West of Eden: An Alternative Dinosaur History

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West of Eden is the first book of a trilogy that depicts the start of a great and everlasting war between two races: the primitive, humanlike Tanu and the advanced saurian Yilane. Today, I want to take a look at the backstory and novel of West of Eden and cover the events that are sparked by this war between man and beast.
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#dinosaurs
#speculativeevolution
#paleomedia

[@DinoDiego16]

If you watched this video the whole way through, you are a legend. I hope you enjoyed this start to what is essentially a miniseries of me covering the West of Eden Trilogy. I'll try to get to the other books soon, but for now, I'm gonna get started on the next episode of the Paleontology Fringe Theories Iceberg, along with some other projects I plan to release next month. Anyways, I'm writing this comment at like 1am and I'm very tired. Gonna go to sleep now. Thank you all again for watching!

[@andresrodriguez8635]

For the next video, you could talk about these other books: A Sound of Thunder Meg by Steve Alten Kronos Rising by Max Mawthorne Age of Monsters by John Lee Schneider Vengeance from The Deep by Russ Elliot End of a Era by Robert J. Sawyer Dinotopia Bonehunters ny Harry Turtledove Z-Rex by Steve Cole

[@chubibi06]

thank you for the video Diego. Already found the audio book; i'm going to listen to it right away (even if the rape scene will no doubt be quite disturbing to listen to)

[@TerranArt]

I think you’d enjoy Tales of Kaimere

[@EmonWBKstudios]

No, I have ADHD

[@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307]

This is the one where the Dino Noah didnt let the mammals on the ark!

[@TylerRakstis]

While this book is definately dark and grim, I still feel this series could have potential to be adapted. Either as a Miniseries or a movie trilogy.

[@knightbane3752]

Always felt that way, given how things are going, with mind on content etc think it'll be a better series than a movie trilogy

[@jaredjaguar]

ii feel like this could be a real event.. perhaps going on at another part of this terra earth.. beyond the ice walls 😎💯

[@mikesnyder3317]

If your care for this IP than a movie adaption is the last thing you want

[@TylerRakstis]

@@mikesnyder3317 Why is that? Because with a movie or a show, it could bring this out of obscurity.

[@FiddleWiddle]

​@@TylerRakstis movie companies would care little for the lore other then the very basics. They care about mass appeal and nothing more

[@hagfish4998]

I personally would've preferred the Tanu to physically look distinct from humans and actually share morphological traits with new world monkeys, such as having flat noses with nostrils facing the sides or have a prehensile tail.

[@grendel8342]

and the problems start

[@topdeckhelix8450]

@@grendel8342huh?

[@grendel8342]

@@topdeckhelix8450 the spec band wagon is coming, with all it's pretentious know-it-alls and connections to the worst parts of political Twitter. A good book is about to be dragged through the proverbial mud by a niche group of annoying people and anyone who enjoyed the book before hand will be treated like shit because of it.

[@grendel8342]

Also if you want that, go look at the paramutan, they are a basal sister species of the tanu seen in the second and third book

[@hagfish4998]

@@grendel8342 oh that's cool

[@chadgorosaurus4898]

Bro this book is so unique. Intelligent tylosaurs that evolved back to be on land is such a good concept.

[@cac_deadlyrang]

Much more unique than the generic dromaeosaur.

[@chadgorosaurus4898]

@@cac_deadlyrang ikr

[@tyrannovenatortorvus972]

Found you

[@chadgorosaurus4898]

@Viking Spirit this novel was made after Godzilla? Or wait did it come before?

[@areallyshortbrontothere]

They do look a little goofy tho.....

[@KaijuKinnie]

In the book, Carek and his father killed a bunch of Yilane babies when they first found them in the beach. The war started out as revenge for the murder of helpless fathers and their children. And then it became an excuse for genocide.

[@alvin4100]

They hate each other instinctually.

[@johannesvonmalos7505]

Something about that rings out in real life

[@TimeTravelisBoring]

I'm a big HH fan, The Stainless Steel Rat is a great and fun series. Didn't even know he delved into weird Dino alt-history.

