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Boy, with Accidental Dinosaur
A FanFiAddict Most Anticipated Title!
How to Train Your Dragon meets Mad Max in this story of an orphan in a fractured Southwest who just wants to ride a dinosaur under the lights.
Come one, come all to the dinosaur rodeo!
Tif Tamim wants nothing more than to be a dinosaur buckaroo. An orphan in search of a place to rest his head and a job to weigh down his pockets, Tif has bounced from circus to circus, yearning for a chance to ride a prehistoric beauty under the sparkling lights of a big-top.
To become a buckaroo, Tif needs to learn the tools of the trade, yet few dino maestros want to take a scrawny nobody from nowhere under their wing. But when Tif frees a dino from an abusive owner and braves the roving gangs of the formerly-American west to bring the dino to safety, he catches someone’s eye. And boy, how those eyes dazzle Tif from the back of a bucking carnotaur.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
How to Train Your Dragon meets Mad Max in this story of an orphan in a fractured Southwest who just wants to ride a dinosaur under the lights.
Come one, come all to the dinosaur rodeo!
Tif Tamim wants nothing more than to be a dinosaur buckaroo. An orphan in search of a place to rest his head and a job to weigh down his pockets, Tif has bounced from circus to circus, yearning for a chance to ride a prehistoric beauty under the sparkling lights of a big-top.
To become a buckaroo, Tif needs to learn the tools of the trade, yet few dino maestros want to take a scrawny nobody from nowhere under their wing. But when Tif frees a dino from an abusive owner and braves the roving gangs of the formerly-American west to bring the dino to safety, he catches someone’s eye. And boy, how those eyes dazzle Tif from the back of a bucking carnotaur.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
120 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 3, 2026
About the author
Ian McDonald
270 books1,274 followersIan Neil McDonald was born in 1960 in Manchester, England, to an Irish mother and a Scottish father. He moved with his family to Northern Ireland in 1965. He used to live in a house built in the back garden of C. S. Lewis's childhood home but has since moved to central Belfast, where he now lives, exploring interests like cats, contemplative religion, bonsai, bicycles, and comic-book collecting. He debuted in 1982 with the short story "The Island of the Dead" in the short-lived British magazine Extro. His first novel, Desolation Road, was published in 1988. Other works include King of Morning, Queen of Day (winner of the Philip K. Dick Award), River of Gods, The Dervish House (both of which won British Science Fiction Association Awards), the graphic novel Kling Klang Klatch, and many more. His most recent publications are Planesrunner and Be My Enemy, books one and two of the Everness series for younger readers (though older readers will find them a ball of fun, as well). Ian worked in television development for sixteen years, but is glad to be back to writing full-time.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 111 reviews
February 6, 2026
Great concept, great cover, great title, but holy hell, the writing style is impenetrable.
Seriously, I really wanted to like this book because queer dinosaur cowboys (!!!) but it was like trying to hold a bar of soap under a waterfall. Every time I thought I maybe understood what was happening I would come across some completely unfamiliar term or baffling dialogue and it would all slip out of my head.
I also kind of wonder about the choice to have this character/world based strongly in Hispanic culture and language. It would be one thing if it was incorporated into the narrative (for example, our cultural idea of cowboys largely draws inspiration from Mexican rancheros in the late 1700s to mid 1800s, despite cowboys often being depicted as White All-Americans) or if the author was Hispanic (he is Irish and Scottish). As it is, it just makes the text harder to follow because it's loaded with Spanish and culture-specific terms. Again, I don't usually have a problem with this and don't think authors of color should scrub their culture or language from their books to make it easier for people outside those cultures to read, but this book is not exploring/celebrating that culture and the author does not belong to that community as far as I can tell. It's not my place to say whether this is a real issue or offensive—I can only say that it makes the already-difficult reading experience even more frustrating and I don't understand why the author made that choice.
The dino nugget thing was a little funny, I'll give you that.
Seriously, I really wanted to like this book because queer dinosaur cowboys (!!!) but it was like trying to hold a bar of soap under a waterfall. Every time I thought I maybe understood what was happening I would come across some completely unfamiliar term or baffling dialogue and it would all slip out of my head.
I also kind of wonder about the choice to have this character/world based strongly in Hispanic culture and language. It would be one thing if it was incorporated into the narrative (for example, our cultural idea of cowboys largely draws inspiration from Mexican rancheros in the late 1700s to mid 1800s, despite cowboys often being depicted as White All-Americans) or if the author was Hispanic (he is Irish and Scottish). As it is, it just makes the text harder to follow because it's loaded with Spanish and culture-specific terms. Again, I don't usually have a problem with this and don't think authors of color should scrub their culture or language from their books to make it easier for people outside those cultures to read, but this book is not exploring/celebrating that culture and the author does not belong to that community as far as I can tell. It's not my place to say whether this is a real issue or offensive—I can only say that it makes the already-difficult reading experience even more frustrating and I don't understand why the author made that choice.
The dino nugget thing was a little funny, I'll give you that.
June 15, 2026
'So Tif stands under the awning in Prince’s hand-me-down black pants with the silver frogging dancing down the seams while Memphis adjusts his camisa, studs the cuffs and collar, ties his cravat. The sleeves are too long, but the chamarra fits smartly and the soft-soled buckaroo boots are still an aching size too small. But he is magnificent. He is shadow and light. He is a buckaroo of the Tatterdemalion Circus in the Traje de Luces.'
McDonald taps into Ray Bradbury's nostalgia and melancholy with grace and transgression. And a liberal addition of rhinestones and dinosaurs. The pitch-perfect ending is achingly romantic.
McDonald taps into Ray Bradbury's nostalgia and melancholy with grace and transgression. And a liberal addition of rhinestones and dinosaurs. The pitch-perfect ending is achingly romantic.
April 4, 2026
I think this may be one of the worst books I have ever read. I rarely say this. I read a lot of bad or mediocre books, but it is rare that one is so terrible I consider it one of the worst.
I love Westerns and "Weird West" concepts. Dinosaurs in Westerns has always been a fun notion, so I was excited when I saw this book at work. I was promised dinosaur rodeo, I did not get dinosaur rodeo. I mean, the main guy definitely works for a dinosaur rodeo but that is definitely a background concept to the point that I sat there wondering why the fuck dinosaurs were even in this book, because it kind of has nothing to do with anything. It's bizarre. It would basically be the same book with a regular rodeo.
This book is complete nonsense. The worldbuilding is barely intelligible. A lot of it doesn't make sense, and what does make sense feels like a retread of many other dystopia books. I was confused for a good chunk of the book because so much is thrown at you with no rhyme or reason. And there's no anchor in the story. The characters aren't likable or interesting because there's nothing to them. There's insta-love for characters who have had 1.5 conversations at most and then it gets dropped and is never brought up again.
I don't like the main character because he's nothing. He gives us nothing the whole time except being kind of pathetic. The love interest might be a vampire but it's so confusing I'm not really sure what McDonald was trying to get at with him being unable to go in sunlight. Characters come and go from the story and you're supposed to care but you know nothing about them so it doesn't really mean anything.
Main guy doesn't even ride the fucking dinosaur he's with for 99% of the book. The first time he does dino rodeo is the very last page of the book and he learned how to do it in like four days.
The fact that this book is a novella is to its severe detriment. Instead of it being a fast-paced, tightly woven short tale, it feels like it's short because the author doesn't know what he's talking about and certainly doesn't want to develop or explain anything he's set up. He keeps throwing ideas at the wall and hoping they stick, but each one makes less sense than the last. It's difficult to consider this a book when it's more like a tangled mess of extremely underdeveloped ideas, plots, and characters.
