MAMMOTH -- John Varley

Ace Books -- hc
New York -- 2005 -- 364pp
ISBN: 0-441-01281-7

The world's richest man uncovers a mammoth inside ice, and next to the mammoth, a man ... with a modern briefcase! The man hires a staff to "fix" what he assumes is a time machine in the briefcase.

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I hadn't realized how much I have missed reading Varley until getting into this.

The title, and the premise as described on the jacket, didn't do anything for me, but as I have always enjoyed a John Varley book I decided to read this as well, and am glad I did!

Varley has a way of engaging the reader, bringing us into his story, rather than keeping us as observers.

This is not Varley's best ... there are a number of "problems" I had with it, and it was moderately easy to predict the outcome, but a mediocre Varley is still better than most.

Part of the problem was the dual focus that was distracting rather than intriquing. The idea of creating new mammoths from the DNA of a found mammoth implanted in modern elephants would be enough for a book, but then that's been done with Jurasic Park. The modern creation of the time machine would also be enough for a book, but has also been done in abundance. The idea of the protesters didn't really go anywhere even though there was a slight tie to them later.

Still, despite the faults, this was a fun science fiction read.