The Dinosaur Four

The premise is simple: a mysterious event transports a coffee shop from downtown Denver to the Cretaceous period. There's a lot you can do with this story, and as a dino nerd I'm always up for reading about an adventure in the deep past. Unfortunately, this book did not quite cut it for me.I will give the author credit, he did a good job portraying the prehistoric creatures with modern science (as of the publishing of the book), including a feathered T. rex and Triceratops with quills. He makes a few assumptions about dinosaur behavior that have no scientific basis, but we're talking about animals that have been extinct for millions of years, so that's forgivable. The pacing of the book, for the most part, is pretty solid. The character dynamics unfold naturally, and though it's somewhat predictable, there are plenty of twists and turns to keep you turning the pages. The level of description isn't always the most artful, but it's not so amateurish that I wanted to stop reading.Unfortunately, the cons outweigh the pros in this book. The story lacks a balanced view of the characters. There's a lot of POV jumping, which is fine, but it's uneven and sometimes jarring. We learn a ton about how Callie the psychiatrist, William the father, and Al the IT guy all view the world, but we get almost nothing from the perspective of Morgan the immature goofball despite his constant presence. The book is also hyper-violent, taking gore to gratuitous levels that will surely limit the age of its audience.Forgive this one direct spoiler, but the book explicitly states how William is a single father of two boys, and yet he gets eaten by a T. rex. Not only is this a huge bummer, but it's callous when you think about how the book ends. Speaking of which, the biggest problem with this book is when it moves into the big finale. The narrative is suddenly rushed and convoluted. It abruptly focuses on just one character while several others are practically left in the background. I wanted to see how the villain FEELS in defeat after an entire novel of watching this person plot and scheme, but instead the story ends that arc with no fanfare whatsoever. And when the dust settles, the circumstances leave A LOT of questions about what will happen to the characters, the time traveling technology, and so on. But, the book just stops without any real falling action. It was frustrating after watching the characters fight their way through a prehistoric hell. I could be wrong, but it comes off as if the author was in a hurry to finish the book and didn't seriously edit the latter portion later.On top of all that, there are multiple typos where periods or quotation marks are missing. Also, the correct abbreviation of a scientific species name is capital first name, period, lowercase second name. So, Tyrannosaurus rex would be "T. rex", not the common "T-rex". When you see a typo in a book published through a company, that's on the publisher and the editor. Self-published books on the other hand are all on the writer; they have to look their absolute best in order to stand out, and I'm afraid the typos make this book look unprofessional.It was worth to read once, but I'm not sure I would go on this adventure with the Dinosaur Four again. The author has great potential, but I recommend he finds an editor and refines his skills.

I saw a lot of good reviews for this book and the premise seemed interesting enough, so I gave it a shot. Overall, I liked the book, but I did not really like it. A lot of reviewers remarked that it would make a great movie. I think it would make a made-for-TV movie, probably on SyFy. In other words, lots of action, heroic and dastardly deeds left and right, and an ending that, on some level, is happy. Yeah, kind of par for TV movies.The premise is that 10 people in a cafe in the morning get teleported back to dinosaur times. As they struggle to survive, they find out that they weren't the only ones who got sent back. What's more, there's an escape route. All they have to do is survive the dinos (who seem intent on eating them) and themselves. And in the end, it's the humans who are the most treacherous.The good. If you like dinosaurs, you'll like parts of this book. There is definitely a lot of drama thrown in, but there is also some realistic behavior too. The characters as well, with the glaring exception of the guy who turns out to be the hero, are also well defined, complete with their quirks and motivations.The bad. I'm not opposed to blood and gore where necessary, but there seemed to be an awful lot of gratuitous descriptions of blood and body parts here. There also seemed to be some preoccupation with sex (although there are no sex scenes). Also, some of the characters seem cut from a cookie-cutter mold. I know that's usual and not really a bad thing, but how many times do I need to hear that this guy wants to get back home to his teenage kids and hug them? But I think the part that threw me most was the animal behavior. I understand that wild animals eat when they can, but they don't eat everything in sight when they can, especially when they have a full belly. Oh, and some people seemed to have gotten killed just for the sake of killing characters.All in all, the book reads like you'd expect a made-for-TV movie to play out. It's not great literature, and you might even feel guilty for reading it, but like a TV movie you'll find yourself reasonably entertained as you go through it. I can't say that I recommend this book, but I can say that if you read it you won't hate it or yourself.

