About the Book

DINOSAURS … IN SPACE!

Meet Captain Teggs Stegosaur and the crew of the amazing spaceship DSS Sauropod as the ASTROSAURS fight evil across the galaxy!

Flesh-chomping raptors have kidnapped two top dino athletes. With the Great Dinosaur Games about to start, Teggs and his friends must race to the rescue. But there’s more to the raptors’ plot than meets the eye …

RIDDLE OF THE RAPTORS
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 448 17346 4

Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK
A Random House Group Company

This ebook edition published 2013

Text copyright-space-after © Steve Cole, 2005
Cover illustration by Dynamo Design © Random House Children’s Books, 2010
Interior illustrations copyright-space-after © Charlie Fowkes, 2005

First Published in Great Britain

Red Fox 2005

The right of Steve Cole to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the copyright-space-after, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright-space-after material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright-space-after law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

About the Author

Born in 1971, Steve Cole spent a happy childhood in rural Bedfordshire being loud and aspiring to amuse. He liked books, and so went to the University of East Anglia to read more of them. Later on he started writing them too, with titles ranging from pre-school poetry to Young Adult thrillers (with more TV and film tie-ins than he cares to admit to along the way). In other careers he has been the editor of Noddy magazine, the voice of a Dalek and an editor of fiction and nonfiction book titles for various publishers.

For Tobey

WARNING!

THINK YOU KNOW ABOUT DINOSAURS?

THINK AGAIN!

The dinosaurs …

Big, stupid, lumbering reptiles. Right?

All they did was eat, sleep and roar a bit. Right?

Died out millions of years ago when a big meteor struck the Earth. Right?

Wrong!

The dinosaurs weren’t stupid. They may have had small brains, but they used them well. They had big thoughts and big dreams.

By the time the meteor hit, the last dinosaurs had already left Earth for ever. Some breeds had discovered how to travel through space as early as the Triassic period, and were already enjoying a new life among the stars. No one has found evidence of dinosaur technology yet. But the first fossil bones were only unearthed in 1822, and new finds are being made all the time.

The proof is out there, buried in the ground.

And the dinosaurs live on, way out in space, even now. They’ve settled down in a place they call the Jurassic Quadrant and over the last sixty-five million years they’ve gone on evolving.

The dinosaurs we’ll be meeting are part of a special group called the Dinosaur Space Service. Their job is to explore space, to go on exciting missions and to fight evil and protect the innocent!

These heroic herbivores are not just dinosaurs.

They are astrosaurs!

NOTE: The following story has been translated from secret Dinosaur Space Service records. Earthling dinosaur names are used throughout, although some changes have been made for easy reading. There’s even a guide to help you pronounce the dinosaur names on the next page.

THE CREW OF THE DSS SAUROPOD

Talking Dinosar!

STEGOSAURUS – STEG-oh-SORE-us

PTEROSAUR – TEH-roh-sore

BAROSAURUS – bar-oh-SORE-us

HADROSAUR – HAD-roh-sore

TRICERATOPS – try-SERRA-tops

IGUANODON – ig-WA-noh-don

ORNITHOMIMOSAUR – OR-ni-thoh-MEE-moh-sore

DIMORPHODON – die-MORF-oh-don

VELOCIRAPTOR – vel-ossi-RAP-tor

ANKYLOSAURUS – an-KI-loh-SORE-us

SALTASAURUS – sal-te-SORE-us

MAIASAURA – MY-ah-SORE-ah

STEGOCERAS – ste-GOS-er-as

EDMONTOSAURUS – ed-MON-toh-SORE-us

DIPLODOCUS – di-PLOH-do-kus

TYRANNOSAURUS – tie-RAN-oh-SORE-us

CARNOTAURUS – kar-noh-TOR-us

BRACHIOSAURUS – brak-ee-oh-SORE-us

PTERODACTYL – teh-roh-DACT-il

Contents

Cover

About the Book

Title Page

Dedication

WARNING! Think you know about dinosaurs?

Talking Dinosaur!

The Crew of the DSS Sauropod

Jurassic Quadrant Map

Chapter One: The Adventure Begins

Chapter Two: Bottle Stations!

Chapter Three: Kidnap!

Chapter Four: A Deadly Message

Chapter Five: Showdown on Planet Sixty

Chapter Six: Dangerous Flight

Chapter Seven: Mystery

Chapter Eight: Rumbling the Raptors

Chapter Nine: Countdown to Carnage

Chapter Ten: Dropping In

Chapter Eleven: The Final Challenge

About the Author

Copyright

ALSO BY STEVE COLE:

Read all the adventures of Teggs, Gipsy, Arx and Iggy!

#1 Riddle of the Raptors

#2 The Hatching Horror

#3 The Seas of Doom

#4 The Mind-Swap Menace

#5 The Skies of Fear

#6 The Space Ghosts

#7 Day of the Dino-Droids

#8 The Terror-Bird Trap

#9 The Planet of Peril

#10 The Star Pirates

#11 The Claws of Christmas

#12 The Sun-Snatchers

#13 Revenge of the Fang

#14 The Carnivore Curse

#15 The Dreams of Dread

#16 The Robot Raiders

#17 The Twist of Time

#18 The Sabre-Tooth Secret

#19 The Forest of Evil

#20 Earth Attack!

#21 The T. Rex Invasion

#22 The Castle of Frankensaur

Read all the adventures of Teggs, Blink and Dutch at the Astrosaurs Academy!

#1 Destination: Danger!

#2 Contest Carnage!

#3 Terror Underground!

#4 Jungle Horror!

#5 Deadly Drama!

#6 Christmas Crisis!

#7 Volcano Invaders!

#8 Space Kidnap!

Meet the time-travelling cows!

#1 The Ter-moo-nators

#2 The Moo-my’s Curse

#3 The Roman Moo-stery

#4 The Wild West Moo-nster

#5 World War Moo

#6 The Battle for Christmoos

#7 The Pirate Moo-tiny

#8 The Moo-gic of Merlin

#9 The Victorian Moo-ders