The Tusks of Extinction

by Ray Nayler

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?

A tense eco-thriller from a new master of the genre.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Novella, Audiobook, Speculative Fiction, Thriller, Animals

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 16, 2024

About the author

Hugo and Locus Award winning author Ray Nayler was born in Quebec and raised in California. He lived and worked abroad for two decades in Russia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Balkans, and in Vietnam.

​Ray's Locus Award winning first novel was The Mountain in the Sea, which was also a finalist for the Nebula, the Arthur C. Clarke, and the Los Angeles Times' Ray Bradbury Awards.

Ray's novella The Tusks of Extinction won the 2025 Hugo Award, and was also a Nebula and Locus Award finalist.

His third book, the cybernetic political thriller Where the Axe is Buried, was published in April of 2025.

​Ray most recently served as international advisor to the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and as visiting scholar at the George Washington University's Institute for International Science and Technology Policy.

Ray lives in Washington, DC with his wife Anna, their daughter Lydia, and two rescued cats.

Reviews

[Nataliya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think Ray Nayler’s writing just doesn’t work for me, based on now two books of his that I read. Apparently I keep wanting him to tell a different story based on the ideas that he touches upon than the one he chooses to tell. I want to see more of what he leaves in the background brought to the forefront, and vice versa. (Also, someone needs to tell his publisher that Nayler does not write thrillers, neither “eco” nor conventional.)

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

The premise as described in the blurb is fascinating — mammoths are brought back from extinction, and the mind of elephant researcher is uploaded into a mammoth matriarch brain to teach these de-extinct creatures how to live in the wild and be mammoths in the world where even elephants are extinct. That is exactly the story that would have been great to see - the communication, adaptations, the question of authenticity in this human/mammoth translation, and even what such cross-species existence can do to a human mind (or, as a double-whammy, a digital mind copied off a human).

But no, all that by the book’s start has already happened. What we get instead is a story of revenge in the world where poachers, including trophy-hunting billionaires, can’t let the mammoth herd live undisturbed.

And while I agree with Nayler that poaching is awful, the glimpses of that other story I was hoping for made me want more - more than a story that basically just establishes that poaching is not a good thing. And while I agree with the statement, I am not a fan of how it was delivered. Even if I forget that the ending of this book doesn’t make sense other than in the world of wishful thinking, and the heavy-handed way in which the message was delivered, the execution of the story is still not that great. The three different points of view in a book this short are too much, with the characters not being particularly interesting and quite flat, and the plot surprisingly thin, and yet somehow with too much repetition. I’d much rather read about mammoths actually adapting to the wild than about a billionaire’s husband learning that the billionaire is a sadistic jerk.

2 stars.

——————

Also posted on my blog.

[megs_bookrack]

The Tusks of Extinction wasn't what I expected at all and I don't think I should give it a rating.

It's an important work of Speculative Fiction, that really takes its time exploring a heartbreaking topic, and my enjoyment level is fairly irrelevant.



I was moved by it and it's written well, but I wouldn't say I enjoyed it in the way I expected or wanted.

I definitely respect the heck out of this author for tackling this subject though. It couldn't have been easy to do the research necessary to write this story.

To bring you up to speed, this explores, and I will caution, in detail, the poaching of elephants and the decimation of species in general.



I would equate my experience of reading this to my experience with The Vanished Birds. Also a fantastic book, just not necessarily a book for me.

With this being said, I would strongly encourage anyone who thinks this sounds interesting to check it out. The synopsis however, IMO, is a little misleading, as calling this a tense eco-thriller is off the mark.

I would classify this more as a slow-moving Speculative Science Fiction, with a philosophical bent. I know a ton of Readers are going to really be wowed by this one, so please don't let my 'no rating' sway you.



There's a book for every Reader and a Reader for every book. This is an important story, just not necessarily one I care to explore in my free time when I am looking to relax.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Spotify Audiobooks, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I appreciate this author's writing and the importance of the topic.

