The Dinosaur Lords By Victor Milan
Publishing information: Hardback; 448 pages
Publisher: Tor; 28 July 15
ISBN: 9780765332967
Series: The Dinosaur Lords #1
Copy: Provided by Publisher
Reviewer: Tyson
Amazon
Synopsis: "A world made by the Eight Creators on which to play out their games of passion and power, Paradise is a sprawling, diverse, often brutal place. Men and women live on Paradise as do dogs, cats, ferrets, goats, and horses. But dinosaurs predominate: wildlife, monsters, beasts of burden – and of war. Colossal planteaters like Brachiosaurus; terrifying meateaters like Allosaurus and the most feared of all, Tyrannosaurus rex. Giant lizards swim warm seas. Birds (some with teeth) share the sky with flying reptiles that range in size from batsized insectivores to majestic and deadly Dragons.
Thus we are plunged into Victor Milán's splendidly weird world of The Dinosaur Lords, a place that for all purposes mirrors 14th century Europe with its dynastic rivalries, religious wars, and byzantine politics…and the weapons of choice are dinosaurs. Where we have vast armies of dinosaur-mounted knights engaged in battle. And during the course of one of these epic battles, the enigmatic mercenary Dinosaur Lord Karyl Bogomirsky is defeated through betrayal and left for dead. He wakes, naked, wounded, partially amnesiac – and hunted. And embarks upon a journey that will shake his world."
When I first saw the cover for Milán's book I knew I was going to have to go out and get it. In fact, the book showed up the day before it was scheduled to hit shelves. That saved me a trip to the bookstore and I quickly stepped up my pace and finished the book I was reading so that could begin reading The Dinosaur Lords.
The world building is what you will probably notice first. It is basically the middle ages only with dinosaurs. Each chapter opens up with a brief description of the various dinosaurs found in the world. Some names are changed and others have the names that we have grown up with. With those quick little bits of info the reader is able to concentrate on the kingdoms at war and this is where things get a little muddled. The planet is called Paradise and set in a time very similar to our own medieval history, only with dinosaurs still alive and breathing. However, that seems to be the only thing that has changed. They still use common measurements, which I realize is to help readers understand sizes and have some familiarity but if this is a strange new world I would have liked to have seem something new. The other issue I had was that there are so many different factions, gods, humans, dinosaurs and fairies that I find it hard to believe that they all can co-exist it leads to more confusion as the plot continues. We have humans on dinosaurs and yet we don't even get a glimpse of how this is possible. A little backstory would have gone a long way to make this book less confusing.
Rob, one of our main characters wasn't fleshed out very well. All he did was idolize another character named Karyl. His praise of Karyl rubbed me the wrong way after the hundredth time. Faulk on the other had was slightly more developed but I still had issues with him as well. While he seemed to be the most developed character in the book, his quest for redemption should have been a highlight but by the end of the book I couldn't care one bit as to whether or not he actually got it.
The Dinosaur Lords was a huge let down. For all of its hype, it fell flat on it's face. The plot was all over the place, the characters very two dimensional and the world building was quite flawed. I know that before I even hit the halfway point in the book I was already looking forward to finishing the book and moving on to anything else in my library. I would say Milán has potential as a writer but he has a long way to go. The Dinosaur Lords was a massive disappointment and I can't recommend it.
Overall 4/10
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