The Cretaceous Past

By: Cixin Liu

Narrated by: BJ Harrison

Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

All the years of human civilization represent an infinitesimal fraction of the time since life first burgeoned on planet Earth. How likely is it, then, in those great depths of time, that humanity alone benefitted from the spark of intelligence that gave rise to culture?

This is the question posed by Hugo Award winner Cixin Liu, in his magisterial new short novel The Cretaceous Past. The answer he offers is unexpected, supposing an unlikely alliance between the largest creatures in the world of the deep past and some of the smallest. And it all begins with a toothache.

When a Tyrannosaurus rex suffers pain from meat trapped between its enormous teeth, a nearby colony of ants risks entering the great creature's maw to make their own repast from the remains of the dinosaur's most recent meal. From this humble beginning, over the course of millennia, a symbiotic civilization achieves amazing advances, facing dangers and exploiting opportunities at every turn.

In this absorbing tale, Cixin Liu manages to describe the history of successive epochs of a might-have-been world, doing for the past what Olaf Stapledon's classic Last and First Men did for the future.

©2020 FT Culture (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (P)2021 Tantor

What a terrific, inventive fairy tale.

Lively, passionate writing, excellent narration.

I really enjoyed listening to this novel.

Cixin Liu is one of the best speculative fiction writers working today.

Extraordinary

Like many I came across this novel as a fan of Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem trilogy. Loved the story. Great narrator too.

Only thing that annoyed me is that supposedly all dinosaur species were intelligent and lived amongst each other. That’s as realistic as having an Earth civilization where there are kangaroos and horses working as engineers and administrators.

A wonderful alternate world

This was a very poignant story about humanity but explored through the Cretaceous period and the inhabitants of that world. What if we humans were not the first ones to be going through advances and technological progress?

really fantastic!

I couldn't turn it off! Thought provoking, engrossing, and entertaining. Here's a lesson as old as time told in the most imaginative way.

wonderful story telling!!

This story is VERY well written. It's simultaneously written for young readers and older adults. As a professional geologist, I appreciated the alternative hypothesis, too. Narrator has an engaging, clear voice.
Very highly recommended!

Interesting listen

I found the plot concept really interesting. Given the magnitude of geologic time scales, and the range of possible planet-scale destructive events, I've often wondered how likely it would be to find any evidence at all of civilizations that existed millions of years ago (on Earth or another planet). It was fun to listen to the story and pretend to know what happened.

The style reads a little bit more like a historical summary, rather than a character-driven story that gets you interested in the individuals. It is certainly difficult to create a sense of connection to characters in a story that jumps through so much time (although I think Adrian Tchaikovsky's book 'Children of Time' does that exceptionally well), but I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.

I do think the audio reading was just ok. The reading of the main text was fine, but the character voices sounded more like caricatures. I really am curious how it would have sounded performed by someone like Robin Miles or Adjoa Andoh. I've listened to books performed by them recently, and those felt absolutely engrossing.

An enchanting Just So story

I completely love this book! It feels like the inventiveness of the fairytales in the three body problem trilogy, and I would love to read more!

Fascinating story

Great story that speaks to a mysterious period on Earth, maybe it happened this way…

The message is clear in any language

This story has a message that reads load and clear.

Very creative. Well read. A refreshing change from the American SciFi.

A novel for Ants?!

I got this expecting a tale of Dinosaurs on an interesting fictional adventure. It’s actually about how literal Ants and Dinosaurs destroyed each other with Nuclear Bombs and over reliance on technology? Very silly, but well written. Just not at all what I wanted.