[@rosiehawtrey]

Stainless Steel Rat for President is a good one. I don't even know how many he did in the series..

[@GatorMilk]

HH, brother

[@aishalotter9995]

@@rosiehawtrey a lot !!! Good author !

[@0jrhindo-907]

HH brother

[@cameronjim2983]

Like a weirder, prehistoric themed version of Avatar. In some bizarre alternate history, James Cameron adapted this as his billion dollar earning films.

[@awaren8375]

No James Cameron thought he'd try and make this into a movie and failed and called it Avatar well acting like it was totally a unique idea he came up with. Like James Cameron Avatar sucks 🖕

[@Cokehead_Drug_Addict_Zelensky]

@@awaren8375 James Cameron ripped off Pocahontas when he made Avatar. This book would confuse Cameron to the point of mental instability.

[@BattleBrotherCasten]

Avatar is more Fern Gully+ Dances with Wolves. To me anyway.@@Cokehead_Drug_Addict_Zelensky

[@Cokehead_Drug_Addict_Zelensky]

@@BattleBrotherCasten Watch 'A Man Called Horse' sometime if you haven't already.

[@jjtimmins1203]

He also cribbed the writers Brothers Strugatsky who literally wrote about a hell world called Pandora and how people survived on it

[@connor3284]

Well, I definitely didn't expect the lizard-human sex scene to happen.

[@johannesvonmalos7505]

What chapter does it happen?

[@jaymevosburgh3660]

As a very young child I was molested by a much older female babysitter. It went on for just over three years and at first I tried to struggle but eventually I started to enjoy it even though it also felt so very wrong and I was ashamed of it. I sort of developed Stockholm syndrome towards her. Yet I was also terrified of her because if I did not give her what she wanted she would hurt me. Not trying to mention all this for sympathy, just that I can definitely relate to how the character reacts to being taken advantage of and struggling with feeling mutual enjoyment, anger, confusion and such. I was able to get therapy and thankfully this character is not real, but this situation happens so freaking often, it is very upsetting. We should be more open when talking about abuse, all the different forms it can take, the signs that a person is an abuser, and how to seek help as a victim and be more empathetic towards those victims.

[@Gorgon_666]

Im sorry to hear that

[@zmanzizou1461]

Sorry to hear that man keep fighting man

[@gryffin638]

Truly the Yalanei of our world are Italians, only they know the gesture and sound sets

[@EgoEroTergum]

Gabba-gu!

[@Marylandbrony]

Make Room! Make Room! would also become another movie called "Soylent Green".

[@TylerRakstis]

And later influenced Nightmare Cafe, in Treehouse of Horror.

[@alang.bandala8863]

Soylent Green is made out of people!!!!

[@zincChameleon]

I always loved how the Y'Lani travelled across oceans by knocking themselves out with drugs to slow their metabolism, and then climbed inside an ichthyosaur.

[@sethmorgan4031]

No drugs involved. They just went into a state of hibernation by slowing down their metabolism and bodily function. Read the book, it explains everything

[@2013Arcturus]

I read this book 20 years ago while backpacking through Guatemala. I found it in one of those gringo book swaps in a foreign owned cafe. There was an amazing amount of weird and obscure sci fi I read on that trip.

[@Enshohma]

Love your videos: always a good source for obscure / forgotten giant monster fiction, dinosaur or otherwise. AND A FEATURE LENGTH ONE TOO! Is there any chance you might give the 1970s films The Last Dinosaur and Legend of the Dinosaurs and Monster Birds a review?

[@DinoDiego16]

Quite possibly. Those two films have been on my radar for a little while now, but at the moment, I've got several other planned projects to get through first.

[@joeysullivanTM]

Ay it's the man himself

[@Enshohma]

@@DinoDiego16 Cool! Please take you time but looking forward to it regardless!

