Mammoth Book

A novel of mammoths surviving into modern times seems to invite comparison with Conan Doyle's The Lost World or Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. In fact Mammoth comes closer to Richard Adams's Watership Down. It's engagingly told from the mammoth viewpoint, apart from some omniscient-narrator information dumps which flaunt Baxter's extensive research. These mammoths have creation myths and stories going millions of years back to the Age of Reptiles--which ended when a terrible light appeared in the sky and everything changed. Now the heroine Silverhair belongs to the very last herd, or Family, dwindling towards extinction on a frozen island at the edge of the Siberian tundra. It's a jolt when she visits the island's mysterious Nest of Straight Lines, which we recognise as an abandoned Soviet air base. Baxter imagines mammoths as able but not always willing to grapple with logic: there's a nifty moment when, against strong opposition, a bright youngster saves the Family by bridging a river. Bad times loom for mammothdom as new visitors arrive: the "Lost", the terrible enemy which legend says cannot be fought--man, at his bloodthirsty worst. Silverhair's sufferings and losses of loved ones are harrowing. But the surprise finale offers an exhilarating perspective shift with implications that thrill. --David LangfordRead More