Happened upon a really cool SF blog today called Prehistoric Pulp.
I’m not sure the identity of the blogger, but the site is dedicated to “fantastic fiction about dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, with reviews, cover blurbs and news about upcoming works.”
Now, I dig dinosaurs (n’yuk, n’yuk, n’yuk) but I had no idea there were so many stories out there involving dinos and prehistoric animals (the megafauna for which I may even have more fascination than the terrible lizards), let alone enough to blog regularly about. I know that around the time of the first Jurassic Park movie there was a kind of dino chic in SF, with a number of dino-themed anthologies coming out, but no idea the numbers both before and after. The only other instances I was really aware of were Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder” (which, along with his stories “The Dragon” and “The Fog Horn”, completely blew my 10-year-old mind) and Rob Sawyers’ Quintaglio Ascension.
When you think about it, with the whole palette of time and space to play with, why not do SF stories about dinosaurs, right?
Anyway, my hat’s off to the dedicated blogger–they clearly have a love for all things dino- and prehistoric SF, tracking down and reading what are some really obscure titles. Well done.
I have a vague possible idea for an SF novel of first contact and environmentalism that involves human exploration of a planet dominated by dinosaur-like creatures and (for lack of a better explanation right now) sentient giant white apes…so maybe you’ll see a book by me on Prehistoric Pulp some day.
– S.
Hi, the guy who runs Prehistoric Pulp here. Thanks for the mention. And my name, by the way, is Walter Williams. Not to be confused with Walter Jon Williams, the science fiction writer. In fact, a main reason I chose the nickname DoubleW was because I didn’t want anyone thinking we were one-and-the-same and that he was critiquing other writers’ works. It would’ve been a bit unfair to him, I thought.
Anyway, the reason I started the blog was because information about a lot of paleontology-related fiction is hard to find. Do a google search for “jurassic park” and you’re more likely to find reviews of the movie than the book, and many older, less-known titles have faded into obscurity. Of course, I’m a big dinosaur/paleontology nerd, and I’ve always found the prehistoric past to be just as alien and mysterious as any distant world.
One thing I’m hoping — although it hasn’t happened yet — is that in the comments section, other people will share their thoughts/reviews of the books and other media that I review. I want each title to feature a variety of reviews, not just mine, since I’m sure there are novels I didn’t like that others will love, and novels I loved that other people hated.
The blog is pretty active now, but I imagine the posts won’t be as frequent in coming months. I’ve almost burned through my collection of paleo-literature, although I still have quiet a few titles to go through. Typically only one or two novels about dinosaurs and prehistoric animals are published a year (more often only one). There has been a lot of news lately in the genre, but that is unusual.
Again, thanks for the mention.
Hi Walter –
Thanks for the note–and for revealing your true identity! 🙂
Like I said, great work on the blog. I’ll definitely be keeping up with it (and no doubt further adding to my extensive reading list…)
Best,
– S.