Dinosaur Hunter: The Ultimate Guide to the Biggest Game (Open Book)

Short version: As far as I know, most dino time travel books aren't meant to be educational. Of those that are, I recommend reading White's "Dinosaur Hunter: The Ultimate Guide to the Biggest Game" (henceforth DH) in conjunction with other, more educational books (E.g. Naish/Barrett's "Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved").Long version: Read on.As far as I know, there are 2 kinds of dino field guide: 1) Those that are written like a traditional reference work (E.g. Holtz/Brett-Surman's "Jurassic World Dinosaur Field Guide"); 2) Those that are written like a speculative fiction book (E.g. Gee/Rey's "A Field Guide to Dinosaurs: The Essential Handbook for Travelers in the Mesozoic"). In this review, I list the 3 main reasons why DH is the best of the 2nd kind, besides the paleoart.*1) The Introduction summarizes everything you need to do before going on Mesozoic safaris. My favorite parts are "SO, WHAT HAPPENS NOW?" & "IF I PASS THE TRAINING/ACCLIMATIZATION?": For 1, said parts emphasize the extreme danger of hunting in the Mesozoic, making it clear that it's only meant for true hunters like Theodore Roosevelt & not for "shooters" like Walter Palmer (Google "'There's no sport in that': trophy hunters and the masters of the universe"); For another, said parts emphasize the extreme importance of altitude acclimatization & breathing equipment, making it clear that (to paraphrase Boromir) "one does not simply walk into [the Mesozoic]". This reminds me of the "Dinosaur Safari" part of the Introduction in GSPaul's "The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs".2) After the Introduction, DH consists of 5 chapters, each of which focuses on a different Mesozoic site (1 Late Triassic, 1 Late Jurassic, 3 Late Cretaceous). The 1st part of each chapter describes the site's natural history, beginning with "Conditions"/"Geography and environment", continuing with "Licensed targets" (I.e. Top predators), & ending with "Other fauna" (I.e. Mesopredators & prey). Thus, DH is similarly in-depth to Lessem's "Dinosaur Worlds" (See reason #3: https://www.amazon.com/review/R1SLNBX289TA4K/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8 ). Also similarly to Lessem's book, DH is very complete: Using Holtz's "Dinosaurs" as a guide, the least speciose site in DH features representatives of 9 different dino groups; Compare that to the 6 different dino groups of the most speciose site in Gee/Rey's book.3) The 2nd part of each chapter tells a day-in-the-life story of 2 previous hunters, 1 of whom gets killed or maimed. I originally wasn't expecting to like the stories as much as I did, mostly because I thought they'd all be the same. In actuality, each story depicts a different combination of personalities & circumstances. Also, each story is written in a way that reminds me of Elder/Finch's "The Norton Book of Nature Writing". This is especially apparent in Chapter 4's story (I.e. "The Hide"; 1st, see the Nicci Holmes quote, which is from said story; Then, compare it to the Matthiessen quote, which is from Elder/Finch's book).If I could, I'd give DH a 4.5/5. My only gripes are a few weird bits in the writing (E.g. "T-rexes") & a lack of maps/landscapes (which would've made it MUCH easier to understand the geographic/environmental info). However, for the purposes of this review, I'll round up to 5/5. 2 more things of note: 1) I'm not a fan of the "Papo" T.rex (which is a shameless rip-off of the "Jurassic Park" T.rex) on the cover; 2) As much as I like the Bahariya Formation (which reminds me of the Everglades), DH would've been even better if Chapter 3 focused on the Cedar Mountain Formation; For 1, none of the chapters focus on Early Cretaceous or dromaeosaur-dominated sites; For another, all but Chapter 3 focus on N.American sites; In other words, Chapter 3 could've both been uniquely interesting & helped tell a more complete/cohesive story.*Remember what I said about Sibbick's "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth" work ( https://www.amazon.com/review/RJ6H99FGIW6CC/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8 )? The same goes for White's DH work, but even more so because of White's mostly-accurate comic book-style paleoart.Quoting Nicci Holmes: "The colony now looked like the remains of a Napoleonic battlefield, covered in adult bodies that looked like blasted fortifications, skeletons like wheel spokes, and bodies everywhere, while overhead, scavenging birds circled remorselessly. Our first day at the hide, we'd worn the rebreathers. It helped with the smell. It was the stench not just of rotten flesh but of rotten vegetation and rotten eggs. We had sat thunderstruck while trying not to puke when the wind shifted and blew the fug into the hide. Through binoculars we watched raptors, so beautiful as they went about their ugly business, wrestling baby Ceratopsians almost as large as they were out of their nests. The cries of the baby would sometimes bring an adult charging in but as it was invariably not their own nest, once the raptors had scattered it would leave and the hunters would return and continue on. These calves died slowly, the raptors lacking the killing power to put an end to the suffering with any speed. And usually one became two became three became more. These were not packs but mobs."Quoting Matthiessen: "A mile and a half east of the den, the pack cut off a herd of zebra and ran it in tight circles. There were foals in this herd, but the dogs had singled out a pregnant mare. When the herd scattered, they closed in, streaming along in the early light, and almost immediately she fell behind and then gave up, standing motionless as one dog seized her nose and others ripped at her pregnant belly and others piled up under her tail to get at her entrails at the anus, surging at her with such force that the flesh of her uplifted quarters quaked in the striped skin. Perhaps in shock, their quarry shares the detachment of the dogs, which attack it peaceably, ears forward, with no slightest sign of snapping or snarling. The mare seemed entirely docile, unafraid, as if she had run as she had been hunted, out of instinct, and without emotion: only rarely will a herd animal attempt to defend itself with the hooves and teeth used so effectively in battles with its own kind, though such resistance might well spare its life. The zebra still stood a full half-minute after her guts had been snatched out, then sagged down dead. Her unborn colt was dragged into the clear and snapped apart off to one side."