This was a fun ride. It was a short, entertaining page turner that kept my interest with it's quick pacing and the brief life spans of its characters. I wasn't sure what to expect but was happily surprised to find that it was cleanly edited and written in a style that was easy to read.My criticisms are slight and may not bother other readers. The book begins with a lot of characters and I wasn't sure I needed to be inside the heads of as many of them as I was. (also was surprised to hear what the dinosaurs or crocodiles were thinking) I also felt like the styles of speech of the characters were very similar. With the exception of Morgan, many of them sounded the same, and were it not for dialogue attribution, the lines of dialogue could have belonged to any of them. A few of the conversations rang false for me in the dialogue department as well. Helen, for example,(the old lady) did not seem to speak like she was from a different generation than the others. Also having a black UPS driver from an urban city say things like "I reckon" seemed out of place. I'm being nit picky here, obviously, but it was something that took me out of an otherwise engaging story.The time travel elements get a little convenient and confusing, especially at the end, but many of the flaws in the plot are solved by the fact that there is a Tyrannosaurus running around. Let's face it, that's pretty much why we are all reading anyway. The villain of the story was definitely detestable, and while I never really had a chance to get attached to any one character, it was fun feeling the tension and trying to puzzle through the issues they faced. Overall this was a really fun story, a great first novel that kept me interested, and is worth enjoying.

I wasn't expecting this to be up to much. It's advertised by the author as a 'B-movie' novel, and he's been promoting it to death for a couple of years.What's great is that it is what it says it is. I like that honesty. You signed up for a B-movie novel, you get a B-movie novel. It is unpretentious, but quite well-written. The plot keeps you going nicely, and chapters finish on page-turning events. The characters have their flaws and hidden motives, so there's plenty of conflict and tension. The point of view does jump around a little bit within chapters, which writing courses teach you is a bit of a no-no. But you know what? It doesn't matter, because it's a B-movie and this guy makes it work.And the author is absolutely not afraid of killing his characters. The clue is in the title: The Dinosaur Four. There are ten of them at the start, so you 'do the math', as the Americans would say. Well done, Geoff Jones!

The Dinosaur Four by Geoff Jones starts as innocuously as possible in a coffee shop during morning trade. When a loud ticking sound starts up, followed by the chunk of building housing the café being transported 67 million years into the past, those unfortunate enough to be within face what few could even imagine: survival during the time of the dinosaurs.What we have here is a novel that combines action, intrigue, and the examination of the human psyche, all tied up in what could easily be a B-movie special. There are obvious comparisons to films like Jurassic Park, but Jones manages to avoid turning The Dinosaur Four into a rehash of these, putting a unique spin on the premise. While the how’s and why’s aren’t given any real detail, what there is more than works within the confines of the story.While not everyone makes it once the coffee shop is back in the cretaceous period, those that are still around provide plenty of entertainment, and also a good look at human nature when people are thrown into such a stressful situation. Jones manages to keep you guessing as to who will or will not survive the page count, as well as ending the story in a rather unexpected fashion. Recommended.

This read like a cross between Jurassic Park and Predator. 10 characters are mysteriously transported back (in the cafe where they were drinking their morning coffee!) to the land that time forgot....The book isn't very long and it's very light and easy to read, but Geoff Jones still manages to create some believable, (some likeable and some not!) characters, who you root for throughout the story. The 10 time travellers need to find out how they got there, survive being destroyed by dinosaurs, and find their way back home again. The scenes with the dinosaurs are interesting and fun, and obviously well researched. The best fun is guessing who dies next, how, and are they ever going to make it back home? The characters are sympathetically written, so you do actually feel cross when one of the "goodies" dies. I'll not spoil it by saying who does live and who doesn't, read it and find out for yourself! Very good debut, thouroughly enjoyed it, hugely entertaining

This book is brilliant, it gels how people get transported back to prehistoric and the is are in out and home. Who hasn't wondered about traveling through time and spending time with dinosaurs?As always there are heroes and villains in this book, one man tried to derail getting back home to satisfy his own carnal pleasures and even gets someone killed in order to try and stay in the past. However the good overcomes the bad and everything turns out ok in the end. There are numerous adventures beforehand.

I enjoyed this purely for the entertainment value! It was well written and paced. The final chapter contained some novel concepts about time and history woven into a satisfying ending. I'll definitely look at other books by this author.