[@darrylmarbut47]

Haha I watched that late one Saturday night in early 80s,the last movie of the great Richard Boone aka Paladin amongst others,one of the better stage taught method actors of the golden age.

[@kade-qt1zu]

You know, we always see stories about what life would be like if dinosaurs never went extinct. But I think the real question we should be asking is, *What if dinosaurs never existed in the first place?*

[@DinoDiego16]

The world would be a very boring and sad place, that's for sure.

[@Paulo-qo3qe]

@@DinoDiego16 BIG LIZARDS WHATS BORING ABOUT THAT

[@swagmund_freud6669]

Some other genera would have taken their place as the dominant group, perhaps synapsids/stem mammals.

[@hemanthnair1290]

The Permian Extinction never happens, dinosaurs evolve but never become as dominant as they ended up being would make for an interesting timeline.

[@januszpolak254]

@@swagmund_freud6669 Pseudosuchians of Triassic convergently evolved the same bodyplans as later dinosaurs like theropod like poposaurs or even ankylosaur like Ornithosuchus. I think its safe to say if Triassic extinction and dinosaurs were not a issue they would not only takeover but evolve in similiar way to dinosaurs we know.

[@kestreldomann2787]

33:39 Yalane cashier: enjoy your food Yalane customer: thanks you too *Customer immediately seizes up and dies*

[@umwha]

High potential, questionable execution. Heres' my criticisms: 1. Why have the humans have a completely different evolutionary origin but with no consequences? I think it probably because he wanted to set in america with white people. 2. Living tools sounds interesting, but HOW. How do the reptillians breed enough generations of any creature so quickly to change its shape and test the effectivenss of it as a tool form. Also, a living tool is just less efficient that material tools. EG. The jellyfish thin that becomes a collar. Well, if its living then it has to eat. So theyd have to feed the collar otherwise it would die. A metal collar would be simpler. Imagine if you had to feed you blow dart gun. How is that more efficient than using a normal blow dart gun? 3. The neurological eye camera ... Is it explained how they view back the footage??? 5. If they are so amazing as to hollow out living animals or add legs to animal, how the ehck do they do that? And logically they should haev geneticlaly engineered themselves to become god like by now, no? 6. You mean to tell me that the Reptillians can genetically modified creatures so quickly as to produce like 10 new creatures within 30 years, but they never harnessed fire?

[@McZebraCakes]

I would love to see a video on the short film Prehistoric Beast and the documentary "Dinosaur" that came after it. Both made by special effects legend Phil Tippett.

[@DinoDiego16]

I find the story behind Prehistoric Beast and how it led to Dinosaur very fascinating, so it's definitely a possibility. I'll probably get to it at some point when I don't have a lot of planned content stacked up.

[@McZebraCakes]

@Dino Diego I also think a video on Disney's Dinosaur would be good. I think the desert migration plot is sort of a callback to the "Rite of Spring" from Fantasia.

[@VictorianTimeTraveler]

Getting tremendous Lovecraft inspiration vibes, with the biopunk technology and freakish humanoids that originated from the ocean. I love it

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

38:06 I’ve hear this in a few stories like this, where two primitive but intelligent species see each other and have an almost inherent sense that they are proper threats to one another

[@DinoRicky]

Like Europeans with natives of America and africa

[@ilomilo6825]

This was an amazing, great job with descriptions too! I hope to see what you come out with next for these books

[@ashton5493]

The way they breed other animals to be their tools reminds me of the tool breeders from All tomorrows in a way.

[@warrior8034]

_haha kid got the dinussy_

[@tsaralexis9459]

Bro I’m cracking up that is so dark

[@mylenevillanueva9392]

Getting laid while his 15 by a reptilian girlis some mens dream but for cavemen its horrifying

[@daemonxdog3477]

31:10 *slaps roof of car?* "This bad boy is a generically modified Psittacosaurus that can go 30 mile an hour"

[@DinoDiego16]

"But hey, if you're more for the waters, do I have just the vehicle for you!' *slaps uruketo hull*

[@andrewbroeker9819]

Had we not figured out that new world monkeys descend from old world monkeys by the 80s? And Tylosaurs are such a bizarre choice. And how did Tylosaurs hibernate? Need to buy these books.

