Bones of the Earth (original 2002; edition 2003)

if someone wrote a sci-fi novel as a work of magical realism, it'd be 'bones of the earth'. for all that the loving research that went into this book shines through in clear-eyed detail about every long-dead organism populating the ancient earth, this isn't hard sci-fi. a smithsonian paleontologist is offered an opportunity to study dinosaurs in the living flesh, and he learns no more about the mode of time travel than we do. it's simply a gift from some far-advanced culture, a drop of magic thrown into the science of paleontology. instead of focusing on the mechanics, it becomes a tale of the humanity of all of it, a grand "what if?" 'bones of the earth' is a love letter to science in general and field research in specific, and a cautionary tale about scientific plagarism when the data is just so easy to steal. beautifully written, quick-plotted, and marred only by a somewhat soft ending. ( )

I found this novel to be disjointed, confusing and little more than a cliche. An interesting premise throughly ruined by a lack of storytelling ability. An incoherent story to begin with makes for just awful reading! ( )

A somewhat heroic effort to make a time travel story that makes sense, except... that it makes no sense, and the effort just makes my head hurt more. That said, because it's Swanwick it's an enjoyable read. ( )

http://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2009/08/61-bones-of-earth-michael-swanwick.html ( )

It is pretty clear than Mr. Swanwick likes his dinosaurs.

When a man brings an accomplished paleontologist a puzzle and leaves him a present, he can't really say no to the mystery man.

Half the kids on the planet probably wouldn't hesitate, either.

Aliens have provided time travel - want to do some real life dinosaur research?

It certainly doesn't stay that simple, given our protagonist, his lovers and friends and grad students and boss can all meet themselves.

An interesting book with a couple of really interesting dinosaur extinction ideas thrown in.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/11/bones-of-earth-michael-swanwick.html ( )