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Memory Reborn
“Walton has brought hard sci-fi roaring back to life.” —WALL STREET JOURNALPAST AND FUTURE CLASH in the final book of the globe-spanning paleontology thriller that began with Living Memory. The threat of extinction by killer organism leads to world war as national powers vie to control the powerful technology uncovered in Thailand. Samira and her team are on the run from the United States, even as a Chinese scientist mirrors their discoveries and resists her own government's demands. Will the ancient creatures they found turn the tide and save humanity before it tears itself apart?“The literary heir of Michael Crichton. LIVING MEMORY packs an exciting thriller with intriguing science." —Craig DiLouie, author of THE CHILDREN OF RED PEAK“Walton brings rich detail to the concept of scientifically adept dinosaurs who recorded their memories for posterity on the eve of their extinction and keeps the modern timeline just as gripping with tense geopolitics, smugglers, and resurrected mammoths and dodos. Readers will be hooked.” —Publishers Weekly“Living Memory is first-rate hard science fiction. Michael Crichton would approve and so do I. Highly recommended!” — The Internet Review of Books“David Walton is one of our very best writers of science-fiction thrillers." —Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Quantum Night
280 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 28, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 4, 2023
DINOSAURS LIVE! (AND I DON'T MEAN JUST BIRDS)
Get ready for the action and a fast-shifting setting. A CIA black site in Colorado. A sprawling cattle ranch in Oregon. A paleontology dig in northeastern Thailand. And a secret Chinese scientific laboratory underground in Yunnan Province. The book opens there in China as “Distant Rain Sweeping Towards Home as Night Falls woke yet again in her bare, odorless cell, wishing she could die.” Now, you won’t have a clue what’s going on here unless you know what transpired in the first two books in David Walton’s immensely clever Living Memory trilogy. Memory Reborn is the third and final volume, and a fitting close to a thought-provoking story about how dinosaurs survived extinction. So, a few words of explanation are in order.
TWO DINOSAURS SURVIVED EXTINCTION
Distant Rain Sweeping Towards Home as Night Falls is a dinosaur. Distant Rain, for short. A maniraptor female, to be precise. She’s one of two maniraptors who survived the Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction event, or K-T event, when an asteroid strike (and possibly volcanic eruptions as well) wiped out the dinosaurs. But in David Walton’s fevered imagination, two of them survived.
Two maniraptors emerged alive in the 21st century because they were scientists in an advanced civilization built on a sophisticated knowledge of chemistry and genetics. And Distant Rain’s colleague, Easy Prey, a male known to humans as Charlie, had been an astronomer who predicted the meteor strike. Communicating by the sense of smell, they and a small number of others fashioned a cavern deep in the Earth where they could hibernate. And there, in Thailand, paleontologists had awakened them. Now, Distant Rain is a captive of the Chinese, and Charlie is in Colorado, imprisoned by the Americans. They’re in captivity because both superpowers have discovered that one of the odors the dinosaurs can emit at will is designed to pacify and control their prey. And both the US and China look on the chemical that produces it as a superweapon.
Now you’ve got a sense of what’s going on. Of course, it’s much more complicated than this.
FAMILIAR CHARACTERS ENLIVEN THE EVOLVING STORY
Distant Rain and Easy Prey join a handful of familiar human characters in Walton’s ongoing story.
** The Shannon sisters, Samira and Beth, both prominent paleontologists. Beth is short and blonde, Samira tall and dark, having been adopted as a child in Ethiopia by their missionary parents.
** Kit, a Thai paleontologist with an unpronounceable surname, who has become Minister of Science and Technology in a Thai government led by Queen Mai Sirindhorn.
** And Colonel Zhanwei of the People’s Liberation Army, who leads his nation’s strike force in Thailand to secure the superweapon.
Now, yet another scientist joins the cast of characters: Dr. Li Ling, a zoologist researching salamander communication by smell, who is ordered to the lab in Yunnan Province where Distant Rain is imprisoned. There, she is assigned to assist other scientists who are extracting the powerful chemical from the dinosaur by force.
Up to a point, the Living Memory trilogy is based on known science. After all, Walton writes hard science fiction. But of course the survival of two dinosaurs after sixty-six million years in hibernation is impossible. The only excuse for building a trilogy around this fantasy is to tell an enjoyable story. And Memory Reborn is a lot of fun.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Philadephia-based science fiction and fantasy author David Walton has published ten novels and a slew of short stories to date. The three books of the Living Memory trilogy are his most recent efforts. On his author website, Walton notes that he is an engineering fellow Lockheed Martin. He describes himself as a Christian and adds that he lives near Philadelphia with his wife and eight children. He also notes prominently that he is a Christian, and in Memory Reborn he introduces Compassion International, a faith-based child sponsorship organization, as a major factor in the story. He’s clearly a big supporter.
