It was quite the sad day for me and many others who’ve been fans of Mark Ellis’s Outlanders series when he turned in his final manuscript and left the company as well as the series behind.

But the reality of the situation was that Mark had been writing that series for over 14 years and after that long, burnout was inevitable.

That’s why it was such great news when Mark started up his own publishing company, one where he would have 100% creative control over all his creations and wouldn’t have some two bit tin plated dictator with delusions of godhood telling him what and what not to do with his creations.

So, to the crux of this review. I finally finished reading Mark’s first independent novel Cryptozoica. This novel had all of Mark’s trademarks… beautiful, intelligent women – even if one was nothing more than the classic dragon lady, stalwart companions, rough and ready albeit flawed heroes and scheming dastardly bad guys.

And of course exotic locations, ancient mysteries as well as monsters – well at least in this case, dinosaurs.

Unlike other books that deal with dinosaurs set in the modern era, the concepts that Mark wrote about, if the reader takes the time to do a little research of their own, will find that they are sound and rooted in actual science, nothing that was simply made up on the spot, or as it is otherwise known science fantasy.

Without really giving away much of the plot, the novel isn’t set strictly on the isle of dinosaurs, that is only a small part of it. The novel deals with the background story of the island that goes back to the Victorian era, and further.

If anything, the novel is heavily character driven. Unlike some franchises that I can mention, the characters don’t take a back seat to the Dinosaurs, but are fully realized and given complex personalities and backgrounds, of which there is still plenty that can be written on them and expanded upon in the (I hope) inevitable sequel(s).

Also, unlike other franchises, the dinosaurs don’t represent the only danger to the protagonists of this rousing adventure.

            Simply put, if you want a rousing classic style adventure that pits the heroes against man and nature and that deals with what could be science fact and not simply fiction, then I would strongly recommend that you pick up this novel and give it a read.

I can't write the review without talking about the interior artwork. There are at least a dozen full page panels of art throughout the book, not including the character sketches in the very beginning. The art is reminiscent of the classic pulp style art found throughout the 70’s and 80’ adventure style comics and is right at home here. Kudos to Jeff Slemons for his contribution to this work!

            The best thing is, if you order it directly from Mark’s Cryptozoica Page, you can get a copy personally autographed just for you!

            5 out of 5