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Danger: Dinosaurs!
Owen Spencer would never have agreed to lead the time-slip expedition back to the Jurassic period — the Age of Reptiles — had he foreseen the terrifying experiences in store for the small group making the expedition. Chartering the expedition was Dirk Masterson, a treacherous big game hunter, whose alleged purpose was to take pictures of the enormous reptiles that roamed Jurassic times. Even when Masterson smashed the jeep into the force field, destroying the only protection that stood between the group and the lumbering beasts, Owen could not be sure it was an accident.
Evan Hunter has written a fast-moving tale of people stranded on earth in its infancy and forced to pit their ingenuity and strength against mammoth reptiles. It might not have been so bad if Masterson, with his mania for big game hunting had not continued to shoot at every reptile he spotted. But his madman tactics repeatedly aroused the fury of the hideous dinosaurs, whose attacks drove the farther and farther away from the relay area that would slip them back to the present when the week was up.
The weird circumstances that made Owen's brother, Chuck, take over the leadership of the expedition and the even stranger adjustment of the time stream that left the party with the inexplicable feeling that somebody was missing makes DANGER: DINOSAURS! an unusual and fascinating treatment of the ever-provocative time theme. The desperate search for the relay area, interrupted by fierce fights with flesh-eating monsters, and an earthquake that creates a chaos of stampeding animals give this story action that is as alien as any distant planet.
Evan Hunter has written a fast-moving tale of people stranded on earth in its infancy and forced to pit their ingenuity and strength against mammoth reptiles. It might not have been so bad if Masterson, with his mania for big game hunting had not continued to shoot at every reptile he spotted. But his madman tactics repeatedly aroused the fury of the hideous dinosaurs, whose attacks drove the farther and farther away from the relay area that would slip them back to the present when the week was up.
The weird circumstances that made Owen's brother, Chuck, take over the leadership of the expedition and the even stranger adjustment of the time stream that left the party with the inexplicable feeling that somebody was missing makes DANGER: DINOSAURS! an unusual and fascinating treatment of the ever-provocative time theme. The desperate search for the relay area, interrupted by fierce fights with flesh-eating monsters, and an earthquake that creates a chaos of stampeding animals give this story action that is as alien as any distant planet.
- GenresScience Fiction
152 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1953
9 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
About the author
Evan Hunter
189 books115 followersBetter known by his pseudonym Ed McBain.
Born Salvatore Albert Lombino, he legally adopted the name Evan Hunter in 1952. While successful and well known as Evan Hunter, he was even better known as Ed McBain, a name he used for most of his crime fiction, beginning in 1956.
Born Salvatore Albert Lombino, he legally adopted the name Evan Hunter in 1952. While successful and well known as Evan Hunter, he was even better known as Ed McBain, a name he used for most of his crime fiction, beginning in 1956.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 16, 2019
This review first appeared on SciFiandScary.com
‘Danger: Dinosaurs!’ is a fun curio, a young adult sci fi novel from the 1950s by a writer who went on to be hugely successful in another genre. That writer is one of my favourites, Evan Hunter. Hunter wrote the superb ‘87th Precinct’ series of police procedural novels under the pseudonym Ed McBain between 1956 and 2005. ‘Danger: Dinosaurs!’ was published in 1953 under another pen name Richard Marsten. Under his real name, Hunter also wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ as well as ‘The Blackboard Jungle.’ 'Danger:Dinosaurs!' was out of print for a long time, but is now available again on Kindle.
This is a book with time travel and dinosaurs. If I’d happened across it as a kid I’m pretty confident I would have loved it. As an adult it’s easier to see its flaws, but there’s still a lot to enjoy here. The setup is simple – in the future we have developed the ability to travel back in time. Such jaunts, called ‘Time Slips’ are available to the wealthy for recreation, as well as being used for scientific purposes. I really liked the analogy that Hunter uses to describe how time travel works. Time, we are told, is like a record playing on a turntable. We are the stylus, being led through time by the grooves in the record. The Time Slip technology allows the needle to skip back over the grooves to a previous time.
The book is about one such trip, back to the jurassic age. Naturally, there are a couple of shady characters on the trip – the brilliantly named Brock Gardel and his almost as brilliantly named boss, Dirk Masterson. Masterson’s niece, Denise, and servants Arthur and Pete are also in the party, which is led by guide Chuck Spencer and his young brother Owen.
The Time Slip rules state that they can’t take any guns with them (they can only “hunt” the dinosaurs with cameras) and they have to stay within a set radius of their initial landing point. Within minutes of arriving in the past Masterson has inexplicably driven a jeep into the protective force field, destroying it. This sets in motion a chain of events that sees the characters stranded and fighting for their lives.
There’s a lot of what you’d expect based on that synopsis. Stegosaurus stampedes, vicious Allosaurs and plenty of treachery from Masterson and Gardel. There’s also a massive time paradox-based twist. I won’t give it away but it’s fascinating because Hunter interprets the rules of time travel in almost exactly the opposite way to what we’ve become accustomed to in the fifty plus years since the book was written. As a result, the twist doesn’t make much sense (to a modern reader at least), but Hunter does get a lot of mileage out of it and it definitely changes the tone of the second half of the book from a straight up adventure to something more speculative.
The writing isn’t great, certainly not up to the standard of Hunter’s later work, but he does keep the plot moving and it’s a fun, quick read. He throws in some commentary on capitalism and racism too, which adds to the depth a little. Overall then, this is an entertaining throwback. It’s fast-paced if a little stilted at times, and the different take on time travel is interesting, if not entirely convincing.
