Woolly

The True Story of the Quest to Revive One of History's Most Iconic Extinct Creatures

By: Ben Mezrich

Narrated by: Ben Mezrich

Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Science fiction becomes reality in this Jurassic Park-like story of the genetic resurrection of an extinct species - the woolly mammoth - by the best-selling author of The Accidental Billionaires and The 37th Parallel.

"With his knack for turning narrative nonfiction into stories worthy of the best thriller fiction" (Omnivoracious), Ben Mezrich takes us on an exhilarating true adventure story from the icy terrain of Siberia to the cutting-edge genetic labs of Harvard University. A group of young scientists, under the guidance of Dr. George Church, the most brilliant geneticist of our time, works to make fantasy reality by sequencing the DNA of a frozen woolly mammoth harvested from above the Arctic Circle and splicing elements of that sequence into the DNA of a modern elephant. Will they be able to turn the hybrid cells into a functional embryo and bring the extinct creatures to life in our modern world?

Along with Church and his team of Harvard scientists, a world-famous conservationist and a genius Russian scientist plan to turn a tract of the Siberian tundra into Pleistocene Park, populating the permafrost with ancient herbivores as a hedge against an environmental ticking time bomb.

More than a story of genetics, this is a thriller illuminating the race against global warming, the incredible power of modern technology, the brave fossil hunters who battle polar bears and extreme weather conditions, and the ethical quandary of cloning extinct animals. Can we right the wrongs of our ancestors who hunted the woolly mammoth to extinction - and at what cost?

©2017 Ben Mezrich (P)2017 Simon & Schuster Audio

Think SARS cov2

While this is fiction - Today’s events suggest that the end results are what we are living through today. Very eye opening.

Wooly: Science Tries to Resurrect Mammoths

Where does Woolly rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

About 4 on 5 pt. scale. Interesting enough to keep. Informative, instructive. I will listen again to this book at least several times.

What other book might you compare Woolly to and why?

I don't think I have listened to an audiobook quite like this one. Unique.

Which scene was your favorite?

None in particular. I did enjoy the explanations of how genetics is being used to attempt this feat.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

No. Not a moment that moved me per se, although I was excited when they found the intact mammoth whose blood was still fresh enough to defrost.

Any additional comments?

A nice complement to a steady diet of mysteries, historical fiction, history, science, art and social sciences. I like to be listening at the same time to a few in one or more of these categories. I need breaks between listening to one genre and another.

A Fun ride

I loved the science in this book and didnt stop listening to it since started

interesting

this book was incredibly interesting. george church is amazing. he had led such a scientific life and made so many scientific contributions.

Tangled yarn

There's a lot of tangential padding between the sections of salient content in this tale of recent developments in genetic engineering, such as education and employment histories of the researchers. Get past the weeds and there's an interesting record of how and why humans are attempting de-extinction of the woolly mammoth.
The prose has neither beauty nor brilliance, coming as close to factual reporting as creative nonfiction can be. The audiobook narration pauses awkwardly midphrase, time and again, which is all the more surprising because it's the author reading his own words.

Narrator struggles with science pronunciations

I don’t know whether it’s a bad editing job or just a bad narrator, but this narrator can’t pronounce Pleistocene correctly. And at one point he mistakenly says “substance” when the text clearly must have read “sustenance.” I’m a huge fan of George Church, and loved the author’s previous “Billionaires” work. Great book, but Audible needs to stop phoning it in on their production quality.

Technically exhausting while enthralling.

I enjoyed most of this book but I found it very technical and a scientific depth that was less interesting in many parts. I realized the revival of the woolly mammoths was far more complicated and integrated than was thought when the first mammoths were chiseled out of the frozen tundra.

De-Extinction Science buried and unearthed

The pace and style of this writing made the bits of science reporting feel mixed up with other narratives that felt uneven to me. I would have preferred a more straightforward review of the actual science.

Did Mezrich really write this?? Ugh

I liked his other books but this one is awful. First of all, wheres the science? It just goes on and on about how great Church is, to the point that I thought it might be a joke. Sure he's done nice work, but to effuse constantly about that he is "the greatest geneticist in the world" is ludicrous, and I suspect that many molecular biologists would find these statements pretty funny. Every chapter begins with quotes from Church, almost like biblical passages being recited in churches on Sunday. I am a scientist so I recognize the gross exaggerations in this book more than most listeners, but I find it hard to believe that even the most novice science fan would fail to see this unflagging hero worship by Mezrich. After an hour or so I played another couple hours at double speed, and even like this, it was totally a waste of time. If you are interested in the science, dont waste your time on this book, which should be titled "George Church: my hero, idol, and the greatest man in history".

Too much...

Too much unnecessary information and back story. I would love a book that is more interested in Woolly Mammoths.