Title: Varley wimps out
Product review: Mammoth is a quick and easy read, perhaps working as simple weekend entertainment. As a pulp sf/action novel, it has a lot in common with Michael Crichton novels. For many, that would suffice, but I found Mammoth to be disappointing. There is very little hard science here: the physics and philosophy of time travel are completely lacking, for example, supplanted by Rubik's cube hand-waving magic. Paleontology is discussed at a level that might be expected from a children's museum; part of the story (that part that contains most of the paleontological information) is, in fact, written literally at that level. But most disappointing is Varley taking consistently wimpy stances on the paradoxes of time travel, the corrupting influence of big business, science vs religion, and especially the rights (or not) of animals. Mammoth provided a very good framework for Varley to take a stand on these issues, but he takes the middle ground, placating in every instance.
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