I dislike the prose quite a lot. I think the confusion stems also from the very vague and strangely-worded prose. The dialogue is cringe-inducing, clunky, and even childish at points. He throws in a lot of smatters of Spanish, but I feel like it's done in that way of someone who doesn't really understand how bilingual people talk in real life so it's just random words and phrases thrown in haphazardly. Doesn't add much. I wouldn't take any issue with that if I felt the execution was sensible-- of course lots of people in the American West and people involved in vaquero culture speak Spanish. It just doesn't work in this book at all because it is not well-executed.
There's a semen tarot card. I don't know where else to put this information.
I think the premise is interesting, but that's it. The novella does nothing with it any of it. I never thought it'd be possible for a book that's about 100 pages and some change to waste my time from start to finish, but this book is truly and utterly a complete waste of time. I can't recommend this to anyone.
I love Westerns and "Weird West" concepts. Dinosaurs in Westerns has always been a fun notion, so I was excited when I saw this book at work. I was promised dinosaur rodeo, I did not get dinosaur rodeo. I mean, the main guy definitely works for a dinosaur rodeo but that is definitely a background concept to the point that I sat there wondering why the fuck dinosaurs were even in this book, because it kind of has nothing to do with anything. It's bizarre. It would basically be the same book with a regular rodeo.
This book is complete nonsense. The worldbuilding is barely intelligible. A lot of it doesn't make sense, and what does make sense feels like a retread of many other dystopia books. I was confused for a good chunk of the book because so much is thrown at you with no rhyme or reason. And there's no anchor in the story. The characters aren't likable or interesting because there's nothing to them. There's insta-love for characters who have had 1.5 conversations at most and then it gets dropped and is never brought up again.
I don't like the main character because he's nothing. He gives us nothing the whole time except being kind of pathetic. The love interest might be a vampire but it's so confusing I'm not really sure what McDonald was trying to get at with him being unable to go in sunlight. Characters come and go from the story and you're supposed to care but you know nothing about them so it doesn't really mean anything.
Main guy doesn't even ride the fucking dinosaur he's with for 99% of the book. The first time he does dino rodeo is the very last page of the book and he learned how to do it in like four days.
The fact that this book is a novella is to its severe detriment. Instead of it being a fast-paced, tightly woven short tale, it feels like it's short because the author doesn't know what he's talking about and certainly doesn't want to develop or explain anything he's set up. He keeps throwing ideas at the wall and hoping they stick, but each one makes less sense than the last. It's difficult to consider this a book when it's more like a tangled mess of extremely underdeveloped ideas, plots, and characters.
I dislike the prose quite a lot. I think the confusion stems also from the very vague and strangely-worded prose. The dialogue is cringe-inducing, clunky, and even childish at points. He throws in a lot of smatters of Spanish, but I feel like it's done in that way of someone who doesn't really understand how bilingual people talk in real life so it's just random words and phrases thrown in haphazardly. Doesn't add much. I wouldn't take any issue with that if I felt the execution was sensible-- of course lots of people in the American West and people involved in vaquero culture speak Spanish. It just doesn't work in this book at all because it is not well-executed.
There's a semen tarot card. I don't know where else to put this information.
I think the premise is interesting, but that's it. The novella does nothing with it any of it. I never thought it'd be possible for a book that's about 100 pages and some change to waste my time from start to finish, but this book is truly and utterly a complete waste of time. I can't recommend this to anyone.
June 27, 2026
I have mixed feelings about this one. I think I set my expectations a bit high because I love dinosaurs and want more fantasy with dinosaurs. I liked the idea of this (dino rodeo, the ethical implications, etc.), but the author being from Europe is obvious when writing about a dystopian near-futuristic America.
I can suspend my disbelief about many things, but using the metric system in America is not one of them. I also think the amount of time between places is greatly underestimated and wouldn't fit the timeline of the book.
Overall, I wanted to like it, but I feel like it was too short for what it was trying to build and the main characters ended up flat(ish), which is a bit of a drag for me as the characters are what I care about over world-building.
I can suspend my disbelief about many things, but using the metric system in America is not one of them. I also think the amount of time between places is greatly underestimated and wouldn't fit the timeline of the book.
Overall, I wanted to like it, but I feel like it was too short for what it was trying to build and the main characters ended up flat(ish), which is a bit of a drag for me as the characters are what I care about over world-building.
March 14, 2026
A dystopian land where factions fight over commodities and territory- and where dinosaurs perform in circus and rodeo because of a time portal discovered in what was once known as the US. Ian McDonald, a new to me author, drew me in with his coming-of-age tale of a young man with a long-held dream of becoming a dinosaur rodeo star and the lessons he learns along the way in a quick-read novella format. And, yes, I freely admit that the dazzling cover was what drew me in at the outset.
Tif has blundered terribly and gotten himself fired from a prestigious dinosaur rodeo company. A mysterious Silver Clown provides him with a biometric bike as his sole possession and it carries him to his next adventure where he acquires an abused aged carnotaur that must be taken to the time portal rift and returned to its own time (that’s what one did when the dinos got too old or feeble to perform).
So, the Boy, With Accidental Dinosaur travel together and encounter a small rodeo group of misfits, learn a lot about people and life, and draw ever nearer to the moment when a Silver Clown’s mystical prediction will see Tif making a few life-altering important choices and the choices made will determine if he ever gets to become a Dinosaur Buckeroo, riding a dino under the big lights of the rodeo before a crowd.
Boy, With Accidental Dinosaur is a whimsical piece that is not grand or sweeping, yet it boasts a journey adventure, a winsome cast of characters, mystical moments, action, and emotions plenteous enough to draw in readers of this niche story. I’m calling it dystopian because of setting and flavor, but time traveling dinos, coming of age, pains of first love, and mystical elements are also there making it sci-fi and fantasy, as well, which is why it will hold appeal to a niche audience.
I rec'd an eARC via NetGalley to read in exchange for an honest review.
My full review will post at Books of My Heart on 2.25.26.
Tif has blundered terribly and gotten himself fired from a prestigious dinosaur rodeo company. A mysterious Silver Clown provides him with a biometric bike as his sole possession and it carries him to his next adventure where he acquires an abused aged carnotaur that must be taken to the time portal rift and returned to its own time (that’s what one did when the dinos got too old or feeble to perform).
So, the Boy, With Accidental Dinosaur travel together and encounter a small rodeo group of misfits, learn a lot about people and life, and draw ever nearer to the moment when a Silver Clown’s mystical prediction will see Tif making a few life-altering important choices and the choices made will determine if he ever gets to become a Dinosaur Buckeroo, riding a dino under the big lights of the rodeo before a crowd.
Boy, With Accidental Dinosaur is a whimsical piece that is not grand or sweeping, yet it boasts a journey adventure, a winsome cast of characters, mystical moments, action, and emotions plenteous enough to draw in readers of this niche story. I’m calling it dystopian because of setting and flavor, but time traveling dinos, coming of age, pains of first love, and mystical elements are also there making it sci-fi and fantasy, as well, which is why it will hold appeal to a niche audience.
I rec'd an eARC via NetGalley to read in exchange for an honest review.
My full review will post at Books of My Heart on 2.25.26.
May 21, 2026
In a post-apocalyptic America, teenager Latif "Tif" Tamim wanders the desolate landscape with a Carnotaur, trying to both make a name for himself and give the dinosaur a better home. He soon finds himself at a dinosaur circus where a woman named Memphis lets him him join her team. Memphis' troupe consists of the kind dinosaur-whisperer (for lack of a better word) Matilda, a Silver Clown (a kind of cyborg person) with a private past, and the handsome buckaroo Prince. They don't just perform shows with the dinosaurs, they also take care of them and take them back to the time travel portal when it's time to send them back to the prehistoric past. Tif wants nothing more than to become one of the buckaroos and to be a proper guardian of the dinosaurs. But when he catches Prince's eye and starts reflecting on his past and ambitions, Tif realizes the path he takes won't be so easy.
