The Doctor and the Dinosaurs

October 15, 2013
Another of Resnick's Weird West fantasy yarns (The Buntline Special, 2010, etc.) starring consumptive dentist/sharpshooter Doc Holliday and an eye-popping selection of other historical characters. In 1885, the peace treaty signed by Theodore Roosevelt and Apache medicine man (read: wizard) Geronimo has opened up the West to white men. Two of the latter, unfortunately, are now desecrating Comanche burial grounds by digging up bones. The bones in question, however, are dinosaur bones, and the diggers are brilliant paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, bitter rivals united only in their mutual loathing. The outraged Comanche medicine men are threatening to reanimate the dinosaurs to get rid of Marsh and Cope, but Geronimo fears that the dinosaurs won't be satisfied with eating or squashing paleontologists but will imperil Comanches and Apaches, too. So, Geronimo visits Doc Holliday, presently gasping and coughing out his last days in a sanitarium, and offers Doc one year of restored health in exchange for removing the white men. That's pretty much it as far as plot goes, but Resnick paints in the scenery with extraordinarily vivid brush strokes, adds a palette of bigger-than-life-sized characters--including Roosevelt, Edison, Buntline, Cole Younger and Buffalo Bill Cody--and tops it all off with dazzling conversations, rhetorical flourishes, and Holliday's trademark dry wit, fast reflexes and legendary capacity to drink all day without getting drunk. Oh, and there are no less than nine appendices to explore. Delightful--a potential blockbuster lacking only a hearty plot to match the highly impressive personalities and setting.

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Starred review from December 1, 2013

Angry at the recently signed treaty between the Apache shaman Goyathlay, or Geronimo, and Theodore Roosevelt that now enables the expansion of the young United States beyond the Mississippi River, a group of Comanche medicine men seek to scuttle the agreement. When Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, feuding pioneers in the "new" science of paleontology, violate sacred burial grounds with their digs, the medicine men threaten to raise the strange, huge creatures whose bones lie buried in the earth. Enter Theodore Roosevelt; Doc Holliday, granted an extra year of life by Geronimo in exchange for his help; Thomas Edison; Ned Buntline; Cole Younger; and Buffalo Bill Cody to save the day--or the world--if they can. VERDICT The latest entry in Resnick's steampunk series (The Doctor and the Rough Rider) featuring historical figures of America's Old West continues to showcase the author's grasp of the art of storytelling, particularly of the tall tale. Throw in some shamanic magic, zombies, and dinosaurs, and the result is a rollicking steampunk adventure for fans of American history and Westerns.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2013
Resnick's thrilling alternate-history/steampunk/western-adventure series rolls merrily along. Doc Holliday is next door to death, finally about to succumb to the tuberculosis that has slowly been withering him away. Geronimo, the great Apache medicine man, comes to Doc with an offer: Geronimo will restore Doc to health if Doc will go to Wyoming, where two warring paleontologists are desecrating tribal burial grounds in their search for dinosaur bones. Doc's assignment is to keep the men from being killed by Comanche warriors (Geronimo doesn't want the incident to jeopardize a treaty, which he brokered, between the Comanche and the U.S.). The author uses real historythe paleontologists Cope and Marsh really did dig in Wyoming at that time, and they really did hate each otheras a jumping-off point for a thrilling fantasy that blends SF and western motifs, and, just for some added zest, includes some actual snortin', stompin', chompin' dinosaurs. Lots of fun.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)