Dinosaur Thunder

A Tyrannosaurus Rex, nuclear explosions, and sacrificial Mayan rituals collide in David’s entertainingly goofy third thriller set in a world in which prehistory has invaded the present (after 2006’s Thunder of Time). As Director of the Office of Security Science, Nick Paulson continues to deal with the “time waves” that, 18 years before, swept Earth, “intermixing the Cretaceous and modern periods,” leading to jungles overrunning human habitations and dinosaurs running amok among humans. If that’s not bad enough, hapless astronauts discover that a T. Rex has somehow reached the moon, while a war brews between embattled human survivors, who have turned to religious mysticism, and an intelligent new species descended from dinosaurs. The ultimate threat lies, however, in the imminent approach of the same asteroid that originally rang down the curtain on the prehistoric era. Readers who don’t expect plausible, Crichtonesque explanations for all this may enjoy David’s baroquely over-the-top storytelling. Agent: Carol McCleary, Wilshire Literary Agency (Dec.)