John VarleyMammoth

The author writes so beautifully! His imagination, logic, knowledge, humor and humanity created a charming, inspiring story. I’m very glad I came across this book. Thank you.

A thoroughly worthwhile addition to time travel fiction.Many twists and turns, a theoretical mathematician falls in love with an elephant trainer and lives happily ever after. The richest man in the world and his actress girlfriend fall in love and also live happily ever after. How this all manages to come together is what makes it a worthwhile read. Enjoy!PS: I thought “Millennium” was a bit more entertaining than the author evidently did.

Fantastic read. Cannot recommend highly enough. Just when you think you know where it's going they throw you a curve!

PROS1. Mr. Varley can write. His sentences are clear and grammatical, and he knows his craft.2. His keen observations regarding the excesses of late stage capitalism land with a punch.3. Imaginative and hilarious in places.4. Occasionally the writing dazzles: “A thousand computer-controlled pencil spotlights blazed in a hundred colors and swept crazily around the arena as the music swooped stereophonically from one end of the big top to the other.”CONS1. Wish I could tell you that this book is fun and a pleasure to read. The last half of the book is more like a trudge through wet cement. Self-indulgent and repetitive with excessive description and meandering plot lines and stratagems that require work to untangle.2. The characters talk and talk and TALK–about pop physics, pop philosophy and give us burdensome details and minutia about the rooms, the smells and sounds of items and events. This thicket of prose could and should have been cut back by a competent editor.3. Mr. Varley sets up a life-and-death predicament–which he then undermines by giving us characters who debate and ponder, dither and stew and don’t seem to appreciate the seriousness of their situation. If they don’t care, why should we?4. At first, the inner life of the mammoths is described in alternating chapters, but about half-way through the book, Varley abandons this device–and leaves them hanging. The mammoths become mysterious ciphers in the power struggles between the human characters.

Although I read a lot of science fiction and often pick it apart for plausibility compared to known science, I don't always enjoy it, or the telling is disappointing compared to the review, or the ending is not justified nor fulfills its promises. However, this story's journey was exactly what I've been looking for, and although it employed one or two usual tropes to explain the 'hows' of the technology, I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. Great twists of plot along the way, with a deep understanding of human psychology in the interactions and motivations of characters, who were built richly and understandably in their behaviors and ultimate choices. Very intelligent writer with credible explanations of quantum mechanics, string theory, religion, consciousness, and our search for meaning. Best of all... the elephants and mammoths in a compelling and believable story. As a lifelong animal rescuer, the practical reality of wild animals, personalities, practicality of their behaviors - along with a no-nonsense view of the ecology and inevitability of species extinction, it was a special joy to meet Fuzzy and get to know him. This has joined the short list of my favorite books of all time.

The trouble with writing a story in a well-worn science fiction trope like time travel is that you inescapably call to mind those who have travelled the subject before you. In "Mammoth," Varley follows in the footsteps of both Robert Heinlein - notably, "All You Zombies" - and Terry Pratchett's "Strata." It's still a rich field, but the footprints of your predecessors are always in sight.Multi-billionaire Howard Christian wants to clone a mammoth. His expedition to the Canadian Arctic yields a mammoth carcass, all right, but even more surprising is the frozen man alongside, wearing a wrist watch and clutching a metal briefcase. The briefcase may or may not be a time machine. Christian, a brilliant inventor in his own right, hires young physics genius Matt Wright to create a functional time machine. Wright falls for young elephant vet and would-be mammoth trainer Susan Morgan. All of those geniuses and no one stops to wonder about who the corpsicle might be. Until it is too late.Varley is a very good writer. He deftly changes the reader's perception of Howard Christian over the course of the novel. By the time we see Christian lurking in his armed fortress, 200 stories over the streets of Los Angeles, armed with a gigawatt laser; well, I certainly knew who might not be the good guy, benevolent billionaire after all.My own opinion is that beginning with "Red Thunder" - or perhaps even "The Golden Globe" - Varley has consciously set up to do homages to Heinlein's juvenile science fiction novels of the 1950's. Varely's last two or three books are uncannily similar in tone, if not plot and characterization, to stories like "Red Planet" and "Rocket Ship Galileo." While Pratchett may have mercilessly parodied the "artifact from the future" - along with most other science fiction tropes - in "Strata," Varley demonstrates there are good yarns left in the themes Heinlein explored half a century or more ago.I particularly enjoyed another Heinlein reference - "The Man Who Travelled in Elephants" - to which Varley gives the sly wink. A lot of references in "Mammoth" will Reward the Careful Reader.This isn't the wildly imaginative John Varley of the Gaea trilogy, but read as a tribute or homage to other, earlier writers, this novel is still fun. If you haven't read the earlier writers who have explored the ideas underlying "Mammoth," this novel might be more exciting. But you'd be missing half of the pleasure.

I used to really like reading Varley but then he wrote a bunch of books that I felt betrayed his considerable talents and tuned out for many years. Well, seems he back again on the golden road of unlimited devotion. This is quite a good book with a strong storyline, fully realized characters, and a fast moving plot. Plus an intricate time travel adventure and real, live mammoths. A great read, Mr. varley and welcome back.

Thought-provoking and epic, with unexpected twists of fate. Great distraction from the pandemic. Time to look for other books by John Varley.

Plot has plenty of twists and turns. Kept me engrossed to the end.

Entretenido, me hizo pensar en cómo era la vida en la prehistoria. Siempre disfruto con las novelas de John Barley.Muchas gracias por esta novela

Loved the concept especialy from the beasts perspective, loved the twist at the end. Possible the start to modern man

Pensavo di aver gia' capito come finisce a meta', ma mi sbagliavo. Questo indubbiamente fa guadagnare alcuni punti ad una storia che altrimenti risulta malferma, imperniata su eventi improbabili. Ovviamente non mi riferisco alla macchina del tempo, quella e' nel contratto con l'autore quando si acquista il libro. No, sono tutta una serie di eventi e circostanze (non posso entrare nei dettagli per non svelare la trama) che risultano forzate, fuori luogo. In certi casi l'autore riesce in effetti a sorprendere, ma il piu' delle volte la storia ti fa chiedere: "ma perché questa cosa?".