Desmond Morris, in his introduction 
to After Man , compares Dixon’s cre- 
ations favorably to what he calls “the 
cheaper brands of Science Fiction.” But 
cheap or high-priced, any competent 
science fiction writer knows that a world 
without sentient life or the hope of sen- 
tience to come makes for a boring, 
meaningless, and ultimately depressing 
story. (Compare Dixon’s book with De 
Camp and Miller’s exhilarating science 
fiction bonbon Genus Homo , which is 
also set in a post-human future full of 
giant bats and gazellified rabbits, but 
contains five plausible sorts of thinking 
animal — four primates and a beaver.) 
The human species is the only mind our 
planet has. Although a world without 
other animals would be as disturbing 
and repulsive as that living brain in a 
bottle that Orwell took to be “the logical 
end of mechanical progress,” Dixon’s 
fantasy world without the promise of 
intellect is a living body with a dead 
brain — futile, empty, and hopeless. And 
that, unfortunately, has to be the coro- 
ner’s verdict on After Man considered 
simply as a work of imaginative fiction. 
And as a work of scientific specula- 
tion? Considered as science, Dixon’s 
book has real merits and equally real 
flaws. Both are interesting because they 
suggest some larger thoughts about evo- 
lutionary biology. 
A lot of Dixon’s imaginary animals 
are genuinely plausible — so plausible 
that it’s hard to see why they should be 
imaginary. Take, for instance, his giant 
rabbits (“rabbucks”) that have replaced 
the missing deer and buffalo. This 
sounds like a sure bet; rabbits and hares 
have convoluted guts, high-crowned 
teeth, and a nasty but practical habit of 
recycling their feces, and so they look 
like logical candidates for the hayburn- 
ers of a future without horses and cows. 
Well, then why aren’t there already 
rabbits the size of deer or, anyway, of 
small antelopes? Why haven’t the rab- 
bits ever produced a herbivore that 
weighed more than about fifteen 
pounds? Some of Dixon’s other good 
ideas raise similar questions. Monkeys 
with skinfold “wings” like a flying squir- 
rel’s? Sure — but why haven’t there ever 
been any gliding primates? Fish-eating 
mammals with long, many-jointed necks 
like a heron’s or a plesiosaur’s? Seems 
reasonable — but then why has almost 
every mammal for the last 150 million 
years or so had seven vertebrae in its 
neck? (A few have six; one genus of 
sloths has nine.) Why haven’t the mar- 
supials, some of which have been run- 
ning around in trees for longer than any 
The book that fleshes out the bones 
THF V — - 
DINOSAURS 
Illustrated by William i 
Stout. Narrated by Pa 
William Service. Edited o 
by Byron Preiss. Scientific Bool 
Consultant, Dr. Peter Dodson. in full 
t 200,000 
A BANTAM TRADE BOOK. 
r . Bantam Books, Inc., 666 Fifth Avenue, New York 10103 
y Selected by the Quality 
Paperback Book Club, Book- 
of-the- Month Club, Science 
Book Club. Lavishly illustrated 
in full color and black and white. 
200,000 COPY FIRST PRINTING 
Size: 10"h x6‘/4"wx6 1 /^"d 
Suggested retail: $400.00 
The delicacy of handmade porcelain, entirely handpainted to capture every nuance of nature's 
majestic beauty— this is the Grossman Touch. The Quail, skillfully modeled by Dr. William 
Turner, one of America's premier wildlife artists, is one piece in the collection of more than 20 
sculptures produced in limited editions by the artisans of D.G. Porcelains of Virginia. See this 
collection today at the dealer nearest you. Or send five dollars for a full-color brochure. 
The Dave Grossman Designs Tbuch— creating collectibles that are innovative, authentic and 
worthy of your taste. t 
Dave Grossman Designs, Inc. • rytismm 
Q Dept. 121 P.O. Box 8482 
St. Louis. MO 63132 
85 
