Don’t be worried when you open your copy of “Mammoth” to find that the first chapter is labeled five. It is not a publication error. Rather, it’s a clue to subsequent events, and yet one more nod by the author to the fact that, at its heart, this is a time travel novel. Don’t make the mistake of searching for chapters one through four and trying to read them in that order.
When eccentric multibillionaire, Howard Christian, discovers what appears to be a time travel device next to a frozen woolly mammoth, he adds a new goal to his list — figuring out how to replicate the device. This does not interfere with his original goal of cloning the mammoth. Rather he decides to focus on both tasks.
Used to getting what he wants and having plenty of money to throw at any problems that arise, Christian sets out to achieve his goals. He hires renowned elephant vet, Susan Morgan, to oversee the cloning, implanting, and raising of the wooly mammoth. He employs Matt Wright, Canada’s top physicist on the science of time, to fix the time traveling device.
Morgan is a third generation circus person who has worked with elephants all her life, including three years teaching and learning from mahouts in Sri Lanka after she had her D.V.M. When the chance came to work with a wooly mammoth from gestation up, she couldn’t wait to take it.
After receiving his doctorate at Cal Tech when he was only 15, Wright had gone on to make several major advances in physics, until at the age of 25, when he had a minor breakdown. Basically, he just stopped talking. It was a week before anyone noticed. When they did, however, it was suggested that Wright take some time off, to relax, leaving him at liberty to accept Christian’s offer.
Although Wright is the stereotypical genius, incredibly smart, but almost completely lacking in social skills, he and Susan manage to become friends and, when the time machine does work, she is with him. Unfortunately, neither of them know why or how the machine worked and they appear to be stuck back in the Pleistocene era.
When they do get back to the modern world, still with no clue as to how the machine works, they discover that a herd of wooly mammoths has come back with them. The resulting confusion and terror of the animals ends up with all but two dead, one of them a young calf.
Christian claims both remaining mammoths and begins building a circus to top all circuses. Morgan remains in charge of the mammoths and Wright disappears. So does the time travel device.
Varley takes a very different spin on the time travel story, showing the effects of it more than the travel itself. The actual time spent in other eras is miniscule, yet the ramifications of the time spent there is anything but negligible.
As with a well-conceived murder mystery, the reader is kept guessing right up until the end. Even when you think you’ve figured out what’s going on, Varley pulls out another surprise. Even with all this he never forgets that the characters are what’s really driving this story.
Lisa Dees is a Raleigh freelance writer. She may be reached at lisadees@mindspring.com.
