Rex Riders

by J.P. Carlson, Jim Calafiore (Illustrator)

When 14-year-old Zeke Calhoun goes to live at his Uncle Jesse's broken-down ranch in Texas, he discovers that he has a natural way with horses and loves to ride. But this is nothing compared to what he finds in a riverbed near the a mysterious stranger, riddled with bullets, lying face down in the dirt, and a juvenile T-Rex keeping a pack of hungry wolves at bay. Where did the stranger come from? Who shot him and why? While Zeke saves the stranger and sets out to answer these questions, he finds something much more interesting--a bridle in the dinosaur's mouth. From that moment on he knows he is destined to ride the T-Rex. What he does not know, however, is that his actions will set off a chain of events plunging him into an incredible adventure, one that will lead to the discovery of a deadly alliance between Earth and a prehistoric world that could threaten the very fabric of both. Learn more at RexRiders.com

Genres: Dinosaurs, Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy

440 pages, Hardcover

First published May 3, 2010

Reviews

[Amy Eye · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the look of the cover of this book, I thought it was going to be something completely different than what it was; however, I was not disappointed in the least bit. Imagine the wild west (John Wayne if you must) meets Anne McCaffrey's Dinosaur Planet mixed with a bit of teen hormones. The result is Rex Riders.

Zeke is a headstrong soon-to-be cowboy being raised by his pig headed and hard headed Uncle Jesse. Uncle Jesse (not related in any way to Full House), runs the Double R ranch and is the arch nemesis of D'Allesandro - who I picture in my mind as having a perpetual evil grin and a greasy handlebar moustache. Uncle Jesse also has some of the coolest sidekicks at the Double R ranch that any good arch nemesis could want: Stumpy and Bull. With compadres like this, no other friends are needed - ever.

Enter Slim - a hard as rock, giant of a humanoid found pretty much dead by soon-to-be cowboy and awesome sidekick, Stumpy. Slim, is riddled full of bullet holes and miraculously lives to tell the tale. And speaking of tales, I have not told you the coolest thing about Slim. Mr. Rock hard abs rides a T-Rex. You got it. A Freaking T-REX! Here is where the story gets good. We start mixing tales of the old west - the stage coaches, saloons with swinging doors, ladies square dancing - and start mixing it with some super cool sci-fi action. We are talking dinos from another planet cool sci-fi.

D'Allesandro is trying to take over the dino world and the old West. How? Take super sized dinos and turn them into everything from super sized plow pullers to super sized dino burgers. Slick talkin', evil doin', murderin' fool he is, D'Allesandro is starting to win. He has a who army of goons prepared to fight to the end to bring glory to this guy. Slim and the gang are ready to take a stand and put an end to it all, before a new War of the Worlds happens, Dino-style.

I really was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. The first few chapters took me a bit to settle into, but once I got the people down and the real plot of the story kicked in, I nestled in and couldn't wait to see where this story would lead. We have two very cool planets that we are exploring, and two extremely different cultures that mesh in a very sudden way. The culture shock for both is apparent - and potentially deadly.


I thought this would be a YA book that was meant only for younger to tween boys, but as a kid myself, I couldn't help but fall in love with the characters that J.P. created and the fun, energetic style of his writing. There was a very bouncy, steady flow through this entire book making for a very high paced feel throughout the entire book. I loved the fact that there was not a mushy love story (or two) in this book. Later on in the series, it may lend itself to go in that direction, but I think this story was balanced out perfectly. The tension between the teens felt real, and a romantic relationship would have felt forced.

This would make a great read for anyone who is in the mood of a dinosaur book (which the world is in serious lack of) and a bit of YA. Give it a try, you will be waiting on the sequel to come out too. :)

[Book Calendar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rex Riders by J.P. Carlson




Rex Riders is a "weird western", a combination of weird tale or science fiction and western story. The story is an adventure story for teenagers, but it can be read by most anybody. It is an attempt to bring back the old fashioned pulp style story with better writing and more historical accuracy. There is plenty of action and a strong sense of old fashioned frontier values in this story.



The descriptions of riding include both horses and dinosaurs. Two of the dinosaurs featured are the tyrannosaurus rex and the triceratops. We move between the setting of the old west in the town of Dos Locos and a dinosaur planet. The setting of the west is described in beautiful detail; ranching, square dancing, country doctors, and small town life.



The story has themes about greed, bravery, loyalty, and taking advantage of peoples weaknesses. The villain D'Alessandro has his ranch destroyed because of his greed and his violent henchman, Cooper comes to a bad end.



