Reviews with content warning for Gore - The Tusks of Extinction

clever and moving. Naylor has crafted a story of interesting, sympathetic characters that truly examines so many relevant themes. My only complaint is that the prose can be a touch pretentious.

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tacochelle's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The blurb calls this a eco-thriller, but that's not quite it. It's speculative fiction, a slower paced philosophical novella. It's good, but go in expecting that. It's also detailed about the poaching industry, especially what's left of the animals, so big content warning if that makes you uncomfortable. But the way the subject is approached is really complex, almost too complex for such a short book.

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adhesivedolphin's review against another edition

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dark informative sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I thought this was such an interesting concept and had to pick it up. It did a great job telling its story in a focused narrative that only took about 4 hours to get through. I particularly enjoyed the change in Damira over time, and how passionate she was about her cause. The themes of greed, power, environmentalism and memory and poignant and distressing. On the negative, I found the narrator for Vladimir very jarring. And while the narrative was rich, it was at time hard to follow. Overall, it was a solid read, unlike anything I've read before, but not a favourite.

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pvp_niki's review

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adventurous dark informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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ebrooks's review against another edition

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emotional fast-paced

4.0

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skbat's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Intense, layered explorations of human greed, memory, and resurrection. Made me feel feelings I didn't want to feel. 5 stars and I kinda hate it.

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lprongs's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an ARC.

I've had high hopes for this since I saw it, and reading it did not disappoint, although it was not what I expected. It packs a pretty good punch against extractionism, poaching, human greed, and wealth/power.

At just about 100 pages, it can be read in one sitting which makes it a great intro to climate fiction or a primer on many relevant topics (like extractionism and how it fuels the global economy while completely removing extracted materials from a sense of place, the violence that created them, and the responsibility for that violence we all have by mindlessly consuming them). It was also probably the most accurate representation of "good" wealthy people I've read. Having dated some Anthonys, the revealing and removing of his mask was the truest mirror of my exes I've ever seen.

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kirtreads's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Ray Nayler has a really unique gift of taking a fascinating science fiction premise, one that sucks you in immediately, and then posing such heavy concepts that really make you think. This book is not a fun romp through brain melding science. This is a book about the brutal impacts that the ivory trade continues to have, and the future that awaits us if we don’t take action soon. This book examines human greed, selfishness, and what drives people to extremes. It examines the human condition of empathy and guilt all while set on a backdrop of some very kick ass science fiction.

Ray is one of my favourite authors but he is really not for everyone. This one is heavy handed on the environmental themes but also captures so many deeply human moments it’s worth the western guilt.

My only critiques are, and this may be an audiobook problem, was it was hard to distinguish between characters and what time period they were in. The start was a little hard to pick up on because I was not sure if it was the human or the mammoth narrating.

That being said, it’s a great read and really packs a lot into a quick read. I really recommend it and the audiobook narrators were great!

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