Originally posted on JournalstonePicking up years after Far-Seer concludes, Fossil Hunter centers on Afsan’s children. They were not culled by the Bloodpriests, thus putting Afsan in the unusual position of knowing who his children are. Afsan is now advisor to the emperor, Dybo, and one of his sons, Toroca, leads a survey team of Land. Like his father, Toroca makes another discovery about their civilization that turns their whole worldview upside down: evolution.The second book of Sawyer’s Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy is weaker than the first, but as a continuation of the first story’s main arc it is logical and interesting. Unlike Far-Seer, Fossil Hunter has multiple story lines running through it.The main story is Toroca’s research, leading up to his theory of the true origin of their species, and it has nothing to do with God. There’s another thread involving Afsan’s children. They are unique in that they don’t seem to have a territorial reflex. We also find out that the government is not completely fair. The rulers of each providence are actually of the same family. The church spared them from going through the culling, and the weakest member of the clutch was chosen to be emperor so the church could manipulate the government. When this is revealed, the people are outraged that the highest members of their own government do not obey their most sacred laws. Society begins to break down. The governor of a providence, Rodlox, claims to be the rightful emperor, and he wants his throne.The final story line I want to discuss takes place from an awkward point of view. Its name is the Watcher. The Watcher appears early on in the book, and the introduction is jarring because all of a sudden the narration takes us from the inhabitants of the Quintaglio’s moon to a first-person, omniscient view of the entire universe.The Watcher is some non-corporeal being, and we deduce that the Watcher is responsible for transporting the Quintaglios (among others) from Earth to distant planets that were more suitable for them.The Watcher is my only problem with this book. These musings are out of place and entirely unnecessary. We could’ve figured out what was going on without the Watcher’s first-person account. Toroca discovers the wreckage of the alien spacecraft that transported life to their world, which means the Watcher’s chapters only break the story’s point of view. The series is supposed to take place from the dinosaurs’ point of view. The Watcher uncomfortably takes the reader outside the story instead of letting the reader experience it for himself.Furthermore, the very inclusion of an alien race creating their population takes the wind out of Toroca’s discovery of evolution. Afsan took God out of the sky, as well as placed them on one planet among countless others. Toroca does discover evolution, but thanks to the Watcher we know the Quintaglios didn’t really evolve, so it means very little.By far the most interesting story is Rodlox’s challenge. Afsan’s solution to the problem, and to restore order to the people, is to recreate the culling on the royal family. Putting it in today’s terms, this means dropping every state governor in a pit with a hungry, flesh-eating, feral dinosaur, and the last man standing gets to be president. It’s extreme, and Afsan puts his friend’s life on the line, but if it restores the people’s faith in the system, it’s worth it. This isn’t cruel, or outrageous. It’s a logical way for sentient dinosaurs to handle the situation. The final battle is epic, and the victor now deserves to be emperor.As part of the trilogy, it continues the story very well. If I just forget about the Watcher, it’s a great read. Oddly, this story actually makes more sense after reading Foreigner, the third book in the series.
Fossil Hunter (Quintaglio Ascension #2)by Robert J. SawyerIn Fossil Hunter, Robert Sawyer revisits his dinosaurian society (Quintaglios). This time out, if Afsan was Galileo then Toroca is Darwin. This second book in the trilogy follows Afsan’s son as he leads a Geological Survey team in a voyage meant to be reminiscent of the Beagle. While it was still fun to revisit this world, book 2 wasn’t as fun as the first one. Still I enjoyed reading it immensely at the time, and re-reading for this review didn’t diminished it for me.At times, the Quintaglios are too human and the discoveries far too easily come by. It sort of cheapens the years (decades) that our scientists in our history spent making meticulous observations on the topics. Never the less, Toroca stands in for not only Darwin but early geologist who posited the age of the world. A stark difference of course is that life on the Quintaglios’ world was brought wholesale from Earth by aliens and continued to evolve after that. They can only trace it back to that one event when an entire ecosystem erupts suddenly into the fossil record.In addition to the scientific discovery storyline, there is the second story line in which the Emperors siblings (who are the governors of each of the provinces) are made public. Apparently only the Blood Priests knew that the royal Family’s clutch were spared from culling. BTW, do they only have one clutch in a life time? That seems unlikely! When the rest of the people find out they are outrage and the whole blood priest system starts to fall apart. Afsan preposes are rematch in which all of the adult sibling must face a ‘black death’ - a large carnivore which sounds like a T-rex or something similar. The point being that is similar to an adult Quintaglios to hatchlings. At the southern pole, Toroca observes creatures never seen in his own land and that allows him to posit a theory of theory of descent with modification. He is particularly taken with the abundance of creatures that seem to be similar to wing-fingers ( pterosaur) but are flightless and some even water going. He eventually finds artifacts from the aliens that placed them on their world and eventually a space ship. Just what they need, right?Emperor Dybo survives his challenge - by being clever instead of strong and fast. He convinced the blackdeath that he is a juvenile and it refused to eat him. I’m not convinced that would work, but a a plot point, OK.
What do You think about Fossil Hunter (2005)?
The loved the second novel of the Quintaglio series. It was better done than the first one. This time, Afsan is blind and Toroca(his son) is the main character. It follows Toroca on a similar journey to his father. He boards the same vessel as him and has to go under a right of passage for all Quintaglios. He finds out the his brother(a Quintaglio never has any siblings unless the parents are considered worthy or royal) is murdering his siblings(some). At the same time, Afsan undergoes therapy to restore his sight as his eyeballs regenerated without sight. This is a wonderful read, truely suspenseful and will ahve you reading for hours.
—Martin
