- Paperback: 277 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz; New edition edition (13 Jan 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1857988493
- ISBN-13: 978-1857988499
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11.2 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,016,266 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
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 Langford
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Stephen Baxter breaks genre boundaries and brings his unique imagination, epic scope and elegant style to an anthropomorphic fantasy. Starting with the story of a young female mammoth and the struggle her herd has to survive into the present day on a remote Siberian Island the MAMMOTH trilogy encompasses thousands of millions of years, the geological and climatic history of earth and a vision of a startling future. All via an astounding evocation of mammoth. Life, biology, intelligence, culture, myth and legend. It is a triumph of imaginative story telling.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not great, but pretty darn close,
By
This review is from: Mammoth (Paperback)
How can I say it...I enjoyed this book. A lot. The sufferings of the mammoths at the hands of the 'lost' are painful and horrifically believable, but luckily they don't last too long before they're brought to a satisfactory conclusion. The characterisation of the mammoths is excellent - not quite human, but human enough to emmote with them. It's a good book - try it.
4.0 out of 5 stars
The mammoths live again!,
By
This review is from: Mammoth Book One: Silverhair (Paperback)
I fell in love with this book within the first few pages. The mammoth culture is wonderful and rich, with the story interspaced every now and again with the telling of one of their legends. The legends themselves are skilfully crafted; little grains of truth embellished by myth (for example, the evolutionary division of the Proboscidea, Sirenia and Hyracoidea become the three warring sisters Probos, Syros and Hyros), giving the impression that the mammoths are, indeed, the wisest creatures of them all.
The frozen world is beautifully described, from the tundra flowers to the aurora. The mammoth-centric POV is masterfully done; when familiar things such as helicopters are described, you're left with the same sense of puzzlement, just as the mammoths themselves are. And the violence, when it happens, is brutal and horrific. Sometimes unnecessarily so. The book does have its flaws; the ending seems a bit of a cop-out and waaaay too many references to passing dung. But over all, this is a solid and enjoyable book. Perfect for a quick blast!
3.0 out of 5 stars
Mammoths alive and kicking,
By Mikko Saari (Tampere, Finland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mammoth Book One: Silverhair (Paperback)
A small group of mammoths is alive and well in remote Siberia in our times. Stephen Baxter tells us how they live in a world that's changing from what they know in their sagas and legends. Their enemy is, of course, the Lost Ones, as the mammoths call us humans.
Baxter's written better books, and this is no Watership Down (or Empire of the Ants, which is my favourite animal book). It's not bad, though, and the mammoths seem pretty well researched, at least they're somewhat inhuman. They have their own culture, quite different from us humans. Since the book was so fast and easy to read, I'm going to continue to the next part of the trilogy - after all, the book gets some pretty strange ideas in the end. In any case, I can't really recommend Silverhair unless you're really into mammoths or books starring animals in general. However, there's lots of violence and cruelty towards animals in this book, so the most sensitive animal lovers, stay away! (Review based on the Finnish translation.)
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