Mar 07
Good Show Sir’s Art Direction: Stuck for something to draw eh? All one has to do is follow the editors rhyme, “Golden chair on which a hunk may sit, dinosaur.” Yeah… it’s not much of a rhyme really. But here’s the twist: it’s in space!
Published 1989
March 7th, 2013 at 9:45 am
What, *again*? Dinosaurs just can’t seem to keep out of space, can they?
March 7th, 2013 at 10:16 am
Sadly, this all-too-accurately reflects the contents. ‘Nathan Brazil’ is a being who’s probably God, and he has access to a thing called the Well of Souls (pre-Indiana Jones, its one redeeming feature) which is a sort of cabbalistic universal graphics package that can change matter. So, yes, some characters have become dinosaurs. I think. It’s five books I read with increasing annoyance thirty years ago.
March 7th, 2013 at 10:32 am
Pffftt… he can’t fly a space ship with those tiny arms!
March 7th, 2013 at 11:32 am
Ah, my last meeting with the bossfellah. Love this non-union job!
March 7th, 2013 at 11:33 am
Sixty-five million years ago, when maroon ruled the Earth.
March 7th, 2013 at 12:43 pm
I’m disappointed. I’d hoped that Nathan Brazil was the name of the dinosaur. “Hello, I’m back!”
March 7th, 2013 at 1:08 pm
The plot summary given above neatly sums up what gives SF a bad name: power fantasies.
Stop me if you’ve read this plot before:
“A boy/child/orphan gifted with psychic powers/super intelligence/some powerful gadget must save the Earth/Universe/Princess from alien invaders/an evil overlord/some menace.
He overcomes playground bullying, sneering teachers and his own (HUGE) insecurity just in time to impress everyone with his awesome skills and saves the day.”
And the sad thing is: This kind of stuff still outsells everything else. (*Cough* Harry Potter *cough*)
March 7th, 2013 at 1:38 pm
“We need more power, cap’n… and I can’t operate the computer with these tiny arms!”
March 7th, 2013 at 2:39 pm
Are all space dinosaurs T-Rex’s? Are they the only ones who can handle zero gravity? In anan emergency how do they get the helmet to their suits on? And with their tiny tiny arms, how can they hope to open the pod bay doors when HAL refuses?
March 7th, 2013 at 3:22 pm
@FearofMusic. That’s a tricky one. Some have T-Rex heads but extra digits on their paws, for instance Pirate Captain Rex of “Farseer” or the Rocket Rider of “The Second Experiment” (who also had wings, for that matter). Inbred, possibly.
March 7th, 2013 at 4:22 pm
First Magnus Magnusson, then John Humphrys, now this?! The toughest quiz just got tougher.
March 7th, 2013 at 5:15 pm
I doubt that the “survival of the Universe” depended on The Return of Nathan Brazil, but I’m sure Jack Chalker’s next paycheck did.
March 7th, 2013 at 5:53 pm
@Fear ofMusic: I think the default dinosaur for ALL of SF and fantasy is the T. Rex unless otherwise specified. And quite rightly so. Their delicate watchmaker’s hands make them the ideal accompaniment for stories set anywhere in space or time, except when they have to do heavy lifting.
March 7th, 2013 at 6:55 pm
Ol’ Emperor penguin is eyeing the king o’ the lizards thinking ‘Yah, I could take him, no problemo, but I think I’ll leave him to throne boy. GOT YOUR BACK DUDE!’ .
March 7th, 2013 at 8:39 pm
So, if the rules of perspective hold up in outer space, Nathan Brazil is bigger than a T-Rex.
March 7th, 2013 at 10:11 pm
At first glance, I thought the guy was sitting on a space toilet. Then I remembered who Nathan Brazil was, and realized that the whole book was the toilet.
March 8th, 2013 at 1:12 pm
“Mmmm. Human on a gold plate! Lunchtime!”
March 8th, 2013 at 3:46 pm
So that whole thing is the title? “The Well World supercomputer, and the survival of the Universe depend on the return of Nathan Brazil.” Overcompensating for plot deficiencies, perhaps?
March 8th, 2013 at 6:30 pm
Maybe the T-Rex is mad because Nathan Brazil is sitting in his favourite chair.
March 11th, 2013 at 11:35 pm
That back wall makes me think that it’s a particularly empty and spacious (heh) fast food joint.
March 13th, 2013 at 1:18 pm
After the scene where the T-Rex showed up in his throne room, the next book in the series was titled “The Hasty Departure of Nathan Brazil.”
April 1st, 2013 at 6:39 am
This book cover was so bad that there are actually two other covers from re-printings of this book.
The first being this slightly less ridiculous cover
http://covers.openlibrary.org/w/id/207372-M.jpg
The second re-cover I assume the editors just threw their hands in their air and said “screw it, just put some tits on it.
http://www.paperbackfantasies.jjelmquist.com/images/caldwell/ChalkerReturn.JPG
April 1st, 2013 at 10:27 am
The first cover features a female centaur, a small T-rex in a waistcoat, and Nathan Brazil sitting on a glowing toilet. Hence Nate’s use of the qualifier “slightly.”
April 5th, 2013 at 7:24 am
“Damn it, T-Rex! Can’t you see I’m busy saving the Universe?”
April 5th, 2013 at 10:44 am
Nathan’s taken that line from ‘All The Young Dudes’ a little too literally.
August 25th, 2015 at 2:54 am
Someone call the Time Police to report whoever’s been dropping dinosaurs all over time and space. Seriously, it’s getting to be a problem.
February 17th, 2017 at 1:39 pm
This cover has been haunting me for months so I finally confronted my demons and plotted the perspective to find out that the dinosaur is barely as tall as the arm of the chair in the background.
You can believe me, I went to art school.
February 17th, 2017 at 2:02 pm
@JuanPaul: I believe you, and I went to palaeontologist school.
February 18th, 2017 at 4:26 am
No wonder Nathan’s just sitting there calmly. It’s an ickle bitty dino far away from him. No need to panic.
August 14th, 2018 at 2:31 am
I’ve looked at the covers for all of the books.
The first four have varying covers, but they’re all terrible in their own special ways.
The later ones go from terrible to meh.