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Mammoth #2
Longtusk
Even as a young calf, Longtusk understood the hardships the few remaining of his ancient kind had encountered when the glaciers retreated and grassy forests stole over the vast tundra the herds called home. Worst of all was when the Fireheads came -- cruel, two-legged beasts who kill for pleasure. At a tender age, Longtusk became their prisoner -- hobbled, abused, and stripped of his freedom. But through toil and terror, Longtusk never forgot his Clan -- and he learned crucial, intimate knowledge of the Fireheads' ways, though at a terrible price. Now the time is rapidly approaching when he will have to clash with those who seek to destroy every living trace of his proud breed. And Longtusk must not shun the twisted path in front of him or what he is destined to become: the greatest hero of them all.
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
7 people are currently reading
335 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Baxter
403 books2,608 followersStephen Baxter is a trained engineer with degrees from Cambridge (mathematics) and Southampton Universities (doctorate in aeroengineering research). Baxter is the winner of the British Science Fiction Award and the Locus Award, as well as being a nominee for an Arthur C. Clarke Award, most recently for Manifold: Time. His novel Voyage won the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History Novel of the Year; he also won the John W. Campbell Award and the Philip K. Dick Award for his novel The Time Ships. He is currently working on his next novel, a collaboration with Sir Arthur C. Clarke. Mr. Baxter lives in Prestwood, England.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 26, 2018
This second book in Stephen Baxter's "Mammoth" trilogy acts as a loose prequel to the first, and is of equally high quality. Slightly less harrowing than its predecessor, it nonetheless depicts a world of bleak realities, where the law of the jungle is replaced by the law of the steppes, and where the greatest villains are invariably human. Reading this novel from the perspective of 2018, Baxter's insights into the inevitable collapse of every ecosystem and every species seem uncannily prescient. "Longtusk" traces the history of a single mammoth, circa 16,000 B.C., from adolescence through death, during a momentous period for the mammoths and their cousin species. Baxter has clearly done his homework, as the informal bibliography in his afterword reveals, but he also admits to stretching the science with a very few far-fetched conjectures here and there, none of which detract from the novel in the least. The only real flaw lies in Baxter's overly-detailed descriptions of his settings, which sometimes feel like repetitive padding. But this is a quibble: the pacing is taut and the plot thickens continuously right up until the riveting climax. Evidently Baxter intended this series for younger readers, but adult fans of his should not shy away, and will not feel patronized in the least: if anything, Baxter expects his younger readers to stretch themselves. This certainly ranks with his better work, which is to say, most of his work.
June 19, 2009
I was not aware this was in the middle of a series, and picked it up. Despite having no knowledge of the previous book, I found this one to be enjoyable by itself. We follow the story of a young mammoth who is enslaved by prehistoric humans, and the many trials he has to face throughout his life. Well written and very interesting point of view.
November 3, 2017
"the land itself was shaped by the mammoths, who tore out trees and trampled the ground where they passed. Other creatures lived in the shadow of the mammoths, depending on the trails they made, using the water holes they opened up with their intelligence and strength. Even the plants, in their mindless way, relied on the mammoths."
Set 16,000 years before the story of Silverhair and last the mammoths, Longtusk is the heart-wrenching story of the end of a geographical era. "The ice is in retreat, driven back by Earth's slow thaw to its millennial fastness at the poles. But it retreats with ill grace, gouging at the land, and all around there are catastrophic climate events of a power and fury unknown to later ages." The millennia of bounty for the great mammals of the steppe, the mastodon, the direwolf, and the gentle Neanderthal is all but over. They species already beyond the threshold for repopulation, already destined to extinction. But still at this moment "The mammoths were the Matriarchs of the world." The ecological richness of this sequel is colossal.
Told with engaging and vivid xenothropic perspective, this is the story of Longtusk, the lost mammoth whose own separation from his family teaches him that one day there may be a last of his kind. He begins as a typical teenager: "he, Longtusk, the centre of the universe, the most important mammoth who ever lived" His world is continually fascinating, including comprehensive research on mammoth physiology, evolutionary biology, and the behaviour of modern elephants to make his society richer than many portrayals of fringe human culture. "The cows used more than twenty kinds of rumble; a basic vocabulary from which they constructed their extremely complex communications. The Bulls only had four rumbles!" "Longtusk did not measure time as the humans did, packing it into regular intervals. Even in summer, time dissolved into a single glowing afternoon" "as if body and land merged into one single organism, pulsing with blood and seasons." But despite his mammoth biological awesomeness, Longtusk wanders too far from his family and finds himself not yet fully grown and lost in the encroaching winter forest.
