I really enjoyed The Tusks of Extinction. It’s a Sci-fi animal thought experiment with a Jurassic Park feel. I liked the two different perspectives the story is told from, and both narrators did an excellent job. I think I would have been really confused if I hadn’t read the synopsis beforehand because you are dropped right into the story. I think people that enjoy climate-based and speculative fiction will enjoy this novella.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an audio-arc in exchange for an honest review.


When I saw what this book was about, I was immediately drawn into the story, and it took me reading it to know why this story was written.

Now, in today's actual/real world, there's been talk about the possibility of reviving the wooly mammoth. The science behind it is so interesting, but there's more to bringing them back than just can we.

The Tusks of Extinction addresses some of these concerns while also taking a look at what happens if poachers don't/aren't stopped. But what I found great about this was that the animals fought back, and that was amazing.

All in all, it's a super quick read full of heavy material that takes a look at the possibility of where science can take us, and then examines those consequences.

Tusks of Extinction is a quick, meditative read on the mostly exploitative relationship people have with animals and other natural resources. A preeminent elephant research's mind gets backed up and somehow uploaded into a clone-resurrected mammoth centuries after the researcher dies trying to stop poaching. She is tasked with a reverse Jane Gooddall-like mission of teaching the mammoths how to behave in the wild, since they have only known captivity and are not thriving.
This in itself includes several fascinating concepts about human and animal minds in the present and future; and there are some curious and ethically dubious approaches to funding preservation and anti-poaching efforts. Overall, it's an interesting read that offers many more questions around both the possibilities of this type of empathy and connection between minds and the logistics of how this is the most important future task or if there are other similar efforts taking place to help reverse humanity's havoc.

I picked this book up because the premise had some interesting science fiction concepts around conservation, not too far from the Jurrasic Park concept. I thought using DNA to bring back a species gone extinct and attaching a human consciousness as the expert to help teach the animals how to live in the world was an interesting concept.

I did not realize this was a novella, and while I don't discriminate based on this, there tends to be a pitfall for these books where they don't feel complete. The Tusks of Extinction is one of those books. When it was over, I wanted more. I wanted to know more about the world they live in where you can extract human consciousness and implant it in an animal. I wanted time with the animals and their thoughts and behaviors translated through the Human. I wanted a conflict resolution that was more fleshed out and detailed than the abrupt ending we go.

I liked what I read. I just wish there was more.

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.

Great book, Brings forward the plight wild elephants and rhinos now face in the wild. While giving it a nice sci-fi and fantasy twist to the story. Must say love the choice of narrators :)

3.5 roundup

a great concept for a book and an even greater warning about poachers and everything humans do to make sure our wild life goes extinct, but I just wish this was a full0-fledged novel or didn't go back and forth between POVs. After this I'm definitely going to read Nayler's 'The Mountain in the Sea'!

Speculative fictional account of the impact of the loss of the elephant species.
Solid science meets imaginative fiction to birth a compelling read. I enjoyed the audio book a great deal; both narrators are wonderfully skilled.. Real problems are considered:: extant species and how that impacts the earth, for example. After finishing, this story, it bounced around my mind. I’ll remember this book forever.
I was particularly intrigued with the female character who joined the mammoths and guided them as their matriarch and gave me a glimpse of the elephant culture.

Another exemplary novel that shows what can be accomplished with a small page count. Nayler provides exactly what is needed for this story and trusts the reader to connect the rest of their dots on their own. A more bloated version of this book could have gone into greater depth with the science behind de-extinction and the mind-mapping technology, but he doesn't, because it wouldn't serve the story he so wonderfully tells. We follow 3 stories as they slowly converge, de-extincted mammoths, a group of poachers, and a high-profile hunter. As we hop around, Nayler hits a perfect balance of character development and brevity in each short interlude or brutality, vengeance, and hope.

As much as I enjoyed Mountain in the Sea, this feels like it was written by a different author. Everything about this story was incredibly simplistic and on-the-nose, and my suspension of disbelief could not withstand the idea of not only successfully transferring a human consciousness into a mammoth, but the idea that anyone would think that that is a good, feasible, workable plan.

