The Monster's Bones

The Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World

By: David K. Randall

Narrated by: Roman Howell

Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

In the dust of the Gilded Age Bone Wars, two vastly different men emerge with a mission to fill the empty halls of New York's struggling American Museum of Natural History: Henry Fairfield Osborn, a socialite whose reputation rests on the museum's success, and intrepid Kansas-born fossil hunter Barnum Brown.

When Brown unearths the first Tyrannosaurus Rex fossils in the Montana wilderness, forever changing the world of paleontology, Osborn sees a path to save his museum from irrelevancy. With four-foot-long jaws capable of crushing the bones of its prey and hips that powered the animal to run at speeds of twenty-five miles per hour, the T. Rex suggests a prehistoric ecosystem more complex than anyone imagined. As the public turns out in droves to cower before this bone-chilling giant of the past and wonder at the mysteries of its disappearance, Brown and Osborn together turn dinosaurs from a biological oddity into a beloved part of culture.

The Monster's Bones journeys from prehistory to present day, from remote Patagonia to the badlands of the American West to the penthouses of Manhattan. With a wide-ranging cast of robber barons, eugenicists, and opportunistic cowboys, New York Times bestselling author David K. Randall reveals how a monster of a bygone era ignited a new understanding of our planet and our place within it.

©2022 David K. Randall (P)2022 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Good book with misleading title

The titular T. rex does not make an appearance until you get 6 hours into the book. This is not a bad thing. I study sauropods and found the stories of the Carnegie and AMNH's (American Museum of Natural History) quest for the biggest dinosaurs (all sauropods) to be at least as interesting as the T. rex material. It does go to show that Tyrannosaurus will always be the marquee even if it doesn't feature in but about 30% of your book! This book is primarily a biography of Barnum Brown and his work as a fossil collector and his boss at the AMNH, Henry Fairfield Osborn. It also highlights what could be called a second bone war between the Carnegie Museum and the AMNH. I agree with others that the reader's inflections make you think you're listening to a children's book at times but the story kept me engaged.

Interesting Story & Dreadful Narration

The narration is astonishingly poor, however the information was interesting and the anecdotes shared in an interesting way.

Can't continue listening because narrator is terri

Narrator was detrimental to story, I cannot listen any more, he takes away from

Interesting

I sometimes found the organization confusing to follow and it didn't keep my attention like I thought, but I enjoyed learning more about the personalities behind the specimens I've seen. The narrator has several distracting mispronunciations.

Not the right narrator

I’m struggling to get through, not because of the writing or story - it’s a very interesting book. As others have noted, the narrator is just not the right person for the job. It feels like listening to a children’s story hour where the reader is emphasizing each syllable in such an unusual way that it’s completely distracting. Considering returning the audiobook and getting a hard copy.

Excellent book

I learned a lot about how we obtained the dinosaur bones and the great people. It took out in the wild with perseverance to bring it to us. I also learned how prejudice and shallow some of the wealthiest people were that created the American museum of natural history.

Thoroughly enjoyable

I'm hugely interested in the history of paleontology, and this book was a charming exploration of the early days of the field, focusing on Barnum Brown.

Read like a children's book. Annoying.

The Narrator put empasys in every single word. It's ridiculous. He reads it like he is reading fables to kid's.
That's not to say that the book is bad. But he ruins it with this weird overemphatic reading style. Like every single word is a drama on its own. what the heck is he thinking?
Makes it hard to listen to without being annoyed by the stupidity of it.

Ps: I am not MTM, but i share his views :D
And thx to Audible for their generous return policy.