It’s a shame that John Varley’s MAMMOTH is classified as “science fiction,” because that means very few will read it. If it were shelved among all the thrillers where it deserves to be, it could be a mid-sized hit.
As it opens, a billionaire’s quest to find a frozen mammoth pays off in spades, but a man wearing a wristwatch is discovered sharing the block of ice with the prehistoric creature. Thus begins a fast-paced time-travel mystery/adventure that has several mind-warping, clever twists and touches (not the least of which is beginning the book at Chapter 5).
If it sounds like a setup worthy of Michael Crichton, you’re not at all far off, with the science as important to the plot as the suspense. The romance angle between a scientist hired by the billionaire to build a time machine and an elephant expert isn’t completely successful, but it’s secondary to the real action at hand, which includes a tribe of mammoths running amok down the streets of Los Angeles. And that’s not even the climax! Thoroughly (and surprisingly) enjoyable.
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