- Paperback: 322 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz; paperback / softback edition (21 Jan 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1857985958
- ISBN-13: 978-1857985955
- Product Dimensions: 22.8 x 15.2 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 701,749 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
Product Description
Starting with the story of SilverHair, the last of the few remaining mammoths that have survived in a Siberian evolutionary backwater the MAMMOTH trilogy is the story of the mammoths of history and legend. It is their story built on their own myths and traditions. Conscious and intelligent, the mammoths of this trilogy have, within the limits of their nature, their own culture and oral mythology, even a creation myth, which they will use to tell their story, understand their world and try to cope with the encroachments of mankind. In Book One Silverhair must lead the last surviving family of mammoths to safety when a party of Russian sailors is shipwrecked on the Siberian island the mammths have hidden on through the millennia. The hope for the future lies in her skill and wit and with the calf she is carrying.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format: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.
Format: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!
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!
Format: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.)
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.)
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Surprisingly close to good
I bought this book because it was cheap, expecting that it would be nonsense. I mean, Watership Down but about mammoths? The idea was preposterous. Read more
Published on 28 April 2007 by S. Bailey
Dinosaurs are not reptiles
Stephen Baxter generally knows his stuff on stars and space travel. This stuff was shoddy by comparison, I could not suspend my disbelief for long enough to see if it was an... Read more
Published on 26 Mar 2002 by Mr. G. M. Williams
A good 'sequel' to Mammoth1:Silverhair
While using Silverhair to relate tales of Longtusk as the medium, this book is basically a prequel, telling the story of Longtusk, the great hero referred to so often in the first... Read more
Published on 10 Jan 2001
I had never read any Stephen Baxter before Mammoth...
I had never read any Stephen Baxter before Mammoth, but I am not tempted to read his material ever again as a result... Read more
Published on 30 Aug 2000
A good book
I picked this book up for a bit of light reading, and didn't put it down for six hours - and even then, it was only because I'd finished it. Read more
Published on 14 Aug 2000
HHHMMM.....different
I was looking for the "sci-fi" content, but got engrossed in the life and times of a mammoth. Very different - first person mammoth.
Published on 2 April 2000
Not a mammoth achievement (yet!)
This book is rather deceptively presented. It is a giant de-luxe paperback, superbly bound, 9 inches by 6 and an inch thick. Read more
Published on 15 Mar 1999
An Original and though-provoking novel from new SF Master!!!
'A book about mammoths told from their perspective.' At first glance you could be forgiven for thinking that Baxter has taken leave of his senses, but you'd be very wrong. Read more
Published on 11 Mar 1999
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