A review by beelzebubbie
Mammoths of the Great Plains by Eleanor Arnason

3.0

“Mammoths” itself was a fine novella - an interesting account of an ever-so-slightly alternate history in which the last of the mammoths didn’t die out til the early 20th century, and then were later revived in part due to the efforts of an elder Native American woman scientist. I don’t mind the author’s matter of fact, dry style — and the story grappled with questions of assimilation, loss of culture, and the nexus of magic/“scientific achievement” in an effective way. But I just wasn’t especially compelled by the characters/focus of the story — especially not after reading the accompanying essay & interview with the author. First off, I don’t think the author is actually Native American (?), and an argument can totally be made about fiction authors’ ability to write cultures that are not their own — but maybe in this case that’s part of what made the novella fall a little flat for me. Especially considering it’s a story all in quotes, a young girl listening to her grandmother tell her own grandmother’s - as well as her’s - life stories. The essay Writing Science Fiction in World War III fell so short for me. Its basic premise was to affirm that we are in a place of global instability and can dream up new worlds — pointing to progressive government actions in South American countries as indicators of awesome new changes to come, and grappling weakly with questions of whether or not any governments are actually capable of having “credibility.” Maybe i didn’t like it so much because I felt like I could have been reading my own ineffectual, floundering, lukewarm writing.