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A review by teachinsci
Dinotopia: The World Beneath by James Gurney
4.0
The continued adventures of Arthur and Will Denison. In this book, Arthur is returning to the underworld of Dinotopia to explore the history of the island. He is joined by Lee Crabb, Bix, and a woman named Orianna. Their adventures reaching and exploring that world are matched only by their discoveries.
The artwork in the book is still the best part, making this more of a graphic novel. The story is OK, although the idea of the destroyed very advanced society is pushed to its extremes and it ends up changing some of the history from the first book.
I first read this when I was much younger and more willing to ignore (in memory at least) holes in plot and story. This time, decades later, I realize that the size of Dinotopia would guarantee its discovery by the 19th century (where this is set). In fact, one wonders things like why the alphabet is directly translatable to English or how breeding populations of so many species of dinosaur could exist on one island unchanged for (for the cretaceous species) 65 million years, let alone the more than that for earlier periods species mentioned in a book. Why do the dinosaurs care about humans at all? How have they advanced so little in technology in ask that time as well?
Still, a nice simple story with amazing artwork. Thus worthy of the 4 stars.
The artwork in the book is still the best part, making this more of a graphic novel. The story is OK, although the idea of the destroyed very advanced society is pushed to its extremes and it ends up changing some of the history from the first book.
I first read this when I was much younger and more willing to ignore (in memory at least) holes in plot and story. This time, decades later, I realize that the size of Dinotopia would guarantee its discovery by the 19th century (where this is set). In fact, one wonders things like why the alphabet is directly translatable to English or how breeding populations of so many species of dinosaur could exist on one island unchanged for (for the cretaceous species) 65 million years, let alone the more than that for earlier periods species mentioned in a book. Why do the dinosaurs care about humans at all? How have they advanced so little in technology in ask that time as well?
Still, a nice simple story with amazing artwork. Thus worthy of the 4 stars.