This was nice, short read. It's set in post-apocalyptic America and has dinosaurs. What more could I want?
The plot is fairly simple and the pacing is fast. I don't agree with some of the other reviews that say that the prose in this impenetrable. Sure, I had to look a few words a few times, but it's fairly accessible. It will say that there's a lot of short sentences, especially in the beginning, so it can feel stop and go at times, but I was able to overcome that.
Tif himself is the real delight of this novella. He's young, inexperienced, but just so endearing. He makes some mistakes and has to learn from them in order to grow up. Going into this, I did not know that he was queer, but I very surprised and delighted by it--the blurb on the back didn't really give it away. His crush towards Prince was very cute and well done, but I won't tell you how that all ends. Honestly, his interactions with the other characters were what made him grow, especially with the Silver Clown, Prince, and Matilda. Like any teen, he's a bit stubborn, but what these three people teach him makes me him realize he needs to grow up. His moments with Prince are a learning lesson in love and expectations. His moments with Matilda, which were my favorite, were a lesson in being responsible and how to take care of the dinosaurs. It's kind of bittersweet, as the setting of Boy, with Accidental Dinosaur is a harsh one. We don't often see too much of the world, or even know how it got to its current state other than a rip in time and space causes dinosaurs to come to the future, but it's filled violent gangs, controlling political groups, and occasional zealots. In this harsh world, the best thing Tif can do is be kind the the dinosaurs.
This leads me to one criticism. Tif starts out with the Carnotaur and has a sort of bond with it and the conclusion of the book is a tender moment between them. However, after Tif joins Memphis' group, this Carnotaur just disappears from the narrative for a time. Tif does interact with other dinosaurs, which was good, but I felt like the Carnotaur in question could've had a bit more of a presence. All of the dinosaurs could have! I liked the moments Tif had with other humans, especially when he reunited with a longtime friend, but I wanted a bit MORE dinosaurs. I think this book could've been a little longer.
None the less, a quick, fun read.
This was nice, short read. It's set in post-apocalyptic America and has dinosaurs. What more could I want?
The plot is fairly simple and the pacing is fast. I don't agree with some of the other reviews that say that the prose in this impenetrable. Sure, I had to look a few words a few times, but it's fairly accessible. It will say that there's a lot of short sentences, especially in the beginning, so it can feel stop and go at times, but I was able to overcome that.
Tif himself is the real delight of this novella. He's young, inexperienced, but just so endearing. He makes some mistakes and has to learn from them in order to grow up. Going into this, I did not know that he was queer, but I very surprised and delighted by it--the blurb on the back didn't really give it away. His crush towards Prince was very cute and well done, but I won't tell you how that all ends. Honestly, his interactions with the other characters were what made him grow, especially with the Silver Clown, Prince, and Matilda. Like any teen, he's a bit stubborn, but what these three people teach him makes me him realize he needs to grow up. His moments with Prince are a learning lesson in love and expectations. His moments with Matilda, which were my favorite, were a lesson in being responsible and how to take care of the dinosaurs. It's kind of bittersweet, as the setting of Boy, with Accidental Dinosaur is a harsh one. We don't often see too much of the world, or even know how it got to its current state other than a rip in time and space causes dinosaurs to come to the future, but it's filled violent gangs, controlling political groups, and occasional zealots. In this harsh world, the best thing Tif can do is be kind the the dinosaurs.
This leads me to one criticism. Tif starts out with the Carnotaur and has a sort of bond with it and the conclusion of the book is a tender moment between them. However, after Tif joins Memphis' group, this Carnotaur just disappears from the narrative for a time. Tif does interact with other dinosaurs, which was good, but I felt like the Carnotaur in question could've had a bit more of a presence. All of the dinosaurs could have! I liked the moments Tif had with other humans, especially when he reunited with a longtime friend, but I wanted a bit MORE dinosaurs. I think this book could've been a little longer.
None the less, a quick, fun read.
April 24, 2026
A fun read that's both a love letter to Westerns and has dinosaurs. Though I was continually thrown by the British spellings in a Western, I enjoyed the writing style and the characters.
February 20, 2026
Ian McDonald writes in a way that does not allow u to be distracted, u have to focus on the words and work for the image that they paint, but it’s always worth it.
I may have rated this a high 4 stars but i saw some very infuriating reviews and i said over my dead body.
The language in this novella is a work of art, the characters are bright and alive despite how little pages they had to show themselves to the reader and the story is evocative, sad and triumphant.
One day i’ll keep my promise to myself to pick up the Luna Trilogy and see what an author of this caliber than do in full lenght novel space
I may have rated this a high 4 stars but i saw some very infuriating reviews and i said over my dead body.
The language in this novella is a work of art, the characters are bright and alive despite how little pages they had to show themselves to the reader and the story is evocative, sad and triumphant.
One day i’ll keep my promise to myself to pick up the Luna Trilogy and see what an author of this caliber than do in full lenght novel space
February 11, 2026
absolutely loved this vibe-based book. could read pages and pages more of Tif living with his ragtag circus found family
April 24, 2026
genuinely distressed i can’t give this a higher rating because i LOVE the premise but it just doesn’t deliver
April 30, 2026
Come for the dinos, stay for the spare, poetic prose. Worldbuilding, back stories etc perfect for novella length. It's about yearning. (Also: if you liked River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey.)
June 10, 2026
EDIT: After sitting with it even more, yeah I hate this book lmao. If I hadn't been so excited for it, I don't think I'd hate it as much as I do. But boy, the sheer disappointment that I continue to feel when I see this damn book.
My review will have spoilers in it so probably avoid beyond this if you care to read it. Although, if I'm frank, I don't recommend it.
The premise is a young boy finds a Carnotaurus that has been abused, in a western-style post-apocalyptic world, and he really wants to be a dinosaur buckaroo, the best he can be. So I thought this was going to be a story of him and this Carno growing and learning together for him to achieve this dream. Instead what I got was a wonky coming-of-age story where the dinosaurs are mostly background characters. This is a novella, so it's only 116 pages, but I think it should've been longer. The pacing is whack, some aspects of the lore doesn't make sense, and I just don't think this coming-of-age story works well in this short format. At least, not how it's done here. The world was admittedly somewhat interesting, with the USA now just a bunch of fundie "kingdoms" and such. But for some reason, the Spanish language is utilized for a lot of words. It's never really explained why, just a bunch of people speak Spanish now. They created this machine, the B2T2, which can go back in time but only to the paleo ages. So they get dinosaurs from those eras, bring them to live in our world for like 7 years or so, and then put them back exactly where they came from to "protect the timeline." It's a bit odd, but had the rest of the book been good, I could've forgiven it.
I also just did not care about Tif. He's like 17 or 18, and while I understand he's still a dumb horny teenager, there were times when sexual comments were made that had no place being there. One of the characters is using tarot cards with textures on them, and for some reason, we're told one of them feels like semen. There's another moment when he sees his best friend from childhood again, and we're told that he thinks he came in his pants. Like...what? It makes zero sense when we're told these things, and it very quickly got old. Because the pacing is so whack, I didn't feel like he really was getting closer to these circus folk. By the end of the story, he sees them as family, but I never felt that way. He experiences his first love (he's queer) with one of them named Prince, but I guess he breaks his heart because he...walked off? We're told he doesn't like super bright light, and they were near a light or something, and Prince is TERRIFIED. He tells Tif "its not you" and I guess that's him calling things off with Tif? For some reason? Maybe I'm stupid, but I don't understand what on earth happened. I also find it very strange to establish that these circus people care about their dinosaurs to where letting them go is hard. But then they exploit more anyway so it's like...what was the point?
