This book is part of The Lost Book project. The Lost Book is an animated web series which you can help write. It follows the adventures of investigative journalist, and BookCrosser, Aileen Adler and her dog Watson as they try to solve the crime of a stolen book.

We came across Dinosaur Summer when the lovely TomHl mentioned it in his journal entry for The Lost World.

In this book, Greg Bear takes as his starting point the idea that Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World is fact, not fiction.* He sets his story thirty-five years later to explore the implications of finding living dinosaurs.

So, what did humankind do when faced with a plateau containing a huge diversity of unknown lifeforms? That's right: captured them and put them into circuses. And then got bored when the dinosaurs died, and upset when they ate the audience.

This gives Bear the set-up for a boys-own romp that's true to the spirit of Arthur Conan Doyle's adventure story. An expedition goes back to the "Lost World" to return the last circus dinosaurs - facing danger, and learning about themselves and each other.

Amusingly, the expedition includes camera operators Willis O'Brian (OBie) and Ray Harryhausen, who've been tasked with filming the release. OBie and Harryhausen are real people - in our world, OBie created the pioneering stop-motion dinosaurs in the 1925 film of The Lost World. Harryhausen was inspired by OBie's work on King Kong (1933) and created amazing stop-motion animation for films such as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts and One Million Years BC. He's much-loved by animators around the globe. But, in a world where real dinosaurs exist, Harryhausen and OBie mourn that "dinosaurs spoiled the public for any of our imaginary monsters".

This book is the illustrated edition, and contains lovely sketches by Tony DiTerlizzi of Spiderwick Chronicles fame (another person inspired by a film and a model-making genius - this time Jim Henson and The Dark Crystal).

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* I have a certain extra sympathy for this, as it's exactly what we're doing over at The Lost Book... although we've moved things on a few generations. The "Lost Book" - a book that's been stolen - is the journal of Professor Challenger's great great granddaughter Sally's expedition to the "Lost World". The project includes two story threads: an animated web series following journalist Aileen Adler’s (slightly blundering) efforts to recover the book; and an attempt to write the missing book in 100-word instalments. Both stories are written entirely by the public – anyone who visits the website can take part.

This book is going to travel around the world as a bookray. PM at any time, with your shipping preferences, to join. The book is a small paperback (24mm thick, 389pp, 200g).

Bookray
Shimmy-crazy, UK (Int)
ResQgeek, USA (USA)
TomHl, USA (Int)
davemurray101, Australia (Int)
KiwiinEngland, Dublin (EU)
Bookray complete!

Please could you all do four things:

1. Make a quick journal entry when you receive the book.
2. Read and send on within four weeks - or make a journal entry to let us know how you're getting on if you need longer.
3. Make a journal entry when you've finished.
4. Use the cheapest method of shipping available.

And, enjoy the book!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Dino Summer is all packaged up and ready to begin its journey. I'll be going to the Post Office this afternoon to send it to Shimmy-crazy. Happy reading, all!

Arrived last week, is next on my TBR pile cheers TheLostBook I'm looking forward to it.

This was a fantastic adventure story with an old fashioned feel to it which I guess fits with Conan-Doyle's original story. I also thought the relationship between the father and son was very well done. Overall I really enjoyed it but did find it dragged in places.

Posted off to ResQgeek yesterday (1st sept)

Arrived in today's mail. I'm looking forward to reading this. I just started a book yesterday, but it's turning out to be a quick read, so I should be ready for this one early next week.

A half century after Professor Challenger and his team of explorers discovered "The Lost World," with its isolated population of dinosaurs and other living fossils, the last dinosaur circus has finally gone bankrupt. The show can no longer go on, but what will happen to the animals? Why not return them to their home, releasing them to their native habitat? And, as a bonus, film the expedition, turning it into a money-making theatrical event?

This book follows from the premise of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, where Challenger discovers his dinosaurs, and like Doyle's work, it is an adventure story. Fully half the story is about the journey, as the expedition faces challenges both phyiscal and political as they embark on their quest. The prose here isn't as flowery as Doyle's, but the story is equally compelling, as the story builds to a dramatic climax on the plateau. Greg Bear also shows a better developed understanding of evolution, providing an array of animals that might be plausible evolutionary descendents of the original dinosaurs that found themselves isolated in this Lost World. Fans of adventure stories and of dinosaurs should all find this book satisfying.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I'll be mailing this off to TomHl in Wisconsin at lunch time. Enjoy!

This book has arrived in Wisconsin quite quickly. It hasn't been very long since my most recent re-read of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World. I will get to this as soon as I finish The Bane of the Black Sword.

I enjoyed this 1998 tribute sequel to Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World. In this alternate world, the events of The Lost World are taken as true, and by 1949, the public has grown tired of the display of dinosaurs, and the circus acts that display them are going out of business. Young Peter Belzoni joins his down-and-out photographer Dad on a movie expedition to return the last of the circus dinosaurs to their native El Grande tepui in South America. As a young man growing up, Peter is both likable and believable, although some of the movie people are caricatures. The pen illustrations by Tony DiTerlizzi add a lot. I think of this as a YA novel, and would not hesitate to recommend it to an adolescent looking for something more than can be found in all the popular dinosaur movies.

I read the book during a recent trip, and here I've uploaded a photo of me reading it in the airport terminal at Logan International Airport in Boston. It was such a gripping story that I could not bear to lower it even for a moment!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sent from the Pewaukee post office to davemurray101 in New South Wales, Australia. I have a supply of vinyl paperback collector bags now, so one should help keep this book dry while in transit. Open the package carefully to avoid cutting it.

just recived today. should be interesting.

I finished this one today. Really good for a sequel novel - some sequels tend to either copy the original too much or is so different that it betrays the memory of the first. Good to see also the updating of the plateau to include dinosaurs with feathers - given the recent science regarding the evolution of dinosaurs and birds. Not up with my favourite Greg Bear (ie. Blood Music) but still an entertaining book. Posting to Kiwiinengland in the next few days.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

posted to KiwiinEngland, hope you enjoy

Book has safely landed on my desk. Thanks davemurray101 for sending the book from Australia and TheLostBook for starting this ray.

There were parts of this fast action book that I thought were great; the actual releasing of the dinosaurs across the bridge back home and how they all reacted differently to going home, the escaping of the humans at the end of the book, the growing awareness of Peter as being an identity seperate from his parents.

There were parts of the descriptive passages that I couldn't follow, including how some of the dinosaurs looked and the creation of the mole hill. Must practise my imagination skills I think.

Have you any further plans for this book TheLostBook?

6/11/09 - I've heard from TheLostBook and they have no further plans for this book. So I shall pass it on in the near future.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:





This book will be released near the smiling skeleton of Stan, the dinosaur which lives at the museum.
This book is being released as part of the Bookcrossing Monopoly game. Week five and it was release anybook you like anywhere.