Raptor Red
	Author(s):	Bakker, Robert T.
	Publisher:	Bantam Books
	Date:	1995
	ISBN:	0-553-57561-9
	Cause:	Extraordinary Circumstances/Fate
	Creatures:	Extinct Mammals Extinct Reptiles
	Submitted by:	Mike Riley (03/05/04)
Exerpt: “The acro snaps her neck backward into a tight S-curve. Muscle groups work against each other-tensing the head and neck and torso. The whole joint-muscle apparatus is a coiled weapon, ready to fire and send the jaws down and forward. KAWOOOOOOSH! Raptor Red is knocked backward. Her head goes six feet under. Her muzzle drags along the bottom. Wet sand is stuffed up her nostrils. KAWOOOOOOOSH! A second explosive force sends tons of water over her, rolling her body along the bottom. Salt water clogs her throat. Five more surges keep her from grabbing the sand with her hindclaws. Raptor Red jabs all six of her foreclaws into a clump of brown seaweed. Then she jams one set of hindclaws in between two submerged rocks. She sticks her head and neck up is far as they'll go. Her nostrils break the surface. She spits out green water and a mouthful of salty mud. Her right eye opens just above the surface. Drops of hot blood spatter the water all around her. She looks around. It’s a hideous sight. Streams of bright red arterial blood are squirting up from the surface. The acro has a huge open wound in the thorax that exposes three broken ribs and lacerated viscera. A hindleg, dislocated at the knee, flaps about in uncoordinated spasms."
Reviews: "What the real Jurassic Park may have been like … Exciting, bold and fun!" (Publishers Weekly) "Michael Crichton may be a great storyteller, but even he wouldn't have the nerve to write a dinosaur novel told from the dino's point of view." (People) "Raptor Red will grab you with its heroine's claws." (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) "One of the year's most captivating novels." (Entertainment Weekly) "Lush, lovingly detailed and really quite serious." (The San Diego Union-Tribune) "A truly extraordinary book. I read it with complete fascination and feel like I've been on a 120-million-year virtual reality trip. That's the way it must have been back there at the dawn of intelligence." (Arthur C. Clarke)

4 Scars

My Opinion: If you are interested in paleontology, you no doubt have heard of Robert T. Bakker, the author of this book who is a renowned paleontologist and in the forefront of current thought regarding all things prehistoric. While, technically this book does not fit into the "Nature on the Rampage!" theme because there are no humans in the story, it does have plenty of prehistoric animals and proves to be a very interesting read with some cool insights as to how raptors (and a variety of other animals) may have survived and migrated in the world millions of years ago. If you like adventure, nature, and/or dinosaurs, go ahead and take a chance on this book.

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