Here, the sheer breadth of Baxter's speculative grasp blossoms, as Longtusk is brought to one of the last Neanderthal settlements by a young boy named Willow who sees something of himself in Longtusk. The Neanderthals amaze Longtusk, he sees their hearth and toolmaking as signs of immense intelligence. "the Dreamers were capable of much stranger miracles than merely sharpening sticks." Yet their species is all but extinct. "Did they sing of a time when their kind had covered the world? Did they sing of their loss, their diminution to dwindling, isolated groups like this?" There is a beautiful reflection from a mammoth, the last of the great fauna to persist into the modern age, reflecting on their fellow survivors of millennia as they lose the evolutionary struggle. "Willow had grown up in a society which had known no significant change in generations" Yet there are new animals, changing and adapting so fast that they have been severed from this ecological continuity with life.
"What happened to the Fireheads without Longtusk's wisdom, driven by their own foolishness, cold and wet and thirsty? No one knows. Some say they quickly died out. Some say they became monsters."
Man has come to the steppe forest. And like the ancient inhabitants of the Indus valley, Baxter has these Neolithic humans domesticate the ailing mastodons. Longtusk is added to their ranks and matures to adulthood under the shadow of human dominance. "If he could no longer imagine freedom, how could he ever aspire to it?" Longtusk sees human culture, the sprawling mass of life dependent on proto-agriculture as something somehow divorced from the ancient rhythms of the planet and of evolution. "'They would not be content with eking out unchanging lives. And it is that lack of contentment that drives them on to greatness and to horror.'" Even their art lacks life. "Their illusions were transient and flat. These animals had no scent, no voices, no weight to set the Earth ringing. They were just shadows of colour and line." The mastodons are beast of burden, even brought to war against other humans.
But when the mammoth-worshippers go north in order to wait until the last frail mammoths die without water during winter, Longtusk and his great advisor Walks Like Thunder the mastodon can no longer obey. "'And sometimes - despite the training, despite the intoxicating brews - we recall who we are.'" Longtusk has finally found his sister, Splayfoot, and the Rockheart, the first adult Bull he ever met.
Longtusk and the mammoths flee to the East and north, seeking a 'nunatak', a volcanic patch of ground to the far north where grasses flourish. Longtusk is mentally almost broken by a life of domestication: "the Fireheads had provided a structure to every waking moment. Now the future seemed blank and directionless". But Rockheart, uncomplaining and staunch in his innate knowledge of the land, grinds out the safest route. Old Rockheart breaths his last at the threshold of the nunatak, having sent himself on this final pilgrimage knowing he could save the others but not himself.
"Standing here, looking down on the great frozen majesty of the icecap and its rivers, he felt exhilarated, privileged."
When humans come again to their place of refuge, 40 years after the mammoths arrived, Longtusk depart for a great meltwater lake he glimpsed on his journey all those years ago. Reunited with the human girl Chrocus whom he defied, accompanied by Willow who has long accepted he is the last of his kind, Longtusk breaks open the plug of ice holding back the lake and holding back the Baring Straight. Washed away with man and mastodon, Neanderthal and mammother, Longtusk has saved his heard from the advance of humanity.
This book is an epic as great as the towering bones of the mammoths which have enchanted and awed humans for centuries. So acutely sensory you can feel the blisters of ice beneath your feet, Longtusk is one of the bravest and starkest accounts of honour, bravery, and the sincere virtue of life that I have ever read.
Set 16,000 years before the story of Silverhair and last the mammoths, Longtusk is the heart-wrenching story of the end of a geographical era. "The ice is in retreat, driven back by Earth's slow thaw to its millennial fastness at the poles. But it retreats with ill grace, gouging at the land, and all around there are catastrophic climate events of a power and fury unknown to later ages." The millennia of bounty for the great mammals of the steppe, the mastodon, the direwolf, and the gentle Neanderthal is all but over. They species already beyond the threshold for repopulation, already destined to extinction. But still at this moment "The mammoths were the Matriarchs of the world." The ecological richness of this sequel is colossal.
Told with engaging and vivid xenothropic perspective, this is the story of Longtusk, the lost mammoth whose own separation from his family teaches him that one day there may be a last of his kind. He begins as a typical teenager: "he, Longtusk, the centre of the universe, the most important mammoth who ever lived" His world is continually fascinating, including comprehensive research on mammoth physiology, evolutionary biology, and the behaviour of modern elephants to make his society richer than many portrayals of fringe human culture. "The cows used more than twenty kinds of rumble; a basic vocabulary from which they constructed their extremely complex communications. The Bulls only had four rumbles!" "Longtusk did not measure time as the humans did, packing it into regular intervals. Even in summer, time dissolved into a single glowing afternoon" "as if body and land merged into one single organism, pulsing with blood and seasons." But despite his mammoth biological awesomeness, Longtusk wanders too far from his family and finds himself not yet fully grown and lost in the encroaching winter forest.