[@frankensteinmonster1931]

“I love dinosaurs.” I never would have guessed

[@taliesincoleman6569]

30:50 WHAT THE?! are you sure the Yilane didn't just modify themselves to look as they do now?

[@WyoSavage1976]

I loved these books, surprised to see someone actually feature them.

[@Cousin_Uli]

Glad to see so many people learn about West of Eden through this vid. The more people to be turned onto Harrison the better. The amount of work that went into realizing the Eden trilogy is nothing short of herculean.

[@joangordoneieio]

Love him & all the 40's-70's SF authors! Dick LeGuin Anderson Niven etc etc

[@kennethtraver7628]

Some elements of this story kinda reminds me of the original Planet of the Apes. Kerrick's initial treatment from the Ylane mirrors Charleton Heston's, the Ylane's arrogance and xenophobia reminds me of Dr. Zaius and the other apes, a sole Ylane being friendly to Kerrick is like Doctors Zira and and Cornelius being supporting to Heston's character, and the basic premise of humans being a "inferior" species to an unconventional "superior" species. I can't be the only one who sees it, right?

[@piglin469]

PLANET OF THE APES is a rip off to this

[@Harldin]

@@piglin469 Ahhh no, try the other way around. Apes predates this by 16 years.

[@piglin469]

@@Harldin OHHH I am STUPID

[@Harldin]

@@piglin469 We all make mistakes, Harry probably took some inspiration from Apes

[@piglin469]

@@Harldin Yeah. Imagine if the tanu at least had metalurgy

[@shannonbrady6355]

Author be like... You know what this story needs? Some r@pe!!! Yeah, that'll enhance this story!!! Seriously like wtf?

[@Ozraptor4]

A great deal of pulpy sci-fi from the 1970s-80s contains graphic xenophilic sex. Larry Niven, John Cleve, Lin Carter, Ursula le Guin etc all delve into this kind of stuff. Harry Harrison's depiction is pretty tame.

[@FUNeRaLPyR3]

I read this book in jail . It was really Cool and I enjoyed it a lot . The rape section was very uncomfortable though lol

[@Anaris10]

Murder is fine but Rape gets a Trigger Warning?. Clown World indeed.

[@chaucermcdoogle6011]

If your murdered you can't be triggered hearing about it. Clown world is always used as a dog-whistle.

[@samwill7259]

I... LOVE ALTERNATE HISTORY **Snuggles back into his chair and pops open a bag of popcorn**

[@Godzilla00X]

Love your long uploads. I put them on while I'm doing chores or in bed to fall asleep too. Great content as always

[@macrodrachen6285]

listened to the whole thing in one go lol you had me at the thumbnail. some background music would have been nice though, it was the one thing i felt was conspicuously missing tbh

[@Overlord99762]

BRO WTF THEY GAVE THE BOY A LOINCLOTH MADE FROM HIS FRIEND

[@Overlord99762]

@@bull420840 well, yeah, but I was not done with the video

[@mercaius]

Ooh, I think I had one of these books as a kid. Real old school sci fi, I remember a glossary devoted to the lizardmen's body language and a scene where two explorers find a tribe of male reptilian "Amazons" when one warrior flashes his genitals at them in a show of force.

[@drowningpooralice5505]

I read this when I was a kid, it made me uncomfortable. The biological aspects of their technology was unnerving. They use these slug things to remove hair, yeah, couldn't put it down.

[@Gojira406]

The Yulane? (Hope that's correct spelling) They sound very similar to the Seraphon or "Lizardmen" from Warhammer! Look them up if you haven't already, I'm sure you'd like their lore.

[@erichtomanek4739]

I have read the trilogy numerous times and enjoy them immensely.

[@belialbzarr]

I just wanna say thank you so much for introducing me to this, I'm now half way through 3/3 of the Eden trilogy after not having read books for fun in FOREVER and I've fallen so in love with this series.

