Michael Crichton (2017)
[AUDIO ONLY -- but I added the picture anyway -- maybe I'll read it later]
(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)
This was a random audiobook suggestion from Libby. I hadn't heard of it before, and from the cover I was thinking that it was something connected to Jurassic Park. Nope, it's connected to dinosaurs, but to the hunt for their fossils, including the discovery of the brontosaurus, with teeth so large, like giant rocks, that scientists were forced to rethink the size of the animals that help such teeth in its mouth.
The story starts with a Yale student named Johnson who makes a dumb bet with another student about going on an expedition during the summer of 1876 with one of the school's professors to find dinosaur bones. Prof Marsh originally refuses Marsh because he's made his selections already but allows him to come when he discovers that Johnson is a photographer. Johnson doesn't know anything about photography but he takes classes and gets good at it.
Marsh is delusional and paranoid, and starts to believe that Johnson is a spy, so he abandons him in Cheyenne when he allows him to oversleep while everyone else catches their train. With nowhere else to go, Johnson joins the expedition of Edward Cope, Marsh's rival who Marsh believes to be a criminal, thief, and lowlife.
I was not aware while listening to this that these two paleontologists were real people who had a real rivalry during the "Bone Wars". (Johnson is a fabrication, as is the story in general.) Also, although it was published in 2017, after Crichton's death, the book was written in 1974.
Marsh causes trouble for Cope and his men. Marsh bribes officials, poisons water, and plans ambushes to steal Cope's bones.
Johnson finds the "dragon teeth" without realizing what he found, which causes Cope to rethink how large dinosaurs could've been -- given the size of the jaw that would be needed for those teeth and the size of the head that would be required for that jaw, and so on. The timing is after Custer's Last Stand, and everyone wants to put distance between themselves and the Sioux, who will be on the move soon.
Johnson, another student (Toad), and a Snake scout named Little Wind are separated from the rest of the men when Sioux scouts approach. Little Wind drives them west. Johnson is wounded when the wagon arrives in Deadwood with the bodies of Toad and Little Wind, whom he buries.
Johnson leaves his wallet in his room, which is robbed, leaving him penniless. He wants to get out of there and get the boxes back east. (Everyone in Deadwood believes that these boxes must be valuable. No one believes that they are animal bones.) But he has no money and will be stuck there for the winter if he can't figure something out. Luckily, he still has his photography equipment and opens a studio.
One thing that annoyed me: The army comes through, and Johnson sees a way out. But Johnson is also a witness to a crime and the sheriff locks him up to prevent him from leaving. It didn't add anything to the story, except to add some false hope. (This did explain something that happened later -- how someone could've heard a rumor.)
Wyatt Earp shows up later on and plays a part in the narrative.
This was a good book to listen to. Marsh was annoying before I knew that he was a real person and that his behavior might've been toned down. And I generally dislike when someone is conveniently robbed, with no recourse, and has to continually struggle with having nothing. It makes more sense in this scenario, of course, instead of a random druggie jumping out of an alley. When I clear a few other books from my "Holds" at the library, I might borrow a copy of this one to read.
If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.
