Z.RAPTOR

In this sequel to Z. Rex (2009), Cole picks up the action with barely time to take a breath.

Thirteen-year-old Adam Adlar still has nightmares of trying to avoid the highly advanced, scientifically engineered dinosaurs that his father unwittingly helped create. Coming to New York City for Christmas vacation with his dad, he sets out from the hotel for a lunch date only to be kidnapped by the FBI. The next thing he knows, Adam’s on a boat in the Pacific Ocean, under attack by underwater creatures. Washing ashore on uncharted Raptor Island, scrambling to stay out of jaw- and claw-range from the locals (the island's name is no coincidence), Adam is lucky enough to run across other humans. Unfortunately, it turns out that they were also kidnapped, and not by anyone as benevolent as the FBI. With the raptor population on the island divided between two different types and one unusually intelligent velociraptor helping the humans trapped there, it seems that everyone is part of an experiment to see who will survive. Cole mercifully builds back story into his exposition to orient readers and then steps on it.

A non-stop ride from beginning to end, this installment is well constructed, larded with frequent and often violent action and reads even better than the first, leaving plenty of room for another book yet to come. (Science fiction. 10-14)