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Harrison has created a stunning what-if' scenario what if the dinosaurs had not become extinct, but had gone on over millions of years to create a civilisation based on bioengineering? Sounds a trifle far-fetched, but just think how far mankind has come in just a few thousand years: what might another enterprising species not have done, given an extra seventy million?

The great brontosaurs, theropods and ceratopsians are still there, but they are small-brained and are hunted and herded by the ruling reptiles (Yilane), which are lizard-like, walk erect and live in great cities that they grow from vegetation. Because of climate changes, the Yilane are colonising another continent, and are setting up a new city there. But this has brought them into contact with humans (Ustuzou, who are at the Cro-Magnon stage of development, essentially like us but hunter-gatherers), and the inevitable conflicts arise. The Yilane regard the Ustuzou as vermin who must be exterminated and the Ustuzou are not overjoyed either.

The story follows the fortunes of one particular human called Kerrick, who is taken by the Yilane for medical research after his family and tribe have been wiped out in an ambush. He learns about them from the inside', and after escaping uses his knowledge to rally the scattered Ustuzou tribes and destroy the Yilane and their city.

But this is not a simple us against them' scenario in the style of old war films. There are of course the ugly extremists on both sides, but there are also those who sympathise with the plight of the enemy, and are able to appreciate their dilemma. Both species have a right to survive and to fight for that survival, but the ethical questions are fully explored through characters who occupy a more middle ground. On the Yilane side, there is even an organisation of conscientious objectors who are held in contempt by the military, used as slave labour and thrown into the front line as cannon fodder' during battles.

This sort of plot could of course be transposed to any genre, but the novel is also interesting for the great ideas it has on bioengineering and how it might be practiced in an advanced society such as the Yilane's. Their cities are vast, living things; their ships are specially bred giant ichthyosaurs, and not only their ammunition but their weapons as well are live. In fact, it is the perfect eco-friendly environment, if you don't mind gene-manipulation on a gigantic scale. The bulk of the Yilane population is female, with a few big, stupid males being kept in harems and taken each year to birthing beaches'. There are a lot of evocative line drawings in the book as well.

The conflict between the Yilane and the Ustuzou can, of course, also be read as a sort of fable, and you could draw parallels with the Spanish conquest' of Peru, the European colonisation of North America, and the expansion of Germany in the 1930s as it sought more living space'. The only reason there are no concentration camps in West of Eden' is that it is set in the Upper Palaeolithic, when the human population consisted of widely dispersed tribes.

Learn more about this author, David Elliott.
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