Here, the sheer breadth of Baxter's speculative grasp blossoms, as Longtusk is brought to one of the last Neanderthal settlements by a young boy named Willow who sees something of himself in Longtusk. The Neanderthals amaze Longtusk, he sees their hearth and toolmaking as signs of immense intelligence. "the Dreamers were capable of much stranger miracles than merely sharpening sticks." Yet their species is all but extinct. "Did they sing of a time when their kind had covered the world? Did they sing of their loss, their diminution to dwindling, isolated groups like this?" There is a beautiful reflection from a mammoth, the last of the great fauna to persist into the modern age, reflecting on their fellow survivors of millennia as they lose the evolutionary struggle. "Willow had grown up in a society which had known no significant change in generations" Yet there are new animals, changing and adapting so fast that they have been severed from this ecological continuity with life.
"What happened to the Fireheads without Longtusk's wisdom, driven by their own foolishness, cold and wet and thirsty? No one knows. Some say they quickly died out. Some say they became monsters."
Man has come to the steppe forest. And like the ancient inhabitants of the Indus valley, Baxter has these Neolithic humans domesticate the ailing mastodons. Longtusk is added to their ranks and matures to adulthood under the shadow of human dominance. "If he could no longer imagine freedom, how could he ever aspire to it?" Longtusk sees human culture, the sprawling mass of life dependent on proto-agriculture as something somehow divorced from the ancient rhythms of the planet and of evolution. "'They would not be content with eking out unchanging lives. And it is that lack of contentment that drives them on to greatness and to horror.'" Even their art lacks life. "Their illusions were transient and flat. These animals had no scent, no voices, no weight to set the Earth ringing. They were just shadows of colour and line." The mastodons are beast of burden, even brought to war against other humans.
But when the mammoth-worshippers go north in order to wait until the last frail mammoths die without water during winter, Longtusk and his great advisor Walks Like Thunder the mastodon can no longer obey. "'And sometimes - despite the training, despite the intoxicating brews - we recall who we are.'" Longtusk has finally found his sister, Splayfoot, and the Rockheart, the first adult Bull he ever met.
Longtusk and the mammoths flee to the East and north, seeking a 'nunatak', a volcanic patch of ground to the far north where grasses flourish. Longtusk is mentally almost broken by a life of domestication: "the Fireheads had provided a structure to every waking moment. Now the future seemed blank and directionless". But Rockheart, uncomplaining and staunch in his innate knowledge of the land, grinds out the safest route. Old Rockheart breaths his last at the threshold of the nunatak, having sent himself on this final pilgrimage knowing he could save the others but not himself.
"Standing here, looking down on the great frozen majesty of the icecap and its rivers, he felt exhilarated, privileged."
When humans come again to their place of refuge, 40 years after the mammoths arrived, Longtusk depart for a great meltwater lake he glimpsed on his journey all those years ago. Reunited with the human girl Chrocus whom he defied, accompanied by Willow who has long accepted he is the last of his kind, Longtusk breaks open the plug of ice holding back the lake and holding back the Baring Straight. Washed away with man and mastodon, Neanderthal and mammother, Longtusk has saved his heard from the advance of humanity.
This book is an epic as great as the towering bones of the mammoths which have enchanted and awed humans for centuries. So acutely sensory you can feel the blisters of ice beneath your feet, Longtusk is one of the bravest and starkest accounts of honour, bravery, and the sincere virtue of life that I have ever read.
August 7, 2012
It is fitting that so much of this book covers the topic of defecation and mammoth dung, and what the main character spends doing with it. To summarize... If it smells like mammoth dung, and it tastes like mammoth dung, then it probably IS mammoth dung.
And let me tell that this book definitely reeks of mammoth dung, and it left a nasty after-taste in my mouth which could very well be mammoth dung - probably of the dry and flakey variety, rather than the sloppier kind caused by eating too much soft grass.
I picked this up by accident in a bargain bin, without really giving the blurb a proper reading and on the strength that I recognised the author's name and I thought the other book I had read by him was quite decent. Sadly, the author I was thinking of was someone quite different and the book I had in mind was not by Baxter at all. It was only later that I realised the reason I recognised Baxter's name was that he was the author of Evolution, which I had been unable to finish reading due to its general dreadful nature. This was not a good sign, straight off, and so I shelved Longtusk for a couple of months, until I was feeling a little more desperate for something to read.
