Mammoth
John Varley
Ace, June 2005, $23.95, 368 pages, ISBN: 0441012817
reviewed by Harriet Klausner

Multibillionaire Howard Christian is known for a lack of patience and obsession when he sets a stretch goal. Currently, he has his team searching Nunavent Territory, Canada in a quest to find a wooly mammoth, which they do thanks to the Inuit. Howard wants to clone one with his plan to use the bull's testicles to provide DNA to have expert Dr. Susan Morgan in vitro fertilize an elephant.

However, a corpse by the frozen mammoth reveals two startling developments, a body with a wristwatch on and a brief case with words in English etched on it. Meanwhile Howard hires the world's leading mathematical physicist on time theories Professor Matthew Wright to lead a team repairing a time machine that Howard possesses. As Matthew and Susan wonder what is gong on and who is the corpse with the watch, they ponder what Howard's true agenda actually is.

MAMMOTH is a terrific science fiction thriller with a fabulous final twist that will shock the audience. The story line grips the audience who will wonder along with the two leading scientists why Howard is pushing both paths and how the briefcase and watch got to the prehistoric epoch mindful of a classic EC comic involving modern day scientists and the first creature trying to leave the sea. The cast is a delight as the prime players seem real, but it is the science in which John Varley has HG Wells meets Jurassic Park that hooks the audience.