The Tusks of Extinction

[psocoptera]

The Tusks of Extinction, Ray Nayler, 2024 novella. My complaint about his previous (and first) novel, Mountain in the Sea, was that it was too long/repetitious, so good work by Nayler doing his next idea *as* a novella and practicing being more concise. This is a story about a project to de-extinction mammoths, and some various parties (scientists, conservationists, mammoth-hunting customers, poachers, the mammoths themselves) who come into conflict in the mammoths' preserve. Solidly and satisfyingly done; I liked the ways Nayler included little bits of future technologies and how he made the whole thing the story of the specific characters and not just the concepts. I'm not sure I quite got everything he was trying to do - his author's note was like "at its core this is a work of biosemiotics" and I was like "was it now?" - but, heh, I guess I complained that Mountain in the Sea was too ponderous about its themes so I have to appreciate Nayler trying a lighter touch this time. [ETA: I don't always do content notes but for this one it seems worth mentioning both gore and animal harm.]