Golden Anvil

Longtusk by Stephen Baxter

Rather than continue where the first book left off, this book jumps back some huge amount of time and covers the life of the great mammoth hero, Longtusk. Each of the three parts begins with a myth about Longtusk as told by the main character in the first book. The book then goes on to tell the story, and you find that it's the real story from which the myth grew. This is a nice little touch to help draw the two time periods together.

While this book continues to be from the perspective of a mammoth, it's less focused on the mammoth culture/society, so it definitely has a less "alien" feel. I think this works out just fine, although it is a little jarring at times when it feels like things are being told from a more human perspective, despite the "teller" being a mammoth. Of course, this might be intentional, given that the main character spends a good portion of the book around humans.

This book really gripped me much more than the first one. I think it had a stronger plot, and there wasn't such a strong sense of doom about the book. This book does end with a big twist that is making me really anxious to read the last book in the series.

4.5 / 5