The Dinosaur Lords: Book Review

When I was a little kid, I was obsessed with dinosaurs. I read every book on dinosaurs I could find, and made a habit of always seeking out their skeletons at museums. And while my childhood dream of being a paleontologist may have faded, I still love dinosaurs. So when I saw the late Victor Milán’s The Dinosaur Lords sitting on a shelf at Barnes and Noble, I couldn’t not pick it up.

The Dinosaur Lords is something of a cross between Game of Thrones and the old Dinotopia books. It’s title is more or less self-explanatory; you have a bunch of knights in shining armor fighting each other while mounted on dinosaurs. The book is set in the world of Paradise, which is ruled over by Emperor Felipé, who sits on the Fangéd Throne of Neuvaropa. In practice, though, Felipé has little power, as Nuevaropa is more like the Holy Roman Empire, making Felipé little more than a figurehead. But all the same, his advisors seek to manipulate him into making rash decisions — ones that will have dire consequences for all of Paradise.

In any case, we spend precious little time with Felipé himself. Most of the book is centered around four main characters: Princess Melodía, Felipé’s daughter; Count Jaume, the Captain of the Companions, a group of dinosaur knights; Rob Korrigan, a mercenary/bard/everyman; and Karyl Bogomirskiy, a former Lord who loses everything — including his hand — after he is betrayed by Felipé’s forces.

The main plot involves Karyl and Rob being called upon to protect a section of Paradise called “Providence,” which is inhabited mostly by pacifists. Because of alleged heresies committed by the people of Providence, Felipé orders Jaume to lead an army and raze the towns there to the ground. Though Jaume disagrees with this action, he feels honor-bound to comply with Felipé’s orders, causing a rift between him and Melodía, who also happens to be his lover. And that’s as good a summation of the plot as I can give without spoiling to many details.

The novel’s biggest strength is probably its best selling point; the dinosaurs themselves. If you’ve ever had any desire to read a book about knights in shining armor doing battle while seated on Allosaurs and Ankylosaurs, then look no further, for Victor Milán has answered your prayers! The action scenes are well written and well paced, with all the gore you could ask for. The general world that Milán has built is rather good as well, though he does do that semi-annoying thing where instead of creating his own countries, he loosely bases them off of pre-existing European ones (we have the Ayrish, the Frances, the Rus, etc.). It’s a tactic that I generally find annoying, though Milán manages it better than most.

Though as I said in last week’s review, a good world is useless without good characters, and the Dinosaur Lords treats us to some terrible character development. The characters frequently make choices that don’t make sense and contradict their earlier actions and thoughts. For example, several of the characters decry how peasants are abused by nobles, only to turn around and insist that the peasants simply stay in their lane and respect their betters. Rob is borderline insufferable as an everyman, and trying to make him both a mercenary and a bard means that he feels less like his own person and more like two characters that Milán tried to mesh together. And quite simply, Rob and Karyl are boring. Milán is trying to give them a sort of buddy-cop relationship, but the two simply have no chemistry whatsoever. The only major character I actually found myself caring about was Jaume, whose moral dilemma between following his orders and following his own code of honor makes him a fairly well thought out character.

Part of the reason I took so long to finish this novel is because I couldn’t bring myself to care about the events taking place. However well written the action scenes are, they simply can’t make up for the poor characters who we view this world with. And though I do love the court politics that Milán writes into the novel, the utter inconsistency of the characters makes it frustrating to follow.

I should say that I did enjoy a good deal of The Dinosaur Lords. The novelty of knights in shining armor doing battle with towering carnivores is almost enough to redeem the atrocious characters. And Milán paces the book well enough that I wanted to see where the main plot was going. If I had nothing better to do, then I could potentially

see myself sitting down and reading the sequel. But as it is, I’m a college student. I have papers to write, Jane Austen books to read. And there are better books out there. So if the idea of knights on dinosaurs appeals to you, you just might have some fun with this book. But if it doesn’t, then I can’t recommend you purchase it.

3/5 stars