Teaser

Mammoths. The gentle giants of Earth’s past, now long extinct. But what if mammoths were not the simple grazers we imagine? What if they had societies and a language of their own. What if they are still out there . . .

Review

Most of the Stephen Baxter books I’ve read deal with space. One of them is even called Space. These are books with a grand, sweeping scale, and cosmological ideas that will make your head hurt in the best possible way. the Behemoth trilogy is something rather different. For a start, it was written with a Young Adult audience in mind, so even though Behemoth is almost eight hundred pages long, it’s comprised of three distinct novels, and set in a rather generous font. And then there’s the fact that the science is all in the background. Baxter has done his research into mammoths, but it informs the story rather than appearing directly on the page.

Each of the three books in this omnibus works as a standalone, and tells the story of the mammoth after whom it is named. Silverhair is set close to the present day, and follows the struggles of the world’s last surviving mammoth herd. In Baxter’s introduction, he mentions Watership Down, and the comparisons are apt. Silverhair is an incredibly bleak tale. Harrowing in its depiction of herd life, and unflinching as it stares into the jaws of extinction. It’s easily the most emotionally resonant novel Baxter has written, and as unremittingly dark as any of his Xeelee novels, though this at least ends on the possibility of hope.

Longtusk takes us back twelve thousand years, to the earliest encounters between mammoths and early humanity. The most interesting aspect of this one is not the further development of mammoth culture, but Baxter’s speculation on how early humans might have employed mammoths and mastodonts as beasts of burden. Like Silverhair, Longtusk soon becomes rather depressing, as it becomes clear that humans and mammoths will never be able to coexist on mutually beneficial terms.

Finally, Icebones is set in the future, on a terrafomed Mars. After humanity departs for unknown reasons, the revived mammoths are left to fend for themselves. This look at the end stage of the human-mammoth relationship is marginally more upbeat than its predecessors, but only because the humans have already vanished from the story. Neither Longtusk nor Icebones can quite live up to the glorious highs of Silverhair, but they are fine novels nonetheless

Though each book stands alone, there is plenty of common thematic ground to link them. In particular, the idea of the Cycle, the mammoths’ cultural narrative, stands out as one of the great ideas of science fiction. The Cycle is how mammoths (within Baxter’s constructed society) teach their young how to survive. But as time passes, the Cycle can no longer support mammoths through the rise of humanity, and on Mars it is of more use as a motivational tool than a means of teaching survival.

Behemoth is a different beast from much of Baxter’s work. It’s less mind-blowing, more character-driven, and told on a much more intimate scale, but it would still make a great introduction to one of Britain’s best science fiction authors. If you have a younger reader you want to get into science fiction, then this would be a great gateway to the genre. Or if you’re in the mood for something that is bleak and soothing in equal measure, then this is for you.

Book Stats

• Contains Silverhair, Longtusk, and Icebones
• Originally Published 1999-2001
• 793 Pages