Reviews

The reissue of Hugo-winner Mike Resnick's episodic 1988 novel Ivory: A Legend of Past and Future puts his strengths and weaknesses on full display. Thousands of years in the future, after most wildlife on Earth is extinct and humans have spread to distant stars, the last descendant of the Maasai hires a researcher to locate the massive tusks of the Kilimanjaro Elephant. Resnick's fluent writing and respect for African cultures and wildlife are not always enough to rescue the numerous vignettes about the tusks' various owners over the centuries; some are smoothly ironic while others descend into gimmickry, culminating in an overall pleasant story that just misses being truly memorable. (Pyr, $15.95 paper 319p ISBN 9781-59102-546-7) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

In the distant future, long after Earth has been scoured clean of life, Duncan Rojas, researcher for Braxton's Records of Big Game, is commissioned by the last of the Masai to search his records for the current location of a pair of ivory tusks once part of the legendary giant Kilimanjaro elephant. The catch: the tusks have been missing for 3000 years. This latest from five-time Hugo winner Resnick (Kirinyaga, New Dreams for Old) plays to his greatest strengths-as a raconteur without peer, capable of weaving together a series of linked stories into a seamless whole, and as a compassionate and thoughtful observer of the human condition. Peopled with gamblers, warlords, artists, and politicians and overseen by the shadow of the enormous creature who once ruled the grasslands of Africa, his latest work is highly recommended for all sf collections. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.