So, I've been trying to read this book for a few months now. I'm only on page 119 of 431 total pages, and I just can not make myself pick it back up. I was hopeful that the dinosaur/old west combo would be a great new series to pick up, I'm a real sucker for series, but this was painful. The inconsistencies of the writing, like how the triceratops from the stampede scene was refered to as a triceratops, a trike and a beast, made me want to scream. It seemed to me that if a creature that no one has seen before showed up, would we be able to know the beast as a trike? I know this was written for young middle school aged kids, but these kids are smart enough to question errors like that. And really, who doesn't know what beef jerky is?
Will I ever finish this book? Probably not. I gave this book 2 stars because the concept is there, and with better focus, this could have been great. ( )

For any dinosaur lover, this is quite the adventure. Unlike some dinosaur books, this book does not get too bogged down in the names and details of the dinosaurs.

It took a little while for the book to really get started, but once you get about halfway through it's difficult to put down. I definitely enjoyed this book and hope to see more from this author. ( )

In short: Though it is by no means a triumph in writing, characterization, or editing, Rex Riders by J.P. Carlson is a great adventure for any major dinosaur geek.

I was so excited to receive Rex Riders through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers Program. As a paleo nerd, my reaction upon seeing the cover and reading the blurb for Rex Riders was pure, unadulterated joy. A story about a boy who gets to ride a tame, teenaged T-Rex, in the style of Dinotopia? Cool Factor 10! (Erm, or should this be Nerd Factor 10?). In Rex Riders, aliens transport dinosaurs from Cretaceous Era Earth to their own planet using a special-transport-device-thing. The dinosaurs thrive on their new planet and coevolve with other alien life forms. Later, they are brought back to Earth through the same special-transport-device-thing. Rex Riders definitely gets points for being the most original and strange book I've read this year.

The major problem with Rex Riders however, is that it is simply no great piece of literature, to put it lightly. The writing and characterization is amateurish, reverting to the easy way out of "telling instead of showing" the reader. At 440 pages, Rex Riders is also in dire need of some serious editing. At various points, there were large sections of extraneous and boring information that I felt the urge to just skim over to get to the actual action. This all being said, did I expect Rex Riders to be excellently written when I saw it? No. I wanted to read it purely because it had dinosaurs in it, I'm not going to lie.

And as a dinosaur fan, Rex Riders delivers on the Cool Factor scenes, featuring triceratops stampedes, baryonyx chases, and tyrannosaur hunts. J.P. Carlson excels in staging intense action scenes that were great fun to read. Anytime there was a dinosaur on the page, it thrilled me, even if they weren't doing anything particularly interesting. This story is for anyone who has ever dreamed of living in a time when dinosaurs were alive (with the added bonus that juvenile T-Rexes can be "domesticated" and ridden and are less likely to, you know, kill you). I know I've dreamt of it. ( )

Sorry Early Reviews, I did not get this book till late June and have only just finished reading it.

Welcome to the Wild West but not as we know it.

Initial First Impressions
To start with the story was a little slow and choppy. It bounced back and forth between various character point of views trying to set the scene and tell the story. To be honest it got distracting and annoying. But it settled down and then the story flowed easier I then found myself rather enjoying the book. This book is a blend of westerns, sci-fi, and teen angst. I am not normally drawn to or read either of the Western or Sc-Fi genre and I have no idea why this sparked my interest when it became available as an advance reader copy, it just did. I am glad I read it even though it took me a month (eep, to be fair this was not the books fault but my fault for not being able to find time. These days life is busy, busy, busy!).

Characters
There are a lot of characters but I guess the main three would be Zeke, Uncle Jesse and Angelina. They were believable but a smidgeon stereotypical of western movies. However, Angelina was not, and was quite an interesting character with strong morals, a little bit of spunk, and intelligence.

Stumpy the cook was perhaps my most favorite character to read and he brought a lot of humor to the book. He was the wise, gentle old man who sort of played negotiator between Uncle Jesse and Zeke.

The bad guy D’allsandro was a fairly decent bad guy. On the scale of baddies one to ten he would be about a six. He was more of an oily snake kind of character then an out right pure evil type of character. He did have a “moment” toward the end of the book, but that was again more of an arrogance moment then pure evil bastard moment.

Story
The story was good and interesting. The blending of the western genre and sci-fi (the dinosaurs) was an interesting twist. Other then the choppy point of view and the slow start, the story actually moved at a fairly fast pace with lots of action and excitement.

This is classic pulp fiction. If you are not a fun of the pulp fiction style of writing then it is probably best to stay away from this book. Otherwise it is a fun story .

I really enjoyed the concept of this book. What if humans and dinosaurs had co-existed? Could we have domesticated them? Could we have used them as working animals? How would civilization look with domesticated t-rex’s rather then dogs?

What I didn’t Like
Well the constant jumping from point of views. It seemed really random and sometimes right in the middle of paragraph for about the space of a line. But this is more of a personal I thing. I really hate it when the point of view jumps around so much, for me it is distracting and often I just don’t see the point of knowing what a minor character is thinking when it is obvious (ie the baddie’s henchman not liking one of the main characters, the fact that he always tries to hit,shoot, belittle and bully the main character kinda gives it away that they don’t like each other).

I am not entirely sure how accurate the Professor character was.While fossils had been discovered and collected before 1800’s the first dinosaur wasn’t named till the mid 1800’s. Also given that information took a lot longer to filter around the world back then, depending on his academic base it would be hard for him to be up to date with the latest discoveries. So in short I am not sure if he would have been able to accurately identify the majority of the dinosaurs they discovered, at least not with the terms we know now. This is really a small quibble to be honest as I understand the need for a little suspension of belief to make it easier for today’s readers to understand. Also he would have been forever explaining dinosaurs. But on further thought having the paleontologist making up names could have been a fun experience.

In short
This book was fun. It is not a serious book at all; it’s light, fluffy and campy. I was not the target audience which really would be the teen male market from 13-18 (depending on likes and reading ability), and have seen a few reviews from younger readers who loved this book. Do not take it seriously and you should enjoy it. As for the target group; what teenage boy wouldn’t like this book with cowboys, cool sci-fi devices, Dinosaurs, and action? ( )

I've sat on this review for awhile because I really don't know what to say. It seems like 2 or 3 separate books. The author's intentions are good and I had high hopes. However, the resulting story needs a great deal of editing. The first 100 pages provides a lot of detail about the Old West, peppered with numerous interruptions by the author to let readers know that this or that point was a reality in the era. Very distracting. I applaud the intent to provide some backstory and even history; but perhaps a glossary, historically accurate appendix, or even a companion non-fiction book (as Mary Pope Osborne often does with the Magic Treehouse Series) would have been a better use of this material. Then the middle of the book caught my attention, but the action and descriptions were very uneven; an adept editor would have helped make this more concise and even. The last 100 pages or so of the book were a pleasure to read. The action, plot and character development finally gelled. My immediate thought was to put the book down but I persevered and was ultimately rewarded. But it took a very long time to get to the pay-off. Will young readers stick it out? Even with the tie-in with the COWBOYS AND ALIENS movie, I don't really believe young readers will stick with this one, especially reluctant readers for whom this could have been a natural recommendation. ( )