Sadly, this did not help.
I cannot really remember the last time I read a book which written from the point of view of an animal - and not something like a talking dragon, or someone who had been turned into a dog, but an actual animal - but I was anticipating something along the line of Jack London's work, or Kine, which I remember enjoying immensely, and animal stories have always had a very strong emotional impact on me. However, this was not what I was expecting at all.
For a start the mammoths talk to eachother and have legends and sophisticated reasoning and in effect... are basicly humans in the shape of mammoths, with a different moral code. This puts the book into a whole different realm, more akin to Beatrix Potter or other such literature for very young readers. Yet the content seems to be aimed at a slightly more adult audience. Throughout the book I found myself continually irritated by the way the mammoths were portrayed and their thought processes and learning ability - and yet how we also supposed to believe that humans are so much more intelligent. I was constantly finding myself hoping that the character of Longtusk would do something dynamic and act in a more human way to overcome the problems he had to deal with, or wishing the story was told from a more realisticly 'animal' point of view. The mix and clash of styles was just wishy-washy and poor as Baxter tried to tell tale on both sides of fence and ended up just doing a bad job all around.
In trying to take the time explain neaderthal culture, or provide a commentary on what the primitive humans are doing or how they are making tool, through the eyes of a mammoth we are given the impression that he is a being of deep intelligence. When we given lessons in geography and geology by the mammoths as they explain the effect of the ice on the land and how over thousands of years one thing happens or the other, we are given a strong sense that they have a rich history and wonderful understanding of the world. When they talk in concepts of sadness and war, love and friendship we see them as sophisticated beings. Then when they cannot deal with simple problems such as how to find their way home after a couple of days of wandering, or how to escape from some humans and their amazing rope, we are left annoyed at their stupidity and lack of personal initiative.
Even an attempt at an emotional ending failed to redeem this stinker of a book in my eyes. It is possible that a young reader who is crazy about mammoths might enjoy this book, but I would not be recommending it to anyone any time soon. There are plenty of better books written from an animal's point of view, and plenty of better books written about prehistoric times.
I will NOT be reading either of the other two books in this series, and will be making a strong effort never to read anything else at all by this author.
And let me tell that this book definitely reeks of mammoth dung, and it left a nasty after-taste in my mouth which could very well be mammoth dung - probably of the dry and flakey variety, rather than the sloppier kind caused by eating too much soft grass.
I picked this up by accident in a bargain bin, without really giving the blurb a proper reading and on the strength that I recognised the author's name and I thought the other book I had read by him was quite decent. Sadly, the author I was thinking of was someone quite different and the book I had in mind was not by Baxter at all. It was only later that I realised the reason I recognised Baxter's name was that he was the author of Evolution, which I had been unable to finish reading due to its general dreadful nature. This was not a good sign, straight off, and so I shelved Longtusk for a couple of months, until I was feeling a little more desperate for something to read.
Sadly, this did not help.
I cannot really remember the last time I read a book which written from the point of view of an animal - and not something like a talking dragon, or someone who had been turned into a dog, but an actual animal - but I was anticipating something along the line of Jack London's work, or Kine, which I remember enjoying immensely, and animal stories have always had a very strong emotional impact on me. However, this was not what I was expecting at all.
For a start the mammoths talk to eachother and have legends and sophisticated reasoning and in effect... are basicly humans in the shape of mammoths, with a different moral code. This puts the book into a whole different realm, more akin to Beatrix Potter or other such literature for very young readers. Yet the content seems to be aimed at a slightly more adult audience. Throughout the book I found myself continually irritated by the way the mammoths were portrayed and their thought processes and learning ability - and yet how we also supposed to believe that humans are so much more intelligent. I was constantly finding myself hoping that the character of Longtusk would do something dynamic and act in a more human way to overcome the problems he had to deal with, or wishing the story was told from a more realisticly 'animal' point of view. The mix and clash of styles was just wishy-washy and poor as Baxter tried to tell tale on both sides of fence and ended up just doing a bad job all around.
In trying to take the time explain neaderthal culture, or provide a commentary on what the primitive humans are doing or how they are making tool, through the eyes of a mammoth we are given the impression that he is a being of deep intelligence. When we given lessons in geography and geology by the mammoths as they explain the effect of the ice on the land and how over thousands of years one thing happens or the other, we are given a strong sense that they have a rich history and wonderful understanding of the world. When they talk in concepts of sadness and war, love and friendship we see them as sophisticated beings. Then when they cannot deal with simple problems such as how to find their way home after a couple of days of wandering, or how to escape from some humans and their amazing rope, we are left annoyed at their stupidity and lack of personal initiative.
