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actuallyahorsereads's review
4.0
3.5 rounded up - an enjoyable read but kind of got tangled in the middle and lost sight of what actually was going on, but pulled it out in the end.
gps1138's review
3.0
Really 3 1/2 stars. Some cringy casual sexism early on really annoyed me, but it's a book about time travel and mammoths, so I soldiered on. This was a very entertaining read, although not as well written as one would expect from a Hugo and Nebula award winner. The time travel is handled really well and the science discussions aren't completely dumbed down, which I appreciated.
rebelbelle13's review
3.0
Not a great way to close out the year, but here we are. The idea for this book was better than the execution, to be sure. The first third was intriguing- finding the man and the mammoth with the time travel device, attempting to get it to work, and travelling back in time. The middle was a slog-fest, and I seriously debated putting it down and walking away. There was too much filler; including a circus, security guards, and a kidnapping with mild torture, which really had nothing to do with the main storyline and time-travel element. The last quarter almost made up for it, but it felt way too rushed- I would have loved to have seen the last chapter stretched out into most of the book- the time traveler returning to the past and learning how to survive in the ice age. The time machine was a big mystery as to how and why it worked. The author never went into detail with it- almost as if he picked something arbitrary, not planning on explaining it at all, and just went with it. The characters were fine, and the author's writing style was easy to get into. Other than that, it was too rushed and I felt it focused on the wrong parts of the story. I would read more from Varley in the future, but I wasn't too impressed with this one.
joelevard's review
2.0
Interesting sci-fi yarn so far. Very fast read, amusing, but the characters are paper-thin. Sort of waiting for something to happen, as the climax seems a forgone conclusion, but that's what you get with a circular time travel narrative I suppose.
Ok, so I finished. It ended pretty well, but that doesn't really excuse a lot of the tedium that it took to get there. The ending IS predictable, but the way Varley pulls it off is quite nice. Bumped it up a good half star in my estimation. Call it 2.75.
Ok, so I finished. It ended pretty well, but that doesn't really excuse a lot of the tedium that it took to get there. The ending IS predictable, but the way Varley pulls it off is quite nice. Bumped it up a good half star in my estimation. Call it 2.75.
colinmcev's review
3.0
I was interested in reading Mammoth in part because the story sounded interesting, and also because I saw that The Washington Post declared John Varley "one of science fiction's most important writers," and yet I had never read any of his work. But I suppose I'll have to read some of his other books to determine whether that description is accurate, because I certainly don't think it's the case based on the strength of Mammoth alone. That's not to say it's a bad book. Quite the contrary, I found it to be an amusing story, with a fun premise and some very interesting and quirky characters. I just didn't find the writing to be anything particularly extraordinary, and the story felt a little light -- even despite such mind-bending concepts as time travel -- for such a glowing endorsement of an author.
In fact, this felt less like a science fiction book to me than it did a mystery/thriller with some sci-fi elements. At times, it felt very much like a Carl Hiaasen novel, particularly during some of the moments involving the baffoonish eco-terrorist characters and a few of the wackier moments, like one involving a rich guy and a tower which I will not spoil. There are only a handful of times when it feels like Mammoth is veering into full-blown science fiction mode, usually when the protagonist stops to pontificate about quantum physics or string theory. These moments felt to me somewhat removed from the rest of the story, and occasionally slowed the action down.
So no, Mammoth doesn't strike me as a work worthy of "one of science fiction's most important authors," and some of the temporal paradoxes that are commonplace for time travel tales such as these sometimes feel like they are convenient excuses to avoid explaining loose ends (like how the damn time machine came to exist in the first place, and how Matt managed to get it working). The book isn't necessarily structured exactly how I'd like either; at one point, the narrative jumps ahead a couple of years, and then we get several chapters with characters basically explaining what had happened in that time. But it's a enjoyable enough read, and the archaeological discovery in the opening chapter of this book has to be one of the best and most creative teases for a time travel story ever written.
In fact, this felt less like a science fiction book to me than it did a mystery/thriller with some sci-fi elements. At times, it felt very much like a Carl Hiaasen novel, particularly during some of the moments involving the baffoonish eco-terrorist characters and a few of the wackier moments, like one involving a rich guy and a tower which I will not spoil. There are only a handful of times when it feels like Mammoth is veering into full-blown science fiction mode, usually when the protagonist stops to pontificate about quantum physics or string theory. These moments felt to me somewhat removed from the rest of the story, and occasionally slowed the action down.
So no, Mammoth doesn't strike me as a work worthy of "one of science fiction's most important authors," and some of the temporal paradoxes that are commonplace for time travel tales such as these sometimes feel like they are convenient excuses to avoid explaining loose ends (like how the damn time machine came to exist in the first place, and how Matt managed to get it working). The book isn't necessarily structured exactly how I'd like either; at one point, the narrative jumps ahead a couple of years, and then we get several chapters with characters basically explaining what had happened in that time. But it's a enjoyable enough read, and the archaeological discovery in the opening chapter of this book has to be one of the best and most creative teases for a time travel story ever written.
fblizz's review
4.0
I am not sure how to write a review for this. I love time traveling stories and this one was not as much a time traveling story as a thriller. I enjoyed it though. Clearly John Varley did a lot of research on elephants, mammals and time paradoxes. I liked the character development and overall plot.
ddrake's review against another edition
2.5
| Maybe more like 2 stars...this is a perfectly nice, time travel kinda book. It's pretty much what you'd expect with the given ingredients: a billionaire who wants to bring back mammoths, and a time travel device. So, nothing surprising or amazing...but it's, well, okay. So maybe two stars?
jsant's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I've always found myself getting lost in books about time travel. This one takes place in 2005 when a Mammoth with a human wearing a wrist watch and holding a briefcase is uncovered in the ice of Northern Canada. The story goes forwards and backwards and I loved it.