[@SHDUStudios]

Why isn’t this a movie or TV series? I’d watch the hell out of that.

[@NTJ1984]

OH MY GOD! This is one of my favorite books!!!!! I used to read this just about every six months. Thanks for covering this book!

[@CutMan567]

I WAS gonna watch this, but since the topic of the book is very similar to one I'm writing and it sounds rad as fuck, I definitely want to read it first and it's near the top of my backlog now. See you in however many weeks/months it takes me to get around to it and keep finding awesome shit to read!

[@DinoDiego16]

Glad to hear that! I'd definitely recommend experiencing it yourself first. Hope you end up enjoying it!

[@australianandrew128]

Thank you for covering this. I remember this as one of my earliest reads. I loved Harry Harrison' works and thus drifted onto reading this because of that.

[@blakerayze1726]

Really good Listen, i enjoyed this alot. i would probably never read the trillogy but it nice to have you cover it so I can at least be aware of its existance and content.

[@n.b.l.5709]

Quite possible for intelligent dinos to have existed, just havent found their bones or structures...

[@taliesincoleman6569]

the yiane aren't dinosaurs

[@sabinasabino141]

Well, their structures likely would not have survived. If we barely have anything from a hundred thousand years ago of human culture, I don’t imagine that cultural artifacts or structures would survive millions of years. Bones only survive because they literally become rock under very specific conditions. That said, an industrial society the likes of which we see in our current age would be detectable because a sudden spike in carbon and pollutants would show up in the fossil record. The thing about sapience is that it isn’t the magical adaptation that we often think it is, intelligence isn’t any more special than any other evolutionary adaptation, and it can die out easily. Humans came close to biting the bullet a few times, and we are the only species of human left, partly because we killed off or interbred with the rest, but partly because sapience doesn’t guarantee evolutionary success and in many circumstances may actually hinder survival. Humanity as we understand today might just have been a rare instance of sapience where we actually made it.

[@aishalotter9995]

They used geneering not machines and grew their buildings sooo ….

[@n.b.l.5709]

@@aishalotter9995 whats geneering? Cool

[@aishalotter9995]

@@n.b.l.5709 genetic engineering!!!

[@frostbitetheannunakiiceind6574]

1:21:49 what is a hair lip?

[@mylenevillanueva9392]

Its a syndrome where when the fetus is developing it's Front nostril and upper lip will curve into an arch if the egg was the damage,the sperm cells eas mutated or something from the outside caused the fetus to be deformed

[@thoughtfuldevil6069]

West of Eden is not good science fiction, but it's definitely worth a read just as a piece of delightfully dated, out-there pulpy thrills. Edit: it makes sense, looking back. He researched everything but the dinosaurs!

[@FiddleWiddle]

It is fantastic science fiction wtf

[@thoughtfuldevil6069]

@@FiddleWiddle Humans couldn't evolve from New World Monkeys, Ectotherms can't maintain high-EQs like the Yilane, and instead of evolving new dinosaurs he just drops in extinct ones. Harrison was very talented within a certain range, and this book is not within that. Also, the Yilane talk to each other in the book like cartoon villains. For all the work put into trying to make them seem alien and bizarre they sure do have very simple dialogue. Why he put five years of research into everything but paleontology when writing a book like this, I'll never get.

[@FiddleWiddle]

@@thoughtfuldevil6069 is this story compelling and interesting? Yes. Does it fall within the science fiction genre. Yes. Is the worldbuilding immersive? Yes. Then it's a good science fiction story. Simple as.

[@thoughtfuldevil6069]

@@FiddleWiddle Like I said, it isn't fully science fiction. It's more science-fantasy. I liked it, but just not as much as you or Diego did. I wouldn't call it compelling or interesting, just a fun pulpy read to kill some hours on a plane ride. The flaws in the plot and world knock it down for me.

[@TemplesmithOfficial]

This was the first proper novel I ever read as a kid and totally shaped me and my career, so learning Harrison was in comics as well just made my day. This was awesome, thankyou.

