The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World: The Definitive Dinosaur Encyclopedia with Stunning Illustrations, Embark on a Prehistoric Quest!

This is a review from a reader who has purchased the hardcover, Kindle, and Audible editions of the book: the former for my bookshelf, the second for convenient reading, and the third just to complete the set since I had an Audible credit to burn at the time. Initially I bought Dr. Brusatte's book on a whim: it had occurred to me that paleontology had advanced by leaps and bounds since the nineties when I was actively learning about these prehistoric creatures. I thought, "Gee, it would be interesting to see how far it's all come since I was checking out books at the school library and playing '3D Dinosaur Adventure' on that crusty old PC." It certainly does a good job of catching one up on modern views of dinosaurs among paleontologists. First off, if you're the type of person who expects books on scientific subjects to be a drag to read, have no fear in this case. Steve Brusatte is clearly writing with a mentality very close to what an effective teacher needs to keep students engaged, which is to say: be entertaining, present the information in a lively way, give the audience's enthusiasm room to effectively drive their learning forward. This is not a dry fact-dump, but a "story," for want of a better description. It tells the history of the dinosaurs with vigor, often stepping into side-stories about the paleontologists who work to uncover and deduce the details of that story. Thus you learn not only about the dinosaurs, but about the many and varied intrepid men and women who work to find out all they can about them and other aspects of natural history. The book begins with a colorful description of what the world must have been like in the Permian period, transitioning into the Triassic, where dinosaurs were (contrary to previous belief) bit players, and this is a strong way to open, because it ties in with those side-stories about paleontology, and here we begin to see some discussion on the changing views about dinosaurs and how paleontologists can indeed be mistaken about their findings. It continues on from there. Readers of this book who are willing to and interested in learning about these topics will find this to be an excellent place to begin learning about dinosaurs and paleontology, and those already in the know will likely enjoy it as a refresher course. The hardcover edition is well-formatted, with a fitting selection of visually-pleasing yet easy-to-read text fonts and a fairly generous use of illustrations, photographs, and occasional diagrams where needed. The Kindle version is a little dodgier by the nature of what it is. The first paragraph or so of any given chapter sub-section has an oddly larger text font than the following paragraphs, but the only difficulty arises from those illustrations and such, which tend to be shrunk-down to fit whatever your display screen is... as is the case with most e-books, these elements do not make the smoothest transition, but this is a perfectly serviceable way to enjoy the book if you are reading it, say, on public transit, or on break at work. The audiobook's reading works quite well, though I note that at the time of this review Audible narration does not work for the Prologue chapter, even though it is indeed in the audiobook. I assume there was an oversight in programming, and have reported this to customer service. It may even have been fixed by the time you read this review. Other than that and the obvious lack of photographs and images in the audiobook, the manner in which this reading is presented may strike listeners as a tiny bit too geared toward younger audiences, with some exaggeration in voice tone when the reader wants things to sound exciting or intriguing that was quite a long way from how my mental voice vocalized the text while reading it independent of audio accompaniment. That said, it's a pleasant listen. I just hope they fix that Audible narration problem with the prologue. All in all, I highly recommend this book for those interested in the subject, especially in hardcover, as it's a very nice addition to anyone's bookshelf. Readers be forewarned, however. Paleontology is an advancing science at all times, and the information in this book is likely to go out of date in a surprisingly short span of time, as the educational material from the nineties and 2000's did. If you find it interesting enough to pursue, however, you might consider staying up-to-date on paleontological finds and theories on your own time by following the works of both Dr. Brusatte and others in his field. It certainly can't hurt to know more about the planet you were born on, yes?

I bet it is not very hard for the majority of people to grasp the content of this book just by scanning its title. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte is an epically written summary of the amazing history of the dinosaurs, from their modest beginnings in the Triassic supercontinent called Pangea, through their remarkably widespread dominance all across the Earth, to the tragic demise of most of them at the end of the Cretaceous Period, around 66 million years ago. It is probably not easy to crunch over 150 million years of dinosaur existence in the Mesozoic Era into a single book in an organized and comprehensive way, but the author has proven himself by successfully executing this noble, monumental task. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is a thrilling journey both in the present and ancient past. Steve takes readers from place to place on the globe, using his personal experiences and stories to guide the dinosaur-curious minds through the long, wondrous evolutionary tale of our distant reptilian cousins. Along the way, you'll meet many paleontological figures – before reading the book I had known or at least heard of many of them and it is nice to have furthered my knowledge of them through the oft witty descriptions given by the author. Steve presents the story in this book with his amazing rhetorical writing skills, producing a fantastic marriage between art and science that keeps the readers riveted along the ride. Throughout the book you will bone-deeply feel his immense passion for dinosaurs, and science more generally, as well as clearly see that Steve is a man of humility – I'd really love to chew the fat with him over a ketoprak dinner in Jakarta, if I have the chance. Tyrannosaurus rex is undoubtedly the most famous non-bird dinosaur and Steve treats us to one chapter fully devoted to the "tyrant lizard king". The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs certainly deserves a place on any dinophile's bookshelf and is too good to be left unread.

