PTERANODON CANYON by Tim Meyer – Review

I received this book for free from the Author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Pteranodon Canyon by Tim Meyer
Published by Evil Epoch Press on April 22 2022
Genres: Adult, Alternate history, Science fiction, Western
Pages: 253
Format: eARC
Source: Author
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The nitty-gritty: Killer dinosaurs and Old West shootouts come together in this bloody and highly entertaining story.

One of my favorite fantasy subgenres is “weird western,” and I can definitely say that Pteranodon Canyon fits the bill if you enjoy weird westerns as well. And what could be weirder than an alternate universe set in 1874 where dinosaurs roam the United States? Tim Meyer combines the sensibility of the Wild West with killer dinos, and the result is a gleefully gory, over-the-top revenge story with guns, betrayals and larger-than-life characters.

The story revolves around three characters who are hired to stop a notorious dinosaur poacher named Francis Burner and his right hand man Billy Tanner. Charlie Archer is a bounty hunter for hire, and when he’s asked to go after Francis Burner and stop his illegal operation, he knows it’s fate. Burner, you see, was responsible for the death of Charlie’s wife and kid, and Charlie has been looking for payback ever since. Elinor “Nellie” Watts is one of the best gunslingers in the West, and Finn Hampton is a dino expert who’s planning on writing his own dinosaur encyclopedia one day. Finn also has a sordid past with one of the poachers. Billy lost an eye after a violent run in with Finn, and Billy just happens to be looking for Finn so he can enact his own revenge.

As Charlie, Finn and Nellie make the dangerous trek to find Burner, they’ll have to outrun Tyrannosaurs and Nemicolopterus, survive a trip through Dinosaur Alley, outwit Francis Burner and Billy Tanner—and stay alive long enough to complete the job and collect their bounty payment.

Pteranodon Canyon was so much fun! I thought the author did a great job of combining the Wild West with the unusual addition of a world where dinosaurs are alive and roaming the open plains. Not only are there killer dinosaurs to watch out for, but we get to see herbivores like the Brontosaurus who have no interest in humans at all. In this story, Pteranodons have a hallucinogenic-like fluid in their nasal cavities (yuck) which is harvested and illegally sold as a powerful drug. Because the Pteranodons were being killed off at an alarming rate, the Pteranodon Preservation Act of 1872 was put into effect, thus making poaching illegal. That doesn’t stop criminals from killing them anyway, of course, which leads us to our story. I love the idea of an illegal drug trade involving dinosaurs—it’s kind of ridiculous if you think about it—but Meyer makes it work.

I thought the characters were a lot of fun too. I loved Nellie, who is a tough as nails sharpshooter and completely uninterested in romance, especially when Charlie and Finn try to hit on her, lol. She can hold her own and knows how to put idiots like Charlie and Finn in their place. Charlie’s character supplies the emotional punch of the story, as he’s mourning the loss of his family. He won’t rest until he puts Burner in the ground, and I couldn’t help but cheer him on. But Finn turned out to be my favorite character, which surprised me. I loved Finn’s enthusiasm for dinosaurs and his ability to drop interesting dino facts wherever he goes. Finn is awkward and funny and his dialog made me laugh out loud.

The bad guys are properly mean and violent, they did not disappoint. There are several side characters I enjoyed, like Nellie’s friends Barney and Marina who were caught up in Burner’s life of violence and are just trying to stay clean. But the story mostly focuses on Charlie, Nellie, Finn, Burner and Billy, and for such a short book I appreciated the fact that the author didn’t overstuff his story with too many characters.

If you’re a squeamish reader, though, beware, because Pteranodon Canyon has lots of graphic violence. Any Wild West story worth its salt is going to be violent, but add meat-eating dinosaurs to the mix and you have a unique combination of deadly gunfights and huge dinosaurs who are just trying to survive, even if that means going after the human population. I loved the detailed descriptions of dinos biting the heads (and other body parts) off humans, and you can tell Meyer took great delight in describing every arterial spray of blood and severed limb. All this gore is balanced out by tongue-in-cheek humor, and for some reason there’s something ridiculously satisfying about dinosaurs killing people, especially when it’s the bad guys.

The ending was both tragic and cathartic, and the promised final showdown did not disappoint. I thoroughly enjoyed Pteranodon Canyon and I look forward to Tim Meyer’s next book.

Big thanks to the author for providing a review copy.