If you were looking for a Western themed dinosaur book, I'm sorry to say that this is not it. The dinosaurs are hardly there. Hell, I forgot this kid even had a Carno because he didn't really do anything with it. Needless to say, a VERY disappointing read.
My review will have spoilers in it so probably avoid beyond this if you care to read it. Although, if I'm frank, I don't recommend it.
The premise is a young boy finds a Carnotaurus that has been abused, in a western-style post-apocalyptic world, and he really wants to be a dinosaur buckaroo, the best he can be. So I thought this was going to be a story of him and this Carno growing and learning together for him to achieve this dream. Instead what I got was a wonky coming-of-age story where the dinosaurs are mostly background characters. This is a novella, so it's only 116 pages, but I think it should've been longer. The pacing is whack, some aspects of the lore doesn't make sense, and I just don't think this coming-of-age story works well in this short format. At least, not how it's done here. The world was admittedly somewhat interesting, with the USA now just a bunch of fundie "kingdoms" and such. But for some reason, the Spanish language is utilized for a lot of words. It's never really explained why, just a bunch of people speak Spanish now. They created this machine, the B2T2, which can go back in time but only to the paleo ages. So they get dinosaurs from those eras, bring them to live in our world for like 7 years or so, and then put them back exactly where they came from to "protect the timeline." It's a bit odd, but had the rest of the book been good, I could've forgiven it.
I also just did not care about Tif. He's like 17 or 18, and while I understand he's still a dumb horny teenager, there were times when sexual comments were made that had no place being there. One of the characters is using tarot cards with textures on them, and for some reason, we're told one of them feels like semen. There's another moment when he sees his best friend from childhood again, and we're told that he thinks he came in his pants. Like...what? It makes zero sense when we're told these things, and it very quickly got old. Because the pacing is so whack, I didn't feel like he really was getting closer to these circus folk. By the end of the story, he sees them as family, but I never felt that way. He experiences his first love (he's queer) with one of them named Prince, but I guess he breaks his heart because he...walked off? We're told he doesn't like super bright light, and they were near a light or something, and Prince is TERRIFIED. He tells Tif "its not you" and I guess that's him calling things off with Tif? For some reason? Maybe I'm stupid, but I don't understand what on earth happened. I also find it very strange to establish that these circus people care about their dinosaurs to where letting them go is hard. But then they exploit more anyway so it's like...what was the point?
If you were looking for a Western themed dinosaur book, I'm sorry to say that this is not it. The dinosaurs are hardly there. Hell, I forgot this kid even had a Carno because he didn't really do anything with it. Needless to say, a VERY disappointing read.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.
Boy, with Accidental Dinosaur by Ian McDonald is a science fiction novella set in a post-apocalyptic version of the United States that has found a way to bring dinosaurs from the Cretaceous period to the present day. It follows Tif Tamim, an orphaned boy who grew up wanting to be a dinosaur buckaroo and is traveling to return a dinosaur to the time it came from.
I was really excited about the concept of this book and very drawn in by the cover art and title. A queer man riding dinosaurs in the future sounded right up my alley. However, I was not quite as enamored with the book as I had hoped. Tif Tamim is a very interesting character, as pieces of his story are revealed, however I think that maybe due to the writing style I could not entirely immerse myself in the world and relate to the characters. As I continued to read the book, the language used began to click more but because it was such a short book, I didn’t ever fully feel settled. I would have loved to get to spend more time with Tif as he explores his relationships with the characters around him, and I also to get more about his queer identity.
I would recommend this book to people that may be more attuned to how Ian McDonald writes, or who read more dystopian fiction than I do.
Boy, with Accidental Dinosaur by Ian McDonald is a science fiction novella set in a post-apocalyptic version of the United States that has found a way to bring dinosaurs from the Cretaceous period to the present day. It follows Tif Tamim, an orphaned boy who grew up wanting to be a dinosaur buckaroo and is traveling to return a dinosaur to the time it came from.
I was really excited about the concept of this book and very drawn in by the cover art and title. A queer man riding dinosaurs in the future sounded right up my alley. However, I was not quite as enamored with the book as I had hoped. Tif Tamim is a very interesting character, as pieces of his story are revealed, however I think that maybe due to the writing style I could not entirely immerse myself in the world and relate to the characters. As I continued to read the book, the language used began to click more but because it was such a short book, I didn’t ever fully feel settled. I would have loved to get to spend more time with Tif as he explores his relationships with the characters around him, and I also to get more about his queer identity.
I would recommend this book to people that may be more attuned to how Ian McDonald writes, or who read more dystopian fiction than I do.
February 27, 2026
A tear in time-space exists where dinosaurs can appear in the present day. A boy with dreams of training in dinosaur rodeo escorts an aging dinosaur to the rift to return to its time. A mix of story-specific language and Spanish phrases made it a little hard to get started, since you're thrown right into the world, but it is a sweet, abbreviated coming-of-age story in a unique setting. The cover and the tagline "Mad Max meets How to Train Your Dragon" are pretty deceptive, though; I didn't get vibes from either of those stories.
February 4, 2026
I'm as obsessed with the idea of a dinosaur rodeo as the main character in this story. The entire setting is intriguing, with the dystopian governments and the two timelines next to each other. My only quibble is that I could have used a little more - I wanted more about Prince, more time with the dinosaurs, and more back story overall. I felt like I understood the world just in time for the novella to end. But, the way Tif's Tarot card fortune played out was perfect. 3.5 stars
February 8, 2026
I can't help but feel this is an homage to Ray Bradbury.
Ian McDonald doesn't usually write about teenage boys. He doesn't usually write about dinosaurs and time travel. He doesn't usually write about circuses. Bradbury has done all those things, and this short novel feels very 'Bradburyian', if I can use the term.
It's not billed as a YA but could easily fit that category. This doesn't denigrate it from being a perfectly enchanting story of a young man trying to find his way in the world and save an aging dinosaur from execution, and returning it to its proper time and place.
Ian McDonald doesn't usually write about teenage boys. He doesn't usually write about dinosaurs and time travel. He doesn't usually write about circuses. Bradbury has done all those things, and this short novel feels very 'Bradburyian', if I can use the term.
It's not billed as a YA but could easily fit that category. This doesn't denigrate it from being a perfectly enchanting story of a young man trying to find his way in the world and save an aging dinosaur from execution, and returning it to its proper time and place.
January 18, 2026
I loved the concept of this story. Who wouldn’t love a story about a dinosaur buckaroo in a world where dinosaurs come out a hole in the timeline, allowing for dinosaurs to be extracted from the past. They return them to the past once they’ve gone around on the rodeo circuit for a while. I could not find myself caring much for Tif, our main character, who is actually not yet a buckaroo, but just wanting to be one. There was a some good queer rep in this, which was a nice highlight for this book.
3.5 stars
Thank you to @tordotcompub for my eARC. All thoughts are my own.
3.5 stars
Thank you to @tordotcompub for my eARC. All thoughts are my own.
March 2, 2026
Wanted to read this as a fun little palate cleanser and boy was it definitely NOT THAT. I never thought I would feel so stupid reading a book about gay dinosaur cowboys and yet, I did.
February 25, 2026
A great book, far too short, though, opening just as I like them - straight into the story and the world, no exposition, leaving the reader to discover how dinosaurs can exist in this strange fractured America.
The one glitch, hadrosaurs described as carnivorous!
The one glitch, hadrosaurs described as carnivorous!
April 3, 2026
2.5 stars. This story has an interesting premise and a lot of potential...but it fell short for me.
November 7, 2025
Thank you NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for a review.
Even more ridiculous than the summary led me to expect! I loved it! A very timely dystopia and DINOSAURS!!!
Even more ridiculous than the summary led me to expect! I loved it! A very timely dystopia and DINOSAURS!!!
