I just finished reading the science-fiction novel West of Eden by Harry Harrison, published in 1984. I first picked up this book way back in high school; I remember reading it while working at a gas station in my teens. I only got about a quarter of the way through it back then but have always remembered the story up to that point and wanted to return to it someday, and am happy I finally began reading it again.

Without spoilers, the setting of the novel is an earth that never experienced a cataclysmic extinction of dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous Period and, instead, witnessed the evolution of reptiles into bipedal, self-aware creatures. At the same time, mammalian life evolved in certain parts of the Earth into humans living in a paleolithic, hunter-gatherer world. 

It was a great reading experience…the plot, characters, and setting pulled me in and made me want to keep reading in a way I haven’t experienced in a while. I grew to care about the characters and their fates. I found the world, the flora and fauna in it, and the cultures described believable and fleshed out, with the reader developing an understanding of the world without a lot of obvious exposition. 

Beautiful line drawings by Bill Sanderson adorn the beginning of each chapter, and imbue the book with a certain otherworldly feel that I find excellently complements the story.

This book is the initial part of a trilogy of novels but can certainly be read as a stand-alone story. At some point I may check out the next book, Winter in Eden, since I so thoroughly enjoyed this first volume.