Now here's a book no self-respecting time traveler should go without:
I picked this up last year but just got around to reading it. Basically it is presented a straight-forward survival guide, the big difference being it is about how to eek out a living in Jurassic North America -- mainly because the time period is fairly well known in the geologic record. If you ever wanted to know which parts of a dinosaur would be best to eat, or how to build a shelter out of sauropod bones, or what ancient plants would be best avoided, then this is the book for you.
The book starts with a general overview of the Jurassic environment, detailing sources of water, the best places to gather the materials needed for basic needs, and the general climate (as it turns out, Jurassic North America was something like a giant desert oasis in that it got little rain but had lots of groundwater). Then it delves into the fauna and flora, spending several chapters on the dinosaurs you might encounter. One thing the author notes: There are a lot of meat eaters. But he points out they may have been fairly specialized in their choice of prey, so larger predators such as Allosaurs may just ignore you. I'm not sure if I buy that: Seems to me no predator would turn away an easy snack if one presented itself.
So, which dinosaurs could you eat? Well, forget sauropods (too big and their muscles are too tough, although their eggs and the soles of their feet might makes great meals). And forget armored dinosaurs such as stegosaurs -- too dangerous. Your best bet would be the plant-easting Ornithischians, relatively gentle creatures that ranged from roughly deer-sized to cow-sized. Cut off the head, hands, feet and last two-thirds of the tail, and you have a lot of meat left. The author even delves into which parts of the animals would be the best eating and how best to cook the different muscle groups.
One thing to note about A Survival Guide – the author assumes you're pretty much dumped into the environment without the convenience of modern tools, so don't expect lengthy passages about what kinds of guns to bring along. Rather, the weapons are ones you can make from the environment. Hint: Learn how to throw a bola.
And who is this author? Why it's Dougal Dixon, a paleontologist who has published a number of popular books about dinosaurs and prehistoric life. His best-known works might be After Man (a zoology of 50 million years in the future) and The New Dinosaurs (a zoology of what the modern world might look like if the non-avian dinosaurs didn't go extinct.)
As you can tell, I enjoyed the book. It is fun way to educate the public about the environment and beasts of Jurassic North America. And while it doesn't relate directly to gaming, gamers could use it to bring some realism to their scenarios. I'd love to see more books like it, only set in different time periods, such as Cretaceous China, or Permian Pangaea, or Ice Age North America.
The book costs $5 USD, but that's because it is only available as a digital download, which is a major disadvantage: After all, how are you going to power your Kindle in the Jurassic?
