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A review by justabean_reads
The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler
4.0
A novella set in near future Russia, where scientists have resurrected woolly mammoths (why is it never mastodons? Why did I spend so much of grade whatever biology learning the difference if it's never going to be mastodons?) and they're now roaming the steppes. Meanwhile, poachers have hunted wild elephants to extinction, and are setting their sights on the mammoths as a new source of ivory. Our point of view characters are one of the mammoths (formerly a ranger who died trying to save the elephants, consciousness saved and transferred), a teenaged poacher who doesn't want to be on this ride, and the husband of an ultra-rich big game hunter (ditto).
That seems like a lot to jam into a hundred-page novella, but Nayler hits an effective ratio of giving each character their say, keeping the action moving along, and not making things confusing. I liked how the narrative balanced out, and how much we learn about the characters along the way (there's a couple of perfectly-timed revelations that make everything click). There are also a bunch of graphic elephant slaughter details, if that's the sort of thing you do not want to read.
I know Nayler's first book got a fair amount of buzz, and I'll hopefully circle back to it soon.
That seems like a lot to jam into a hundred-page novella, but Nayler hits an effective ratio of giving each character their say, keeping the action moving along, and not making things confusing. I liked how the narrative balanced out, and how much we learn about the characters along the way (there's a couple of perfectly-timed revelations that make everything click). There are also a bunch of graphic elephant slaughter details, if that's the sort of thing you do not want to read.
I know Nayler's first book got a fair amount of buzz, and I'll hopefully circle back to it soon.