The Quest for the Great Gray Mossy

"The Quest for the Great Gray Mossy"
Author	Harry Turtledove
First Appearance	Analog
Collected	The Best of Harry Turtledove
Genre(s)	Alternate history
Preceded by	"Bonehunters"
Followed by	"Junior and Me"

"The Quest for the Great Gray Mossy" is a novelette by Harry Turtledove published in the January/February, 2020 issue of Analog and reprinted in the collection The Best of Harry Turtledove (2021). It may also be read on Analog's website for the time being.

The story is set in the timeline where the Chicxulub impactor missed Earth, and sentient "raptor" dinosaurs take the place of humanity. While it was published after "Bonehunters", it is not a direct sequel or prequel to that work. Rather, it is a pastiche of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. The narrator, Milvil describes his time as a member of Captain Baja's crew as they hunt for the Great Gray Mossy (Mosasaur) which bit off Baja's tail. The timeframe of the story's setting is unclear.

See also

• "Running of the Bulls," a pastiche of Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, set in a world where sentient dinosaurs take the place of humans. Turtledove has stated that it is not set in the same timeline.