[@Aurinor]

1:05:16 Oh no... No-no-no-no💀💀💀

[@KrazyKaiser]

You said "They are warm blooded and exothermic", but if they were warm blooded they would be "endothermic", was that just a mistake?

[@DinoDiego16]

Yeah, I didn't catch that at first. Now, I'm just confused. According to the book, it says the yilane belong to the group of animals that are warm blooded and exothermic, but then goes on to explain that all important animals (mainly referring to themselves) are exothermic. I'm assuming they meant to say cold-blooded, not warm-blooded, but I'm not entirely sure.

[@Barabel22]

@@DinoDiego16Isn’t there also species with physiologies and body temperatures “In between” endo and exothermic? Able self regulate like endotherms but not as well, getting some of their body heat from their environment as well?

[@TristanWintle]

Video starts at 16:46

[@aishalotter9995]

I’ve only read the first book which I thought was amazing with the geneering nd stuff, I’ve read a few of his other books , also good another from around the same time is Harry turtledove’s world war in the balance trilogy another cool book ! Thank you for the video mate very wel done !!!

[@jasonsantos3037]

This is interesting take dinosaur story I should take a look at What else do you find a story that a reptilian female just have sex with a human. 😂

[@mylenevillanueva9392]

What about Skyrim?

[@CandyThePuppy]

Bro I just realized I had a dream about me watching this video over a year ago! I remember waking up and telling my parents. "Strange, I had a dream where I was watching a documentary about humanoid dinosaurs fighting humans." And about five minutes in I got flashbacks to that. Funny, right?! 😅

[@altithoraxperotorum5133]

For a future video maybe you should do one about dinosaurs in anime

[@canonbehenna612]

This sounds like one million years bc

[@rubenrodriguez2590]

Great video... I loved it. You did an amazing job. I can't wait for your next eden videos.

[@mainvillain5580]

It turned out that I have a paper copy of this book at home in a rusian translation.

[@Mr.Kleeen]

Can't wait for your reading and thoughts on book 2 -3, Great content Sir. Keep up the great work!

[@grendel8342]

i've read the whole trilogy and have been a fan my entire life, while i love that theres a video over this universe now i can't help but be a little worried now. Mostly because i can't wait to just be told to shut up in any online discussion now because of the band wagon thats going to come from this. There are three other races of tanu and one closely related subspecies by the way, for those of you wanting more "new world monkey" looking descendance look up the Paramutan. The paramutan share a lot of their descriptive features with their ancestors, most likely a more basal genus as a whole if not just a basal species.

[@anotherrandomtexan25]

It's all fun and games until you get dino AIDs...

[@Gorgon_666]

Yialneussy

[@susboy6947]

This story would make a one hell of a game

[@jollyjakelovell6822]

The trilogy is an enjoyable read and diversion as all good fiction should be. I found the living boats, the giant squids that the Yilane use to navigate the oceans the most interesting creation of Harrison's. If you really want to see a version of Russell and Seguin's dinosaurids in action read 'The Toolmaker Koan' by John Mcloughlin where they're known as the 'Whileelin'.

[@DinoDiego16]

It's crazy that you mention that. I literally started that book this month!😆

[@jollyjakelovell6822]

@@DinoDiego16 Looking forward to your video here about it, that is if that's your inclination. Cheers

[@cameronjim2983]

Holy shit this is basically a full length feature, awesome!

[@mastercharlesdiltardino8058]

Living tech is so cool, I wish my car was some kind of giant snail

[@aishalotter9995]

Mine is !!! Ha ha

[@mikemealey3661]

My sister in law gave me this book on my 23 bday;) ...I took it to a busy philly laundromat and escaped reality🦖that was a looong time ago♡still special to me 40 years later✌

[@amicoandre3951]

The Yilane reminds me of the Toob Breeders and Temptors from All Tomorrows

[@DinoDiego16]

Yeah, they definitely have an All Tomorrows vibe to them. Wouldn't be surprised if it was one of the things that inspired it.