J. Califiore is the artist who illustrates the book. He is a comic book artist for both DC and Marvel. Bob Eggleton has a small illustration on the back cover. The illustrations by J. Califiore are very precisely rendered, with lots of action, and clean lines. I like the picture of Zeke Calhoun, the main teenage character riding a t-rex, as well as a picture of a stage coach being rammed by a triceratops.



The one flaw I found was the occassional tendency of the author, J.P. Carlson to tell not show. For example, in one instance, he describes the way a pike is used in logging in the old west. This broke the flow of the story. It might have been better if there was a captioned illustration at this point. On the other hand, there is a lot of very fine detail written into the story like exact descriptions of cowboy instruments, tyrannosaurus rexes eating beef jerky, and a stampede of triceratops.



At the time I read this book on June 8, 2010, there was no website for this book. There also was no availability on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. It was released on May 3, 2010. I picked up an advanced reading copy at Book Expo America. The ISBN for the book is 9780982579633 . It is priced at $19.99 . This is the first book by a new press, Monstrosities, Inc.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What would happen if Triceratops's suddenly showed up in our world in the old west? This was a very interesting book. I liked it and hope that more books will be written to make this a series.

[Sheherazahde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fourteen-year-old orphan Zeke Calhoun couldn't do anything to right as far as his Uncle Jesse McCain was concerned. But when a triceratops rampages through the small Texas town of Dos Locos, Zeke shows bravery and quick thinking rescuing young Angelina Con Fuego and her mother Maria. In 1881 no one in town even knows what a triceratops is but that is only the beginning of their trouble. Soon Dante D'Allessandro, the richest man in town, starts getting foreign guests and building watchtowers on his ranch. Then Zeke finds a strange lizard man, unconscious, with seven bullets in him, lying in a gully, next to his T-Rex mount. [return][return]If you want to read a book about cowboys, dinosaurs, and alien lizard men you aren't looking for great literature. You are probably looking for a bit of fun and a light read. This book is that. It's a rollicking good yarn, a boy's own adventure![return][return]I believe this is author J. P. Carlson's first novel. I hope he writes more. This is a good first novel, but not a great first novel. It could do with a bit of editing and I hope he continues to work on his storytelling skills. Maria Con Fuego is introduced as Maria Del Fuego at first, that sort of error should have been caught in editing (and I think he should have stuck with Del Fuego instead). The Rex Rider himself (it appears to be a title) is from a race called the Tarngatharn, his word for tyrannosaurus rex is yerka and his mount's name is Gixkarnu but he never says what his personal name is. Stumpy names him Slim without even asking what he is usually called. There are lots of wonderful black and white illustrations in the book but no pictures of the Cragnon. Probably because they are never described. Slim says they are not like him, but then describes how their culture is different not any physical description, so they may be the same race. I just don't know. [return][return]I had trouble getting into the beginning because character's motivations seemed a bit superficial. The plot moves forward in a jumpy way: this happens, and then this happens, and then this happens. Zeke keeps a firm grip on "the stupid ball" to move the action along. There were times when I could feel how shaky the plot was and had to remind myself not to poke at it lest the whole structure come tumbling down. [return][return]There are some modern updates to the old Western, "red Indians" are called Native Americans (although there are none in this story). And there is a spunky girl character who helps Zeke instead of just needing rescuing. When the French Canadian trapper gives measurements in meters I googled the metric system and found out that it was standard in all the French territories by the 1800s. [return][return]The narrator does a lot of exposition, It is positively educational at times. i.e. "Fire was extremely dangerous in the old west since ranchers had no way of putting it out, and even a small fire could quickly become a catastrophe if the conditions were right." That's not always a bad thing but I think the author needs to remember the old writer's maxim "Show, don't tell". It is particularly glaring on page 184 when the author takes five paragraphs to outline a story that would make a perfectly good novel in itself, with a different main character, an adult. The author needs to remember that characters are the heart of a good story. The characters are not there just to move the author's plot forward. Remember: who is the protagonist and what does he want? [return][return]It occurs to me that J. P. Carlson is a moral liberal. I first noticed that the good guys never kill anyone even when provoked and their lives are in danger. Plenty of people die: eaten by dinosaurs, trampled by dinosaurs, crushed by falling buildings, murdered by bad guys. But good guys don't kill people. Then I realized that the big bad guys are not punished for their crimes. The bad guys are thwarted. The good guys triumph. Good and bad alike die or are murdered. But the big bad guys escape without being punished. A moral conservative would never allow that. [return][return]Overall this book reminds me Edgar Rice Burroughs. Full of pulpy goodness. I think if J. P. Carlson keeps writing these stories he could become a successful and popular author. I'm looking forward to "Rex Riders: The Legend of the Quetzalcoatl" I would happily give this book to a teenage boy who was interested in cowboys, dinosaurs, and aliens.

