Review: Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton

It started with a bet. William Johnson entered a wager for $1000 that he would not travel West, for fear of Indians and general discomfort. However, not one to be socially disgraced, Johnson arranges with Professor Marsh (the head of palaeontology at Yale) to accompany a group of students westwards in search of fossils. Though he lacks enthusiasm for the trip, Johnson prepares himself and departs with the others, determined to win the bet.

However, things go awry early into the trip, when Marsh suspects Johnson of being a spy for a rival professor, and abandons the young man en route. Luckily for Johnson, the rival himself, Professor Cope, agrees to enlist the deserted man on his own expedition, and Johnson once again sets off in search of fossils, in a notoriously violent and restive part of the country – the Badlands. From here, it’s a battle against the rival fossil hunters, the military, and the native Indian tribes, while the team makes a truly miraculous discovery, well worth dying for.

Dragon Teeth is a remarkable story which snares the reader from the start. Filled to the brink with action, yet with the feel of a decidedly well-researched and detailed (yet totally engaging) historical lesson, it’s a wild trip the whole way. Not the biggest fan of westerns myself, I expected to be put off, but Michael Crichton has a talent, because he has definitely converted me. Between dusty plateaus, gun-slinging bandits and a fear of being scalped, there’s nothing mundane about Dragon Teeth. In addition, Johnson is such a likeable character – not a fan of science or history at all, his flippant acceptance of the trip simply to win a bet soon evolves into an endearing passion for the fossils his team discovers. His is character development of the best kind – from scoundrel to loveable yet unlikely hero.

Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton is published by Harper Collins, and is available in South Africa from Jonathan Ball Publishers.