Golden Anvil

Icebones by Stephen Baxter

This book is the last of the trilogy, and takes place some unknown number of years in the future after the first book. It is set on a partially terraformed Mars. How mammoths get there I'll leave unmentioned to avoid spoilers. Baxter likes to tie all of his stories together into one common setting, and this is the book that ties the whole trilogy in. Of course, since it's all from a mammoth's perspective, the connection is not a strong one, and you are left to infer some things yourself.

Even more that the first book (and only somewhat like the second), this book is very much about a journey from one place to another. The destination really isn't quite so important as is the actually getting from here to there. The trick, of course, is that while the characters are similar to what we've seen before, the environment is definitely different. Like the second book, this one had a fairly strong plot, and I found it difficult to put down.

All in all, this was a nice ending to the series, even leaving things on a positive note, which was less present in the first two books, and even generally rare in Baxter's books in general. As a whole, I'd say the series was a good read. It was took an interesting, different perspective.

4.5 / 5