Couldn't Put It Down — West of Eden by Harry Harrison

But what if history had happened differently? What if the dinosaurs had survived to evolve intelligent life?

In West of Eden, bestselling author Harry Harrison has created a rich, dramatic saga of a world where the descendants of the dinosaurs struggled with a clan of humans in a battle for survival.

Here is the story of Kerrick, a young hunter who grows to manhood among the dinosaurs, escaping at last to rejoin his own kind. His knowledge of their strange customs makes him the humans' leader ... and the dinosaurs' greatest enemy.

Ah 1984. The year I got married. The year I read West of Eden. So many good things happened that year!

I loved this book from the beginning and reread it a lot but I haven't picked it up for a long time. When it was selected for an upcoming podcast episode, I was curious if it would hold up. It is 400 pages long and I read 300 of them last night. Plus I've been sneaking a few pages here and there as I have gaps in my morning routine. I guess that means I like it as much as ever!

The worldbuilding is simply wonderful. The contrast between the two ways of innovation, adaptation, and tradition are also interesting. Kerrick as the person bridging the two worlds of intelligent dinosaur and nomadic humans brings just the whole story into focus.

Plus it's a darned good adventure.