleontologists were stubbornly disinclined to move, he quit making any effort to prevent the descration and just hung around trying to keep the other white folks from being eaten by dinosaurs.
I did find Teddy Roosevelt's character moderately interesting, and dinosaurs add a little bit of awesome to any book, so this is really more of a 1.5 star book. Still, I do not recommend it at all.
The Native American characters such as Geronimo feel more like plot devices than people. There are almost no female characters, just mention of some women who don't actually appear and a few extremely minor parts like the nurse who appears in the first chapter in order to provide a foil for Doc Holliday's black wit. (The banter, by the way, is rarely funny.) If anyone is tempted to say that a more diverse cast would be unrealistic for this time period, please remember that this alternate version of the Wild West features steampunk energy weapons, magic, and actual DINOSAURS. Also, it bugged me that Doc Holliday promised Geronimo that he'd stop the paleontologists from desecrating the Comanche's burial ground, but then when he got there and discovered that the paleontologists were stubbornly disinclined to move, he quit making any effort to prevent the descration and just hung around trying to keep the other white folks from being eaten by dinosaurs.
I did find Teddy Roosevelt's character moderately interesting, and dinosaurs add a little bit of awesome to any book, so this is really more of a 1.5 star book. Still, I do not recommend it at all.
July 8, 2014
Though I have never been into westerns and the whole steampunk revolution has left me unmoved by its charms, this has dinosaurs! And Edward Drinker Cope! And it's a fantasy! So, I have to give it a chance. So far, (first few chapters), it's dialog heavy, tell-not-show. But not horrible. I'm going to be trapped somewhere tonight with very little to do and should be able to give this book a fighting chance.
Resnick has published a bunch of books and won many awards so, lots of people probably like his work. Sadly, it's not for me. Although advertised as steampunk and alternate history, it's really just a western. There's one fancy weapon dreamed up by Edison and Buntline, but it appears and is hardly used -- the tinkering and invention are not part of the story, nor is any effort made to detail how it works or why the reader should believe in it. In the end, it's a simple little pistol that brings down the most menacing monster. There's some magic in the workings of the Apache and Comanche characters but, again, it's 'poof' okay, thanks! Not part of any world-building. Cope and Marsh are wasted here, focused on for their bad behavior, with their scientific accomplishments given the slightest attention.
The appendices are interesting -- further reading on the real historical figures, as well as movies to look for, and a youtube video of a song about Cope & Drinker.
I wanted to like this so very much. Cole Younger says it best himself on page 57: "You'd better make some sense soon," grumbled Younger. "I'm getting ready for dinner and so far you've used a hell of a lot of words to say nothing."
Resnick has published a bunch of books and won many awards so, lots of people probably like his work. Sadly, it's not for me. Although advertised as steampunk and alternate history, it's really just a western. There's one fancy weapon dreamed up by Edison and Buntline, but it appears and is hardly used -- the tinkering and invention are not part of the story, nor is any effort made to detail how it works or why the reader should believe in it. In the end, it's a simple little pistol that brings down the most menacing monster. There's some magic in the workings of the Apache and Comanche characters but, again, it's 'poof' okay, thanks! Not part of any world-building. Cope and Marsh are wasted here, focused on for their bad behavior, with their scientific accomplishments given the slightest attention.
The appendices are interesting -- further reading on the real historical figures, as well as movies to look for, and a youtube video of a song about Cope & Drinker.
I wanted to like this so very much. Cole Younger says it best himself on page 57: "You'd better make some sense soon," grumbled Younger. "I'm getting ready for dinner and so far you've used a hell of a lot of words to say nothing."
April 20, 2015
2.5, rounded to 2. I think I missed a lot of this, being that I don't know much about the American Wild West, and the characterisation did little to enlighten me, other than Doc is drunk and angry, Teddy is a hyperactive, loveable genius toddler, and Geronimo is a cliche woo-woo medicine man. There was a distinct reliance on the readers' preconceptions of the historical figures to fill in the corners of the narrative. I did, however, know about the Bone Wars, which is what drew me to the story in the first place. I didn't realise initially it was purportedly steampunk, and if there hadn't been a raygun and an egregious shoe-horning of goggles in to the narrative, I probably would have been none the wiser. Oh, and robot prostitutes. Because apparently that's a thing.
