posted on 18 Dec 2023

The Deadlands:Trapped by Skye Melki-Wegner

The Deadlands:Trapped is the second instalment of Australian author, Skye Melki-Wegner’s exciting series of books about warring Dinosaur kingdoms. What you need to know is that the famous asteroid strike that is credited with bringing about the precipitous end of the dinosaurs, didn’t, in this reality, end them all. Those that survived found themselves ‘benefitting’ from fall-out that gives them language, logic and….warfare. Tribes, or kingdoms, emerge that battle it out for survival with two of these groups surviving – one for the herbivorous and one for the carnivores.

In the middle of this life-or-death battle for survival, a motley group of five dinosaurs who have been cast out of their herbivore tribes are trying to find refuge in the unforgiving wilderness and they also want the answers to some troubling questions about how the war between carnivores and herbivores is being conducted.

They are led by the reluctant Eleri, who is an Oryctodromeus and not by instinct the bravest of herbivores. He, and the rest of the group of five, are convinced that some conspiracy is afoot that will result in the carnivore kingdom overwhelming the herbivores and they desperately want to find the evidence.

In the hope that they can find a place to hide from the prowling gangs of raptors that seem to be dogging their footsteps they head for a pathway called the Salted Scorch – a treacherous stretch of land that is full of unexpected hazards, sudden sink-holes and acid lakes. And, if that’s not bad enough, the raptors aren’t at all put off by the perils of the pathway and they keep popping up when they are least welcome.

But Eleri and his companions don’t find that the Salted Scorch leads to sanctuary – quite the opposite because they discover that they have stumbled inadvertently onto Fire Peak, the very heart of the Carrion Kingdom – nerve-centre of the carnivore war machine. To their horror they discover that a dastardly plot is being hatched to give the carnivores not only victory but a gigantic feast and food larder. And, perhaps, even more disturbingly, there are traitors that get uncovered who are selling the herbivores down the river.

But, of course, I’m not going to tell you any of that because you are going to want to read this for yourself and follow the breathless exploits of the five brave outcasts who are forced by circumstance to draw on all their reserves of endurance and cunning.

Although the book is the second in the series, it can easily be read as a stand-alone adventure but I would guess you’d them want to pick up the first one too and fill in some of the gaps in the history of the dinosaur world.

Available now from Walker Books, you will be able to get this from your local independent bookshop – who will be happy to order it for you if they don’t have it on their shelves.

 

Terry Potter

December 2023