Review of "Jurassic Drop Zone" by Ethan Richards

Score: 92/100 (9.2 out of 10)

Author Ethan Richards returns to his roots in Jurassic Drop Zone!
Big dinosaurs
Big guns
Big tanks
Big macho action-heroes!
​
Jurassic Drop Zone follows Lieutenant Teddy Loomis, a geology major and dinosaur nerd turned OPFOR platoon leader, and his misfit band of Geronimo paratroopers as a routine training rotation at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Louisiana turns into a full-scale monster movie.

Right off the bat, the hokiness, cheesiness, and goofiness (which are probably three words describing the same thing) is sure to hit you. This book has that 80s/90s action-movie vibe (think Predator meets Jurassic Park: The Lost World).

Rather than trying to hide that, Richards leans into it. This book knows exactly what it is and never apologizes for it. The dialogue is quippy and often juvenile, the nicknames are ridiculous, and the set pieces feel like they were storyboarded for a late night cable marathon. At the same time, the story has a surprising amount of sincerity and emotional weight. For every goofy one liner about acorns or protein shakes, there is a moment of real fear, loyalty, or grief that reminds you these are people who bleed and break.

What elevates Jurassic Drop Zone for us is how authentic the military side feels. Richards clearly knows Geronimo, JRTC, and OPFOR culture in his bones. The weird call signs, the pathfinder pride, the way everyone complains about leadership while still closing ranks when it matters, all of that gives the book an identity that most "soldiers vs dinosaurs" novels just do not have. You are not following generic grunts. You are following a very specific platoon from a very specific unit, with its own rituals, in jokes, and scars.

Lieutenant Teddy Loomis is the beating heart of that platoon. On paper he is the classic quirky officer: a dinosaur obsessed geology nerd who failed Ranger School, washed out of Jumpmaster, and cannot stop correcting people about Dimetrodons. In practice, he is a quietly compelling underdog protagonist who has to earn the respect of his hardened NCOs by doing the simple, difficult things right. We enjoyed watching him stumble, get called out, and then grow into someone who can actually give Morales orders and have them stick.

Loomis comes across as a bit of a fish out of water, or a guy who has bitten off more than he can chew. He seems thrust into a leadership role/position that he isn't mentally ready for. You can only fake it 'til you make it so much before people start to notice. And people notice, especially Morales.

Sergeant First Class Morales, meanwhile, walks away as the real MVP. He is the grizzled platoon father-figure who has seen everything and has no patience for corporate games, but he never tips into parody. His suspicion of the sketchy Solomon Rabinowitz and the Zeiss/Prometheus crowd gives the book a grounded, skeptical spine. When Morales is worried, the platoon is worried. When Morales finally buys into Loomis and backs his calls, it feels earned.

Gosh, can we talk about the nicknames in this book? It kinda ruins the suspense and weight of what's happening, turning this into a bit of a violent action-comedy. There's Dumpster Baby, Toothbrush, Swamp Mouth, Red Panda, Wormy, Bigmouth, Friar Tuck, Baby Face, Cowgirl, and Twitch. It doesn't help that "Dumpster Baby" seems to be a nigh-ubiquitous character who has to be mentioned dozens of times. It really makes the rest of what's happening sound more silly and unserious, even when people are constantly being eaten alive by dinosaurs and prehistoric/dinosaur-adjacent creatures.

Speaking of which... the dinosaurs are the real stars of this book. Of course they are.


The monsters are almost always the reason you buy a monster book/movie.

But the dinosaurs and prehistoric/dinosaur-adjacent creatures are quite charismatic and fascinating.

There are really two BIG BAD monsters in this book: Spinosaurus and Deinosuchus. You might be familiar with Spinosaurus from Jurassic Park III, but what the heck is a Deinosuchus? Well, think of Deinosuchus as a BBMFA (Big Bad M*****F***ing Alligator).

Here's one of the most menacing passages about it:

"Alligator Lake parted. The Deinosuchus crept forward. It had been waiting. Watching. The lake swelled. A slow rise, thick with filth and blood. Then—it surfaced. Its hideous frame was not visible to the platoon. Its snout was gargantuan with a jaw designed for destruction. Thousands of scars decorated its muzzle in a testament to its dominance."

We know the Spinosaurus is probably supposed to be the main monster villain of the book, but we think the Deinosuchus is the one that stuck with us, especially since it seems to overshadow the Spinosaurus in their battle.

You could argue that the Spinosaurus was hindered and not as much in his element, but the Deinosuchus still kicks his ass pretty bad.

Anyway, that's not to say the Spinosaurus is a paper tiger or not menacing.
The Spinosaurus is hella menacing. He's big, powerful, and relentless.
And, let's face it, Spinosaurus is just undeniably cool.

The book does a great job at building him up and describing him too:

"Spinosaurus aegyptiacus… It stalked through the water, fluid, precise. Silent, despite its bulk. The crocodilian snout cut through the mist, jagged sail rising above the trees like the dorsal fin of a monster shark. It wasn’t just an animal. It was a hunter."

"Not just the size—forty feet of muscle and scale, the towering sail slicing the air—but the color. The wet feathers that clung to its body were a sickly algae green, streaked with rust-red along its spine, its underbelly pale pink like something birthed from the worst depths of the bayou."

Oh, and there are Austroraptors, which are pretty formidable too.

If there's one other thing about this book that bugged us, it's that the females in this book seem to be morons. Usually, it's the other way around in books: men are presented as boneheads. Well, Dr. Evelyn Raines is literally mid “they’re not aggressive unless provoked” when she gets chomped by a bunch of gators in a scene which should probably be tragic and terrifying but instead comes across as morbidly ironic and funny.

Samira Patel, the Prometheus contractor / systems analyst / engineer, runs off on her own in the middle of an hazard zone full of prehistoric terrors. She does this because... she thinks she won't be able to keep up if she leaves with the others? Because she can't be held back by "knuckle dragging infantrymen." What? What an idiot!

Anyway, aside from the goofiness and the moronic female characters, this book does offer lots of action and adventure.


Check it out on Amazon!