Mariah's Reviews > The Hand of Dinotopia

After watching and enjoying the Dinotopia miniseries (set in a later time period, by the way) I remembered that I had a Dinotopia book so I picked it up. In this scenario, Sylvia has gone off on a quest and her fiance, Will Denison follows her into the wilds of the Amu River Canyon. The officials of Canyon City refuse to help, but they insist on sending Chaz, a protoceratops to accompany him. After finding Sylvia, she reveals that she is searching for the legendary Hand of Dinotopia, an object said to show a safe sea route away from Dinotopia. (The island's isolation has been previously explained as being surrounded by impassable ocean currents) Though Will is convinced that this may be worth a try, Chaz thinks it's a wild goose chase.

I thought this was a fun and suspenseful adventure. Foster gives very rich descriptions of the natural world and Dinotopian culture(s). Obviously he (and/or James Gurney the creator) did a lot of research on prehistoric plants and animals. Many species of dinosaurs were mentioned that I'd never heard of, so it was neat to learn of them.
As for the characters, the most interesting ones were the dinosaurs- Chaz for one had a lot of personality. Sylvia is kind of cool, but Will is a somewhat bland protagonist. Dinotopia is also a little too perfect to be believable, though any Dinotopia fan is already capable of plenty of suspension of disbelief! There are still many natural dangers that the characters face, but no true villain. So if you prefer complex human politics & conflict, this probably won't be your cup of tea.


Note on reading order:
I definitely would recommend reading the original Dinotopia book before this one.
It is also set after the World Beneath and Dinotopia Lost, while there are slight spoilers for the latter I don't think the order matters as much.