ilike it a lot and it was just what I expected

I had a hard time reading this book at times due to the technical nature of the material, however, it was very well written, and well illustrated! I learned a lot about dinosaurs. I would definitely recommend for the dinosaur lover in your life!I did receive an ARC from netgalley, in exchange for an honest review!

While it wasn’t quite as knock-your-socks off as I hoped it’d be, Dinosaur Hunter is still an entertaining read as it presents interesting info about dinosaurs in the form of a guidebook for hunting them (apparently time travel has been invented, and people are using it to go kill things. So, yeah, that actually seems about right.) I liked the way the information was presented, factual information followed by a brief file entry/report from a hunt during the particular era that was being focused on. Note: I can’t speak to the veracity of the ‘facts’ presented, so I’m going to assume they’re true, and take behavioral observations as suppositions and let that be that.White also does something unusual in that his very first report comes from a female hunter. Specifically, a female that is a model and CEO of her own fashion company. I definitely did not expect that! He follow this up by having females feature prominently in all but one of the stories, if I recall correctly. The stories also all end badly for at least one person in the group, keeping to a ‘don’t be stupid. Stupid gets you dead’ theme.The illustrations are also decent (though I wish there were a few more – I found myself googling lots of names to get an idea of what the dinosaurs looked like), showing some of the dinosaurs in the now accepted feathered form that is more accurate even it makes them a little less ferocious looking .This would be a good gift for older teens or adults interested in dinosaurs, but I think it’d have to be more than just a ‘passing interest’ for them to really enjoy it, as its easy to find yourself skimming -without meaning to – the massive info-dumps even if you genuinely enjoy reading about dinosaurs. Definitely worth checking out, just be sure about the interest of the person you’re getting it for.Disclaimer: I received an ARC from Netgalley for review consideration.

As this is my second copy (I lost the first) so I must have liked it. Well written and an interesting take on big game hunting. The Big five just got bigger!

As described, on time and undamaged. Thank you.