September 26, 2025
the fundamental difference between Tif's world and ours is the existence of the B2T2. a literal hole in the timeline, the B2T2 allows technicians to extract live dinosaurs from the distant past; and to return them to the same second they stole them from approximately seven years down the line, once they've been ridden into the ground for the rodeo circuit.
yes, I said rodeo circuit. the dinosaur rodeo circuit, of course. I have complicated (and overwhelmingly negative) feelings about our current timeline, in-real-life rodeos, so you can imagine that wrapping my brain around this version was staggering. but the book gentles you into it; the book holds your hand and tells you about the different rodeos and their caravans, the tremendously bizarre existence of Silver Clowns, the emergence of buckaroos and parades. honestly there's not a whole lot of world-building but I thought for this novella it worked. all Tif cares about are the rodeos; why should we learn about anything else?
the beginning of the book sees Tif on a long walk with an old carnotaur who needs to be returned to his original timeline. you might think you know what to expect from this book. you might be thinking: this is an easy equation. boy plus dinosaur equals riding in the rodeo! but no. it's swiftly explained that the carnotaur is simply too old, that riding him would be a death sentence, and that actually, Tif isn't a buckaroo at all, because he's never been trained.
in order to return the carnotaur, Tif must find a circus that can bring both of them to the B2T2. he ends up running with Memphis Red's Tatterdemalion Circus when Memphis herself offers them a spot. here he meets Prince, one of my favorite love interests of all time.
making Prince a lowkey terrible person was such a fantastic choice for this book. he's awful and gorgeous and sleeps all day because he's allergic to the sun. he rides the dinosaurs with an ease that suggests he can talk directly to them. he's the best buckaroo this circus has seen for a long time. and at one point, everyone has been in love with him.
the rest of the crew includes the so-named Silver Clown, mysteriously trained and never seen without his trademark silver outfit, Whistling Matilda, a Canadian whose country has not devolved into feudal kingdoms and/or dinosaur rodeos and so kind of wants to go home, Memphis Red, leader of the pack and collector of strays, and Prince himself. the found family vibes are lovely.
🌈 queer rep: queer/achillean mc, queer/achillean love interest
thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc ✨
yes, I said rodeo circuit. the dinosaur rodeo circuit, of course. I have complicated (and overwhelmingly negative) feelings about our current timeline, in-real-life rodeos, so you can imagine that wrapping my brain around this version was staggering. but the book gentles you into it; the book holds your hand and tells you about the different rodeos and their caravans, the tremendously bizarre existence of Silver Clowns, the emergence of buckaroos and parades. honestly there's not a whole lot of world-building but I thought for this novella it worked. all Tif cares about are the rodeos; why should we learn about anything else?
the beginning of the book sees Tif on a long walk with an old carnotaur who needs to be returned to his original timeline. you might think you know what to expect from this book. you might be thinking: this is an easy equation. boy plus dinosaur equals riding in the rodeo! but no. it's swiftly explained that the carnotaur is simply too old, that riding him would be a death sentence, and that actually, Tif isn't a buckaroo at all, because he's never been trained.
in order to return the carnotaur, Tif must find a circus that can bring both of them to the B2T2. he ends up running with Memphis Red's Tatterdemalion Circus when Memphis herself offers them a spot. here he meets Prince, one of my favorite love interests of all time.
"And Tif is in love. In an instant, for all time. His heart stolen by the wink of rhinestone."
making Prince a lowkey terrible person was such a fantastic choice for this book. he's awful and gorgeous and sleeps all day because he's allergic to the sun. he rides the dinosaurs with an ease that suggests he can talk directly to them. he's the best buckaroo this circus has seen for a long time. and at one point, everyone has been in love with him.
"He really is the most beautifully selfish creature. He can't help it."
the rest of the crew includes the so-named Silver Clown, mysteriously trained and never seen without his trademark silver outfit, Whistling Matilda, a Canadian whose country has not devolved into feudal kingdoms and/or dinosaur rodeos and so kind of wants to go home, Memphis Red, leader of the pack and collector of strays, and Prince himself. the found family vibes are lovely.
🌈 queer rep: queer/achillean mc, queer/achillean love interest
thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc ✨
April 21, 2026
This one let me down.
I'm not sure I can even explain why coherently but I'll try. Maybe I'll come back and edit this if I can word it all better.
First:
The dinosaur is not accidental, he's taking it to be taken back (to the proper time period) and he never rides it? He rides a different dinosaur entirely on basically the last page. It's mostly a coming of age story. Which is totally fine! But that's not quite how it's pitched on the back.
There really isn't enough explanation for anything, especially the (lack thereof of) government? A half dozen names and denominations are thrown at you and that's it. Most of them sound like violent extremist groups with territories? I guess.
It's like the author wanted to get a bunch of ideas on the page but not flesh them out. Everybody speaks little bits of conversational Spanish, so much so you'd think the main character is Mexican. Or ANY characters are Mexican...
No, I went back to the page to be sure he says "I'm Arab." Now I can't find the page, of course.
He wants to keep his identity but does nothing? Aside from repeat his real name, the name he uses for the entire book? Not the name the boy's home tries to give him that we hear ONCE.
It's dangerous to be not white in parts of the former US (I mean it is NOW) but how has it gotten to that point? So Tif is harassed or has to hide, and there is a human smuggling ring in the north getting non Cishet or non white folks and liberals to safety in Canada.
Characters routinely cross great distances with little time passing? Maybe this is because the author is not American, but I never really knew where they were. It's set in a largely hot and dry place, with a lot of Spanish spoken, so the South, Southwest? But at one point coming back from the Midwest they're in South Dakota. So is this in a post apocalypse or far future where climates have changed or did they have to hit the Dakotas for political reasons? Tif's never seen a boat?
See, this is why I'm confused.
He's is in love for 3 pages, and then it literally never matters again.
Earl only matters in the last few chapters. Suddenly he HAS to go get him.
I honestly wanted much more about the possibly actually magical rodeo clowns? Why are they so mysterious and cool??
It feels like a draft that is supposed to get fleshed out with more detail and then just gets published as is.
The writing is not bad, the book isn't bad, it's just not good.
I'm not sure I can even explain why coherently but I'll try. Maybe I'll come back and edit this if I can word it all better.
First:
The dinosaur is not accidental, he's taking it to be taken back (to the proper time period) and he never rides it? He rides a different dinosaur entirely on basically the last page. It's mostly a coming of age story. Which is totally fine! But that's not quite how it's pitched on the back.
There really isn't enough explanation for anything, especially the (lack thereof of) government? A half dozen names and denominations are thrown at you and that's it. Most of them sound like violent extremist groups with territories? I guess.
It's like the author wanted to get a bunch of ideas on the page but not flesh them out. Everybody speaks little bits of conversational Spanish, so much so you'd think the main character is Mexican. Or ANY characters are Mexican...
No, I went back to the page to be sure he says "I'm Arab." Now I can't find the page, of course.
He wants to keep his identity but does nothing? Aside from repeat his real name, the name he uses for the entire book? Not the name the boy's home tries to give him that we hear ONCE.
It's dangerous to be not white in parts of the former US (I mean it is NOW) but how has it gotten to that point? So Tif is harassed or has to hide, and there is a human smuggling ring in the north getting non Cishet or non white folks and liberals to safety in Canada.
Characters routinely cross great distances with little time passing? Maybe this is because the author is not American, but I never really knew where they were. It's set in a largely hot and dry place, with a lot of Spanish spoken, so the South, Southwest? But at one point coming back from the Midwest they're in South Dakota. So is this in a post apocalypse or far future where climates have changed or did they have to hit the Dakotas for political reasons? Tif's never seen a boat?
See, this is why I'm confused.
He's is in love for 3 pages, and then it literally never matters again.
