#BookReview: Death Planet: (Dinosaur Warfare #1)

The only thing cooler than big stompy robots? Big stompy dinosaurs!

NR LaPoint is becoming my go-to author for quick, fun romps. His books always feature solid characters, out-of-the-box thinking, and deep world-building, no matter how things look at first. He’s gone from killer Catholic schoolgirls defeating the forces of Hell to rabbit mages and Texans with endless ammo.

Now, LaPoint goes where every man has wanted to go before: Jurassic Cavalry.

The Story

Captain Ambrose and his band of random refugees crew have captured an alien craft from the Vidarian invaders who came to destroy their world. During an opening chase scene reminiscent of the finale of On Basilisk Station, they crash land on a terraformed world, shaped and molded in the distant past by a private billionaire.

And then they discovered that someone with more dollars than sense thought that it would be just really awesome to populate an entire planet with dinosaurs.

That’s right. This is Jurassic World.

Unfortunately for Ambrose and the crew, things get stranger. The Vidarian ship they captured may not be completely free of Vidarians. The planet may have other fauna that’s even less friendly than the dinosaurs they encounter.

Through a series of extremely plausible yet fantastic events, this all culminates in a final shootout that would have made H. Rider Haggard or Robert E. Howard smile in approval. They even get to save a princess along the way.

There is an innovative story device wherein LaPoint goes back and forth between our heroes in action on their new planet, as well as their lives just before the opening of the book. It evens out the pacing when things “slow down.” But for a LaPoint novel, slow is always relative. And it’s difficult to get to “slow down” when the planets fauna and flora are trying to kill our heroes.

The Characters

In the immortal words of Babylon 5, no one here is entirely what they seem, be it the Captain running the ship, his second-in-command, or the cute redheaded communications officer. Everyone here starts as an obviously superficial cliche, until you find out they’re far deeper than one would expect … unless you’ve read LaPoint before, in which case, you know that he can’t create superficial characters if he tried.

Captain Ambrose is smart and surprising in a variety of ways. There’s Wink, the little nerd who could. Raum Borg (which is the worst pun in the novel, I promise). Even the “obvious love interest” is developing into something that not even she understands yet.

And our villains … they’re evil bastards who you will love to hate.

The World

You would have thought that the world filled with dinosaurs was the most interesting part of this book…

Not quite.

Let’s just say that LaPoint developed two cultures, three planets, and outlined a war for background information, all while fist fighting an alien, escaping a dinosaur (and a flock of other dinosaurs) and setting up healing nanites called Pollules, all in 55 pages.

He also develops two other cultures, at least three separate potential plotlines going forward,

Imagine Mickey Spillane or Max Allen Collins writing space opera, and you get the idea of how fast this all goes … and LaPoint still has enough time for all the world building.

Politics

There are no politics here aside from aliens who are basically Reddit Atheists.

What do I mean?

How much of this sounds familiar?

“Through genetic manipulation and strict breeding practices, we have perfected sapience. We have no need for genetic melding. We have abandoned gender and marriage. Familiar bonds throughout history showed us their follow. They keep the living from their true purpose… We have removed religion from our makeup. Worship of sky gods distracts thought and enamors the mind with the falsehood that there is something greater…”

As the kids say, if you know, you know.

Content Warning

Thinking back, I think the entire book could be given to twelve year olds.

Keep in mind, I read The Once and Future King and Jurassic Park when I was in sixth grade, so my perception of what’s appropriate will vary.

The closest anyone comes to inappropriate thoughts is how our captain and his communications officer are aggressively planning to get married as soon as they can arrange something.

Who is it for?

Take the alien exploration genre, add combine the high action of H. Rider Haggard or Robert Howard, the world building of a Timothy Zahn, the fun of Raiders of the Lost Ark, then add dinosaurs. If you like any or all of the above, you should buy this book.

Why buy it

Death Planet has superb world-building, entertaining characters, a little romance, and enough action to overfill the original Star Wars thrice over. Why wouldn’t you buy it?