I'm a sucker for dinosaurs, so when I saw the poster for a movie titled Primitive War, I knew it was a MUST SEE, especially after the disappointing and god-awful Jurassic World: Rebirth. Primitive War is what the lastest installment of the Jurassic franchise wishes it was. It was through watching the movie that I learned Primitive War was part of a series of books. So that meant a trip to the bookstore.
Thankfully, I only bought the first book, because this is one of those instances where the movie is better than the book. Why? Because the movie is streamlined, and it doesn't suffer from the same problems that plague the book. That's not to say the movie is without issues, but the issues are what make the movie fun because they're believability issues. The issues in the book are distracting enough to pull the reader out of the story.
The basic premise of Primitive War is simple. The book takes place during the Viet Nam War. A bunch of Green Berets go missing, and Jericho sends the Vulture Squad into the jungle to find out what happened to them. It doesn't take them long to find out they were probably eaten. By dinosaurs. How did the dinosaurs end up in this valley in Viet Nam? Those blasted Russians. They've been running experiments that they hope will bring the United States to its knees and allow Russia to rise up as a Superpower. The Collider is what opened up wormholes and allowed the dinosaurs to enter into our timeline.
There are two main groups involved here. You have the Vulture Squad, a special ops group whose primary purpose, until now, has been to search out prison camps and free any American soldiers being detained/tortured. And you have a group of Russian soldiers who are attempting to locate the American soldiers. As the story stands right now, it feels like the turtle and the hare, with the Americans being the turtle and the Russians the hare. And when I say this, it's because it feels like there are glaring timeline issues. Ryan and his Vultures have to be helicoptered into the jungle; this implies there's some distance between where they're dropped off and Jericho's camp. The Russian compound is at the far end of the jungle. The Russians are on foot. Yet it feels like the Russians made it to Jericho's camp in no time at all. Likewise on their return trip. They steal a boat and head upriver, while just a short time later, Father Vulture, the Vulture Squad's helicopter transport, takes off. It feels like the Russians made it all the way back to their compound faster than Father Vulture covered half the distance by air. Mind you, the Russians made record time while escorting an American prisoner, which, to me at least, should have slowed them down. Also, when Ryan and his squad traveled by river, they encountered a herd of Triceratops and Kaprosuchus (prehistoric crocodiles) that slowed their journey. Where were these creatures when the Russians made their river trip? There are a lot of little time issues like this that make the reader stop reading and say, "Wait a minute..."
The other "Wait-a-minute" moment comes when one of the American soldiers is attacked by one of the raptors. He's gutted. His stomach has been slit open by a raptor claw and his intestines have all but fallen out. They have to push them back in before they can bandage him up and transport him. Yet, a short time later (like later in the day, not months later), when the camp is attacked, he throws himself out of bed, he's all set to run off after one of the Russian soldiers he spied crossing the camp. He goes with the Black Ops team when they go off in search of Ryan and the rest of the Vultures. He's running, he's jumping, he launches himself at somebody, has enough strength to try and strangle somebody, and the entire time my mind is screaming, Gutted! Intestines falling out! Blood loss! Near death! He shouldn't be able to do all this.
Thankfully, I only bought the first book. I was so psyched when I found out there were four books to the series (so far) that I almost bought them all. I didn't, though. I only bought the first one. I would've been so pissed with myself if I had bought all of them because after reading the one, I don't know if I could bring myself to read the remaining three. However, that's not stopping me from chomping at the bit for any news I can get on the movie sequel. THAT I will definitely see.
Final Rating: 2.5/5 stars
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