[Caspette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Welcome to the Wild West but not as we know it.

Initial First Impressions
To start with the story was a little slow and choppy. It bounced back and forth between various character point of views trying to set the scene and tell the story. To be honest it got distracting and annoying. But it settled down and then the story flowed easier I then found myself rather enjoying the book. This book is a blend of westerns, sci-fi, and teen angst. I am not normally drawn to or read either of the Western or Sc-Fi genre and I have no idea why this sparked my interest when it became available as an advance reader copy, it just did. I am glad I read it even though it took me a month (eep, to be fair this was not the books fault but my fault for not being able to find time. These days life is busy, busy, busy!).

Characters
There are a lot of characters but I guess the main three would be Zeke, Uncle Jesse and Angelina. They were believable but a smidgeon stereotypical of western movies. However, Angelina was not, and was quite an interesting character with strong morals, a little bit of spunk, and intelligence.

Stumpy the cook was perhaps my most favorite character to read and he brought a lot of humor to the book. He was the wise, gentle old man who sort of played negotiator between Uncle Jesse and Zeke.

The bad guy D’allsandro was a fairly decent bad guy. On the scale of baddies one to ten he would be about a six. He was more of an oily snake kind of character then an out right pure evil type of character. He did have a “moment” toward the end of the book, but that was again more of an arrogance moment then pure evil bastard moment.

Story
The story was good and interesting. The blending of the western genre and sci-fi (the dinosaurs) was an interesting twist. Other then the choppy point of view and the slow start, the story actually moved at a fairly fast pace with lots of action and excitement.

This is classic pulp fiction. If you are not a fun of the pulp fiction style of writing then it is probably best to stay away from this book. Otherwise it is a fun story .

I really enjoyed the concept of this book. What if humans and dinosaurs had co-existed? Could we have domesticated them? Could we have used them as working animals? How would civilization look with domesticated t-rex’s rather then dogs?

What I didn’t Like
Well the constant jumping from point of views. It seemed really random and sometimes right in the middle of paragraph for about the space of a line. But this is more of a personal I thing. I really hate it when the point of view jumps around so much, for me it is distracting and often I just don’t see the point of knowing what a minor character is thinking when it is obvious (ie the baddie’s henchman not liking one of the main characters, the fact that he always tries to hit,shoot, belittle and bully the main character kinda gives it away that they don’t like each other).

I am not entirely sure how accurate the Professor character was.While fossils had been discovered and collected before 1800’s the first dinosaur wasn’t named till the mid 1800’s. Also given that information took a lot longer to filter around the world back then, depending on his academic base it would be hard for him to be up to date with the latest discoveries. So in short I am not sure if he would have been able to accurately identify the majority of the dinosaurs they discovered, at least not with the terms we know now. This is really a small quibble to be honest as I understand the need for a little suspension of belief to make it easier for today’s readers to understand. Also he would have been forever explaining dinosaurs. But on further thought having the paleontologist making up names could have been a fun experience.

In short
This book was fun. It is not a serious book at all; it’s light, fluffy and campy. I was not the target audience which really would be the teen male market from 13-18 (depending on likes and reading ability), and have seen a few reviews from younger readers who loved this book. Do not take it seriously and you should enjoy it. As for the target group; what teenage boy wouldn’t like this book with cowboys, cool sci-fi devices, Dinosaurs, and action?

[Aylee · Rating 3 out of 5]

In short: Though it is by no means a triumph in writing, characterization, or editing, Rex Riders by J.P. Carlson is a great adventure for any major dinosaur geek.


I was so excited to receive Rex Riders through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers Program. As a paleo nerd, my reaction upon seeing the cover and reading the blurb for Rex Riders was pure, unadulterated joy. A story about a boy who gets to ride a tame, teenaged T-Rex, in the style of Dinotopia? Cool Factor 10! (Erm, or should this be Nerd Factor 10?). In Rex Riders, aliens transport dinosaurs from Cretaceous Era Earth to their own planet using a special-transport-device-thing. The dinosaurs thrive on their new planet and coevolve with other alien life forms. Later, they are brought back to Earth through the same special-transport-device-thing. Rex Riders definitely gets points for being the most original and strange book I've read this year.

The major problem with Rex Riders however, is that it is simply no great piece of literature, to put it lightly. The writing and characterization is amateurish, reverting to the easy way out of "telling instead of showing" the reader. At 440 pages, Rex Riders is also in dire need of some serious editing. At various points, there were large sections of extraneous and boring information that I felt the urge to just skim over to get to the actual action. This all being said, did I expect Rex Riders to be excellently written when I saw it? No. I wanted to read it purely because it had dinosaurs in it, I'm not going to lie.

