This book gives some opinions to think about for different world scenarios. My daughter loves dinosaurs and we do study creation theory and believe dinosaurs and man could have lived together. Ots a very well written book. ( )

Burgoine #80

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: On his first voyage seeking the Far East, Columbus finds a new world occupied by intelligent dinosaurs.

The expedition does not go as planned.

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Steven Popkes lives in Massachusetts on two acres where he and his wife raise bananas, persimmons and turtles.

He works in aerospace making sure rockets continue to go where they are pointed. He insists he is not a rocket scientist.

He is a rocket engineer.

I RECEIVED AN ARC FROM THE PUBLISHER. THANK YOU.

My Review: A shortish read, novella length, about the very best possible outcome of Almirante Cristóbal Colón's disastrous voyage to the New World: An enemy worthy and capable of resisting the scumdog religious nuts instead of normal people susceptible to diseases the evil bastards miasmically transmitted to them.

It's a lovely thought.

Told from several points of view in its fewer-than-100 pages, it doesn't linger on details or travel down intriguing side paths. That's understandable but regrettable. The presence of a Marrano on the voyage is, I think, allohistorical...but I can't prove that. I enjoyed the different outcome of first contact...not everything going the Spaniards' way...and relished very deeply the hints of complexity in the New World's radically new social structure. I think this is plausible since the asteroid hit the Yucatán in our own timeline by accident; as little as ten minutes earlier or later, the entire history of the planet would certainly have been different.

Would dinosaurs have survived? Would humans have evolved if they had? Sure, why not, this is a story! And a fun one, perfect for #Booksgiving. To yourself, or to others. ( )

A short novel of exploration and alternate realities. The author created a whole world with various creatures and power structures and a lot of this world was alluded to but not really explained. How did the Orts come to be in charge and what benefit did they get from people? What is the structure within the Orts - learn that there are ruling females and itinerant males that have to prove themselves but then are left without so many explanations. What is the island with the other creatures on it? An interesting concept but left me disappointed.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book as part of an early review program.

I thoroughly enjoyed this relatively short read. It's a great way to pass an afternoon. The story is immersive, and despite its relative shortness, it's packed with so much interesting detail. It's a fun, relatively light read, and I'd quite recommend it.

Columbus reaches America, finds a bunch of indigenous people waiting for him... and some intelligent dinosaurs, who are the actual leaders of the country. What could go wrong? This short story by Steven Popkes is quite funny, even if it ends on a really sad note. We can see quarrels between the owners of the caravels, who only agree in bashing poor Luìs, a converted Jew who was hired in Spain to work as translator, and a point of view quite different from our own. But in the end we cannot avoid to take the part of Red Eft, the dinosaur who must learn Economy 101 all by himself and who will try to build a pacific relation with the newcomers. Some parts of the book (mainly the ones featuring the indigenous people) are not connected very well, and sometimes I found it hard to follow the dialogs: but I suggest you to read it. ( )