I'm trying to remember the title of a book I read approximately 15 years ago. My memory of the plot is a bit hazy, but it centered around time-travel. If I recall correctly, in the story people would travel back in time for recreational purposes, observing some sort of protocol to avoid changing future events. One person ignores this protocol, and "corrupts" the space-time continuum.
As a result of this a race of sentient dinosaurs develop and become a major element in the plot. The few specific details that I remember about the story come from around this point. I'm fairly certain that there is mention made of the dinosaurs warring with primitive human tribes (in particular, the humans may have been described as Japanese or samurai warriors) using spears and other early weapons.
More specifically, at some point the dinosaurs capture and imprison a human woman, I believe from the future along the original, non-corrupted timeline. While in captivity she observes their culture and attempts to learn their language. The first/most prominent dinosaur she speaks with has an anthropomorphized name of "Struth", I believe, with the actual pronunciation in dino-speak being slightly different.
After some time she is given an opportunity to gain acceptance into their society by completing an initiation ritual. She is given a dull ceremonial knife and a bowl and no instructions, and is left to work out the requirements of the ritual on her own. What she eventually does is use the knife to cut her hand/arm, collecting her blood in the bowl. Once she has collected as much blood as she feels she can safely part with, she then proceeds to take the bowl and dump it out on top of the dinosaurs' elder/tribal leader.
Those are about the only specifics I remember. It's probably not much to go on, but does anyone have any idea what book this might have been?
Answer
Could this be one, or a combination, of the Dinosaur stories from Stephen Leigh produced (or reproduced) as Ray Bradbury presents?
This series seems to have some of elements you describe above, though no direct reference to to the gal who was captured and her adventure - most appear to center around a character named "Aaron Cofield" and Eckels (the latter being the one that corrupts the timeline I think).
No descriptions or reviews mention Struth, however a peep at what Google Books about Dinosaur World has to say about the book does show "Struth" as a prominently appearing term... along with SStragh, Fergie, Raajek, Frraghi, OColi, Jhenni, Eckels and "Green Town" if those also sound familiar. Descriptions of the books themselves don't necessarily support
The timing also appears right. Actual publication dates (taken from Stephen Leigh) in the order of printing are:
- Dinosaur World (AvonNova, May 1992)
- Dinosaur Planet (AvonNova, February 1993)
- Dinosaur Samurai (with John J. Miller) (AvonNova, November 1993)
- Dinosaur Warriors (AvonNova, June 1994)
- Dinosaur Empire (with John J. Miller) (AvonNova, March 1995)
- Dinosaur Conquest (AvonNova, October 1995)
It's probably worth mentioning that this 6 book series was based on the Ray Bradbury short story called "A Sound Of Thunder."
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