Before Jurassic Park, author Michael Crichton wrote a story about fossil hunters based in the 1876 American West. Dragon Teeth is compelling as both historical fiction and a Western, combining the two with a story about the evolution of a man’s life and worldview through the brutality of the environment he inhabits.
William Johnson’s life is one of East Coast privilege and university snobbery. After an argument with a classmate, Marlin, over whether or not Johnson could survive going West, he lies, telling Marlin he plans to go West over the summer with Professor Marsh, a pompous paleontologist at Yale.
Marlin counters with an offer of $1000, telling Johnson he “won’t go west with Marsh this summer” (9). Taking the challenge, Johnson soon realizes he “would now spend the entire summer in some ghastly hot desert in the company of a known lunatic, digging up old bones” (9).
One of the aspects I loved about the book was how authentic the entire story feels. Crichton uses real historical figures and events to lend the story a sense of realism as he weaves fiction into the narrative. We’re presented with numerous journal entries from William Johnson throughout, which helps blur the line between real and fictional.
Unlike a lot of Crichton stories that have science fiction elements, the events of Dragon Teeth have a plausibility factor that makes you believe what you’re reading could have actually happened in 1876.
This is a story that moves, jumping from event to event at a brisk pace, keeping the reader engaged and intrigued to see if Johnson survives and wins the $1000 by story’s end.
Unlike many of Crichton’s works released after his passing in 2008, Dragon Teeth was written entirely by the author in 1974. It was discovered by his wife in his archives, and she helped get it published in 2017. I have no idea, but I’m going to assume his research for this book inspired Jurassic Park.
Dragon Teeth is a fun read and one I highly recommend.