Tusks of Extinction
Notes
Really great sci-fi novella, in a future where the skyrocketing price of ivory has driven all elephants completely extinct, but also Russia has de-extincted the Wolly mammoth. And uploaded the consciousness of a deceased elephant researcher into the mind of a mammoth, to teach them how to be a herd, to actually be mammoths.
Jumps back and forth in time and across character viewpoints, all of which is handled well and builds up the plot nicely. Definitely enjoyed this more than Mountain in the Sea.
Jumps back and forth in time and across character viewpoints, all of which is handled well and builds up the plot nicely. Definitely enjoyed this more than Mountain in the Sea.
Noted on June 16, 2026
Quotes
But there was something else that Svyatoslav knew—and he knew it because he had watched his father come home penniless over and over, smelling of sweat and drink: Myusena would never sell the tusks, and live. Somewhere along the way, they would be taken from him. He would be swindled. Killed, even. Men like Svyatoslav's father and Myusena did not get rich. They did not go and live on private islands, or send their children to university in London. No-they fulfilled their purpose: they retrieved things for others. They did the work, and were thrown away. Things like the tusks weren't just for rich people to have, or buy— the rich *already owned them*. They just needed to be handed over to their rightful owners.Quoted on June 16, 2026
[loved this thing about 'the rich']
But there was something else that Svyatoslav knew—and he knew it because he had watched his father come home penniless over and over, smelling of sweat and drink: Myusena would never sell the tusks, and live. Somewhere along the way, they would be taken from him. He would be swindled. Killed, even. Men like Svyatoslav's father and Myusena did not get rich. They did not go and live on private islands, or send their children to university in London. No-they fulfilled their purpose: they retrieved things for others. They did the work, and were thrown away. Things like the tusks weren't just for rich people to have, or buy— the rich already owned them. They just needed to be handed over to their rightful owners.Quoted on June 16, 2026