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>

邁剋爾·斯萬維剋齣生於1950年。二十三歲那年，年輕而自負的他懷揣七十美元隻身來到費城，開始瞭艱辛的科幻小說創作生涯。六年之後，他的第一篇科幻小說發錶，並獲星雲奬提名。

此後，斯萬維剋創作瞭大量的優秀科幻與奇幻作品，其中，《世界邊緣》獲得西奧多·斯特金奬，《無綫電波》獲得世界奇幻奬，《潮汐站》和《狗說汪汪》獲得星雲奬，《機器的脈搏》、《恐龍諧謔麯》、《緩慢的生命》和《時空軍團》獲得雨果奬。