Earl only matters in the last few chapters. Suddenly he HAS to go get him.
I honestly wanted much more about the possibly actually magical rodeo clowns? Why are they so mysterious and cool??
It feels like a draft that is supposed to get fleshed out with more detail and then just gets published as is.
The writing is not bad, the book isn't bad, it's just not good.
June 27, 2026
Queer sci-fi dino rodeo western. Perfect little read.
March 10, 2026
I am merely a casual dinosaur enjoyer, not an expert, but when a Hadrosaur was described as having "fangs...two hundred stiletto teeth," liking "soft, well-fatted meat" and sharing a "carnivore's enclosure" with a Carnotaur, I questioned if I knew anything at all. But nope, I was right: Hadrosaurs are a well-known herbivore group. We've known that since they were first discovered in the 1850s. Am I just dumb and lacking in reading comprehension? Who edited this?
Again, I'm not a paleontologist so maybe there's some new discovery I don't know about that makes this make sense. There could also be tons of other glaring errors that I'm missing. Either way, this kind of basic factual error was super off-putting.
In a lot of ways the book felt kind of...half-baked. It tells readers that certain emotional connections exist (between Tif and his Carnotaur, Tif and Earl, the whole Tatterdemalion Circus, Prince and everyone he meets) but doesn't really make us feel them. We'll get little tidbits of backstory (e.g. for the Silver Clown or the B2T2) that get quickly dropped. Some backstory elements just don't make much sense (about 100 dinosaurs a year total come to the present but there are dozens of species and long lines to send them back?). The Spanglish is kind of questionable.
That said, the premise is very cool, I really like the writing style, and the worldbuilding is awesome. A book three times as long, with a more careful edit or a paleontologist consultant, could be great.
Again, I'm not a paleontologist so maybe there's some new discovery I don't know about that makes this make sense. There could also be tons of other glaring errors that I'm missing. Either way, this kind of basic factual error was super off-putting.
In a lot of ways the book felt kind of...half-baked. It tells readers that certain emotional connections exist (between Tif and his Carnotaur, Tif and Earl, the whole Tatterdemalion Circus, Prince and everyone he meets) but doesn't really make us feel them. We'll get little tidbits of backstory (e.g. for the Silver Clown or the B2T2) that get quickly dropped. Some backstory elements just don't make much sense (about 100 dinosaurs a year total come to the present but there are dozens of species and long lines to send them back?). The Spanglish is kind of questionable.
That said, the premise is very cool, I really like the writing style, and the worldbuilding is awesome. A book three times as long, with a more careful edit or a paleontologist consultant, could be great.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
The opening scene of this book is absolutely, even cinematically, iconic. To the point where the reader can almost see it as the opening of a new Mad Max movie – except for one rather large detail.
It’s the scene of a young man pedaling a dusty but serviceable bicycle on a cracked and ruined highway in a blasted post-apocalyptic landscape. With a DINOSAUR walking beside him.
That’s right, a dinosaur. What’s that doing here? There? Whichever. Dinosaurs and humans never coexisted. At least not yet.
The story begins a bit in its middle, but in a way that absolutely does work. Because it starts with the boy and the dinosaur that he has definitely acquired by accident. Not that he didn’t always WANT a dinosaur, just that he never expected to be walking down the road with one.
He was hoping to RIDE dinos in the dino rodeos. (A phrase that needs serious unpacking – and gets it – in this story.)
So, first, the story backtracks to how Tif Tamim found himself on the road with an old, rather beat up, dinosaur, heading towards the nearest dino rodeo or circus so that he can deliver the poor dino back to its home in the Triassic era by way of the B2T2 time machine.
Even more to unpack there – and unpacking all of it forms the backbone of the rest of the story.
And it’s a doozy.
Escape Rating B: I picked this one up purely for the title. Seriously, there’s just so much to unpack in those four words, and whatever it was, I NEEDED to know.
What I got is one of those ‘story blender’ books – and it has to be a ‘story’ blender instead of a ‘book’ blender because not all the stories that got thrown into this blender are – or ever were – in books.
So start with the Mad Max movies, because the scenario is very much a Mad Max style blasted landscape, post-apocalyptic, dystopian setting. With perhaps a touch of Junkyard Cats for the distinctly American brand of the way that the country split into regions and races and religions and factions. (I’m not so sure about that reference to How to Train Your Dragon. You’d have to mentally squint a LOT to make that work IMHO and your reading (and viewing) mileage may definitely vary.)
Then add in a combination of The Kaiju Preservation Society or Julian May’s Saga of Pliocene Exile. Both are stories where portals open up between contemporary Earth and either times or places or both where either humanity hasn’t effed up the planet – YET – or where the ultimate in charismatic megafauna are the dominant species. Or both.
The question that pops up almost instantly is the one about ‘for every action there’s an equal or opposite reaction.’ Or the Jurassic Park version of ‘just because we could doesn’t mean we should.’
It’s possible that the time grabbing machine that’s picking up dinosaurs and depositing them on this near-future Earth is at least part of the cause of the current post-apocalyptic dystopian mess of the place.
But however much the time traveling dinos may be the cause of this mess, the story is about the effect. Not necessarily the effect on either the planet or on humanity – although both certainly play into it.
The story is about the effect on individual humans, which is how we wind this back to the boy doing his damndest to take the dinosaur to where it can get all the way home. Because the story is about him doing the same thing. Only in his case, it’s both forward and back to his found family, the brother he was forced to leave behind and the circus that adopts him into their hearts – along with his dinosaur.
And allows him one, bright, shining moment to be who he’s always wanted to be. A rhinestone buckaroo riding a dino.
While there’s a romance that doesn’t quite work (at least not for this reader) buried in the story of the boy and the dino and the circus, the thing as a whole worked pretty damn well, and absolutely did manage to live up to its fantastic title.
Originally published at Reading Reality
It’s the scene of a young man pedaling a dusty but serviceable bicycle on a cracked and ruined highway in a blasted post-apocalyptic landscape. With a DINOSAUR walking beside him.
That’s right, a dinosaur. What’s that doing here? There? Whichever. Dinosaurs and humans never coexisted. At least not yet.
The story begins a bit in its middle, but in a way that absolutely does work. Because it starts with the boy and the dinosaur that he has definitely acquired by accident. Not that he didn’t always WANT a dinosaur, just that he never expected to be walking down the road with one.
He was hoping to RIDE dinos in the dino rodeos. (A phrase that needs serious unpacking – and gets it – in this story.)
So, first, the story backtracks to how Tif Tamim found himself on the road with an old, rather beat up, dinosaur, heading towards the nearest dino rodeo or circus so that he can deliver the poor dino back to its home in the Triassic era by way of the B2T2 time machine.
Even more to unpack there – and unpacking all of it forms the backbone of the rest of the story.
And it’s a doozy.
Escape Rating B: I picked this one up purely for the title. Seriously, there’s just so much to unpack in those four words, and whatever it was, I NEEDED to know.
What I got is one of those ‘story blender’ books – and it has to be a ‘story’ blender instead of a ‘book’ blender because not all the stories that got thrown into this blender are – or ever were – in books.
So start with the Mad Max movies, because the scenario is very much a Mad Max style blasted landscape, post-apocalyptic, dystopian setting. With perhaps a touch of Junkyard Cats for the distinctly American brand of the way that the country split into regions and races and religions and factions. (I’m not so sure about that reference to How to Train Your Dragon. You’d have to mentally squint a LOT to make that work IMHO and your reading (and viewing) mileage may definitely vary.)
Then add in a combination of The Kaiju Preservation Society or Julian May’s Saga of Pliocene Exile. Both are stories where portals open up between contemporary Earth and either times or places or both where either humanity hasn’t effed up the planet – YET – or where the ultimate in charismatic megafauna are the dominant species. Or both.
