Silverhair

Silverhair

In the grand tradition of Watership Down --A saga of the great and gentle ones It is a harsh but beautiful world--a remote fastness of shining tundra, rimmed by ice and sea and mountain. Silverhair and her kind have lived here from the earliest Rememberings, when Kilukpuk's children first parted some for the jungle, some into the sea, and some into the rock and ice. Hear their song! For they are the last of the woolly mammoths, the great, shaggy gentle ones whose bones have greened Earth's grasses through the Long Years, for fifty million springs. Hear their story. Silverhair is filled with the dreams of youth, and the warmth of Lop-ear's child growing in her belly. But even as her life begins, her world is ending around her. A new menace, more vicious than wolf or bear, is descending upon the snowlands--a two-legged creature that kills for joy, and fouls the Earth for greed. Silverhair and the matriarch, Owlheart, must escape across the glacial torrents, beyond the saw-toothed mountains. They seek help and find it in unexpected sources, including the distant cousins who long ago found their destiny in the green arms of the sea, and from an enemy: an ice-faced menace known as...the Lost. Stephen Baxter, one of today's most acclaimed writers of science fiction and fantasy, now turns his celebrated talents to a tale that has never before been told or even imagined. Silverhair begins a three-part saga--at once thrilling, heartwarming, and tragic--of a small band of mammoth survivors on a remote arctic island, and what happens when they are discovered by a clever and unpredictable animal they call the Lost. Silverhair is a story for every age, a tale to remember as long as the footfalls of the great and gentle ones still echo in the shadow of the glaciers--forever. Isolated from the passage of time, a small colony of mammoths survives into the 20th century until their discovery by a group of shipwrecked sailors threatens their existence. Baxter combines well-researched details on the physical habits of prehistoric mammoths with an anthropomorphic touch to delineate the personalities of his protagonists. Fans of the prehistoric novels of Jean Auel and the animal-based fantasies of Richard Adams should enjoy this tale of triumph over adversity. For large collections. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. First of a projected science fiction trilogy from the England-resident author of Moonseed (1998). On an island in the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia, mammoths have survived unnoticed since the last ice age. But now, reduced to a single herd, the gentle giants struggle to survive a warming climate, a dwindling gene pool, and the attentions of humanity. Though intelligent and sapient, the mammoths have no effective defense against a small party of men who've suddenly appeared on their island. Young Silverhair, the herd's future Matriarch, and her mate Lop-ear decide they need new ideas and new thinking to survive. They ask the humans for help, but they respond by shooting Lop-ear and capturing Silverhair. Her captor, Skin-of-Ice, proves a ruthless enemy and takes a sadistic delight in tormenting her. Eventually contriving an escape, Silverhair flees back to the remnants of the herd, pursued by both Skin-of-Ice and a helicopter. The remainder of the herd dies attempting to prevent the seizure of its surviving calves, who are then taken to a mainland city. Calling on the mammoths' ancient compact with their distant relatives, the sea cows, Silverhair swims to the mainland, rescues the calves, battles again with her nemesis, and finally is captured by scientists and placed in a reserve back on the island. Lop-ear, however, isn't dead; he tells Silverhair of the existence of elephants, so perhaps their species might survive. An improbable yarn, stuffed with mammoth facts and lore, thats both absorbing and sometimes affecting. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. "Compelling." -- -- Time Out "Compelling." -- Time Out "Convincing...vivid...a rich and very rewarding read." -- -- Infinity Plus "Convincing...vivid...a rich and very rewarding read." -- Infinity Plus "The species is spectacularly reailsed, complete with a religion and culture tackled with impressive creativity. Silverhair will be followed by a sequel; look out for it--if it's anything like the original, you'll be in for a treat." -- SFX In the grand tradition of Watership Down --A saga of the great and gentle ones It is a harsh but beautiful world--a remote fastness of shining tundra, rimmed by ice and sea and mountain. Silverhair and her kind have lived here from the earliest Rememberings, when Kilukpuk's children first parted some for the jungle, some into the sea, and some into the rock and ice. Hear their song! For they are the last of the woolly mammoths, the great, shaggy gentle ones whose bones have greened Earth's grasses through the Long Years, for fifty million springs. Hear t