Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker: A novel through the eyes of a dinosaur
Reviewed by Denise Noe
Set 120 million years ago, Robert T. Bakker’s Raptor Red is science fiction of a special sort: fiction with a completely scientific base. There are no time-traveling humans or Disneyfied “talking” critters. It is about life as it might actually have been lived in the early Cretaceous period.
Raptor Red tells the story of one year in the life of a dinosaur of the predatory species Utahraptor. Bakker is an omniscient narrator who takes us as far as possible inside the heads of creatures very different from ourselves. He explains that Raptor Red “has no name for herself. Her brain doesn’t op¬erate with words, not even silent, unspoken syllables. It works with images, colorful bursts of memory that make up a dreamlike history the brain con¬stantly updates.” Generally, Bakker succeeds in conveying animal conscious¬ness without anthropomorphism; when he translates their thoughts into words he writes explicitly that he is “translating.” However, he should have avoided slang like “pissed off” and “cool.”
The author emphasizes that olfactory images played as great a role in Raptor Red’s thoughts as did visual and auditory signals. The dinosaurs had, as most land animals still do, a system of advertisement whereby factors of health, gender, sexual availability, species, and mood were broadcast to each other: the “dung bulletin board” which animals sniffed to learn about each other and defecated to tell about themselves. Unlike our human classifieds, it allows only truthful messages.
Raptor Red is a superb thriller when our heroine stalks and mercilessly kills prey and narrowly escapes being killed herself several times; a poignant domes¬tic drama when she loses a mate and helps her sister raise her nieces from fumbling chicks to killing adults; and an enchanting romance when she is courted by a male Utahraptor.
It is never erotica since “the act” was a perfunctory once-a-year matter of seconds. Both male and female Utahraptors focused on relationships rather than sex. Perhaps “Raptor Family Values” (the title of a final chapter) possess a quaint, special appeal in today’s social climate.
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Stumble It!
February 6th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Interesting book to review, Denise. Many children grow up, fascinated by dinosaurs, becoming adults fascinated by dinosaurs.
Whether or not this fascination remains for women, I would be a poor judge.
But I can tell you this much – it’s an absolutely relevant review for many MND readers (obviously comprised mostly of former little boys grown up with their fascination with dinosaurs intact!).
I have written a belated comment attached to your extraordinary blog on the William Hetherington rape case.