Very good!

Brusatte takes the reader on a very interesting tour of the age of the dinosaurs. In fact of all the books I have read on dinosaurs this I believe is one of the most informative and certainly one of the most interesting. I have read that one lady in particular is upset by Brusatte’s inclusion of scientists he has studied and worked with during his career. I take no exception to these inclusions since if the reader recognizes the names of these individuals the reader understands the author’s background is sound as is his information. Although I have read several works on dinosaurs The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaures is the first work I have read that included the animals that gave rise to the beasts we have come to know and love. Yes, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is a layman’s read, but it is a good, complete read with some new and very interesting information especially concerning the rise of birds and the development of their feathers. His descriptions of T Rex and its lifestyle are done particularly well, and include information that some will read for the first time. I heartily recommend Mr Brusatte’s effort to the nerdy teen as well as the interested adult. It’s a good read.

I found this book really interesting. He give a good description of what the world was like with huge dinosaurs running around and how their reign came to a catastrophic end. He also tackles the ideas that birds evolved from dinosaurs and that they were wiped out by an asteroid landing on the earth. I was going to call them controverses, but even though some people don't agree with the theories, the majority of scientists do. It is written at a level that a layman like myself can understand, but I didn't feel that it was dumbed down too much. Some people complain that he had too much biographic information about him and other paleontologists, but I didn't find it too distracting. If you want to get deeper into the study of dinosaurs it is good to know whose work you might want to read.

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! No matter what level of interest you have in dinosaurs, this is the book for you. I admit I am somewhat science-challenged, but that didn't matter because the author, Steve Brusatte, wrote this book in such a way that you don’t need to be a scientist to understand it. And it’s so informative I think it could serve as a companion book to a textbook, if not used in lieu of one. The book is literally about the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, from their early beginnings to their demise 66 million years ago. I learned more about the history of the Earth and the history of dinosaurs from this book than I did in all my years in school. Brusatte’s description of life 250 million years ago when cataclysmic events wiped out 90% of life at the end of the Permian Period to another cataclysmic event that occurred 66 million years wiping out most of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous Period is quite vivid and terrifying. But not only does Brusatte give you the history of the dinosaurs, he also gives you personal stories about his life and his interactions with other renowned experts as well as descriptions of the sites he’s been to around the world. It’s this personal touch that makes this book so good. I basically read it in one day it was that interesting and entertaining. I had checked it out from the library but after reading only a couple of chapters I decided I had to have this book in my library and bought it. If you only read one book about the history of dinosaurs, this is the one to read.

This was a great examination of dinosaur history, both of the time they lived and our discovery of them. I especially like the last couple of chapters examining their life up to the extinction event, and the rise of mammals (though the rise of mammals was a epilog and probably sets up his next book which I intend to read).

I completely enjoyed what I was told, and I do, as you see by the four ticks, recommend it right now, while it is current. When the man relates what was found and what sort of reasoning chain was constructed, his writing is clear, and when he describes to us what this implies must have happened in the Mesozoic, he is vivid. The trouble comes when he must introduce us to other living people in the field. These are folks he knows. I can understand he doesn't want to write something that would cause friction or be liable to unjust misreadings. But this makes the clear exposition and the vivid description often to be found emerging from a sort of quagmire of vague talk about his colleagues. It's not always like that, and if he were to go back over it again, I believe he'd see it. It's like Stephen King said in On Writing: show us, don't tell us. When we meet a new colleague through an incident, an anecdote, it's graceful. When we have to read descriptions like 'great guy' or 'serious scholar' it just clogs the flow. And there's a lot of that sometimes. The four stars stand, though. Recommended.