Six Must-Read Fictional Dinosaurs Books:
Dinosaurs once roamed the Earth, doing all the things live animals do today. They fought; they ate; they reproduced. But today they live only in our imaginations, our books, and our films. And if you’re at all like me, you probably snap up every book (fiction and non-fiction) you can find about those wondrous creatures, and you experience vicariously through the characters in those books what it would be like to be stalked by a pack of velociraptors, ambushed by a T Rex, or just watch a brachiosaurus munch on some towering vegetation.
If you have just recently been bitten by the dinosaur bug (probably a resurrected amber-entombed mosquito), then below are six must-read novels. Below the must-reads I included a more extensive list of novels (a mix of very old to a spate of recently published) in case you want to go beyond the magnificent six.
Check out a few that I have penned as well.
Six Must Reads
The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle (1912)
An old classic. The premise is dinosaurs survived in a remote and inaccessible region of the Amazon. Professor Challenger came back from there and then plans a second expedition to prove his claims, taking along his professional rival and critic Professor Summerlee. Although antiquated in ways, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s prose still makes for superb reading. This book may also be downloaded for free.
Dinosaur Four by Geoff Jones (2014)
From something written over a century ago to something more recent. Dinosaur Four is a time travel story where ten people from a coffee shop get unwillingly sent back into the distant past where they come face to face with dangerous dinos of all sorts – even the herbivores are ferocious killers. *Spoiler alert: some of the ten meet a gruesome death and don’t return.* Eclectic blend of distinct characters in constant danger makes it hard to put this one down.
Rampage at Waterloo by Brian Falkner (2015)
There are a number of alternate history stories in which Dinosaurs somehow survived the extinction event 65 million years ago. This young adult novel is a cut above most. A mishmash of historical fiction set in a fantastical world in which dinosaurs never went extinct. Napoleon (yes, that Napoleon) uses the beasts in his battles against his enemies. Incredible depictions of battles makes for a riveting read.
Far-Seer by Robert J. Sawyer (originally published 1992)
An award winning first book of a trilogy. The premise is that 65 million years ago aliens transplanted dinosaurs onto another world before an asteroid made them extinct on Earth. This is sort of a what if Galileo had been a dinosaur story. Set on a distant moon orbiting a gas giant around some other star, sentient descendants of tyrannosaurs revere the gas giant as the “Face of God.” When Asfan, a young Quintaglio (as their race is called), turns a new invention (a far-seer) toward the gas giant he discerns the truth, and (as you can probably guess) things take a turn for the worse when Asfan tells everyone what he has learned.
Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick (2002)
A sci-fi time travel thriller that involves Cretaceous dinosaurs, humans, and future avian descendants that take over the Earth after our demise. The book offers interesting scenes like at the beginning when the paleontologist Richard Leyster is lured away from his position at the Smithsonian by being shown a the head of a stegosaurus that was freshly killed. The team become stranded in time and must survive amongst the savage beasts. Probably a little cliché. However, the book also offers some unique twists later that earn it a spot on this list.
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (1995)
This list wouldn’t be complete without this classic which started our whole modern love affair with dinosaurs. Granted, some of us have always loved them, but the Spielberg movie that was cloned from this book took dinosaurs into the mainstream of pop culture. I use the term clone as loosely here as the dinosaurs were cloned. If you have only seen the movie, I encourage you to read the book. Although the movie follows much of Crichton’s original plot, there are numerous significant differences including sections and characters in the book that were cut from the film. Although some of those scenes were later dug back up for the movie’s sequels.
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Others (original publications date). For series, only the first book is listed in most cases. Links are provided to a source for each.
Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne (1864)
At the Earth’s Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1922)
The Night Shape by James Blish (1963)
Thonger and The Wizard of Lemuria by Lin Carter (1965)
Speaking of Dinosaurs by Philip E High (1974)
Dinosaur Planet by Anne McCaffrey (1978)
West of Eden by Harry Harrison (1984)
Carnosaur by John Brosnan (writing under the name Harry Adam Knight) (1984)
Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker (1995)
Footprints of Thunder by James David (1995)
Dinosaur Summer by Greg Bear (1998)
Dinoverse by Scott Ciencin (1999)
End of an Era by Robert J Sawyer (2002)
The Sky People by S.M. Striling (2006)
Cretaceous Dawn by Lisa M. Graziano and Michael S.A. Graziano (2008)
Love in the Time of Dinosaurs by Kirsten Alene (2010)
Antarktos Rising by Jeremy Robinson (2010)
Cryptozoica by Mark Ellis (2010)
Dinosaur Wars by Thomas Hopp (2011)
Dinosaur Lake by Kathryn Meyer Griffith (2012)
Dragon Dawn by Deborah O’ Neill Cordes (2014)
Al Clark by Jonathan G. Meyer (2014)
The Dinosaur Lords by Victor Milán (2015)
Jurassic Island by Viktor Zarkov (2015)
Future Remainsby Robert Jack (2017)
Pangaea: Exiles by Jeff Brackett (2017)
Final Extinction by Rick A. Mullins (2017)
Megazoic by Matthew Donald (2017)The Island in the Mist by C.G. Mosely (2017)
A Man out of Time by Christopher Leflan (2017)
Primordia: In Search of the Lost World by Greig Beck (2017)
Primative War by Ethan Pettus (2017)
House of the Gods by Davide Mana (2018)
Bestiarii by James Tarr (2018)
Monsters in the Clouds by Russell James (2018)
The Flipside by Jake Bible (2018)
Throwback by Edward J. McFadden III (2018)
The Wyvern in the Wilderlands by Eddie Patin (2018)
A Fistful of Dinosaurs an anthology by multiple authors (2018)
Primal Terra by Tim Meyer (2019)
Dreamshores: Monster Island by Mike Robinson (2019)
PREHISTORIC: A Dinosaur Anthology by multiple authors (2019)
Dinosaur World Omnibus by Adam Carter (2019)
Ice Station Death by Gustavo Bondoni (2019)
Objekt 221 by Steve Metcalf (2019)
Little Dinosaurs by Audrey Swindon and Bob McCullough (2019)
Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker (1995)
Footprints of Thunder by James David (1995)
Dinosaur Summer by Greg Bear (1998)
Dinoverse by Scott Ciencin (1999)
End of an Era by Robert J Sawyer (2002)
The Sky People by S.M. Striling (2006)
Cretaceous Dawn by Lisa M. Graziano and Michael S.A. Graziano (2008)
Love in the Time of Dinosaurs by Kirsten Alene (2010)
Antarktos Rising by Jeremy Robinson (2010)
Dinosaur Wars by Thomas Hopp (2011)
Dinosaur Lake by Kathryn Meyer Griffith (2012)
Dragon Dawn by Deborah O’ Neill Cordes (2014)
Al Clark by Jonathan G. Meyer (2014)
The Dinosaur Lords by Victor Milán (2015)
Jurassic Island by Viktor Zarkov (2015)
Future Remainsby Robert Jack (2017)
Pangaea: Exiles by Jeff Brackett (2017)
Final Extinction by Rick A. Mullins (2017)
Megazoic by Matthew Donald (2017)The Island in the Mist by C.G. Mosely (2017)
A Man out of Time by Christopher Leflan (2017)
Primordia: In Search of the Lost World by Greig Beck (2017)
Primative War by Ethan Pettus (2017)
House of the Gods by Davide Mana (2018)
Bestiarii by James Tarr (2018)
Monsters in the Clouds by Russell James (2018)
The Flipside by Jake Bible (2018)
Throwback by Edward J. McFadden III (2018)
The Wyvern in the Wilderlands by Eddie Patin (2018)
A Fistful of Dinosaurs an anthology by multiple authors (2018)
Primal Terra by Tim Meyer (2019)
Dreamshores: Monster Island by Mike Robinson (2019)
PREHISTORIC: A Dinosaur Anthology by multiple authors (2019)
Dinosaur World Omnibus by Adam Carter (2019)
Ice Station Death by Gustavo Bondoni (2019)
Objekt 221 by Steve Metcalf (2019)
Little Dinosaurs by Audrey Swindon and Bob McCullough (2019)