"Our Lady of the Sauropods"
by Robert Silverberg
Form: Short story
Year: 1980
ID: 841
Publication history:
- 1980: Omni September 1980, Magazine
- 1982: Best of Omni Science Fiction 4, Omni Mass market paperback
- 1982: The Endless Frontier Vol. II, Ace Mass market paperback
- 1982: The Science Fictional Dinosaur, Avon Mass market paperback
- 1984: The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party, Arbor House Hard cover book
- 1984: The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party, Science Fiction Book Club Hard cover book, 243 pp.
- 1985: The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party, Bantam Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-553-25077-9, 317 pp.
- 1985: The Fourth Omni Book of Science Fiction, Zebra Mass market paperback
- 1985: The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party, Gollancz Hard cover book, 284 pp.
- 1987: Det brokiga cocktailpartyt, Korpen Mass market paperback, ISBN 91-7374-186-8, in Swedish
- 1989: The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party, Gollancz Mass market paperback, 284 pp.
- 1989: Compagnons secrets, Denol Mass market paperback, ISBN 2-207-30490-6, 352 pp., in French as Notre-dame des sauropodes
- 1995: More of the Best of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Dove Audio Audio CD
- 1996: Dinosaurs, Donald I Fine Hard cover book
- 1999: Compagnons secrets, Denol Mass market paperback, ISBN 2207249336, 346 pp., in French as Notre-dame des sauropodes
- 2000: Fictionwise, Fictionwise Online
- 2000: The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party, Peanut Press Online
Other resources:
[None on record]
Comments:
This was the first piece of short fiction Silverberg wrote after his 1970s sabbatical, written at the urging of Ben Bova and Robert Sheckley at Omni. Using fossil DNA, scientists have brought dinosaurs back to life and put them on an island to study them. There's dissent among the scientists whether they should allow tourists to visit the island. Sound familiar? But this Dino Island is an L5 space station, so the creatures can't escape and harm anyone. Or can they?
The main issue in this story is this: if dinosaurs dominated the planet for so many millions of years, who's to say they didn't have a kind of civilization? Our human cultures are so centered on buildings and other physical manifestations of technology that we can't imagine a civilization not based on manipulation of the environment. This idea was also treated in Downward to the Earth.
The audio adaptation is available from Audible.com.