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 Stars
Video Review: https://youtu.be/Kri0TLzmctk

I loved the premise of this novella. As someone who loves prehistoric creatures, this appealed to my interests.

The story is slow paced and quiet. It's certainly not a biopunk thriller like Jurassic Park but instead an intellectual exploration.

Upon rereading this one, I really came to appreciate it. In a year full of surface level science fiction, this one really stood above the major of books published this year.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mammoths have been brought back from extinction, but they don’t know how to behave like mammoths or to protect themselves from ivory hunters. Dr. Damira Khismatullina was an elephant expert until she was murdered by poachers. Scientists transplanted her consciousness into a mammoth who could teach the rest of the herd and keep them alive.

As with the first book by this author that I read, “The Mountain in the Sea”, the premise of this book is fascinating but I found the structure confusing. I don’t think that I would have known what was going on in the beginning of the book if I hadn’t read the blurb. There is a lot of time jumping. There is also a lot of head jumping among humans and animals. However, the book held my interest and raised a lot of important issues about extinction, conservation and hunting.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publisher.

[Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this audiobook for review on netgally.
I was instantly intruiged by the premise as I've heard talks for some years of brininging mammoths back and while the idea of a person's mind would be put in a mammoth after their death is unrealistic (at least for now), the whole poachers and animal and human cruelty was realistic. Not the most joyfully of stories, had hoped it would be some happy thongs about mammoths being brought back but the audiobook was very good still and get me interested. It was narrated in a good way.

[Brandon Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad+weird and a little strange how the story is set up, but it’s such a quick, unique, and hard hitting read!!

[Trish · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second book by this author and it once again blew my mind.

Here, we live in a slightly futuristic world where bringing an extinct species back is no longer impossible. *
The mammoth is chosen - why is a secret that unravels throughout the book. However, bringing a species back is not the only hurdle - with no adults to learn from, how would a mammoth know how to behave, what to eat etc? So the powers-that-be get a scientist on board - a woman who has been trying, more and more desperately, to stop elephants from going extinct.
Interspersed with the scientist's narration, we also get the story of poachers - basically the enemy of the mammoths and the scientist adamant on giving them a chance on the planet again.

* Resurrection isn't the only amazing technology here as it goes hand-in-hand with having a human conscience uploaded after one's death!

It was highly interesting to get both sides of this "conflict". No, it didn't make the poachers more human to me. I have no sympathy for murderous idiots, no matter how poor they are. Not least because of all their other behavior and the refusal to learn better ways even when they present themselves.
That being said, I was surprised to find that I actually understood the Russian undertaker of the project, how he guaranteed the continued existence of the project, in fact. It was sad, but logical and realistic.

Having Damira be the mind of a mammoth was nothing short of awesome! I always liked stories where a human mind is being uploaded and the combination with all the other themes here was truly great. :D

Once again, riveting writing, fantastic ideas - maybe not entirely new ones but in a new combination - lively characters and wonderful worldbuilding combine to make a very memorable book.

[Matthew Galloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew as soon as I saw the description that I needed this book.

I've read about de-extinction and the usefulness that recreated mammoths might have for our environment. Now, you can tell I loved it from the five star rating, but this was hardly what I expected.

It's a lot more bittersweet than expected, though in all the best ways. There's the woman who fought -- and failed -- to stop elephant poaching, whose personality is resurrected to give mammoths a chance at survival. There's a wealthy gay couple helping to fund the preserve and the hidden tensions in their relationship. There's also an optionless young man at odds with his poacher father. These three groups of people collide in the Russian wilderness. Not everyone will be going home.

Now, it is tense for sure, but I'm not sure I'd market it as much on the eco-thriller aspect. This is a novella about deep emotion, the power of memory, and the ethics and costs of science. It doesn't have easy answers or put a bright future for our world on the page, but it does give the reader a lot to think about and a sliver of hope to reach for.

I'll definitely be reading more by the author! And thank you to Tor for sending the ARC my way!

[BJ Lillis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been eyeing this since before it came out—had my netgalley request denied, in fact. When I saw it won a Hugo, I figured now was the time.

It's a great story. Well worth reading. Deserving of the prize. On an important theme. Has some great emotional moments, some great character moments. Good writing. But it didn't quite connect for me on an intuitive level. Had it been novel length, I think I'd have been disappointed, though I'd probably have had trouble articulating why. But it's not novel length, and as a novella, I highly recommend it.

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first book by Nayler, but not my last.

An excellent novella that made me want to bump up my reading of his previous work, The Mountain in the Sea. I loved the treatment here of how difficult it is to truly understand another mind, no matter your ability to reason and empathize.

“I know what it is like to be from an extraction zone. What it is like to grow up in the place where the taking begins. But an elephant knows what it is like to be an extraction zone. That is their history. The elephant is enormous, but it is not as gigantic as the history of human exploitation.”

[Steve Donoghue]

Any new hardcover release that's 70 pages and nearly $30 was bound to be a disappointment on a couple of levels no matter what, but this little slip of a thing adds a few insults to that injury. It's the story of a group of scientists who've been successful in genetically repopulating a herd of mammoths on the Russian steppes. Their experiments with mammoth DNA have been successful, but they realize this doesn't really speak to the behavioral aspects of actually BEING a mammoth in the wild. For that, inexplicably, they decide they need to download the computerized consciousness of a passionate elephant conservationist into the body of a mammoth matriarch, so she can teach the whole herd what it's like to be a mammoth (despite the fact that absolutely no human could ever possibly even begin to know that). Plot ensues - but not much plot, and no satisfying elaborations in this wee handful of pages. My review is here: https://openlettersreview.com/posts/t...

[DivaDiane SM · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this novella. Generally, I'm loving this trend toward shorter novels, rather than epics.

This book follows a scientist, who is active in elephant preservation when she is young and a young boy who is dragged along by his father, who is a poacher of mammoths (later timeline). Fascinating thought experiment including themes of de-extinction, species preservation, animal sentience/consciousness, poaching and hunting of endangered species.

Naylor's style is easy to read and enjoyable. Highly recommended, especially since it is a very quick read.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I actually amazed myself at how much I learned I could hate a book. I should have known if it was that hard to pick back up after 11 pages that I should just walk away. But I didn’t, so I have no one to blame but myself.

The opening is hard. It’s confusing, to be sure, but it’s also just a difficult subject matter. It’s poaching. It’s violent, and it’s ugly, and the author gets right to the heart of it.

And while that may have contributed to my visceral dislike of this book, I think ultimately I just really really hated the way the story was told.

You’re dropped in with hardly any context at first, which is fine. If you are confused I think re-reading the blurb might help, although be warned some may consider the blurb spoilery?

But it’s just so chaotic. There are soo many characters for such a small book. And despite Damira being someone I should have easily cared about, I didn’t. Every trip down memory lane just made me groan. Why are we spending so much time on Damira’s back story when the interesting part was right there, right in front of her! She is a human mind in a fucking mammoth body! Why are we remembering story time with fucking uncle Timor?!

It jumped back and forth in time with no warning, no labels. Just as I’d settle into one part of the story it’d jump to the next.

I have literally nothing positive to say about it. I didn’t think it was well written. I didn’t like the characters. The plot was thin and takes way too long to expose itself. Reading this was actually painful. If I had paid money for this I would be returning it right now. Thank god I get to give it back to the library.

I am probably going to take The Mountain in the Sea of my TBR. I do not think Nayler is going to be an author for me.

[Arden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tight and succinct, full of vengeance and brutality that -- be you someone who has concern for the environment and the destruction humanity is causing -- you find yourself rooting for.

I loved the different POVs of this novella that all threaded together to one final, tense breaking moment. Despite having so little time with each character, they were vibrant and fleshed out. Damira's history added to the fever pitch of the climax. While the events are, in several ways, rather tragic, they're also very satisfying, and rational to a point, even justified.

[Juliet Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this unique story. The concept was creative and heartbreaking and the execution left me wanting more.

[Sasha]

As a child, I was very lucky to never be exposed to Bambi, which I hear inflicts psychological wounds that kids never outgrow. Instead of that harrowing tragedy, I had the much more uplifting animated short A Mommy for the Baby Mammoth. It was inspired by Baby Mammoth Dima, a 6-month old mammoth whose body was preserved by the Siberian permafrost for tens of thousands of years until it was discovered in 1977.

Baby Mammoth Dima was the perfect recipe for my 7-year-old obsession: the baby mammoth was roughly my size. Dima was my cool uncle's name. The baby mammoth was preserved by snow, and snow was delicious. I went to the chronically empty Paleontological Museum* so much that museum employees knew me there.

So, when I saw Tusks of Extinction's premise, I wanted in. Here's what the book's blurb promises (paraphrased by me):

Future scientific miracles bring mammoths back from extinction. But the mammoths struggle to survive in the wild. To teach the resurrected animals to fend for themselves, the uploaded consciousness of a deceased elephant behavior scientist named Damira is transplanted into the matriarch mammoth. Will she succeed at helping the mammoths survive?

Looking at the blurb, I thought: It's a thriller about survival in Siberia. The premise revolves around bringing extinct animals back into the present. It sounds like Jurassic Park with the wonderful bonus of mammoths and a Siberian setting. My finger couldn't possibly hit the "Request" button faster. I was ready to dive in.

Unfortunately, this was a disappointment. In part, because the novella didn't match the blurb. The word "thriller" is really misleading here. Thrillers have a particular emotional feel, a certain page-turning quality and a sense of danger that is specific and resolvable. Tusks of Extinction doesn't have that vibe.

Instead, this struck me as literary fiction meant to express the author's anger at elephant poaching. A worthy reason to write a novella, absolutely. But the words "thriller" and "survive" don't go with the novella's actual text. The novella focuses solely on the matriarch's hunger for revenge against poachers - not on guiding her herd through the perils of wilderness.

If misleading book jacket copy was the novella's only issue, that would be no fault of the author's. I wouldn't have an issue with giving it a high rating. But the novella's actual text had problems, too.

Nayler's blunted axe approach to the book's central theme didn't sit right with me. Damira the Mammoth is a one-note character that sadly is all too common in today's literary fiction. The first manifestation of Damira's revenge against humans came so abruptly that I went back through the chapter to make sure I didn't miss some transition. Nayler imbues Damira the Mammoth with so much anger that the human consciousness should have been harvested from a serial killer. Wasn't Damira the Human a good-natured scientist who cared about peace-loving elephants and the preservation of life?

Another sign that this is literary fiction lies in the Acknowledgements. There, Nayler talks about his exploration of semiotics in the novella. Semiotics is a branch of philosophy that concerns itself with meaning. I got a B in my literary semiotics class in college, so that aspect of the novel went completely undetected by me. Maybe someone with more interest in philosophy will enjoy it.

This novella held so much potential for me. Its concept is speculative, but not supremely far from today's technology. The consciousness transplant is its most speculative element. Mammoth de-extinction efforts have been going on for years. A Siberian nature preserve is trying to recreate the ecosystem of the last ice age, right around where The Tusks of Extinction is set.

Sigh. Let's move on to the cover. It's really fun to look at.


2024 is the year of the unicorn rainbow's invasion into adult book covers.

The Tusks of Extinction manages to make the unicorn palette look haunted, like a combination of a janky hologram and the putrid rainbow of spilled gasoline. Well done.

As for the font, it's a slightly rounded version of a typeface associated with Russian Constructivist posters of the early Soviet period:



This font is out of place on the cover of a book that is set in waaay-post-Soviet Russia. That angular masking-tape look screams "Russian Civil War" (1918-1922) to me. But, I guess, to a Western audience, it just screams "Russia." Or so this font choice seems to imply.

---
* The Paleontological Museum's series of fossil supernerd videos has a spectacularly understated, slightly creepy, miniseries intro. I hope you are taking notes, Netflix Originals.

Thank you Ray Nayler, Tor, and Spotify Audiobooks for a free audio ARC of The Tusks of Extinction in exchange for my (perhaps overly) honest review.

[Hirondelle (not getting notifications) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like Ray Nayler's writing, and I really like his perspective on things. This novella is the longest work of his I read so far, before I had read only his shorter fiction, and it's very good in many ways: a three-person POV story in a nearish (near plus a hundred years) Russia about present elephants and future recreated mammoths, transferred consciousness, ivory hunters, hunting. And families also, and sacrificing everything for something worth it. Our day will come.

It is a bit grim, though if you make it past the first scenes, those are the worst. They serve as a filter, and elephants deserve the effort of reading, knowing about grim stories about things happening to them. Still, more grim than what I usually pick.

In all, it is very good SF and a story well told, but it did not quite hit the 5 stars feeling or needing to push this into friends' hands. Probably because of what was missing, I never really got why ivory would still be so valued ("worth more than any substance on earth") or be so prevalent (in future Hong Kong) it was in many shop windows still. That is always an issue with near-future speculative fiction, the suspension of disbelief required. Then another big thing never really quite approached, which is more about Damira's experiences as a mammoth, more deeply, and things like sex and children, the balance of humanity-animal was fascinating on itself, but what was here in her novel was mostly about hunting and protecting the species, and just skips going deep into the fascinating aspect of human consciousness in an animal form . And more subjectively and perhaps unfairly, it felt a bit almost predictable. Our day will indeed come, yes,  please. All the parts of the story are very good, but the whole was somehow missing.

Looking forward to reading more of his fiction, short or longer ( and I got a tonne of his short fiction saved up...)

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Tusks of Extinction
By Ray Nayler
I just finished an awesome book, and I find it hard to jump into a mediocre book after that. I hit up a couple of books when I found this one. I am so glad I did. Great sci-fi about uploading consciousness/backing up minds that would benefit mankind, but with a twist. They back up an expert and dedicated scientist trying to save the elephants.
Not to spoil everything, but she dies and a long time passes. They bring back mammoths, then upload her brain into the alpha.
Great book! So much happens. I was totally glued to my Kindle!

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ray Nayler continues to explore the themes covered in his previous novel, with sentience/consciousness in a different species, the fraught area where such a species interacts with humans and the perils of capitalism and extreme social inequity in human society.

I thought it was brilliant, although I wasn't expecting sunlight and rainbows going into a book by this author.

[Miguel Azevedo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ray is steadily establishing himself as one of the core voices in contemporary Science Fiction, and deservedly so. Tusks is entrancing, imaginative, and fearlessly crosses the borders of what we expect from the modern genre.

[Oleksandr Zholud · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fresh (2024) SF novella with a clear message about the present. I read it as a part of the monthly reading for April 2024 at SFF Hot from Printers: New Releases group.

The story starts with Damira, a scientist of Tatar origin from Russia trying to stop poachers from killing elephants for ivory in Africa. Then it shifts to Svyatoslav, a 16-year-old boy in some yet undetermined future, whom his dad took to hunt mammoths in the Siberian tundra, again for ivory. Svyatoslav isn’t interested in hunting, but in listening Nenets tales by their driver and bonding with his father. The story shifts between the two for some time and soon readers find out that Damira was killed by poachers but not before her brain was scanned and uploaded and in a hundred years this scan was implanted in reborn mammoth brain, for she was the only person who knew how elephants in wild lived (all wild elephant are dead for decades by then). Her unique knowledge is used to construct mammoth group dynamics (and culture) from scratch.

The writing is solid (I’m an author’s fan since I’ve read his short stories in Analog and Asimov’s like 4 years ago starting with Father in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, July/August 2020) and both the setting and the message are well presented. However, I liked The Mountain in the Sea more for there are more ideas (plus, unlike in this book, there Russia is no more). Still a nice candidate for 2025 Hugo for best novella.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A long dead scientist who spent her life studying elephants is brought back to help mammothes survive by uploading her conscience into one of these massive creatures. A very interesting read.

[Trevor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wholeheartedly loved this compact, engaging, thought-provoking book.

I read Nayler's debut, the Mountain in the Sea, when it first came out and enjoyed the themes of that book while also struggling at times to stay focused on all of the explanatory science. The Tusks of Extinction takes a different approach, focusing foremost on the characters and how they interact with the complexity of conservation and de-extinction. This book delivers on everything one could hope for in a novella: a compelling narrative with intellectual depth, sufficient character background, and a message to the world about humanity's impact on the preservation of species.

And also - the cover art!

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slow, contemplative and sad. This is not really my kind of writing, but the story was good, the language was clear and straight-forward. The non-linear storytelling is brilliantly done.

Damira, a Russian scientist, fights elephant poachers in Kenia. To preserve her knowledge, her mind is uploaded to a „mind bank“ in Russia. Eventually she is killed by poachers, but we meet her again 50 years later as a mammoth and the matriarch of a cloned herd that she teaches how to live in the wild.

The mammoths live in a protected area, but poachers and hunters find ways. So does Damira, seeking revenge for her past and safety for her herd in the present. Another major character is a 16-year old poacher, following in his father‘s footsteps, hunting for mammoths in the thawing permafrost.

Major themes are revenge, greed, conservation and our impact on the natural world. The story is set in the not so distant future and is medium-to-slow-paced. If you are looking for a fast thriller, this is not it.

In the audiobook a female and male narrator alternate. I did not much like the male audiobook narrator. He sounded very fake and pretentious to me. But I did like the audio as a whole.

Love the cover.

Abrupt ending. It came so fast, I almost missed it.

First story read by the author. I might read something else.

[Silvana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know how to rate this. It's more 3.5 stars. I liked it, really. I think it is going to be one of the more memorable novellas I read. Terrifying speculative fiction on how human made other beings extinct. Ray Nayler excels in bio/tech SF, just like he showed in The Mountain in the Sea. But I feel we still spend too much time in people's heads and you know I don't enjoy streams of consciousness that much. Even when it's a dead person trapped inside a de-extinct mammoth because I was more interested in how they interacted, I wish we had more parts like it. Or even, rather than the flashbacks, focus on the thriller part because it could be very exciting. Still, a recommended Hugo nominee to read. Nayler is an author to watch.

[Rob Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best science fiction opens one’s mind not only to what possibilities might lie just around the corner for humanity and planet Earth but also to what has been happening and what is happening right now.

The Tusks of Extinction -- deserved winner of the 2025 Hugo Award for best novella – does all of these things and wraps them up in a moving tale mostly set on the fascinating steppes of Siberia and comprising three intertwining storylines, each with its own empathetic protagonist:

Damira: A passionate conservationist trying to prevent the ivory hunters from causing the extinction of elephants and whose life turns in a haunting, unprecedented, possibly world-changing direction.

Svyatoslav: A young Russian dragged along by his father and a half dozen other cruel, alcoholic men in their quest to get the ivory of newly de-extincted mammoths – tusks that will bring the men a life-altering amount of money – if they can live to sell it and keep the profits.

Vladimir A man unwillingly accompanying his zillionaire partner who has paid “the GDP of small countries” to legally kill a mammoth and so ironically support the preserve that has been developed for the animals

If, like me, you hate to read about animals getting hurt, you may find the passages that discuss the killing of elephants and mammoths disturbing. These painful visions of how things go wrong are worth struggling and perhaps weeping through, however, to experience this imaginative, exciting, and ultimately hopeful story.

The “Acknowledgements” of this book are also rewarding to give attention to, in part just to get some recommendations for nonfiction books about elephants and de-extinction, but also because the author includes a wonderful tribute to “the park rangers and scientists trying to protect the elephants and rhinos, fighting a war against pointless death. Their courage is a demonstration of who we humans can be at our best – empathetic, brave guardians of our earth, and of the animals that have as much right to it as we do” (99).

Hear, hear!!

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘The Tusks of Extinction’’ by Ray Naylor is both hopeful and sad. Written with an underlying elegiac tone, it is a novella of speculative science fiction and wishful thinking.

I copied the book blurb:

”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.”

There is a chaotic timeline in ‘The Tusks of Extinction’ which is confusing because Damira has two bodies, two lives, and the chapters alternate between her two lives without much explanatory exposition for awhile. In one life, she is a human being. Being human is in her past. Her new existence is living as a mammoth. Being the leader and teacher of her pack is her present. There also are chapters narrated by two different groups of hunters trying to kill the mammoths. One group of hunters are poor simple villagers who hope to sell the tusks chopped off from the mammoths. It would make them millionaires. The other group of hunters, members of an organization dedicated to protect the mammoths, are hired by a wealthy man who likes to kill rare animals for sport. The organization believes permitting one or two mammoths “to be harvested” for an enormous fee paid by a wealthy man is a good thing, financially, in helping the organization support and protect the rest of the herd.

However. Damira no longer feels much like a human anymore. She doesn’t care about human sensibilities and thoughts very much, only about protecting and growing her herd. There is a third way to handle humanity….

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

highly intelligent speculative fiction (a work of biosemiotics, per the author's note), but with some wildly thrilling storytelling choices and an amazing group of de-extinct MURDER MAMMOTHS!!!

it's brutal and i loved it.

the plot structure is overwhelming, but the storytelling is compelling and exciting. for a short novella, it did take me a little too long to get into the swing of the story. there are confusing switches in POV and timeframe, but it really kept me on my toes because i was so interested in damira, her place in the war against poaching, and her transformation.

and honestly, just conceptualizing a future where frozen mammoths are unearthed in glacial melts and brought back from extinction is WILD. humans really do the most, don't we?

it's an intense read. i frequently found myself wincing or cringing at the gore, the needless suffering, the abject loss that occurs when animals are killed. revolting greed, inhumane levels of wealth, and the brutality of human selfishness. i side with the mammoths, all the way.

the ending is both triumphant and heartbreaking. it's true that sometimes the best thing you can do for someone is push them away.

very interesting notes of feed them silence. i love that i've now read multiple works of near-future speculative fiction about an animal scientist lady having her consciousness beamed into a member of the species she's fixated on!!

[Lukasz · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

Excellent novella. Nayler is an excellent writer of thoughtful sci-fi that balances great ideas, difficult themes, compelling characters, and action.

Ivory poachers murdered most of the rangers who tried to stop the pointless death of elephants. It's not a spoiler, we learn about it in the first few pages of the book. Dr. Damira Khismatullina, the foremost authority on wild elephant behavior, was one of the victims. And here comes the twist - years later her "image" is downloaded into the matriarch of a herd of mammoths brought back to Earth in a de-extinction experiment.

Damira leads the herd and while humans don't change and are ready to kill or pay gazillions to kill mammoths for trophies or ivory, the herd learns to fight back.

It's just 100 pages long but it packs a punch and tells an excellent story. Highly recommended.

[Jersy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, unique and intelligent.
The message isn't subtle at all, but it's a good one, one that isn't usually discussed in depth in SF and I can live with a bit heavy handedness in shorter fiction under certain conditions.
I was surprised that the book spent more time around poachers and in Damira's memories than inside the mammoths mind, but the perspectives and the pages are used really effectively. There is a lot of powerful content in this little novella. I really enjoy that this is an idea-book but still has strong emotions and a character-focus.
Not only the mammoth perspective is fascinating, but also the Russian one. Reading SciFi set in any place else than North America and Europe is rare enough and while the focus isn't on the worldbuilding, Ray Nayler sprinkles in some interesting ideas. Well worth a read.