Sagaspedia
The Tusks of Extinction
Summary
The Tusks of Extinction, by Ray Nayler, takes a science dream and shows its messy side. In the near future, cloned mammoths walk Siberia again, on a reserve built to bring the species back.
But an animal doesn't become a mammoth just by having the right DNA. The herd doesn't know how to live: there are no elders to teach the routes, the dangers and the group's habits. And poachers have their eyes on the ivory, which is worth a fortune.
The fix is bold. The mind of an elephant expert is digitized and placed inside one of the mammoths. Her mission is to lead the herd and teach it to survive, in a body that isn't hers and a world that has changed a lot since the last ice age.
Nayler shifts between points of view and gets you thinking about conservation, hunting, money and what it means to bring back an extinct species.
Awards and nominees
- Hugo Awards 2025 · Best Novella
Beat: What Feasts at Night, The Butcher of the Forest, The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain, Navigational Entanglements, The Brides of High Hill
Trivia
- Ray Nayler's debut novel was The Mountain in the Sea (2022), another science fiction book about animal minds, octopuses in that case.
- In the 2025 Novella race it beat out names like Nghi Vo, T. Kingfisher and Aliette de Bodard.
About the author
Ray Nayler2025 Hugo Award winner for Best NovellaRay Nayler is a science fiction writer and former American diplomat, born in Canada. His debut novel, The Mountain in the Sea, is about octopuses that may have a language of their own, and he won the 2025 Hugo for Best Novella with The Tusks of Extinction, about cloned mammoths. Ecology and nonhuman minds sit at the heart of his work.
Full biography →Sources: reactormag.com · thehugoawards.org
Original text by Sagaspedia. Posters: The Movie Database (TMDB); character photos via Wikipedia. This site uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB. All trademarks and titles mentioned belong to their respective owners. Streaming availability may change.
As an Amazon Associate, Sagaspedia earns from qualifying purchases.
About · Contact · Privacy · [email protected]