- Hardcover: 212 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers; First Edition edition (Oct 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0061051322
- ISBN-13: 978-0061051326
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 16 x 2 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,568,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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First Sentence
The first Cycle story of all (Silverhair told Icebones, her calf)-the very first of all-is of long, long ago, when there were no mammoths. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The first Cycle story of all (Silverhair told Icebones, her calf)-the very first of all-is of long, long ago, when there were no mammoths. Read the first page
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11 reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Mammoths on ice...
30 Mar 2001
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I was really surprised by this book. I have read other works by Baxter and universally enjoyed them, but was somewhat taken aback by Silverhair. I expected a sort-of mammoth's-eye-view of the ice age, but this is hardly the case. The book follows a small family of mammoths as they have a series of adventures, many of which I found extremely difficult to swallow. At times the mammoths seem about as smart as cattle and at other times are capable of seemingly high-level thought. Honestly, it would have been okay either way, but for them to have more or less intelligence as the plot requires at a given time is silly.
The book is incredibly violent, which was also unexpected. There are several long sequences that are very upsetting to read as the animals suffer tremendously, and their suffering is detailed greatly.
Overall, it is tough to give this one a strong reccommendation. The book has a great premise and, to the best of my knowledge, has never been attempted before. Still, the authors inconsistency in portraying the mammoths combined with the often needless violence made this a sometimes unpleasant read. The book is supposedly the first in a trilogy, but I would be surprised if I read the others.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Something different
5 Oct 2001
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Fans of Stephen Baxter's science fiction may be surprised by this venture into unexplored territory. "Silverhair" is the first of three books in a series which promises to provide a novel and thought-provoking diversion from his previous work.
Silverhair is one of the last of her kind: a woolly mammoth. Long thought to be extinct, these relics of the ice-age have somehow survived eons of change in a remote, isolated "lost world". Legends passed down through the Great Cycle of mammoth history tell of their flight to this last sanctuary, and the great danger from which they fled: the Lost. Now the Lost have once more discovered the existence of Silverhair and her kind. Silverhair must find some way to reconcile thousands of years of mammoth existence with the advent of humanity, or face the end of the Great Cycle- the death of her species.
The theme of conflict between humankind and nature is as old as the human race; the telling of stories from the perspective of animals scarcely less so. In Baxter's expert hands, however, these elements are interwoven to produce a book that touches a rarely-explored space in the mind.
If "Silverhair" has a flaw, it must be the briefness of the story- the pace at times seems incongruously swift, jolting the reader out of the synchrony produced by Baxter's otherwise excellent characterisation. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the book left me with a desire to re-enter the world of the mammoths and explore their culture further.
Baxter creates the legends, social structure and emotions of these majestic animals with a vividness which evokes both a deep resonance with the familiarity of their thoughts and feelings and a sense of wonder at the complete alienness of their nature. Beautiful and brutal, this book yields a glimpse into the mysteries of the long-forgotten past and speaks to the wildness buried in the human soul.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Mammoths alive and kicking
6 Aug 2007
Format:Mass Market 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.)
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