Creatures of Another Age

Richard Fallon's anthology gathers fiction, poetry, drama, and essays inspired by the nineteenth-century fossil discoveries that shook established beliefs about the age of the earth. Arthur Conan Doyle and Jack London are here alongside many once-popular, now-forgotten writers, and the generic range — science fiction, horror, comic verse, mock-Elizabethan drama — keeps the collection from feeling monotonous. Fallon's scholarly introduction frames the whole as a study in how the dinosaur craze sparked literary imagination. Valancourt Books is a well-regarded specialist press in classic fiction revival, lending credibility even without mainstream critical reviews. The honest caveats: mainstream coverage is limited given the specialist-press origin, and the framing of science-versus-religion may be mildly sensitive for some faith readers. For adults and older teens interested in Victorian literature or the history of science, this is a distinctive and well-assembled collection.