I think my big problem with this was that it was rushed. The story meandered about, finally getting to the dinosaurs after a lot of riding around, complaining, and breakfast whiskey. It could have been tightened significantly. There was a distinct lack of scenery, which was weird for a novel set in such a distinctive location. A POV-shift in the early chapters reflects the scarcity of description -- Doc sees someone draw a carnosaur, but at that point in the book it's been established that he has no idea what a carnosaur is. Surely he'd need to see a toothy lizard or something being drawn, rather than a carnosaur?
The thing I did like was the portrayal of the Bone Wars -- it was funny, and something I hadn't expected to ever see in a Western. The appendices were solid, and illuminated the historical characters for a clueless foreigner. In all, I'd have preferred more dinosaurs, more description, and a slightly more coherent plot for my silly Western reading.
I think my big problem with this was that it was rushed. The story meandered about, finally getting to the dinosaurs after a lot of riding around, complaining, and breakfast whiskey. It could have been tightened significantly. There was a distinct lack of scenery, which was weird for a novel set in such a distinctive location. A POV-shift in the early chapters reflects the scarcity of description -- Doc sees someone draw a carnosaur, but at that point in the book it's been established that he has no idea what a carnosaur is. Surely he'd need to see a toothy lizard or something being drawn, rather than a carnosaur?
The thing I did like was the portrayal of the Bone Wars -- it was funny, and something I hadn't expected to ever see in a Western. The appendices were solid, and illuminated the historical characters for a clueless foreigner. In all, I'd have preferred more dinosaurs, more description, and a slightly more coherent plot for my silly Western reading.
August 29, 2015
Resnick's The Doctor and the Dinosaurs is precisely the kind of book you crawl into and pull up over your head while chanting "NYAH NYAH I CAN'T HEAR YOU" at all the adulting you should be doing. Despite the inappropriate language and violence (which are nowhere near Deadwood levels, but still), there's something in this tale of Doc Holliday and Theodore Roosevelt teaming up to battle dinosaurs resurrected by Native American shamans that speaks very much to our childlike wonder at making our GI Joes join forces with He-Man to fight monsters. (In that analogy, Roosevelt is very much He-Man.)
Unfortunately, aside from that first giddy frisson the novel doesn't really hold up. It's repetitive (Please, tell me again how much Holliday hates mornings...) and features by-the-numbers set pieces with the few dinosaurs whose names you're absolutely guaranteed to know, and characters that are far flatter than the terrain. It's possible that as this is the last in Resnick's Weird West Tale series he didn't feel the need to do a lot of work fleshing out his heroes when you'd met them before, but that doesn't improve the experience for those of us who happened to hit this one first.
While conceptually delightful, the middling execution of The Doctor and the Dinosaurs makes it great only for the escapism it offers. That's a pity. Had this been a short story, as tough and lean as its shootist hero, we might have been talking about this one the way they did about the (alley behind) the O.K. Corrall.
Unfortunately, aside from that first giddy frisson the novel doesn't really hold up. It's repetitive (Please, tell me again how much Holliday hates mornings...) and features by-the-numbers set pieces with the few dinosaurs whose names you're absolutely guaranteed to know, and characters that are far flatter than the terrain. It's possible that as this is the last in Resnick's Weird West Tale series he didn't feel the need to do a lot of work fleshing out his heroes when you'd met them before, but that doesn't improve the experience for those of us who happened to hit this one first.
While conceptually delightful, the middling execution of The Doctor and the Dinosaurs makes it great only for the escapism it offers. That's a pity. Had this been a short story, as tough and lean as its shootist hero, we might have been talking about this one the way they did about the (alley behind) the O.K. Corrall.
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