This was short, brutal and essential. I'm a little torn on whether this should be a longer work or not. The topic of de-extinction and ethics of big game hunting are not new to sci-fi but this one was powerful in how precisely it deployed righteous and primal rage and sorrow stopping just short of overindulgent. But there were a lot of interesting POVs that could've used more breathing room for impact on all fronts. As it stands, it is still a brilliantly blended story of someone who fought the same battle across two lives and species, while also being an urgent and moving call for empathy for all living creatures. The writing was very tight and I appreciated the author directing the reader to primary sources to educate oneself more on the plight of majestic creatures that human excess has driven to extinction. I received this as an audiobook from Netgalley, and while the female narrator was great, the more celebrated male narrator felt like he was juggling too many POVs and didn't distinguish them enough.

I wish this book was longer! I wanted to stay in this world longer, as I think the character changes would make more sense with additional context, or time to understand how the mind-transfer technology impacts emotions. I will continue to read Nayler and recommend his works for fans of Blake Crouch and John Scalzi.

This was such an interesting premise - Elephants are no longer in the wild, and the ones that are in captivity don't know how to live in the wild. So scientists put the memory of a deceased elephant expert into a mammoth so it can teach other mammoths how to mammoth. (The jump from elephants to mammoths confused me, too). I think the author had a great idea, but honestly it felt like there needed more. I think it should have been expanded from a novella into a novel, in order to get deeper into some of the issues the author wanted to discuss. It felt a little surface level for me, which the author was not trying to get at, based on their clear passion for saving endangered animals. There were a lot of aspects I felt like I just didn't "get" (see - mammoths instead of elephants), and that might have been more of a me problem than anything.

Regardless, this was interesting, so if you're intrigued, I would say to go for it!

Thank you to Spotify Audiobooks and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When scientists in Moscow decided to resurrect the Mammoth, they didn't realize they would have to teach them HOW to be mammoths. They call on Dr. Damira Khismatullina, the top expert in elephant behavior. The only problem is that she was murdered by poachers long before. But they have her consciousness in digital form. Will what remains of Dr. Khismatullina's conscience agree to be uploaded into a mammoth?

This is a fascinating premise. The idea of putting a human conscience into a mammoth's brain brings up so many questions and possibilities. The author does a great job of explaining the plight of the elephant and the ruthlessness of the poachers. The idea of a human inhabiting the body of a mammoth is so intriguing that I wish it was explored a little more. The mammoth's senses, and how they are greater than a human's, is definitely related by Damira, but Damira's experiences of first inhabiting the mammoth and actually learning to move around and maneuver, and take leadership of a herd were not really explained. The book is very short and should have been a lot more fleshed out. This idea has movie potential, but the book is not long enough to support that.

I listened to the audiobook, and it was well narrated by Stefan Rudnicki and Gabrielle de Cuir, who handled the tough task of portraying a unique character, Damira, who is a digitized human turned mammoth. They also related the plight of animals hunted by poachers in a truthful way so the reader can realize the brutality that is going on.

Anyone interested in protecting endangered species with a little science fiction added to the story will enjoy this book.

I received a free copy of the audiobook from the publishers. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

I was drawn in by the cover but stayed for the story.
A bunch of people messing with science!
We have to stop trying to bring things back from the dead and focus on what is currently still alive.

I had really enjoyed Ray Nayler's previous novel. This was a lot shorter but I appreciated that. It was a story that can be told in a shorter format and wasn't dragged out! The audio is a quick listen and I enjoyed it!

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 8-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.

See my full review with links and images on goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6130293938

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.

The audiobook is narrated by Stefan Rudnicki and Gabrielle de Cuir. The set up for Damira’s POV, narrated by de Cuir, made me wonder how many timelines the novella works with, but ultimately really appreciated the payoff.

This sounded super interesting and I like the duel narration but I had to dnf this at 15%. This was so boring and not engaging at all.

Oh my! The beginning of this one!
I was hooked immediately and I could not focus on anything else. I grieved. This was amazing. I love the underlying hope though.
And OMG the narration is fantastic!