It occurs to me as I write this review, that Ian McDonald is something of a big name in Science Fiction. A Hugo Award winner (The Djinn’s Wife in 2007), and Grand Master of Science Fiction (according to the European Science Fiction Society). Looking at his catalog, Luna stands out as a book I wanted to read back when it came out (wow in 2015) but apparently never got around to. River of Gods has my attention simply because it’s an epic title.

I think I had a sense that there was some weight associated with this author’s name when I came across an ad for Boy, With Accidental Dinosaur, but I was really uncertain what it might be. I was mostly thinking — probably as the marketing department hoped — Dinosaur!! There’s a dinosaur on the cover!

And then I hit the buy button.

As Dinosaur books go, this one is pretty good. It’s setting is fairly unique, taking place in a sort of gritty future where the U.S. has regressed into a kind of feudalism in which whoever has the most guns gets to decide the law of the land. There’s weird techno-clowns, and bikes genetically coded to their riders which will poison anyone else who touches them. Tarot decks predict your future based on the texture you feel when you touch them, and everyone seems to speak about as much Spanish as English.

Oh, and of course, seemingly the only shining light in this grim future: the dinosaur rodeo.

It’s a bit bananas when you stop to think about it, but it also kinda just works, and mostly you’re having too much fun marveling at all the strangeness (and dinosaurs!) to really question what’s going on.

I attribute this to McDonald’s writing style. His prose are sparse, leaving a lot unsaid, but still managing to get the point across. Something I’m always curious about whenever reading books where unusual (fantastic?) creatures play a large roll in the story, is how will the author mix in their descriptions. Mostly McDonald doesn’t, often just giving the name of the dinosaur, and assuming the reader knows it or will look it up. Tyrannosaurus Rex, Stegosaurus, and Triceratops are easy ones; Anchiornis and Carnotaurus maybe not as much. Timursaur, might be made up?

McDonald’s opening description of the Carnotaur really stuck out to me, and is perhaps a good example of his writing style in this book:

“The dinosaur is a Carnotaurus sastrei. Imagine a classic T. rex. King of the killers. Draw it badly: a heavy, dumb-looking head. Ludicrous wiggling arms, like maggots. Too-long legs, a whippy tail. You’ve drawn a Carnotaur.” – pg 1.

It’s worth noting the use of the Carnotaur’s scientific name. BwAD seems pretty well researched and hip to our modern understanding of dinosaurs in 2026. Velociraptors don’t feature heavily in the story, but when mentioned, they’re described as chicken sized, and are raced at the start of the rodeo as a warm-up event. Feathers are mentioned.

I wasn’t really fact checking as I read, but everything felt pretty accurate which I loved. The only kind of weird thing is the following paragraph from somewhere in the middle of the book:

“A heavy chunk of concrete, flung hard, flung accurately, strikes Prince’s haddy on its left foot. It rears and bucks. The riot boys roar and hoot — a hit, a hit! — but they don’t see that the haddy is spooked and if it throws Prince, if it breaks, it will come for them. And it has two hundred stiletto teeth. And it likes soft, well-fatted meat.” – pg 57

To my knowledge, Hadrosaurs are primarily herbivores. The five minutes of digging I spent on this revealed that they may have been opportunistic, and snacked on crustaceans during mating season (to get more protein for egg-shell development), however, this seems pretty far off from the behavior threatened in this passage.

I’m so curious what inspired this part of the scene. Is there some in-world explanation? Or is it a mistake?

In any case, Boy, With Accidental Dinosaur seems to get most everything else right (that I noticed), and the storyline and strange setting more than make up for any artistic license used by the author.

It occurs to me upon review, that the rodeo is really the only context of the setting which seems to integrate dinosaurs, despite there being a seemingly thriving industry surrounding even just this one use. Personally, I hope we’ll see a sequel, or perhaps a larger work in which dinosaurs play an even larger role in the every day life of this strange timeline.

Give Boy, With Accidental Dinosaur a Read?

I’d say yes! Even among “dinosaur books” — which are already fairly unique settings — this book stands out with a premise that seems to stretch our conception of the kinds of stories we can tell about these incredible creatures. Personally, I really enjoyed the author’s talent for description, and the imagination used in building up this world, which is quite dystopian, but also fairly familiar and prescient (and probably more than a bit cautionary).

That’s all I have for this week. Has anyone read this story yet? What did you think? What were your favorite dinos? Were there any you learned about for the first time? Would you watch a dinosaur rodeo?

Leave your thoughts and feelings in the comment section! Looking forward to discussing this one!

Until next time!