Field Guide to the Mesozoic Megafauna...a review
“MICHAEL SWANWICK’S FIELD GUIDE TO THE MESOZOIC MEGAFAUNA”by Michael Swanwick
Featuring the British Science Fiction Association Award-nominated “Five British Dinosaurs”
February 2004 – Tachyon Publications; ISBN 1-892391-13-9; 32 pages; Price $8.95
Available on Amazon.com
I first viewed this booklet – for booklet it is – when I received my very-well laden membership tote bag at the World Fantasy Convention in Washington, Halloween weekend in 2003. Initially, I had tossed it aside with the other booklets containing sample excerpts of novels and didn’t look at it again until I was packing to go home. A closer look proved that it was, in fact, a very short anthology of even shorter short stories. And such was my first introduction to reading Mr Swanwick’s prose. I chortled or smiled my way through every one of the eighteen stories: cameos of clever wit and imagination, mostly less than a page each in length. Better yet, they were about dinosaurs. So it was a very nice combination. Also, I managed to finish the book on the flight home. Considering that this was a forty-five minute flight, and I only spent thirty of those minutes reading…well, you do the math.
Anyway, to the meat of the matter: “ ‘ Mesozoic Megafauna” is a delightful collection of dinosaur stories exposing dinosaurs in a myriad of highly improbable, but entertaining situations. Michael Swanwick is an absolute master of extremely short fiction, who can pack quite a lot of story into just a few words, or even just a scene. Mr Swanwick is a multi-nominated award-winning author and I, for one, am looking forward to reading more of his works. In the meantime, why don’t you check out “ ‘ Mesozoic Megafauna” just to find out what the “…old theropod-in-a-rubber-tenontosaur-suit trick…” is; the dangers of dueling with Mosasaurs; how the west was really won; and that proving hypotheses can often be hazardous to health and machinery.
What I want to know is: What happened to the Woolly Mammoth stories? Maybe they’ll appear in the next short short-stories collection. I wish.
Marianne Plumridge
Available on Amazon.com
I first viewed this booklet – for booklet it is – when I received my very-well laden membership tote bag at the World Fantasy Convention in Washington, Halloween weekend in 2003. Initially, I had tossed it aside with the other booklets containing sample excerpts of novels and didn’t look at it again until I was packing to go home. A closer look proved that it was, in fact, a very short anthology of even shorter short stories. And such was my first introduction to reading Mr Swanwick’s prose. I chortled or smiled my way through every one of the eighteen stories: cameos of clever wit and imagination, mostly less than a page each in length. Better yet, they were about dinosaurs. So it was a very nice combination. Also, I managed to finish the book on the flight home. Considering that this was a forty-five minute flight, and I only spent thirty of those minutes reading…well, you do the math.
Anyway, to the meat of the matter: “ ‘ Mesozoic Megafauna” is a delightful collection of dinosaur stories exposing dinosaurs in a myriad of highly improbable, but entertaining situations. Michael Swanwick is an absolute master of extremely short fiction, who can pack quite a lot of story into just a few words, or even just a scene. Mr Swanwick is a multi-nominated award-winning author and I, for one, am looking forward to reading more of his works. In the meantime, why don’t you check out “ ‘ Mesozoic Megafauna” just to find out what the “…old theropod-in-a-rubber-tenontosaur-suit trick…” is; the dangers of dueling with Mosasaurs; how the west was really won; and that proving hypotheses can often be hazardous to health and machinery.
What I want to know is: What happened to the Woolly Mammoth stories? Maybe they’ll appear in the next short short-stories collection. I wish.
Marianne Plumridge
posted by Marianne | 8:45 PM
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