And as a dinosaur fan, Rex Riders delivers on the Cool Factor scenes, featuring triceratops stampedes, baryonyx chases, and tyrannosaur hunts. J.P. Carlson excels in staging intense action scenes that were great fun to read. Anytime there was a dinosaur on the page, it thrilled me, even if they weren't doing anything particularly interesting. This story is for anyone who has ever dreamed of living in a time when dinosaurs were alive (with the added bonus that juvenile T-Rexes can be "domesticated" and ridden and are less likely to, you know, kill you). I know I've dreamt of it.

[Christina Getrost · Rating 4 out of 5]

A western with dinosaurs: clever idea! Set in 1881, this "historical science fiction" tale has plenty of action and humor. When fifteen-year-old Zeke is falsely accused of stealing the prize stallion of his uncle's ranching rival, he is to be sent back East on the stagecoach and end his brief career learning to be a cowboy. But the stagecoach's arrival is met by a strange giant beast: a rampaging triceratops! The action commences from there at a pretty fast pace, with dinosaur stampedes, shootouts, a strange scaly alien who can ride a T-Rex, civil war among aliens, and interplanetary travel. Along the way there's funny characters and dialogue, and the setting of the Wild Wild West gives it a fun flavor. Will Zeke ever rein in his impatience and learn to work as a team with the pretty Angelina?Will Zeke be able to stop the nefarious plans of the dastardly D'Allesandro? Or will the West become a home to dinosaur ranching and cattle become extinct? You'll have to read Rex Riders to find out!

Recommended for 5th grade and up, and especially for boys who may like dinosaurs or cowboys or both. As a first book, I did see several typos and grammatical errors that need to be improved for any future editions or a possible sequel (the editors evidently did not feel the need to correct a total lack of the past perfect tense, so it was often confusing as to whether the event was happening now, or prior to current events. If the whole novel is told in the past tense--"He rode the horse"--then telling about something he did before he rode the horse needs to use "had"-- "He had woken up that morning".). Other than that, loved the book!

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cowboys and Dinosaurs and Aliens - OH MY! This is the kind of book I WISH was around when I was a kid. I loved dinosaurs and I loved westerns and this book has BOTH! Set in 1880's Texas, 14-year old city boy Zeke is sent to live on his Uncle Jesse's cattle ranch. Zeke is a handful, and when he's wrongly accused of being a horse thief by villainous rival rancher D'Allessandro, it seems Zeke is to be sent home back east. Only when Zeke saves the stage coach from a stampeding Triceratops does he prove his worth and is allowed to stay - and thus begins an exciting tale any adventurous kid (or kid at heart) will enjoy!

The 440-pages may seem intimidating for younger readers, but don't let it be - for the type font is a nice size for young eyes and the sentence structure is simple. The chapter heading illustrations are well-done, providing a quick glimpse of the action to come in that chapter. The writing drags a little in some spots, but this can be easily forgiven as the story is entertaining and fun, with some great action sequences. All in all, a great read. Here's hoping the promised sequel is equally or more entertaining!!

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rex Riders is an enjoyable read, even as someone well outside the intended YA audience - admittedly, it would be a sad day that had me say I didn't enjoy a book that involved cowboys and dinosaurs together! It's a cracking blend of old west and science fiction, it features some some fairly standard stereotypes (the evil rancher who owns most of the town, the good hearted but not so well off rancher, his friends / family and a general range of friendly town folk). Introduce into this an alien who rides a T-Rex, a land grab on another planet and you're in for a darn'tootin' good time![return][return]There's a fair dose of violence sprinkled throughout, but it's never overly graphic. With no swearing it's more than suitable for anyone who's either a dinosaur or cowboy fan, aged 6 upwards. It's an excellent adventure tale that follows some tropes a bit too closely, but for all that it's still well worth picking up.

[Doug Cornelius · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cowboys and dinosaurs? Sounds like a great combination for reading to the kids at bedtime.

Unfortunately, the story and the writing didn't live up to my hopes. The characters were flat and cliched. The story itself was disjointed. It started slow, showed a sign of life when the dinosaur first appeared, but then went careening off in a few strange directions.

Some of the elements were a bit adult for my kids (7&3) so I engaged in some edited storytelling to skip over the few more violent parts of the book.

[Keith]

Holy good lord, I just learned about this book from Mars Will Send No More and holy crap, I basically need to read this book immediately.

[Rebel Rider · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the idea for this book was really good but sometimes, it was a bit slow. It often felt like the author was doing a bit too much telling, as if he was worried readers wouldn't understand the western setting. I did like the plot but I wish it was a little faster paced.

[Elsa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mmmm-no