[@qwellen7521]

Honestly this would make a great Table Top War Game setting.

[@SebastianGonzalez-jc4wz]

I'd be interested to hear from you how do the Yilane compare with the Quintaglios once you finish reading the trilogy, since they are both fictional sapient saurians with a heavily advanced society that live among regular prehistoric fauna and even use some of said fauna as mounts and other comforts. However, even though their societies, cultures and moral principles heavily differenciate from one another and thus probably wouldnt be that fair to even compare the two, i do find the Quintaglios a fair bit more "approachable" in more aspects than one for better or worse. Edit: i had a literal shower thought about what i said about the Quintaglios being more "approachable" than the Yilane (seriously i was literally taking a shower bath when i thought of this). Like, yeah, the Quintaglios are more approachable because that's how they're MEANT to be in a narrative amd story telling sense. Like, Sawyer went out of his way to make the Quintaglios as relatable to audiences as he could because they are meant to be the main protagonists that we as readers are supposed to follow with and empathize (plus they're the only other sapient race in their books for a great majority of them) and even though some people had a bone to pick with Sawyer making the Quintaglios way too human like he himself stood by that choice because he knew making them too alien would, for a lack of a better word ironically, "alienate" the audience from wanting to follow their journey. The Yilane on the other hand are not meant to be sympathetic in the slightest since they are the main antagonists of the story (at least most of them) while this is really Kerrick's story told from his persepctive and the author went out of his way to make the Yilane as unhuman like to make us latch onto better to the already human protagonists (that and making Kerrick a rape victim certainly helps) meanwhile Enge was really the exception to the rule and was there to show that not ALL the Yilane are as "heartless" as our perspective might want to believe. That said, i do wanna see a version where the Tanu and the Yilane DO set aside their differences and find out that their respective uniqueness would work even better when they're both on the same side (unless that was already touched upon on the later books) So yeah, even if taking into account how both races are essentially a bunch of green lizard men that have a lot of behavioral and societal traits deeply rooted in their animalistic/reptilian ancestry and instincts (which could be argued even those are executed very differently from one another) and how both have an equally fascinating natural and cultural history in their own rights, from a story telling perspective, for the most part you're supposed to find one race endearing while you're supposed to be largely repulsed by the other. All that said and done though, i am extremely intrigued how would an encounter between the Quintaglios and the Yilane would go down like since they would arguably be about as alien to each other as we would be to either one of them down to the point where the Quintaglios dont even have scales despite also being reptiles. Hell i'd even pay to see the Quintaglios and the Tanu interacting. Would certainly make for an intriguing crossover episode lol.

[@joebaker5581]

This was friggin awesome. You should definitely do the rest.

[@iamsemjaza]

Esperanto was meant to be a "common and shared secondary laguage" for everyone on the planet.

[@michaelmunsey5660]

I read these books when I was growing up and absolutely loved them

[@Zekyb0y]

Strange how the Yilane can do genetic manipulation, yet they are still live in a pre-industrial society and also as geneticists that should understand evolution, it seems unthinkable to them that another species could develop sapience, they feel like potholes that are there to make the plot work, still the story is interesting enough to let you ignore it and also makes Yilane feel like an enemy that can be weak as "humans".

[@geeknupthenight7417]

So humans see something not human so punish it for being not human

[@fizzplease6742]

Oh wow I read this, but over 20 years ago! I can’t wait to see what I remember and what I forgot.

[@juanisol8275]

Surprisingly epic!! 🦖🦕🦎🐊Great introductory data and Thanks for this audionarrative review!! It really gives to be adapted into an animated series, Graphic Novel Comic or movie! It would be Brutal!!👏🤩I can't wait for more!! Thanks a lot!! Splendid work!!😍👍

[@matthewmerritt6844]

Everytime I read these books, the story always seems to hit me like a fever dream.

[@JohnnyVavala]

You inspired me to get the book myself, thank you

[@Kankan_Mahadi]

"The League of Scientific Fiction"! Also, I vote for the humanoid dinosaurs.

[@haflongbar9697]

16:47 where the story begins

[@genus.species3362]

I am a pretty big stickler for accuracy, and i especially don't like excessively edgy and over the top dinosaur designs cough 65 cough. Things like Primal are the very few exceptions. But for some reason, i can't get enough of the Science Fantasy genre of paleomedia. Particularly in literature. I especially loved The Quintaglio Ascension And this is another really good one. And in some cases this also extends to other media, Like Lost Eden, the Dinotopia series, Warhammer, DnD etc. I just love this genre in paleomedia despite being heavily stylized.

[@goldenyak629]

It's the fucking _tyranids,_ man!

[@MrDaAsif]

2:15 this is on my TBR, I'll read it next then come back asap. lol :)

[@rga1605]

This sounds like an interesting series, first contact experiences have really a lot of problems and this book captures well.

[@chancegivens9390]

Man this story is incredible! I can't wait for you to cover the sequels!

[@lalalakachow316]

i dozed off for a minute and thought i made up the bus dino but nope it’s real and it haunts me😂

[@tely5]

I remember reading the books back in college, and really haven't run into anything like them since. Such a fantastic concept! Thanks for the trip down memory lane. On a similar note, anyone intrigued by these works might want to check out the "Silurian Hypothesis", a paper written by some NASA scientists on the possibility of an industrial civilization existing sometime in deep history, and what it would take to detect it. It is surprisingly plausible when one considers just how fast almost everything we have now would be consumed by nature if we weren't around to keep it going, and over geologic time even the more durable things would be weathered or subsumed by geologic processes. Human civilization takes up the barest fraction of the Earth's history, and the ratio of fossils found to creatures that lived is so incredibly low (due to the very unusual circumstances that have to occur to create a fossil). It really is conceivable that intelligent dinosaurs or something else could have existed and had a civilization for a brief few thousand years before wiping themselves out or something, and we would not have detected it yet.

[@tabo01]

niven's et al Shipstar has this as a plot element

[@darrylmarbut47]

We went from chucking spears with rock points to space flight in 10/15 thousand years,there could have been at least several epochs of time where multiple Civilizations thrived,died out or were destroyed by cataclysm's,the latest being the younger dryas period.

[@bradpotts1747]

out of control fire ehh... a wild fire you might say.... nope no way theyd understand how such a thing could work.

[@pentultimatearsehole9190]

I remember reading this series about 25 years ago. One of the things that really stuck with me was the combination of vocal/visual cues for language and as well as the biotechnology used . Great call back;

[@canonbehenna612]

Think the saurian sapeins should come from troodon not mosasaurus because while true mosasaurus can come to fresh water they can not come on to land

[@grendel8342]

The paleomemes are strong with this one. please, don't ever read the book you're speculative genius can't be contained.

[@stegosandrosos1291]

@@grendel8342 Speculative, but less realist i will say

[@waywardscythe3358]

destroyermen is a fun 'dinosaurs never went extinct' alt history series.

[@denifnaf5874]

Story starts at 36:15

[@8r0k3n1]

Why has this story never been made into a show? It would make a great Netflix mini series if given a decent budget.

[@kathyjacques2688]

I would love to see a movie also but man, look what they’ve done to our poor super heroes. Injustice indeed

[@tabo01]

not possible pre CGI.

[@Joe-lb8qn]

@@tabo01look at the lizard man that Kirk battles in one of the early Star Treks. Perfectky doable just spend a couple hundred dollars on rubber lizard suits per actor 😅

[@cottrexiscool]

bro these videos topics just keep getting more obscure where are you finding this shit lmao

[@enriquelescure9202]

While humans just do breeding either to produce chicken so heavy that their bones break, or dogs which cannot breathe properly and who have to pup by caesarian section.

[@BrandonB532]

I remember absolutely loving this book when I was younger, and I’m so glad to see it get featured in one of your videos!