The question that pops up almost instantly is the one about ‘for every action there’s an equal or opposite reaction.’ Or the Jurassic Park version of ‘just because we could doesn’t mean we should.’
It’s possible that the time grabbing machine that’s picking up dinosaurs and depositing them on this near-future Earth is at least part of the cause of the current post-apocalyptic dystopian mess of the place.
But however much the time traveling dinos may be the cause of this mess, the story is about the effect. Not necessarily the effect on either the planet or on humanity – although both certainly play into it.
The story is about the effect on individual humans, which is how we wind this back to the boy doing his damndest to take the dinosaur to where it can get all the way home. Because the story is about him doing the same thing. Only in his case, it’s both forward and back to his found family, the brother he was forced to leave behind and the circus that adopts him into their hearts – along with his dinosaur.
And allows him one, bright, shining moment to be who he’s always wanted to be. A rhinestone buckaroo riding a dino.
While there’s a romance that doesn’t quite work (at least not for this reader) buried in the story of the boy and the dino and the circus, the thing as a whole worked pretty damn well, and absolutely did manage to live up to its fantastic title.
Originally published at Reading Reality
June 28, 2026
I really wanted to like this. The concept of a rescue Carnotaur and his rider joining a rodeo to find a sense of belonging and, maybe, love? Amazing, perfect, gimme 10 more of 'em.
That is not what you get here.
Tif Tamim (pronounced Teef Ta-meem) is riding a bicycle that somehow has the powers to make people who touch it physically ill, and dragging a sick carnotaur behind him. we do not learn how he gets this dinosaur, only that he wants to go to the dino rodeo and ride it. Once he gets there, he learns that his carnotaur's hips are all fucked up from previous abuse, and that he won't be able to ride it. We basically leave the carnotaurs involvement in the story there.
He gets taken under the wing of one of the rodeo clowns and is taught how to ride, which requires music, but not his ocarina which was proven to work in the first chapter. We also learn that dinosaurs are brought from the past to the present, and something from the future will accompany them to balance it out? Hence the crazy technology scattered throughout the story while still referencing Costco, Albertsons, Home Depot, and LA Fitness. After the dinosaurs have spent a certain amount of time in the current day/are hurt, they are sent back to the past.
During his training montage, he meets Prince: the star buckaroo of the rodeo. They have a quick romance which ends abruptly after a night of intense dancing and it is revealed Prince does this to everyone and Tif is not as special as Prince made him feel.
Tif borrows a clown's winnebago and leaves to find Earl, a friend? he met in military school. finds him, gets into a firefight, and brings Earl back to the rodeo.
Some time passes, Tif has to send his Carnotaur back to the past. I could tell the author wanted this to be a big emotional scene, but we barely got any time with the Carnotaur, so it was really hard to feel sad about this previously abused animal being released back into a place that it may or may not even remember. Not to mention it's injuries which might hamper it from surviving in a world that it has to relearn to hunt in.
Another jump in time, Tif is going into his first rodeo as a buckaroo on the back of a triceratops. He revels in the crowd cheering for him.
I don't know if you can tell, but I was pretty disappointed. There was very little dinosaur rodeo content, there was even less Carnotaur content, and the promised romance felt very superficial and dissatisfying.
The story was hard to follow because you really had to suspend your disbelief and just take what Tif was saying, hoping that it would be explained later. Some things did get explanations, some things did not. This is a personal reading pet peeve of mine, I want to know why the world is the way it is. I want the lore. There are many wars mentioned that never get clarification, the reason they import dinosaurs is never really covered either, along with the arrival of futuristic tech, or how the bike that makes people physically sick works.
I think the book immediately set me on the wrong foot when it made fun of how Carnotaurs look instead of pointing out their unique traits, and how similar they could be to rodeo bulls. Carnotaur literally meaning "Meat-eating Bull". And maybe this hit me more than the usual autistic dinosaur-loving amount since Carnotaurs are arguably by favorite dinosaur. So, perhaps I wasn't giving this book a fare shake from the get go, sue me.
That is not what you get here.
Tif Tamim (pronounced Teef Ta-meem) is riding a bicycle that somehow has the powers to make people who touch it physically ill, and dragging a sick carnotaur behind him. we do not learn how he gets this dinosaur, only that he wants to go to the dino rodeo and ride it. Once he gets there, he learns that his carnotaur's hips are all fucked up from previous abuse, and that he won't be able to ride it. We basically leave the carnotaurs involvement in the story there.
He gets taken under the wing of one of the rodeo clowns and is taught how to ride, which requires music, but not his ocarina which was proven to work in the first chapter. We also learn that dinosaurs are brought from the past to the present, and something from the future will accompany them to balance it out? Hence the crazy technology scattered throughout the story while still referencing Costco, Albertsons, Home Depot, and LA Fitness. After the dinosaurs have spent a certain amount of time in the current day/are hurt, they are sent back to the past.
During his training montage, he meets Prince: the star buckaroo of the rodeo. They have a quick romance which ends abruptly after a night of intense dancing and it is revealed Prince does this to everyone and Tif is not as special as Prince made him feel.
Tif borrows a clown's winnebago and leaves to find Earl, a friend? he met in military school. finds him, gets into a firefight, and brings Earl back to the rodeo.
Some time passes, Tif has to send his Carnotaur back to the past. I could tell the author wanted this to be a big emotional scene, but we barely got any time with the Carnotaur, so it was really hard to feel sad about this previously abused animal being released back into a place that it may or may not even remember. Not to mention it's injuries which might hamper it from surviving in a world that it has to relearn to hunt in.
Another jump in time, Tif is going into his first rodeo as a buckaroo on the back of a triceratops. He revels in the crowd cheering for him.
I don't know if you can tell, but I was pretty disappointed. There was very little dinosaur rodeo content, there was even less Carnotaur content, and the promised romance felt very superficial and dissatisfying.
The story was hard to follow because you really had to suspend your disbelief and just take what Tif was saying, hoping that it would be explained later. Some things did get explanations, some things did not. This is a personal reading pet peeve of mine, I want to know why the world is the way it is. I want the lore. There are many wars mentioned that never get clarification, the reason they import dinosaurs is never really covered either, along with the arrival of futuristic tech, or how the bike that makes people physically sick works.
I think the book immediately set me on the wrong foot when it made fun of how Carnotaurs look instead of pointing out their unique traits, and how similar they could be to rodeo bulls. Carnotaur literally meaning "Meat-eating Bull". And maybe this hit me more than the usual autistic dinosaur-loving amount since Carnotaurs are arguably by favorite dinosaur. So, perhaps I wasn't giving this book a fare shake from the get go, sue me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
My thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an advance copy of this new novella that takes place in a barren and dying United States, where traveling groups of circuses travel the wasteland bringing the joy of dinosaur rodeos to the people.
I liked dinosaurs as a kid. Had some toys, I think a file card collection of facts and figures about the big creatures. Jurassic Park and the movies blew dinosaurs up in the public imagination. I was in the book stores at the time, and people could not get enough. Books, calenders, Dinotopia, anything with big creature, big teeth sold. My nephews are still riding that wave, able to list stats and figures about dinosaurs that I never knew, especially since the science has changed so much over the years. As a Godzilla fan though, I have always been partial to stories about dinosaurs. Devil Dinosaur for one, the aforementioned Godzilla and his buddies. These are always fun, and interesting. Just like this story, which also is more topical, and filled with lots of interesting ideas. And big gnashing teeth dinosaurs. Boy, with Accidental Dinosaur by Ian McDonald is a story of finding one's place in society, our possible future, and of course big thunder lizards, and long treks across a failed United States.
