Tuskers is a sci-fi comedy. The main story takes place in 2099; the University of Nebraska football team has not lost a game in ten years, although to finish a perfect decade, they must win one last game, with the hated University of Oklahoma Sooners. One of the main characters is a woolly mammoth, resurrected from a frozen specimen by the molecular biologists at the Nebraska Beef Lab. The evil genius, and richest man in the world, is Arly Hockrood, chemical engineer who developed Hockrood Hybrid Corn, a drought and heat-loving perennial plant from which rice and petroleum are now made and exported from Nebraska throughout the world. Hockrood hates the Nebraska football because of the way his grandfather, a can collector street person on campus, was treated years ago, and is determined to do everything he can to make NU lose this game. Unlikely heroines and heroes in this classic matchup between college football powers include Suzie, a college student, Tech, a Beef Lab staff, and members of the marching band, especially Charlie Robbins a tuba player. About the author:John Janovy, Jr. (PhD, University of Oklahoma, 1965) is the author of seventeen books and over ninety scientific papers and book chapters. These books range from textbooks to science fiction to essays on athletics. He is now retired, but when an active faculty member held the Paula and D. B. Varner Distinguished Professorship in Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His research interest is parasitology. He has been Director of UNL's Cedar Point Biological Station, Interim Director of the University of Nebraska State Museum, Assistant Dean of Arts and Sciences, and secretary-treasurer of the American Society of Parasitologists.His teaching experiences include large-enrollment freshman biology courses, Field Parasitology at the Cedar Point Biological Station, Invertebrate Zoology, Parasitology, Organismic Biology, and numerous honors seminars. He has supervised thirty-two graduate students, and approximately 50 undergraduate researchers, including ten Howard Hughes scholars.His honors include the University of Nebraska Distinguished Teaching Award, University Honors Program Master Lecturer, American Health Magazine book award (for Fields of Friendly Strife), State of Nebraska Pioneer Award, University of Nebraska Outstanding Research and Creativity Award, The Nature Conservancy Hero recognition, Nebraska Library Association Mari Sandoz Award, UNL Library Friend's Hartley Burr Alexander Award, and the American Society of Parasitologists Clark P. Read Mentorship Award.