Get ready for the action and a fast-shifting setting. A CIA black site in Colorado. A sprawling cattle ranch in Oregon. A paleontology dig in northeastern Thailand. And a secret Chinese scientific laboratory underground in Yunnan Province. The book opens there in China as “Distant Rain Sweeping Towards Home as Night Falls woke yet again in her bare, odorless cell, wishing she could die.” Now, you won’t have a clue what’s going on here unless you know what transpired in the first two books in David Walton’s immensely clever Living Memory trilogy. Memory Reborn is the third and final volume, and a fitting close to a thought-provoking story about how dinosaurs survived extinction. So, a few words of explanation are in order.
TWO DINOSAURS SURVIVED EXTINCTION
Distant Rain Sweeping Towards Home as Night Falls is a dinosaur. Distant Rain, for short. A maniraptor female, to be precise. She’s one of two maniraptors who survived the Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction event, or K-T event, when an asteroid strike (and possibly volcanic eruptions as well) wiped out the dinosaurs. But in David Walton’s fevered imagination, two of them survived.
Two maniraptors emerged alive in the 21st century because they were scientists in an advanced civilization built on a sophisticated knowledge of chemistry and genetics. And Distant Rain’s colleague, Easy Prey, a male known to humans as Charlie, had been an astronomer who predicted the meteor strike. Communicating by the sense of smell, they and a small number of others fashioned a cavern deep in the Earth where they could hibernate. And there, in Thailand, paleontologists had awakened them. Now, Distant Rain is a captive of the Chinese, and Charlie is in Colorado, imprisoned by the Americans. They’re in captivity because both superpowers have discovered that one of the odors the dinosaurs can emit at will is designed to pacify and control their prey. And both the US and China look on the chemical that produces it as a superweapon.
Now you’ve got a sense of what’s going on. Of course, it’s much more complicated than this.
FAMILIAR CHARACTERS ENLIVEN THE EVOLVING STORY
Distant Rain and Easy Prey join a handful of familiar human characters in Walton’s ongoing story.
** The Shannon sisters, Samira and Beth, both prominent paleontologists. Beth is short and blonde, Samira tall and dark, having been adopted as a child in Ethiopia by their missionary parents.
** Kit, a Thai paleontologist with an unpronounceable surname, who has become Minister of Science and Technology in a Thai government led by Queen Mai Sirindhorn.
** And Colonel Zhanwei of the People’s Liberation Army, who leads his nation’s strike force in Thailand to secure the superweapon.
Now, yet another scientist joins the cast of characters: Dr. Li Ling, a zoologist researching salamander communication by smell, who is ordered to the lab in Yunnan Province where Distant Rain is imprisoned. There, she is assigned to assist other scientists who are extracting the powerful chemical from the dinosaur by force.
Up to a point, the Living Memory trilogy is based on known science. After all, Walton writes hard science fiction. But of course the survival of two dinosaurs after sixty-six million years in hibernation is impossible. The only excuse for building a trilogy around this fantasy is to tell an enjoyable story. And Memory Reborn is a lot of fun.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Philadephia-based science fiction and fantasy author David Walton has published ten novels and a slew of short stories to date. The three books of the Living Memory trilogy are his most recent efforts. On his author website, Walton notes that he is an engineering fellow Lockheed Martin. He describes himself as a Christian and adds that he lives near Philadelphia with his wife and eight children. He also notes prominently that he is a Christian, and in Memory Reborn he introduces Compassion International, a faith-based child sponsorship organization, as a major factor in the story. He’s clearly a big supporter.
January 7, 2024
Memory Reborn concludes the Living Memory trilogy. The first installment irritated me with its cliffhanger; I prefer standalone books, even if a trilogy is meant to be read together to receive the full story. However, I am glad I stuck with the series. The story was entertaining and interesting. The messages about the war-like tendencies of governments were a bit heavy-handed, especially toward the end of this novel, but it was fun to imagine an international group of scientists encountering another sentient species and cooperating with that species, against many competing political interests, to save humanity.
July 12, 2025
Gets better and better
As I said for part 2 the story expands and gets more exciting. This is also true for part 3. It means all 3 books work really well together as a series.
It's not really a historical what if. More a science fiction what if!
Well recommended. Thanks to https://malwarwickonbooks.com/dinosau... for the original recommendation .
As I said for part 2 the story expands and gets more exciting. This is also true for part 3. It means all 3 books work really well together as a series.
It's not really a historical what if. More a science fiction what if!
Well recommended. Thanks to https://malwarwickonbooks.com/dinosau... for the original recommendation .
December 22, 2023
Very Enjoyable
Loved this unique concept and the author did a great job of crafting an engaging and compelling story around it.
Loved this unique concept and the author did a great job of crafting an engaging and compelling story around it.
December 31, 2023
This book was as good and original as the first two books. The science fiction and the action parts were enjoyable. I loved the very hopeful, but unexpected ending.
August 15, 2025
Probably a bit of a stretch to bring things together so fantastically, but it is a fun ride.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews