I wish this would have been longer. There was plenty of a story there to create a full novel. I loved The Mountain in the Sea and will definitely read anything else by Ray Nayler.

Here's the text of my review (linked below):

My favorite book of last year was Ray Nayler’s “Mountain in the Sea.” It is great, and you should read it!

When I heard, relatively recently, that he was coming out with a new book I was quite excited. I hurried to NetGalley to see if I couldn’t get myself a review copy, and for some reason I could! And I did.

Then I read it.

First off, it is really very good.

Secondly, it is short. It is 112 pages according to the publisher. I don’t know what that would technically be considered, but I consider it a novella.

112 pages isn’t a lot of space to build an intricate world, but Nayler does an excellent job of limiting his characters to a few important ones, linking them meaningfully, and then tugging at all the heartstrings.

If you like elephants, and why wouldn’t you, you should read this book and get sad.

If you like ivory, you’re a monster.

I really did like “The Tusks of Extinction,” but I find Tor.com’s pricing of works like this to be bananapants. $25 for a hardcover that’s 115 pages?! I blame the success of the Murderbot for that (though the Murderbot books are excellent, so I’ll forgive them).

Going into this short novel I had a flippant attitude about what I was about to read. A woman's consciousness put in to a woolly mammoth? Silliness! Then, as I started reading the novel I was horrified at the descriptions of the poachers murdering and mutilating the bodies of elephants for their ivory (or feet, or skin) and I wondered if I even wanted to read this because I found the scenes extremely upsetting.
However, as the story and plot began coalescing, I was entranced. I had to finish it because I had to know more about it. About the illegal trade, about the lives of poachers, big game tourism/so called conservation and yes, even the mammoth herd being led by the matriarch/human consciousness.
I believe that this is an important book that needs wider exposure to educate humanity.

Dr. Damira Khismatullina wanted nothing more to save elephants from being slaughtered by poachers. Before being murdered herself, she had her consciousness digitized and stored. She couldn’t help save the elephants, but maybe she can play a role in saving the mammoths being brought back from extinction.

Her consciousness is uploaded into a mammoth, and she must use her knowledge to help the mammoths fend off the poachers that almost killed off the elephants. Along the way, Damaira also hopes to learn why the mammoths were brought back in the first place.

From the synopsis, I thought the main character perspective would be from Damira, but we also closely follow the son of one of the poachers, Svyatoslav. We see the violence and carnage from his perspective, but I also liked the nuanced commentary of how many poachers view llegally selling tusks as a way to take themselves out of a life of poverty.

The third perspective follows, Vladimir. His husband,Anthony, paid a year’s salary to kill one of the adult male mammoths. Supposedly, it’s to keep the population under control since the mammoths don’t have any natural predators anymore, but Vladimir struggles with Anthony’s insatiable need to kill and must decide if he still wants to be with him.

I enjoyed the social commentary and the science fiction aspects of deextinction and the ethics around that topic, but I was disappointed with how little we see of Damira interacting with the mammoth herd. Since this is such a short book, I never felt any emotional connection to any of the characters. I wish we would have just stayed with one or at most two perspectives. A lot of interesting ideas packed into too short of a book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tordotcom Publishing for the digital arc. All opinions are my own.

#tusksofextinction#tordotcompublishing #deextinction #mammothstories #sciencefiction #scifi #2024januaryrelease #2024newbookreleases #netgalley #bookreview

Mammoth Life Finds a Way: The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler

When it comes to the de-extinction of the mammoth, Ray Nayler’s eco-thriller The Tusks of Extinction takes a similar approach to Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park: The Ice Age creatures are dug out of the frozen earth, their DNA extracted and mixed with that of elephants, the embryos birthed by the last few elephants living in captivity generations after they themselves were hunted nearly to extinction. But no wild elephants have roamed the planet for a long time at the start of this ambitious if overstuffed novella. The next best thing? Dr. Damira Khismatullina, the foremost expert on the species.

The only wrinkle is that Damira died a hundred years ago, brutally murdered by the poachers she attempted to protect the last elephants from. The solution, then, exceeds Crichton’s resurrection by embedding Damira’s consciousness into the mammoth matriarch, so that she might teach the nascent herd at least a fraction of what was long-ago pure instinct. Though this seems like a rather straightforward premise, Nayler layers it with several more subplots that simultaneously distract from Damira’s fascinating and noble undertaking yet nonetheless provoke thought, making for an expansive yet frustratingly brief tale.

The best way to take this story is in context with similar works. For one, it’s a lovely companion piece to Brooke Bolander’s 2018 novelette The Only Harmless Great Thing, which dances between an alternate-history 20th-century linking Topsy the elephant and the Radium Girls, and a future in which humans implore sentient elephants to solve the atomic priesthood problem. Both stories center on an impassioned woman with an expertise in elephants—idealistic scientist Kat, versus doctor and anti-poaching activist Damira—begging these wise creatures for the nigh-impossible, more for humans’ sake than for their own.

Like Harmless, Tusks never lets the reader forget that humans will always be at least one degree removed from these magnificent creatures. Kat can only approximate a trunk’s fluid signing in Proboscidian; Damira’s expertise, though as rare and treasured as ivory, will never transcend the purely academic. At least, until the hypothetical becomes the new reality, and her lived experience as a mammoth sets a new precedent. But while tapping into ancient herd dynamics falls squarely on Damira’s shoulders, it is not her sole responsibility to actually keep the mammoths alive; that is complicated by the human greed that muddies the noble mission of the geneticists that resurrected the mammoths, and her, a century after her death.

That massive time-jump is important to the premise, cementing Damira’s expertise, but has little bearing on the plot. Far-future Russia seems not that different from near-future, in that both have developed thought-related technology beyond our current scope. So think less that it’s Nayler covering such a broad span of time in 112 pages and instead inhabiting two fixed points that happen to be a hundred years apart. In fact, that seems to be by design with how the story sets itself up, introducing human Damira and mammoth Damira almost interchangeably, until you catch on to the different ways in which she inhabits the Kenyan savannah versus the Siberian steppe.

The hop-skips of both perspective and timeline are at first difficult to adjust to; there is so much information to impart that it would initially seem more useful to lay it out more chronologically. However, it soon becomes clear that this style of semi-free-association—especially for Damira, switching between mammoth and human recollections from the barest whiff of scent—mimics the elephant’s memory web. Once you settle into that rhythm, Tusks charges ahead, albeit in an unexpected direction.

While I expected such a slim story to occur entirely within Damira’s consciousness, she actually shares about equal space with two other characters: Syatoslav, the teenage son of poachers, and Vladimir, whose rich husband Anthony invites him on a secret billionaire hunting trip—all with the mammoths in their sights. By exploring these young men’s relative dependence on fathers and spouses, whether through financial or age-related autonomy, as well as their personal ambivalence to the cruelty of hunting, Nayler makes these supposed antagonists shockingly sympathetic. After all, each is a member of his own particular tribe, whether born or married into that family; yet neither has enough control to break away from the herd—at least not before this moment of confrontation on the frigid steppe.

Furthermore, within all of these pseudo-herds there are tiers, based on class disparities and self-perceived issues of importance to history. There are the people like Damira, whose memory is deemed important enough to be uploaded to the Moscow Institute’s Mind Bank, while her former schoolmate and friend Yelena is just the tech grunt pressing buttons. (Yet let’s not put aside the fact that one of Damira’s most indelible human memories is trading backstories with another elephant activist, Wamugunda, and her shame at him “coming from somewhere” (his upbringing in Kenya) and her “coming from nowhere” (she loved elephants as a child).) It’s another thing that the intellectual class has in common with the poachers; the latter realize that while they do the grisly work of killing the animals, they are merely delivering to their rich buyers what they already own, i.e., the tusks that they won’t dirty their hands to get said hands on.

This ever-present theme of imbalanced payment grimly illustrates the losing endeavor of the cruelly-named ivory trade; at least one human always loses so that another human may gain nothing more than a trophy. It’s very telling that the key human trait that Damira teaches the mammoths is revenge, and that she’s so mystified to discover that they learn mercy all on their own.

Nayler withholds some key information about the end of Damira’s human life, which will recontextualize the aforementioned teachings and discoveries that mark the next stage for her herd. Similarly, he reveals some fascinating bits of worldbuilding via technology that many a reader would likely want another whole novella about: more about the Mind Bank as a system and an archive, for one; and a century later, the Alexander, a seashell-shaped device that allows its wearer to project their thoughts one-way to eager listeners. He’s woven a fascinating web yet dips into so many different pockets that the end result is certainly affecting but feels unfinished.

The story is about what happens when you can download someone’s consciousness and upload it to another being in the future.

Damira, who studied Elephants and was an anti-poaching activist, when she was human, had her consciousness downloaded so it could be preserved. Over a hundred years later scientists have decided to resurrect the Woolly Mammoth, but they aren’t surviving well in the wild. So they upload Damira’s consciousness to one of the Mammoths so she can help them survive. Damira now has the experience and memories of both a human and a mammoth.

Damira also remembers her rage at poachers hunting Elephants and now that she is a Mammoth is teaching the other mammoths to take revenge on the poachers.

This book was very different from what I expected. It is more contemplative and an exploration of ideas than I expect from a thriller.

I would have loved to explore the ethics of uploading someone’s consciousness into another body, and how you have a body without a consciousness in the first place, but this book didn’t explore that. Instead it explored revenge and the human capabilities for violence juxtaposed with the mammoth’s peaceful nature.

There were a lot of interesting ideas presented here, but I would have loved it if more of them were explored. Ultimately I was underwhelmed by this book, but I am interested in checking out more books from this author

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

Is “Eco-Thriller” my new favourite genre?

‘Cause I think “Eco-Thriller” is my new favourite genre.

This is my second book by this author, and, while the novella didn’t give you quite the depth of The Mountain in the Sea, I enjoyed it just as much.

Elephants and poachers and mammoths, oh my!

I enjoyed the setting. I’ve read about the Russian Steppes, of course, but this bitty work, really showed it off.

My favourite part, (besides the vigilante justice, which, turns out I’m a little too okay with) was learning a little about elephants/mammoths, and how their trunks function in regards to memory. So interesting.

Thanks to NetGalley, Tor Publishing, and Spotify Audiobooks for this snack of an ARC.

This is actually one of two mammoth cloning books coming out this year!

This starts as a pretty typical eco-thriller, at least from my experience, but when the book has the elements of scifi mixed in, things truly take off. In a not-so far off future, computers can make a copy of your brain and conscious. One such conscious is the late expert in elephant behaviors, Dr. Damira Khismatullina. Not just a doctor, but a strict protector of the remaining elephant population, readers have to understand just how far some people will go to protect them. And when Russias newly cloned mammoths end up more like blubbering, stagnant copies then re-evolved miracles, they have to ask if they can imbed the doctor’s conscious into one of the mammoths in the hopes that she can teach them to survive and have future generations be born with intact instincts.

All of the above alone should be enough to entice a scifi or eco reader to grab at this one. But unfortunately for me, the other parts of the book were kind of a confusing blend of “what?” That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy this, because I did enjoy more than I disliked, I just found there to be issues.

To be honest, I did start this one on a long drive right after finishing a much longer story that I really loved. As a novella, this one didn’t last long enough for me to connect past that initial changing of setting and characters. So the “tense eco-thriller” promised in the blurb didn’t hit for me, as I really didn’t find this thrilling.

The messages behind the not-so distant future worked for me, as well as the continued greed of humanity with high priced mammoth hunting, but there was a decent amount that was simply flat for me. Personally a 3/5* for me.

This one was a DNF for me, but I am still very thankful to the publisher, author, and Netgalley for granting me advanced digital and audio access to give this one a try.

Tusks of Extinction" is a gripping exploration of the consequences of playing with nature's balance.A compelling narrative that keeps you hooked until the very end

What a fascinating story. I love the weird sci-fi novellas that Tor always finds.

I've heard heard of Ray Nayler before, but Nayler is now an author I am going to keep an eye out for. This was an excellent story of ecology, politics, and environmental crises. As someone with a biology background, I am always driven to stories with characters with experience in similar fields such as Damira. I am also fascinated by the ethics of de-extinction, and I thought they were discussed really well in here. I feel like describing more of the story would do it a disservice! If you like a strange sci-fi novel (Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo comes to mind as a comparison here), I highly recommend checking this one out.

I read Ray Nayler for the first time in 2022, and he quickly became a must-read author. So when I saw he had a Tordotcom novella coming out about memory and mammoths, it was no decision at all to request the ARC of The Tusks of Extinction.

The Tusks of Extinction takes place in two timelines, one in which an elephant behavioral scientist fights the rampant poaching of African elephants, and the other featuring both poachers and trophy hunters seeking a mammoth herd in Siberia, after the extinct giants have been brought back Jurassic Park-style. The connection: that scientist has had her consciousness uploaded into one of the mammoths and is encountering the poachers from an entirely new angle.

The result is a gripping and emotional novella driven by a whole lot of anger directed at poachers and trophy hunters. And because it’s Nayler, it’s told in significant portion from the perspective of minor characters—the son of a poacher, the husband of a trophy hunter. The driving force of the story is a powerful and morally straightforward one, but these perspective characters bring pathos to even the wrong side.

The central conflict has stakes aplenty—literally life and death—and drives the narrative forward quickly, but just as central to the story is the theme of memory. The lead is trying to bridge the gap between a genetically engineered species and the ancestral memory of its long-dead predecessors, all while seeing her human memories recur in the midst of animal experience. Meanwhile, both she and the poacher’s son repeatedly reflect on the memories of their mothers and how parental influence has shaped or failed to shape the remainder of their lives.

The ruminations on memory and the political background to poaching and trophy hunting add a meditative element to the novella that I’ve come to expect from Nayler. It adds a level of depth to a story that could’ve otherwise easily been a paint-by-numbers thriller with a strong conservationist message. Instead, it keeps the themes and the thrills but doesn’t limit itself to them, telling a story just as thoughtful as it is exciting.

After a year-and-half of reading his work, I’m not surprised to find myself loving something written by Nayler. He consistently delivers thoughtful sci-fi with the perfect blend of excitement, reflection, and pathos. The Tusks of Extinction is no exception—an excellent read.

Recommended if you like: contemplative sci-fi, conversationist themes.

Overall rating: 17 of Tar Vol’s 20. Five stars on Goodreads.

A scientist has used DNA and the last few captive elephants to help bring Mammoths back from extinction but then ran into the problem of them not knowing how to be Mammoths and the leading expert in wild elephant behavior was murdered the year before.

This was a very interesting sci-fi that focuses on the impact humans have on the natural world and how we can make it better or worse depending on our actions, especially for the animals.

I loved Damira's character and would definitely read more.

Title: The Tusks of Extinction
Author: Ray Nayler
Source: DRC via NetGalley (Tor Publishing Group, Tordotcom) in exchange for an honest review
Publication Date: January 16, 2024
Synopsis: Goodreads
Purchase Link: Amazon

Why did I choose to read this book? (I usually write this before I read the book.)

The first Jurassic Park movie came out when I was a kid and it honestly knocked my socks off. I am fascinated by the idea of bringing back extinct species. The mammoth is revived in this book AND a woman’s consciousness is able to be downloaded into one of them to guide them in this modern environment? NetGalley had me by my fantasy/Sci-Fi loving heart in just one sentence of the description.

What is this book about? (I usually write this after I read the book.)

This book centers around three themes: valuing expertise, environmentalism (specifically protecting animal species), and how memories work to form who we become. (If you want more of a synopsis, click on the Goodreads or NetGalley links up above.)

What is notable about this story?

I really like it when characters can get the revenge they desire, and Damira gets the chance to get some of her own. She has to become a mammoth first, but she gets it and that feels really good. Considering what happened to her in her former life, it was satisfying to see her take this second chance and use it for good.

At the end of the narrative, Ray Nayler makes a small statement about becoming educated. He states that once you receive an education, you can’t go back to just being. You’ve seen beyond and will always need to understand, analyze, criticize, and know. He doesn’t spend long on this sentiment, but the implication is that an education changes you in irreversible ways that aren’t always positive. It brought me back again to Plato, the allegory of the cave, and it’s just another reminder that sometimes, once you’ve learned something, once you understand something, you can’t go back again, you can’t go home again, or they’ll rip you to shreds. This book is too short to have this final argument hit very deeply, but it did for me just because I am always primed for it.

I have mentioned this about many books I’ve read, but I think that this would be an excellent story to add to a college syllabus. It’s short enough that it can be read within a semester and in a philosophy, psychology, or sociology class you could use it to explore personhood and societal duties between persons. A less stuffy book to explore deeper thoughts and ideas. Its briefness leaves room for the discussion, to fill in the gaps and answer the questions you’re left with.

Was anything not so great?

I come back to books by Blake Crouch in these situations, and I’m sure Sci-Fi authors get sick of being compared to him like YA authors get sick of being compared to the Hunger Games, but it’s important. In Crouch’s novels (Dark Matter, Recursion) the technology that makes the book science fiction is explained and used enough that the reader can understand the risks and rewards. When the characters use the tech, we care about what happens because we understand how it works enough to know what might happen to the characters.

In this story we get like, three paragraphs about a compulsory study where experts must submit to having their consciousness stored in a computer I think? Then we get about three paragraphs that happen hundreds of years after this that put the main scientist Damira’s consciousness into a recently revived mammoth in an effort to teach mammoths how to be mammoths, because Damira was an expert on elephants in her former life.

How does this work? Why does it work? Who developed this technology? This book is so short that it leaves out so much that is needed to be invested in it. If you care about animals you’ll have a head start at investment, especially in Damira’s storyline, but a sci-fi book like this shouldn’t lean on that kind of emotional attachment, it should explore the new paths and pose new questions. Nayler zooms through these 192 pages, writing us through as fast as possible, but at the end it feels like we’re left with the same problems as when we started. While that might be the point, it’s not very satisfying as a reader to spend that time reading only to loop back to where I began.

What’s the verdict?

4 stars on Goodreads – it’s the foundation you can build opinions on, it will expand your mind with questions, but it will leave you wanting. Worth a read and it won’t take you long.

Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler

I requested this ARC because I want to read more eco-literature and the blurb piqued my interest. Mammoths have been brought back from extinction but they do not know how to survive in the wild so they are dying off. Damira is the foremost elephant behaviour specialist and her consciousness has been uploaded into the brain of a mammoth in order to save them. Unfortunately de-extinct mammoth is an even more valuable prize for poachers so survival is not guaranteed.

Even though it might be obvious from the blurb, I need to give a content warning for poaching/hunting and to set expectations that even though this is a novella it’s not a light read. As an animal lover, there were several sections that were hard to read but they serve the overall message. The novella covers pretty heavy subject matter but the themes are especially relevant right now in a world where capitalistic greed rules all.

My favorite element is the way that Damira the human’s professional expertise and personal experiences were layered on top of the mammoth’s brain and memories so that the life she experiences is a unique blend of human & animal via technology. This leads to a great comparison between human’s tendency for revenge vs. an elephant’s peaceful nature. I wish the ethics of backing up human memories was more deeply discussed however.

This book is marketed as an eco-thriller which is a disservice; the tone and pace is not that of a thriller but rather more contemplative and ideas focused. The saying “An elephant never forgets” is doubly meaningful in this situation because the theme of memory is explored both through technology and elephant genetics. Nayler witnessed some of the impact of the ivory trade when he was an Environment, Science, Technology, and Health Officer at the U.S. consulate in Ho Chi Minh City as was deeply affected by it. Certainly the passion for the subject shows through which I really appreciate. I recommend it if you like ideas-heavy sci-fi.

Thank you to #Netgalley and Tor for the ARC.

The nitty-gritty: Short but powerful, The Tusks of Extinction is an emotional journey through time and memory.

The Tusks of Extinction is one of the most unusual, complex and beautifully written stories I’ve read in some time, which is surprising to me because it’s less than a hundred pages long. Ray Nayler’s story weaves in and out through time and introduces the reader to several sets of characters who don’t seem to be connected at first, but later become intertwined with each other in surprising ways. This is also an emotional tale that’s hard to read at times, as it deals with animal poaching and murder. And while I normally hate reading stories with animal cruelty elements, this one worked for me, probably due to the author’s writing skills and his ability to balance all the elements.

The story is told in two different time lines. In the past we meet a scientist named Dr. Damira Khismatullina, who is the world’s leading expert on elephant behavior. She and her colleague Wamugunda are both passionate about ending the elephant poaching trade for good, although it seems to be a losing battle. Unfortunately, Damira’s work ends in tragedy, when she’s brutally murdered by poachers. But before this happens, she agrees to a controversial procedure—to have her memories uploaded to a computer so that her vast knowledge won’t be lost upon her death.

One hundred years later, the once extinct Woolly Mammoth has been brought back, thanks to the magic of science. In order to teach these creatures how to survive in the wild, Damira’s consciousness has been melded with the matriarch mammoth’s brain so that she can guide and teach the rest of the pack.

But the mammoth project is expensive, and in order to fund it, the director sets up exclusive mammoth hunting parties. Two Russians names Anthony and Vladimir have joined the latest expedition, which will test their relationship. At the same time, a group of modern day mammoth poachers are hot on the trail of the mammoths. Svyatoslav is a young boy who followed his father into the poaching business, but he wants nothing to do with it and is trying to find a way out.

All these groups eventually converge—Damira’s mammoth, Anthony and Vladimir, and Svyatoslav—in a brutal, emotional confrontation. For such a short book, Nayler packs a lot into his story, including multiple timelines and flashbacks, and several points of view. And he doesn’t hand feed the reader. It takes a while to understand the groundwork of the story, but once the pieces start to come together, I was mesmerized by the different narratives and the growing tension among the three main characters.

I was especially taken with Damira’s story. We see her love of elephants develop in flashbacks, when her uncle gives her a cheap elephant toy as a child. That gift changes her life, for better or worse, as she becomes an expert in her field and passionate about saving the elephants. I loved the scenes with Damira and Wamugunda as they fight against poachers in Africa, a dangerous job that eventually costs them their lives. These were some of the most emotional scenes for me, as you can imagine. When Damira’s mind becomes enmeshed with that of a mammoth, we see another side of her. She is no longer human and must think like an elephant in order to help her pack survive.

I also loved the scenes with Anthony and Svyatoslav, where we follow Svyatoslav’s point of view as he struggles to connect with his partner, who has always been gentle, kind and considerate, but now seems to be a completely different person who wouldn’t think twice about killing a mammoth for sport. Nayler’s observations about the illegal ivory trade are horrifyingly real. It was awful to see history repeat itself in the future, where poaching once again rears its ugly head.

The author also touches on the importance of memories. Damira not only has her memories of elephant behavior from her previous life, which she’s using to help the mammoths, but being inside a mammoth’s head seems to bring back so many poignant memories from her childhood. I thought these sections were beautifully handled, and they added so much emotion to the story.

This was my first time reading Ray Nayler, and I'm excited to see what he does next.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

Tusks of Extinction offers some really great commentary on elephant poaching. It's terrible, no question. And I certainly have to applaud the author for not only bringing this topic to attention, but managing to craft a whole world around it. Of course, the people who are out there poaching elephants are likely not reading thoughtfully written sci-fi novellas, but again, kudos to the author here.

I suppose I cannot say that I enjoyed this commentary- I certainly would never have been on the side of the poachers, and knowing that this sort of thing happens all the time makes it hard to read about. But I appreciated it nonetheless. Where I had a bit of a problem was that it was kind of hard for me to fully wrap my head around the POV of a mammoth? I mean- obviously Damira was a human once, but it still felt a little.. weird, for lack of a more eloquent term.

This novella is certainly thought provoking, yet calling it a "thriller" might be pushing it. It is certainly quieter than your typical thriller, though perhaps the horror lies in the fact that humans can be so cold and callous, I can certainly accept that as something that will keep a reader up at night. Of course, since it is of a shorter length, we don't really connect deeply to the characters, though there is enough connection to make their choices feel important to the reader.

Bottom Line: Great commentary and certainly thought provoking, if a little underwhelming at times.

Ray Nayler’s beautiful novella, The Tusks of Extinction, focuses on a handful of very different characters whose lives converge on a hunting expedition in the Russian taiga at least a century in the future. That convergence manages to speak volumes about human nature, greed, memory, family bonds, the connection of living things to the earth and the stakes of survival of great species. In just a few strokes for each character, Nayler creates a vivid sense of their rich inner lives, their longings and fantasies of how things might change. While a much briefer work than The Mountain in the Sea, this is a great follow-on to many of that novel’s ideas. (To describe what’s going on in this short book, I’ve necessarily included some spoilers, so be warned.)

We meet Damira in the opening chapter of The Tusks of Extinction and have to do a double-take. She seems to be the consciousness of a great woolly mammoth, a species brought back from extinction. But then we’re in the mind of a woman fighting poachers in Africa to protect the last free herds of elephants. We soon learn that these events take place over a century apart.

The human Damira became one of the great experts on the lives and habits of elephants as well as their fierce defender against poachers. She’s taken up weapons to fight alongside African game wardens against the cartels making huge sums off the ivory trade. After gaining great renown in her field, this Damira has her consciousness uploaded to a computer in Moscow. She is wakened a century later when Dr. Aslanov proposes transferring her consciousness to a mammoth. Though the species has been revived in captivity after decades of reconstructing their genome, when released to the wild the mammoths lack the instincts to survive. Aslanov believes Damira’s deep knowledge of elephants will help them adapt to their new circumstances within a vast refuge in the Siberian taiga.
......
Again and again, the story brings us face to face with the human greed that has wiped out the elephant populations in earlier centuries and now may do the same for the revived species of great mammoths. But in Damira, we see and feel the fierceness of the defense of the wild animals. Dr. Aslanov rationalizes the selective killing, which he thinks he can control, in order to support the refuge which is vital for their survival. The young Svyatoslav sees the beauty in the natural world and imagines he can help the mammoths survive. Nayler packs a lot of drama into a short space while also delving into the vital issues on which the human future may depend. The Tusks of Extinction is a masterful work.

The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler (publishing Jan 16th!!)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5

Thanks TOR and Netgalley for the ARC! Catching up on the last couple of books I read in 2023 still.

Though I read this as the year came to a close, it was so breathtaking that I immediately knew it deserved a place on my best reads of 2023. The Tusks of Extinction follows a handful of individuals - a young poacher and an ultra rich hobby hunter among others. For the most part we engage with Damira, an elephant conservationist working to protect the animals she loves from poachers as they inch towards extinction. As someone deemed “a figure of importance”, her consciousness is uploaded into a database so that her unique knowledge won’t be lost. Shortly after, she is murdered. Years pass and Moscow has managed to resurrect mammoths from extinction. They attempted to use the final elephants in existence, protected in captivity, as a surrogate species but failed to realize that the isolated elephants would be unable to pass down the knowledge of how to exist in herds. As a result, the handful of deextinct mammoths that remain are at risk of dying before they can successfully bring back the species as planned. Here, Moscow has a Hail Mary. They bring Damira’s consciousness back and upload her into the body of a mammoth. As the last person who remembers how wild elephants behaved and interacted, they hope that she can teach the mammoths how to survive.

The premise and execution of this book were unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The jumps between time are wonderfully done and the different POVs are artfully woven together. Of course, the true crown of this marvel of a book is Nayler’s skill at writing animal minds. It goes beyond simple imagery or memory and becomes an art form in and of itself.

Since I was reading this on my (brand new!!! Thanks dad!!) kindle, I had no idea how long it was. I finished it in about an hour, but I blew through this for a good reason. It packs an absolutely massive punch into its barely 200 pages.

Genre: speculative fiction
Siberia, near-ish future

Set somewhere about 150 years into the future, poachers are hunting the great mammoths. Brought back to life from DNA samples, the Mammoths are not thriving in the wild. In an effort to help the herd survive, scientists resurrect Dr Damira Khismatullina, the leading expert in elephant behavior. Murdered a hundred years prior while desperately trying to protect the last elephants she loved, Damira’s consciousness was uploaded into a database, resurrected, and inserted into one of the mammoths to teach them appropriate herd mentality.

This thoughtful speculative fiction novella is nonlinear and poignant, as Ray Nayler aims to address the devastation brought on by poaching. While the set-up may sound complicated, the execution is brilliantly simplistic and works well as a novella length story, stripping out extraneous detail and leaving the stark desolation of the Siberian wilderness and the raw survival of the mammoth herd.

After reading The Mountains in the Sea by Nayler last spring, I knew his blend of technological speculation, artificial- animal- and human-intelligence, and intriguing setup would make him a go-to author for me. I continue to recommend his work to anyone looking for thoughtful and complex analysis in animal behavior and conservation. The character development, like the plot, is circular, so will feel like an acquired taste to many readers, but it’s the sort of book you read to think about later, rather than engage in the moment-to-moment arc of the story.

I first read The Tusks of Extinction as an audiobook. When granted access to an eARC as well (initially requested so I could look up spellings of all of the names), I found myself rereading whole pages, falling into the rhythm of Nayler's prose again. It's elegant, strong, and yet somehow easy to get lost in the drifting memories of Damira, and her clan and Svyatoslav and his experiences.