World-renowned paleontologist Richard Leyster's universe changed forever the day a stranger named Griffin walked into his office with a remarkable job offer . . . and an ice cooler containing the head of a freshly killed Stegosaurus. For Leyster and a select group of scientific colleagues an impossible fantasy has come true: the ability to study dinosaurs up close, in their own era and milieu. But tampering with time and paradox can have disastrous effects on the future and the past alike, breeding a violent new strain of fundamentalist terror -- and, worse still, encouraging brilliant rebels like Dr. Gertrude Salley to toy with the working mechanisms of natural law, no matter what the consequences. And when they concern the largest, most savage creatures that ever walked the Earth, the consequences may be too horrifying to imagine . . . </p>

迈克尔·斯万维克出生于1950年。二十三岁那年，年轻而自负的他怀揣七十美元只身来到费城，开始了艰辛的科幻小说创作生涯。六年之后，他的第一篇科幻小说发表，并获星云奖提名。

此后，斯万维克创作了大量的优秀科幻与奇幻作品，其中，《世界边缘》获得西奥多·斯特金奖，《无线电波》获得世界奇幻奖，《潮汐站》和《狗说汪汪》获得星云奖，《机器的脉搏》、《恐龙谐谑曲》、《缓慢的生命》和《时空军团》获得雨果奖。