The Tusks of Extinction
by Ray Nayler

Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted December 26, 2023

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A second book by Ray Nayler reviewed today, a novella this time, one that has not been published yet. That will happen on January 16, but I received a digital review copy from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. It is set in an indeterminate future, possibly the same future as The Mountain in the Sea, although that is unclear. More future tech, and another exploration of animal consciousness and behavior. Mammoths have been cloned and birthed by captive elephants, some of the few elephants remaining, since they are almost extinct as well. I think it was stated all African elephants were gone, the ones remaining being from Asia. A human has also been brought back from the dead. Damina had been murdered by ivory poachers about a hundred years earlier, but her brain was retained, her head having been sent to the Kenyan president as a warning. Her history of work with elephants was known by those in Russia who had brought back the mammoths, and they wanted to install Damina's consciousness in the brain of one of the mammoths.

The narrative bounces back and forth between Damina's earlier life trying to protect the elephants, even earlier than that as she remembers her favorite uncle reading stories to her from the Jungle Book. He had also given her a stuffed elephant toy, which helped form her obsession with the large animals. The memories are happening within her new consciousness, and through her reminiscences her perception of the past changes. She now thinks that stuffed animal had been a mammoth, not an elephant. It was brown instead of gray like all the elephants she had seen. In the future, or rather in her "present" time, she is training the mammoths to survive using her elephant knowledge as a guide. Damina gradually loses touch with her humanity, but not her compassion. She is mammoth now, matriarch of the herd, mother to one who had been killed by poachers. Ivory is still coveted, and the new mammoths are one of the few sources, and if there are those who have enough money to buy the ivory, there will be others who will try to obtain it for them.

That is enough of a synopsis, I don't want to spoil anything. There are a few sympathetic characters beyond Damina, but most are cruel, vindictive, and arrogant. Even a few involved in the mammoth cloning fall prey to the monied interests. Damina is strong and resilient though, even merciful when she had every reason to be the opposite. Nayler published his first story in 1996, followed by more than thirty others, the majority since 2019. It is possible I have read one or more of them, but none of the titles listed at ISFDb ring a bell. Based on the quality of the two books I've reviewed today, I need to seek out some of the earlier ones, and look forward to more in the future. Another strong recommendation.

 

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