Title: Mammoth!
Series: Repeating History: Book Three
Author: Dakota Chase
Publisher: Harmony Ink Press
Length: 180 Pages
Category: Historical, Teen Fiction, Time Travel
At a Glance: Although some parts of the story fell flat, the author has again done a wonderful job on portraying the time-period.
Reviewed By: Kel
Blurb: To replace another of the artifacts they accidentally destroyed, Grant and Ash must travel further back in time than ever before—ten thousand years, to Paleolithic Virginia Beach. They quickly realize that in this time, food doesn’t come from a supermarket, and if they want to survive, they’ll need to learn skills like hunting and fire-making.
Merlin’s magic won’t return them to their time until they locate a mammoth talisman, but this time, they’ll need to do more than find the object. They’ll have to earn it—along with their manhood names—in a dangerous hunt. And before their latest adventure ends, they’ll have to help an injured young man and convince two rival tribes to work together. It might be a different environment, but they soon see that human hatred and fear are universal. Luckily, so are love and compassion.
Review: Ash and Grant are sent back to a time when humans first started living in the Virginia area. This time they’re sent back to collect a hunting token shaped like a mammoth. Neither boy has grown much since the last story, but, once again, it hasn’t been long since their last adventure, a few weeks or months; I’m not sure if the author specifies. There is a bit of change with them, though. They are talking a little more, spending more time together, but it’s baby steps; it doesn’t really change their overall character.
This time we get to see a small bit of their life at the school. We haven’t really seen that yet, and it’s nice to see them interacting in their normal time. They’re still bickering and fighting, though it has lessened some. They’re growing closer, very slowly, and that’s also a nice change to see.
Their jaunt into the past has them meet up with Rabbit, a boy younger than them but older at the same time. Both boys have a hard time adjusting to the primitive time, missing their modern conveniences, and you can’t blame them. This time they seem to adapt a little faster, showing that they’re starting to get a small handle on how to live in the past. They’re also starting to work together a little more, though they are still fighting a lot.
This story is a little slower than the last one, Hammer of the Witch. Ash and Grant meet Rabbit’s tribe and learn how they do things. They run into a shaman, Snow Owl, who hates them on sight. You’re never given a satisfactory explanation on why Snow Owl hates them, though the theories the boys come up with are plausible. The final confrontation with Snow Owl seems a little anticlimactic also. The author could’ve done a lot more with that storyline, but it seems to fade away for most of the story, then comes back only at the very end.
Mammoth does show the boys growing up more, being forced to by the circumstances of their mission. They’re still fighting with each other, but you can see that they’re growing more than they have up to this point. The training for hunting they go through has a lot to do with that. The romance between them takes a step forward too, although it doesn’t go far. They kiss and Ash realizes he wants to do more, but Grant seems to pull away and Ash is confused on what he wants with Grant.
The confrontation with the Deer Tribe also fell a little flat. That had potential to elevate the story and add tension, but it was resolved rather easily and left me feeling a little disappointed. The hunt was interesting, though, and I would’ve liked to have seen more of that. Once again, the ending seemed to happen abruptly, and we’re sent back to the modern time with little information on what happened to Rabbit and his tribe after the boys left. I understand these stories are based on real events, but I still wish the author would give us more of an epilogue for the people involved. It’s fiction, it doesn’t have to be based completely in reality. Merlin could give them some additional information or something.
The author has again done a wonderful job on portraying the time-period, and I wonder just how much research they do for each book. It adds to the story, knowing that there’s a lot of facts put into each book, making them more interesting, I think. I can’t wait to see where Merlin sends Ash and Grant next, and I hope the author expands on the story and the ending more next time.
You can buy Mammoth here:
[zilla_button url=”http://bit.ly/2ODhraQ” style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Harmony Ink Press [/zilla_button][zilla_button url=”http://books2read.com/u/4XKAA1″ style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Amazon & Other Booksellers [/zilla_button]