The time is the future. The United States exists only on maps, a broken country, devastated in many ways, barren and dry. Warlords control areas, militias based on whatever idea they feel at the time. Across this area groups of entertainers pass, circuses full of entertainment, including dinosaur rodeos. These dinosaurs are real, brought from the past with time travel technology. IN control of these beasts are dinosaur buckaroos, people who train, ride, control and take care of the dinosaurs, and when the time comes, send them back to die in the far past. Tif Tamim wants nothing more than to be a buckaroo, to have money to spend, and a place to feel safe, not used to the wild world Tif has found himself in. However bad luck follows Tif, causing him to wander from circus to circus, currently with a bicycle that is blood keyed to himself. A situation arises and Tif finds himself with a dinosaur, miles to cross, and bad people to avoid. And an uncertain welcome at the end.
A packed book for a novella with a lot of world building, ideas and character growth. One kind of wishes the book could be a little longer, to breath a bit, but that's why there could be more books. One can tell the writer is not from America, there is a little too much drawing on the myth of the United States and the west, but one can't complain when there are dinosaurs walking around in the future. The story moves well, and quickly starting fast and never really letting up. Tif is an interesting character, a stranger in a strange land, a bit naive, but a good person. There are thrills and quite a lot of big ideas, ones that I would like to see more of. Especially about the science and why the United States seems to be in the place that it is in.
A good novella, quick to read, easy to get into and fun. The dinosaurs are a very nice touch. My first book by Ian McDonald, but a world I would like to read more about.
I liked dinosaurs as a kid. Had some toys, I think a file card collection of facts and figures about the big creatures. Jurassic Park and the movies blew dinosaurs up in the public imagination. I was in the book stores at the time, and people could not get enough. Books, calenders, Dinotopia, anything with big creature, big teeth sold. My nephews are still riding that wave, able to list stats and figures about dinosaurs that I never knew, especially since the science has changed so much over the years. As a Godzilla fan though, I have always been partial to stories about dinosaurs. Devil Dinosaur for one, the aforementioned Godzilla and his buddies. These are always fun, and interesting. Just like this story, which also is more topical, and filled with lots of interesting ideas. And big gnashing teeth dinosaurs. Boy, with Accidental Dinosaur by Ian McDonald is a story of finding one's place in society, our possible future, and of course big thunder lizards, and long treks across a failed United States.
The time is the future. The United States exists only on maps, a broken country, devastated in many ways, barren and dry. Warlords control areas, militias based on whatever idea they feel at the time. Across this area groups of entertainers pass, circuses full of entertainment, including dinosaur rodeos. These dinosaurs are real, brought from the past with time travel technology. IN control of these beasts are dinosaur buckaroos, people who train, ride, control and take care of the dinosaurs, and when the time comes, send them back to die in the far past. Tif Tamim wants nothing more than to be a buckaroo, to have money to spend, and a place to feel safe, not used to the wild world Tif has found himself in. However bad luck follows Tif, causing him to wander from circus to circus, currently with a bicycle that is blood keyed to himself. A situation arises and Tif finds himself with a dinosaur, miles to cross, and bad people to avoid. And an uncertain welcome at the end.
A packed book for a novella with a lot of world building, ideas and character growth. One kind of wishes the book could be a little longer, to breath a bit, but that's why there could be more books. One can tell the writer is not from America, there is a little too much drawing on the myth of the United States and the west, but one can't complain when there are dinosaurs walking around in the future. The story moves well, and quickly starting fast and never really letting up. Tif is an interesting character, a stranger in a strange land, a bit naive, but a good person. There are thrills and quite a lot of big ideas, ones that I would like to see more of. Especially about the science and why the United States seems to be in the place that it is in.
A good novella, quick to read, easy to get into and fun. The dinosaurs are a very nice touch. My first book by Ian McDonald, but a world I would like to read more about.
February 17, 2026
Under a high blue heaven, under the zealous sun, the kid and his dinosaur travel a hot, empty highway. [first line]
Tif (short for Latif) is an orphan of Arab descent, whose ambition is to become a buckaroo at one of the dino rodeos. The novella's opening presents him, with his dinosaur, on a journey: only gradually are we shown where he's going, and why -- and where he's come from.
This is the post-apocalyptic future of the country formerly known as the United States of America, now a dangerous wilderness of miliciano gangs, religious states, and aggressive Dominion raiders. Tif's parents were killed in the South Dakota purification. He's recently been sacked from Dino! Dino! after a Timursaur escaped and wreaked havoc. Subsequently he's undertaken to return an old, maimed Carnosaur to the B2T2 time portal in the mountains of Colorado, and let it live out its remaining years 'under its own sun'. En route, he joins Memphis Red’s Tatterdemalion Circus; falls in love (or lust) with its star, the enigmatic Prince; and, perhaps, finds family.
That's the novella in a nutshell, but there's a novel's-worth of worldbuilding and characterisation here. McDonald doesn't waste time explaining the post-Chaos future, or the cyberpunk-flavoured Silver Clowns, or the Dust Tarot with which a Clown reads Tif's future. The B2T2 portal is a natural phenomenon, 'a place where two times lay up against each other, close as kittens, separated only by the finest layer of space-time fur, that could be stroked, and parted' [loc. 515]. That's where the dinosaurs are captured, and where they must be returned: 'leave no dangling timelines'. Naturally, the approach to the B2T2 is festooned with various flavours of protest camp.
There is danger, chaos and glamour; there is a strong sense of the cruelty involved in parading living creatures for entertainment. And there is so much emotional honesty and truth, in the backstories of the characters Tif encounters as well as his own journey. I would have loved this even more at novel length: but kudos to the author for keeping it tightly focussed and leaving the reader wondering about the wider world, the stories that happen outside the scope of Boy, with Accidental Dinosaur.
Something wild and magnificent and innocent is trapped and caged. Betrayed. For stardust, for floodlights, for the ronda and the roar of the crowd. For beer and nuts and nachos. [loc. 958]
June 18, 2026
Adult fans of Jurassic Park, How to Train Your Dragon, or even, Mad Max, will probably find this short (188p) novel a compelling and immersive read. McDonald immediately places us in a possible future world where vast wastelands, gated compound communities and armed militias engage in clan wars. The US is divided into territories where religious fundamentalists and militias rule and one of the only entertainments are the traveling dinosaur rodeos. McDonald’s conception of how the society works and how the dinosaurs come to this world is well-conceived, especially in such a slim volume. Tif, our main protagonist, is a teenage orphan who just wants to be a dinosaur-riding buckaroo. The motley band of traveling companions include Memphis, the hard-skinned owner, Matilda, a whistling dinosaur wrangler, a Silver Clown in an opaque helmet (think rodeo clown but more mysterious and magical), and sun-averse Prince, the charismatic and stunning, buckaroo. McDonald gives us enough background through Tif’s memories to give his story gravitas and resonance. McDonald uses the desert weather, inhuman conditions, and stark landscape to build the anticipation and harrowing Tone. The Tone has ST (Sexual Tension) and humor. The author uses good dialogue, and wonderful allusions to music, literature and real historic events to ground the narrative. Thematic material covers COA (Coming-of-Age), Religious, Political, and Fragmented Society Issues, Sexuality (LGBTQIA), and the burden of responsibility one has for other creatures, human and animal alike. I would like to see Tif a few years later after this book ends. It is a realistic and hopeful ending that does not dismiss the world Tiff lives in but underscores the best of human traits. RED FLAGS: Graphic Brutal Violence; Vulgar Language; Mistreatment of Dinosaurs; Open Sexuality. Readalikes may be Daniel Findlay’s Year of the Orphan, post-apocalyptic girl in the harsh Australian Outback, Al Hess’s World Running Down about a transgender salvager in dystopian Utah, M.R. Carey’s The Book of Koli, and maybe anything by Matt Dinniman or Peter Cline’s God’s Junk Drawer for the dino angle.
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