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Read West Of Eden (2004)

West of Eden (2004)

Online Book

Genre
Series
Rating
3.78 of 5 Votes: 4
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ISBN
0743487184 (ISBN13: 9780743487184)
Language
English
Publisher
ibooks

West Of Eden (2004) - Plot & Excerpts

Look, I'm not going to pretend that this series is going to change your life or that it's a great contribution to the literary canon. The prose is serviceable and...that's about it. But that's okay, because this is plot- and scenario-based writing, and I think it works. The premise is pretty simple: what if dinosaurs had never gone extinct, but instead continued to evolve, with one particular species, the Yilane becoming as intelligent as the humans living just north of them? Now imagine that the coming Ice Age is freezing the reptiles out and forcing the humans and Yilane to battle over habitable land. And there you have it. Harrison enlisted anthropologists and other experts to help him build the world of the Yilane, and this is where the book really shines. Their language, thinking, and way of interacting with the world is all consistent and completely different than the human experience. It all works to liven up and ground what could have been another one-note science fiction work.If you like what-if science fiction, and are willing to dig into something a little pulpy with a premise that's embarrassing to describe out loud, then this will probably be enjoyable for you. If you only enjoy Serious Literature with Heavy Morals, you might find it a little silly. But you probably also have little imagination.

West of Eden takes place on an alternate Earth timeline where the K-T meteor event never took place and thus never wiped out the dinosaurs, paving the way for a race of mosasaurs (marine lizards) to evolve into a sentient species with some pretty cool biotechnology at about the same time humans reach the cusp of their neolithic revolution. However, the Yilanè and humans are extremely hostile to one another and unrelentingly seek to annihilate each other. The main character is a boy who is captured and raised by the Yilanè after his entire tribe is slaughtered. The degree of detail given to the social, linguistic, and technological aspects of the reptile race is very thorough and vivid. My father is a mosasaur paleontologist, so this book has been floating around Vert Paleo circles since the mid-eighties. I regret that i took so long to finally read it. For any sci-fi fans looking for a refreshing twist to the genre (i guess this could technically overlap into the Clan of the Cave Bear style genre as well) by going back in time i HIGHLY recommend this book. Be warned however, it is part of a trilogy, although i can say the plot of the first book resolves adequately enough that you probably won't feel obligated to dive into the next two, unless of course you just fall in love with it!

What do You think about West Of Eden (2004)?

Whoa, what a ride! Here are some quick & random points:1. Amazing portrayal of Yileni culture and advanced biotechnology. Very vivid and creative. 2. Vast differences of Tanu (humans) and the Yileni (reptiles) made the extreme xenophobia of both species very much understandable. Solid Othering on both sides.3. Rampant anthropocentrism even though there was no right or wrong side. I could even argue that it was the human who started it all. Yet the book sided with them. Not exactly disagreeable but slightly disappointing.4. A reptiloid female mounting a human male? No, just no. *shivers*5. Kerrick's character development was amazing, absolutely brilliant and well done. 6. What's up with that hideous cover? 7. Again and again, I was convinced that information is a great weapon, as well as the ability to change and adapt.8. Interesting take on pacifism and its moral dilemma in a highly militaristic setting.9. (view spoiler)[Fire shouldn't have spread that fast in forest, especially without any other flammable substance. Too convenient as a plot device. (hide spoiler)]
—Idan

Got through an hour of audiobook. Absolutely unbearable. About tribal conflicts or something between the humans and dinosaurs, with ample flavor text in their own languages for no reason. Also for no reason, the dinosaurs travel in some sort or semisentient whale or peliosaur, and it just makes no sense without pictures and why on earth make a book about an alternate timeline with sentient dinosaurs if you're going to make bizarre tech for them?Its just another story of cultures with wildly incompatible technology levels, only the humans are hunter gatherer level and therefor both useless and unrelateable. Arg how did this get recommended to me.
—Inukie

Very engaging book - a lot of fun to read, and also very intelligently imagined and executed. The plot was fairly snappy if also fairly predictable, and the characters were vividly rendered but on the flat side, with the exception of the two main protagonists. This is definitely a work where the world-building shines much more than the plot or characterization, but on the other hand, the world-building was truly remarkable. The visualization of how language and technology might have developed among the descendants of rainforest-dwelling dinosaurs was fascinating and thoroughly worked out. As a linguist, it was very enjoyable to explore the concept of a language that combined voluntary and involuntary gesture along with vocalization in a way that precludes lying. The dinosaurs' technology involved biotech that replicated most technology present in the human world circa 1970, but accomplished through the genetic engineering of highly specialized organisms. Extraordinarily creative and systematic at the same time.
—Andrew Dombrowski

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