An intriguing, intelligent, and empathetic “eco-thriller”

When you bring back a long-extinct species, there’s more to success than the DNA.

Moscow has resurrected the mammoth, but someone must teach them how to be mammoths, or they are doomed to die out, again.

The late Dr. Damira Khismatullina, the world’s foremost expert in elephant behavior, is called in to help. While she was murdered a year ago, her digitized consciousness is uploaded into the brain of a mammoth.

Can she help the magnificent creatures fend off poachers long enough for their species to take hold?

And will she ever discover the real reason they were brought back?

Ray Nayler’s novel The Mountain in the Sea has been generating a lot of buzz since its publication, and racked up a number of award wins and nominations (most recently, the Locus Best First Novel Award). When The Tusks of Extinction popped up available for review, I thought it would be a good introduction to the author’s work, and I dove in as soon as I got it. I’m happy to report that I enjoyed it, and it’s a well-written and engaging eco-mystery. Continue reading →