Longtusk Book

It is fitting that so much of this book covers the topic of defecation and mammoth dung, and what the main character spends doing with it. To summarize... If it smells like mammoth dung, and it tastes like mammoth dung, then it probably IS mammoth dung.

And let me tell that this book definitely reeks of mammoth dung, and it left a nasty after-taste in my mouth which could very well be mammoth dung - probably of the dry and flakey variety, rather than the sloppier kind caused by eating too much soft grass.

I picked this up by accident in a bargain bin, without really giving the blurb a proper reading and on the strength that I recognised the author's name and I thought the other book I had read by him was quite decent. Sadly, the author I was thinking of was someone quite different and the book I had in mind was not by Baxter at all. It was only later that I realised the reason I recognised Baxter's name was that he was the author of Evolution, which I had been unable to finish reading due to its general dreadful nature. This was not a good sign, straight off, and so I shelved Longtusk for a couple of months, until I was feeling a little more desperate for something to read.

Sadly, this did not help.

I cannot really remember the last time I read a book which written from the point of view of an animal - and not something like a talking dragon, or someone who had been turned into a dog, but an actual animal - but I was anticipating something along the line of Jack London's work, or Kine, which I remember enjoying immensely, and animal stories have always had a very strong emotional impact on me. However, this was not what I was expecting at all.

For a start the mammoths talk to eachother and have legends and sophisticated reasoning and in effect... are basicly humans in the shape of mammoths, with a different moral code. This puts the book into a whole different realm, more akin to Beatrix Potter or other such literature for very young readers. Yet the content seems to be aimed at a slightly more adult audience. Throughout the book I found myself continually irritated by the way the mammoths were portrayed and their thought processes and learning ability - and yet how we also supposed to believe that humans are so much more intelligent. I was constantly finding myself hoping that the character of Longtusk would do something dynamic and act in a more human way to overcome the problems he had to deal with, or wishing the story was told from a more realisticly 'animal' point of view. The mix and clash of styles was just wishy-washy and poor as Baxter tried to tell tale on both sides of fence and ended up just doing a bad job all around.

In trying to take the time explain neaderthal culture, or provide a commentary on what the primitive humans are doing or how they are making tool, through the eyes of a mammoth we are given the impression that he is a being of deep intelligence. When we given lessons in geography and geology by the mammoths as they explain the effect of the ice on the land and how over thousands of years one thing happens or the other, we are given a strong sense that they have a rich history and wonderful understanding of the world. When they talk in concepts of sadness and war, love and friendship we see them as sophisticated beings. Then when they cannot deal with simple problems such as how to find their way home after a couple of days of wandering, or how to escape from some humans and their amazing rope, we are left annoyed at their stupidity and lack of personal initiative.

Even an attempt at an emotional ending failed to redeem this stinker of a book in my eyes. It is possible that a young reader who is crazy about mammoths might enjoy this book, but I would not be recommending it to anyone any time soon. There are plenty of better books written from an animal's point of view, and plenty of better books written about prehistoric times.

I will NOT be reading either of the other two books in this series, and will be making a strong effort never to read anything else at all by this author.