The Dinotopia books don't make for long reading. It is mostly the marvelous artwork of Gurney which makes the books so fascinating. However, he also took great care in making all the details plausible and describe many aspects of Dinotopia rather than remaining superficial. The movies (the mini series in particular) had nothing at all of this love for the detail. On the contrary, they were outrightly violating "rules" set up by Gurney in his Dinotopia books. It may be a good thing though to have seen the movies first as they may not appear so disappointing at all if you don't know the books.