I’ll be honest and say I was unsure of this book from the very beginning. I have very few “hard nos” when reading, but animal death and cruelty are, most of the time, too much for me. When I read that The Tusks of Extinction had themes of animal conservation, poaching, and the resurrection of a species of mammoths, I was a little scared that I couldn’t handle it. I was intrigued, but still worried it would tick too many of my animal cruelty boxes. While Tusks is not a happy book, it is hopeful. There is death, life, and also revenge. 

Goodreads / Amazon

Synopsis:

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.

Dr. Damira Khismatullina, an expert in elephant behavior, was brutally murdered trying to defend the world’s last elephants from the brutal ivory trade. Now, her digitized consciousness has been downloaded into the mind of a mammoth.

As the herd’s new matriarch, can Damira help fend off poachers long enough for the species to take hold? Or will her own ghosts, and Moscow’s real reason for bringing the mammoth back, doom them to a new extinction?

A tense SF thriller from a new master of the genre.

Review:

The Tusks of Extinction is unlike other recent Tordotcom novellas I have read. In many ways, it reminded me of The Themis Files series by Sylvain Neuvel. While that may seem like a strange comparison, both deal with science fiction from the point of view of extremely scientific and educated individuals. While Themis deals with individuals operating alien technology, Tusks sees a character’s consciousness downloaded into the mind of a mammoth. This may sound wildly different, but, in practice, they aren’t so dissimilar. I appreciate how scientific The Tusks of Extinction feels, especially when so much of the sci-fi genre is now dystopic and post-apocalyptic.

The Tusks of Extinction is a story of lost species and of long-forgotten dreams. The main narrative voice comes from Damira, a scientist and expert in elephants. Her point-of-view is thoughtful and bittersweet, and I appreciated the context her mammoth-brain brought to the story. While I enjoyed Damira’s point of view, there were other points of view I enjoyed more. Vladamir’s perspective was probably my favorite; I always enjoyed returning to him and rejoiced in his final choices.

Final Thoughts:

While I believe a novella is normally more than enough to tell a story, for once I wanted more. I wanted more from this world and more points of view. I loved these characters and this world. I loved the juxtaposition of the bleak world and the hopeful resolution. The Tusks of Extinction was perfection.

Rating: 5/5 stars.

Thanks to the publisher for an advanced review copy. All the above thoughts are my own.