Primitive War Paperback – 22 April 2017

Absolutely phenomenal book!! I was totally hooked from the first page!! I read the whole thing in a couple of days! The writing transports you to the thick, humid, stormy nightmare of the jungle. The characters a really well written, each with unique heart, motives, drive and feeling. I teared up when my favourite character dies and had to put the book down to pull myself together. The way the dinosaurs are portrayed, as stealthy, cunning, intelligent and ruthless, as well as their appearance, is extraordinary! You never know when a mundane conversation will end in a horrific encounter. The author puts you in the boots of the soldiers, walking alongside them, experiencing their hope, loss and fear. I can't recommend this book enough! Have already ordered the rest of the books in the series!

I’ve been a huge dinosaur enthusiast my entire life, and Michael Crichton’s novels really resonated with me, he wrote Characters and dinosaurs flawlessly and made it seem real. I’ve read so many books featuring dinosaurs since then, and I’ve been disappointed everytime, nobody can write dinosaurs properly, they always seem like monsters and not animals.That all changed when i heard people discussing Primitive War on a podcast, I immediately went out and bought the ebook, and about three chapters in, I stopped and ordered the paperback. This book is incredible, i wasn’t that bothered about a Vietnam setting at first, I’ve never been a war enthusiast. But the characters are incredibly well written, each person has so much emotional depth, I found myself just wishing that they could all go home and just be safe.Ethan is also incredible at setting the scene, he conjours an atmosphere that makes you just lose yourself and feel like your in a jungle, he creates such a visual experience much like Neil Gaiman, and now I remember scenes from the book like I’ve seen them in a high budget tv series.And now onto the dinosaurs....Not only are the species a fantastic and unique selection (featuring my favourite dinosaur, Utahraptor) , they’re also fairly accurate , and he writes them like real animals! Especially the attack scenes...which are some of the most gruesome and horrifying I’ve ever read, and definitely hark back to Crichton’s novels.The story was gripping and I honestly found it refreshing & original! Ethan ignores the usual tropes found in these types of books, and carves his own story, with an ending that sets up so much more.The dinosaurs are terrifying (and I mean terrifying)The characters are so real and well written , I found myself caring more the characters than I did the dinosaurs, and often tearing up at moments. Not only are the protagonists so well written, the human antagonists are so well written, that I found myself rooting for them just as much, and finding myself devastated when any character met their fate.This book is an absolute must,and I don’t give out praise often, the fact I’mTaking the time to write a review here is testament to how good it is.Ethan Pettus is an author that is certainly heading for great things and I cannot wait for his next creation! 10/10

I am very much enjoying this piece of glorious fiction, but once again I am befuddled by pop culture's continuous need to make dinosaurs bullet proof.M16's, LAWS, m60's, solid slug Remington 1870s and m79s would make absolute MINCEMEAT out of dinosaurs guys....An elephant skull is 7–9 inches thick, but has multiple sinuses which makes it easy to penetrate even with a relatively puny .275 caliber firing military ball (solid core) ammunition, which is what famed hunter Walter D. M. “Karamojo” Bell did..He killed upwards of 1000 elephants with that caliber. While others used much (nearly twice as large) caliber guns he got tired of the heavy recoil and relied more on shot placement.Today poachers kill elephants with AK-47s shooting 7.65x39 caliber cartridges, which are not even full power rifle calibers, but assault rifle calibers which by definition are less powerful than rifle calibers.Bell killed another 300 elephants with a standard issue British .303 Enfield.In actuality any military grade weapon above .30 caliber firing FMG rounds would shred any dinosaur.Those bullets can penetrate steel, and up to twenty inches of ballistic gellatine and a similar thickness of pine boards.Move up to something like .50 FMG or armor piercing and it will penetrate up to .5 inch of armor plate.Not mild steel but hardened armor plate.

This book had me gripped all the way through.Reminded me of a cross between the movies': Jurassic Park and Aliens.Thoroughly recommend!

I didn't even know about the existence of this novel until I saw a YouTube video announcing an upcoming movie! So, I was like... Let's get the novel and give it a try. And oh my!This novel made me feel scared, excited, cry, etcIt's a very gory and gruesome one, not everybody will like it. There are descriptions of violence that sometimes it felt a bit too much.But it was a profoundly human story that deserves to be read.I love dinosaurs and the Palaeo accuracy is very welcomed.The Vietnam war was the perfect backdrop to the story, the characters and their life events.

A decent read that is let down by being too long, with repetitive action sequences and jungle descriptions. Dino action is good but the story is more geared towards how the soldiers (all parties) dealt with the war itself. There's a lot of character background, but I felt it was too much. Action sequences were described almost TOO details which made it a bit difficult to follow.Overall, an enjoyable read.