‘Danger: Dinosaurs!’ is a fun curio, a young adult sci fi novel from the 1950s by a writer who went on to be hugely successful in another genre. That writer is one of my favourites, Evan Hunter. Hunter wrote the superb ‘87th Precinct’ series of police procedural novels under the pseudonym Ed McBain between 1956 and 2005. ‘Danger: Dinosaurs!’ was published in 1953 under another pen name Richard Marsten. Under his real name, Hunter also wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ as well as ‘The Blackboard Jungle.’ 'Danger:Dinosaurs!' was out of print for a long time, but is now available again on Kindle.
This is a book with time travel and dinosaurs. If I’d happened across it as a kid I’m pretty confident I would have loved it. As an adult it’s easier to see its flaws, but there’s still a lot to enjoy here. The setup is simple – in the future we have developed the ability to travel back in time. Such jaunts, called ‘Time Slips’ are available to the wealthy for recreation, as well as being used for scientific purposes. I really liked the analogy that Hunter uses to describe how time travel works. Time, we are told, is like a record playing on a turntable. We are the stylus, being led through time by the grooves in the record. The Time Slip technology allows the needle to skip back over the grooves to a previous time.
The book is about one such trip, back to the jurassic age. Naturally, there are a couple of shady characters on the trip – the brilliantly named Brock Gardel and his almost as brilliantly named boss, Dirk Masterson. Masterson’s niece, Denise, and servants Arthur and Pete are also in the party, which is led by guide Chuck Spencer and his young brother Owen.
The Time Slip rules state that they can’t take any guns with them (they can only “hunt” the dinosaurs with cameras) and they have to stay within a set radius of their initial landing point. Within minutes of arriving in the past Masterson has inexplicably driven a jeep into the protective force field, destroying it. This sets in motion a chain of events that sees the characters stranded and fighting for their lives.
There’s a lot of what you’d expect based on that synopsis. Stegosaurus stampedes, vicious Allosaurs and plenty of treachery from Masterson and Gardel. There’s also a massive time paradox-based twist. I won’t give it away but it’s fascinating because Hunter interprets the rules of time travel in almost exactly the opposite way to what we’ve become accustomed to in the fifty plus years since the book was written. As a result, the twist doesn’t make much sense (to a modern reader at least), but Hunter does get a lot of mileage out of it and it definitely changes the tone of the second half of the book from a straight up adventure to something more speculative.
The writing isn’t great, certainly not up to the standard of Hunter’s later work, but he does keep the plot moving and it’s a fun, quick read. He throws in some commentary on capitalism and racism too, which adds to the depth a little. Overall then, this is an entertaining throwback. It’s fast-paced if a little stilted at times, and the different take on time travel is interesting, if not entirely convincing.
January 6, 2021
I've read Hunter's other juveniles so I wasn't expecting too much from this, but even so I was disappointed. The characters act illogically in every situation. At the start, the group going back in time shows up and travels within the space of a few minutes. The guide barely gives instructions and doesn't even check the vehicles to see if they have the proper supplies and no contraband. If I'm going to be stuck in prehistoric times for a week I'd want the guide to make darn sure we had the proper food and equipment. The sole female character has no personality. I also had a real problem with the nature of time and existence presented in the story.
It wasn't all bad. There were some decent action scenes. Still, I'm glad Hunter moved away from science fiction.
It wasn't all bad. There were some decent action scenes. Still, I'm glad Hunter moved away from science fiction.
March 1, 2018
Good old fashioned Dinosaur novel
Group goes back to the Jurassic using a time slip. You have good guys, bad guys, one women and lots of Dinosaurs. Dinosaurs the way they should be (no feathers) except when Archaeopteryx shows up who was a prehistoric BIRD. Book was written in 1953 one year before I was born surprised I had never read it. Worth the wait. 5 stars.
Group goes back to the Jurassic using a time slip. You have good guys, bad guys, one women and lots of Dinosaurs. Dinosaurs the way they should be (no feathers) except when Archaeopteryx shows up who was a prehistoric BIRD. Book was written in 1953 one year before I was born surprised I had never read it. Worth the wait. 5 stars.
January 5, 2015
Owen and Chuck Spencer should have been suspicious of Dirk Masterson from the start. Owen was the guide for the Time Slip back to the Jurassic era and Chuck was being allowed to go along. Masterson was unco-operative from go, not wanting to prove his identity.
Things only got worse when they went back. Masterson jumps into a jeep and takes off at high speed, crashing into and shoring out the force field that kept the dinosaurs away from them. And the recall wasn't for a week.
When Masterson and his partner pulled hunting rifles from their truck, The Spencer brothers knew trouble was here. You see, this was a photography only mission. Killing was illegal.
And finally, Chuck discovers mining equipment and dynamite stored in Masterson's truck.
A nice little juvenile science fiction novel. I did have problems with one plot line, but won't give that away.
Things only got worse when they went back. Masterson jumps into a jeep and takes off at high speed, crashing into and shoring out the force field that kept the dinosaurs away from them. And the recall wasn't for a week.
When Masterson and his partner pulled hunting rifles from their truck, The Spencer brothers knew trouble was here. You see, this was a photography only mission. Killing was illegal.
And finally, Chuck discovers mining equipment and dynamite stored in Masterson's truck.
A nice little juvenile science fiction novel. I did have problems with one plot line, but won't give that away.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews