Mammoth (2005)

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Not content with investing his fortune and watching it grow, multibillionaire Howard Christian buys rare cars that he actually drives, acquires collectible toys that he actually plays with, and builds buildings that defy the imagination. But now his restless mind has turned to a new obsession: cloning a mammoth... In a barren province of Canada, a mammoth hunter financed by Christian has made the discovery of a lifetime: an intact frozen woolly mammoth. But what he finds during the painstaking process of excavating the huge creature baffles the mind. Huddled next to the mammoth is the mummified body of a Stone Age man around 12,000 years old. And he is wearing a wristwatch. It looks like Howard Christian is going to get his wish—and more... Reviews From Publishers Weekly When eccentric megabillionaire Howard Christian commissions a hunt for a frozen mammoth in northern Manitoba to clone a new model in Varley's rollicking, bittersweet tale of time travel and ecology, he gets more than he bargained for: next to the 12,000-year-old beast his team unearths lies the body of a human being, wearing a wristwatch, with a metal box—a time machine?—nearby. Christian hires Matt Wright, Canada's top scientist on the physics of time, to fix the machine, and employs elephant vet Susan Morgan to oversee the cloning of a new mammoth. The machine hurls Matt and Susan back to the mammoth age, then forward again, along with a baby Columbian woolly mammoth, Fuzzy, whose engaging story cleverly alternates with Christian's indefatigable quest for personal fame. Varley's sparkling wit pulls one surprise after another out of this unconventional blend of science and social commentary with real people convincingly doing unreal things. Fuzzy, though, is the true hero, an irresistible 15-foot-tall reminder of the wonders of nature and imagination. The winner of numerous Hugo and Nebula awards, Varley (Millennium) should garner new laurels with this outstanding effort. starred review From Booklist Howard Christian, the world's reigning multibillionaire computer genius, has a passion for collecting vintage automobiles, action toys, and now, mammoths. Although his mammoth menagerie is just beginning, Christian hits the mother lode when his operatives discover a fully preserved woolly mammoth in Canadian backcountry. Making the discovery even more revolutionary is the presence of an equally well preserved couple, one of whom clutches what appears to be, astonishingly enough, a suitcase-sized time machine. Wielding his considerable financial resources, Christian hires Matthew Wright, the world's greatest physicist, to unlock the time machine's secrets. Then, during a sudden temporal shift, Wright jumps back in time, only to return with a herd of rampaging mammoths that terrorizes downtown L.A., and Christian's troubles begin to snowball. Varley's latest indulges all the ploys of a Michael -Crichton-style blockbuster as it pitches to the reading public's passion for prehistoric beasts, throws in flashy time-travel paradoxes, and sets up a feud between eccentric geniuses, one of whom, not coincidentally, resembles Bill Gates. Varley's fans won't be disappointed. Carl Hays “John Varley is the best writer in America.”—Tom Clancy About the Author John Varley is the author of Slow Apocalypse, the Gaean Trilogy (Titan, Wizard, and Demon), Steel Beach, The Golden Globe, Red Thunder, Mammoth, Red Lightning, and Rolling Thunder. He has won both the Nebula and Hugo awards for his work