Even an attempt at an emotional ending failed to redeem this stinker of a book in my eyes. It is possible that a young reader who is crazy about mammoths might enjoy this book, but I would not be recommending it to anyone any time soon. There are plenty of better books written from an animal's point of view, and plenty of better books written about prehistoric times.
I will NOT be reading either of the other two books in this series, and will be making a strong effort never to read anything else at all by this author.
November 9, 2011
When I first saw this book at the Library and read what it was about I was a bit skeptical. I had thoroughly enjoyed the last book, Silverhair, but writing books that involve legends living millions of years ago is a bit risky.
I got it out and read it anyway. And I'm so thankful I did! It was thrilling to learn the trials of Longtusk, captured by humans at such a young age, and the internal and external conflicts he had to face. As always Stephen Baxter has woven an original plot, and his characters have strong personalities. And, just like Silverhair, the ending left me with tears pricking my eyes.
Now onto Icebones! I wonder if the book with capture and engage me like Silverhair and Longtusk did. Only one way to find out...
...I better get reading!
I got it out and read it anyway. And I'm so thankful I did! It was thrilling to learn the trials of Longtusk, captured by humans at such a young age, and the internal and external conflicts he had to face. As always Stephen Baxter has woven an original plot, and his characters have strong personalities. And, just like Silverhair, the ending left me with tears pricking my eyes.
Now onto Icebones! I wonder if the book with capture and engage me like Silverhair and Longtusk did. Only one way to find out...
...I better get reading!
July 31, 2023
Δεύτερο μέρος της όμορφης τριλογίας Behemoth, και ο Longtusk ζει σε μια εποχή που η ανθρωπότητα τείνει να εδραιώσει την κυριαρχία της πάνω στη γη. Μικρόψυχο, άπληστο και ενοχλητικό σαν παράσιτο, το είδος των δίποδων θα αιχμαλωτίσει τον Longtusk κρατώντας τον μακριά από το μεγαλειώδες πεπρωμένο του. Για πόσο όμως;
August 12, 2013
This was the second in a series of three. I did not read the first book since I bought this book from the library. In a way this reminds me of Watership Down. Even though this was book two, you were able to pick up on the story line.
January 22, 2020
Once again Stephen Baxter has surprised me with this delightful and moving tale about a woolly mammoth. Longtusk was mentioned many times in the previous book (set thousands of years after this one) with great reverence, so it was nice to find out more about this great beast. They say you should never meet your heroes, and Longtusk is certainly nothing particularly special despite sporting an impressive pair of tusks. However, he is able to draw upon the experiences of his life to make some life-or-death decisions for his clan thereby ensuring their future.
I enjoyed the characters surrounding Longtusk, particularly Willow and Crocus and the story arc of the three came to an emotional climax that reached me more than I was prepared for.
Oh, and be prepared to read about dung a lot.
Bring on book 3!
I enjoyed the characters surrounding Longtusk, particularly Willow and Crocus and the story arc of the three came to an emotional climax that reached me more than I was prepared for.
Oh, and be prepared to read about dung a lot.
Bring on book 3!
May 27, 2018
Another excellent installment of the mammoth saga. Now I have to track down the rest of the books in this series. I believe there are two more.
If you like the Duncton books, or Watership Down, this is a must read.
If you like the Duncton books, or Watership Down, this is a must read.
February 4, 2019
Sequel that is actually a prequel. The first book takes place in a distant future. This one is of the distant past. Mammoth families with shades of Clan of the Cave bear and then some Missoula flood action. Nice!
January 20, 2023
Kakkososa oli oikeastaan lisää sitä samaa - kävelyä, kävelyä, ajattelua, nyt myös vähän mastodontteja. Ei enää innostanut sillä tavalla kuin sarjan aloitus, mutta hyvä toki silti.
May 26, 2013
Both a prequel and sequel to Silverhair, Longtusk is also funnier. There is a bit about the journey to Mars. The story is about adaption. Both it is worth reading simply for the following two lines:
“Well, I’m sorry. I was trying to make a point. I left out the fights and sex scenes.”
“The greatest hero of them all was twelve years old, and he was in trouble with his mother again”
“Well, I’m sorry. I was trying to make a point. I left out the fights and sex scenes.”
“The greatest hero of them all was twelve years old, and he was in trouble with his mother again”
August 7, 2012
The second cool in this trilogy tolls me mammoths bye this first encounters with men. it is a Tory compelling story.
November 3, 2015
A solid novel, and even better than its predecessor Silverhair.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews