some more reading done then, to be sure. and some of it - not by choice, look you see - on one of them that there "e-reader" things, since for some reason absolutely none of the shops i went to (several branches of four distinctly different businesses) appeared to have any interest in having it on the shelf for sale. hey ho.
and so, as would be normal or if you like usual, a glance at the covers of those what i read, along with something of a quick, spoiler-free overview.
right then, as you may have worked out or ascertained it was Dragon Teeth, the 3rd or 4th "final novel, honest" from Michael Crichton. there are some plus points, but ultimately its publication kind of tarnishes his work and maybe this one should have stayed in a filing cabinet or similar. meanwhile, The Chalk Man by CJ Tudor has some flaws and faults but is ultimately breathtakingly brilliant, and is yet another strong contender for that coveted "book of the year" what i select when the year is done. no, really, that good, and you may want to skip this and simply go read that one, now.
to be clear, and to be sure, a big, massive *** MAYBE POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING *** is now in place. whereas i shall try not to give much away, for the cautious, there you go. further, or also, i have elected to drop the links i put in. well, i've proven that i do not use online retailers for novels, so it seems silly for me to imply that i would be including such links. if you wished to find any of these novels, i am confident you will.
provenance of my copy? well, for three months i looked and tried to purchase at Morrison, Tesco, WH Smith and that other book chain that i cannot remember the name of. hang on let me google.....Waterstones. sight nor sound of it. no, i did not ask them to order, as that would mean to commit to coming back and my time is seldom my own. no, i did not order online, as the paperback price was even higher than what WH Smith charge for such. so, an "ereader" copy, then.
the provenance of the novel itself? well, according to information from the Estate of Michael Crichton, they believe he wrote this one in the early to mid 70s, but for some reason it was never revised or published during his lifetime. having read it, i can quite steadfastly assure you that it was perhaps not published during his lifetime because it wasn't very good. i mean, it's not bad, but it is not good.
plot? back in 1870s America a wealthy student makes a whimsical bet that he can go to the frontier that is "the West" and survive. whereas he, William Johnson, is fictitious, he encounters numerous real characters from history, notably two palaeontologists (Cope and Marsh), Custer, Wild Bill, the Earp brothers and a few more. and that's kind of it.
this is a really good idea for a novel, but alas it's just far too simplified and flimsy. nearly nothing, bar the challenges of photography in Deadwood, gets any decent detail. my biggest disappointment is the fact that the title becomes an irrelevance. i really was hoping this novel would play on one of my pet theories, that in the Dark, Middle Ages or "medieval" times, people found dinosaur bones, but not knowing why they were so black and charred assumed they breathed fire and hence the legend of dragons being born. no such luck, alas, with the dinosaur bones being kind of key to the latter plot but mostly ignored.
having had to wait to get this novel, then, i kind of find myself wishing that i had not. sure, there was potential for this to be developed and expanded into something great. the fact that Michael Crichton elected not to do that at any stage of the 70s, 80s, 90s or 00s perhaps says it all. what a shame. but, you know, if you are a fan of Crichton like me, then yeah, there are sort of enough bits in the book to make it worthwhile reading. just, not that many, at all.
plot? the novel dips back and forth between 30 years. a childhood game which involved drawing chalk men may or may not have led to certain tragedies and events happening. after many (erm, 30) years of keeping it all buried, doing that (sometimes wise) pretend nothing happened thing, for some reason the incidents are all coming back to the fore, and could be all sorts of trouble for those involve, in particular our narrator, the protagonist Eddie......
oh yeah, provenance of my copy - Tesco, and it was either £2.50 or £3.50 as they seem to have stopped with their £2 and £3 offers. yes, indeed, i did happen to purchase this on one of several fruitless visits to see if i could not procure a paperback of Dragon Teeth, but no matter.
i have tried to be vague with the details of the novel so as not to give spoilers. that's because, overall, this is superb, and highly recommended reading. and so i would rather keep details limited. except to say yes, maybe, it is at heart a "horror" tale, i suppose, but a traditional, classical British one. no idea why they felt Stephen King was the best quote, as this is far removed from his (superb in its own right) works; this ranks up with the greats of British horror writing, in particular James Herbert and Clive Barker.
sure, there are one or two niggles and flaws with the novel. most books do have such. it is when the sheer joy and pleasure of reading outweighs all of them that you know you have found a really, really good book. and that is what has happened here. so, let me leave it at that, lest me risk waffle and spoiling anything.
anyway, as ever it would be splendid if this has been of some (or any) use to anyone out there. mostly, though, thanks for taking the time to read!
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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