- Click here to read Ray Palen's review of the hardcover.

Whether you travel by car or plane, or maybe armchair, if you are looking for an audio adventure to help make the time fly by, DRAGON TEETH is for you. We are transported to the high western plains of Indian Territory in a wild, wild west journey complete with the US Cavalry and warring Indians (Custer’s defeat at Little Big Horn is only months old). There is, however, another war being waged in the halls of Yale and Harvard between arch-rival paleontologists Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope, who famously discovered the fossilized remains of the dinosaurs who roamed the Northwestern plains eons ago.

It is the summer of 1876 when William Johnson, a Yale freshman and the wastrel son of a shipping magnate millionaire, loses a barroom bet. A thousand dollars rests on him joining a team of paleontology students assisting famed Professor Marsh on an expedition into Montana and Wyoming.

"The audiobook is a wonderful listen and offers restless travelers the opportunity to get a taste of early Crichton at his promising best."

William neither cares nor knows anything about paleontology, but he wangles his way into the expedition by convincing Dr. Marsh that he’s a photographer, the only position left unfilled. He knows as much about photography as he does dried-up old bones, but he is nothing if not resourceful, so he convinces his father to give him the money to purchase the latest state-of-the-art photo equipment. He hires a professional photographer to teach him the ropes, and six weeks later boards the train in Philadelphia to set off on an adventure that will change his life.

There are times when the story behind the book is almost as interesting as the tale itself. As Crichton’s widow, Sherri, was contemplating publishing this manuscript, she found notes compiled by her husband dating back to as far as 1974, revealing how absorbed he was in information on dinosaurs. In an afterword to the novel, read by Sherri herself, she states: “After reading the manuscript, I could only describe DRAGON TEETH as ‘pure Crichton...’ Nearly forty years after Michael first hatched the idea for a novel about the excitement and the dangers of early paleontology, the story still feels as fresh and fun today as it was to him then. DRAGON TEETH was a very important book for Michael --- it was a forerunner for his ‘other’ dinosaur story.”

The audiobook is a wonderful listen and offers restless travelers the opportunity to get a taste of early Crichton at his promising best. Seasoned narrator Scott Brick lifts the words from the printed page to bring to life this unabridged audio production. DRAGON TEETH is suitable for young fans of the phenomenally famous Jurassic Park books and movies that would follow two decades later. At seven hours, it is shorter than many recorded books, but feels just right to fill the time before the adults start hearing “Are we there yet?” The best part is that they will enjoy it as much as their young passengers.