n the 21st century, the last of the
woolly mammoths struggle against extinction in a remote arctic island. Because of the gradual
warming of the world, forestland is replacing the grassy tundra on which
the mammoths graze. As their numbers dwindle, an even more urgent threat
appears: man.
For thousands of years the last mammoths have remained hidden from
humans, who believe them extinct.
This changes when a band of shipwrecked seamen take shelter on the
island. In mammoth legend--an oral history that stretches back millions
of years--humans are known as "the Lost." Unlike other mammals, humans
are no longer connected to the world and its rhythms. In the minds of
mammoths, they are truly lost, and that is why the perpetually
discontented humans always seek to control, conquer and destroy.
Despite their bad reputation, a young mammoth named Silverhair thinks
the Lost, with their powerful intelligence, might be the key to saving
her species. But the marooned seamen are anything but
kind. They hunt the mammoths, and not simply for food but for the sheer
joy of killing.
The leader of the castaways, a man Silverhair calls Skin-of-Ice, is
the cruelest, most bloodthirsty human of all. Silverhair's epic struggle
to lead her family to safety turns into a battle between one
very determined shaggy elephant and a man obsessed with making Silverhair bend
to his will.
A wild and woolly adventure
Silverhair is a change of pace for Stephen Baxter, a prolific
writer of hard science fiction. In Silverhair, Baxter adds an
uncharacteristic dash of fantasy to his scrupulously researched depiction
of modern-day woolly mammoths by giving the species a richly nuanced
language and complex mythology. That mythology, called "the Cycle,"
describes in allegorical form the evolution of mammals, or "hotbloods,"
from their humble beginnings during the time of the dinosaurs to the
triumphant age of mammoths. Humans figure in the Cycle only as a sort of
grim footnote.
Though it's clear that mammoths would not make good pets--they are
dirty, smelly animals that defecate with gusto--Silverhair and her family
are nevertheless noble and endearing creatures. The mammoths' plight
becomes heartbreakingly desperate, but Silverhair's plodding
determination keeps them going, one massive footstep at a time. Readers
may find themselves cheering when some slow-moving humans are trampled or
impaled on the end of a sharp tusk.
Baxter vividly evokes the stark beauty of the mammoths' arctic
habitat, a small remnant of an age when mammoths flourished across the continents. Skin-of-Ice is a uniquely memorable and loathsome
villain even though he never utters a single line of dialogue. The
novel's ending seems a bit rushed, with loose ends tied up in one giant
glob of exposition. But Silverhair's showdown with Skin-of-Ice is the
stuff of mammoth legend, and the final scene should melt even a heart of
permafrost.
After reading this book I decided I would never eat mammoth steak again.
-- Curt
he SFWA Grand Masters Volume 2 is Frederik Pohl's follow-up to the original Grand Masters anthology, this one celebrating the work
of the second five authors to receive the award. The Grand Master Award is
given no more than six times a decade to a living writer for lifetime
achievement in science fiction and fantasy. The five authors represented
in this volume are, in order, Andre Norton, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov,
Alfred Bester and Ray Bradbury.
The anthology begins with a short introduction by Pohl, who also writes
an introductory
biography of each writer. Of Norton's four stories in the
anthology, two are very short science fiction stories, "Mousetrap" and "All
Cats are Gray," while the other two are much longer fantasies, "Were-Wrath"
and "Serpent's Tooth" (although the latter can be interpreted as SF). Clarke is represented by five stories that vary widely in length,
from the novella "A Meeting with Medusa" to the two-page "Reunion." Also included are Clarke's first story, "Rescue Party," as well
as "The Secret" and his award-winning classic "The Star." The four Asimov
stories are "The Last Question," "It's Such a Beautiful Day,"
"Strikebreaker" and "The Martian Way."
Pohl includes nonfiction pieces by Bester and Bradbury as well. In
Bester's case, it's a companion commentary to his classic short story,
"Fondly Fahrenheit" in which Bester describes in detail how the story
evolved. The other three Bester stories are "Disappearing Act," "Four-Hour
Fugue" and "Hobson's Choice." Bradbury's nonfiction piece, "The
Affluence of Despair," which closes the book, is a diatribe on the
negative influence of mass media on modern society. The Bradbury short
stories are "The City," "The Million-Year Picnic," "All Summer in a Day"
and "There Will Come Soft Rains."
Even stronger than Volume 1
Picking a few stories to illustrate the lifetime achievements of a group
of writers whose careers spanned a half century is an enormously difficult
task, but Pohl has pulled it off admirably. His introductions are real
treats that provide interesting insights into the personalities behind the
stories. For example, he describes Asimov as someone who never saw a piece
of paper he didn't want to write on. Bester, Pohl says, switched from
science fiction to a better paying field for about a decade early in his
career, but never lost interest in what was going on within the SF
community.
There are few surprises among Pohl's selections, and, as always, room for
argument about whether others might have been better choices. But these
stories do effectively illustrate the talents of the five writers,
and with one notable exception, none is a disappointment. Bester's "Fondly
Fahrenheit," about the projection of an android's murderous exploits on its
owner's psyche, and Bradbury's "The Million-Year Picnic," about a family's
relocation to Mars, are very powerful, emotional stories that are artfully
constructed. They are the best in the anthology. Clarke's "A
Meeting with Medusa" is a magnificent example of hard science fiction,
depicting with great detail and clarity the descent of a dirigible into Jupiter's atmosphere. Asimov's most enjoyable story among four fine ones is
"It's Such a Beautiful Day," in which a mother becomes concerned about her
son's sudden preference for traveling cross-country to school rather than
taking the teleporting Doors. It's a surprising celebration of nature over
technology. The best Norton story of the group is "Were-Wrath," a
complex fantasy tale in which a woman takes refuge in a werewolf's
cabin. The one disappointment is Bradbury's essay, which may have its
valid points but pales in effectiveness compared to his wonderful
fiction.
If anything, The SFWA Grand Masters: Volume 2 is even stronger
than its predecessor, which was a very good book. Pohl is doing a
wonderful job assembling a series that's long overdue.
There are many fine stories here. But if I have a quibble with them as a
whole, it's that one of the major weaknesses of the SF of the period most
of these stories come from (basically, the '40s and '50s) is that they try a little too hard and without enough subtlety to make their points.
-- Clint
n the 21st century, the last of the
woolly mammoths struggle against extinction in a remote arctic island. Because of the gradual
warming of the world, forestland is replacing the grassy tundra on which
the mammoths graze. As their numbers dwindle, an even more urgent threat
appears: man.
he SFWA Grand Masters Volume 2 is Frederik Pohl's follow-up to the original Grand Masters anthology, this one celebrating the work
of the second five authors to receive the award. The Grand Master Award is
given no more than six times a decade to a living writer for lifetime
achievement in science fiction and fantasy. The five authors represented
in this volume are, in order, Andre Norton, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov,
Alfred Bester and Ray Bradbury.