Hominids

Rating:
Summary: Hugo winner starts off a terrific trilogy
Review: The winner of the 2003 Hugo Award for Best Novel of the Year, and deservedly so (although David Brin's KILN PEOPLE is also excellent).

Sawyer knows everything there is to know about Neanderthals (which, actually, isn't much, given that we only have fossil evidence of 400 Neanderthal individuals, spread over 170,000 years of time). In particular, he runs with two notions: the contemporary view that Neanderthals had no religious beliefs (sorry, Jean Auel -- but Sawyer's right ... there was no cult of the cave bear), and Lewis Binford's contentious suggestion that male and female Neanderthals lived largely separate lives. Sawyer extrapolates -- in the best sci-fi tradition -- all of this ahead to the present day, giving us a modern Neanderthal culture, technologically sophisticated and wonderfully drawn.

There's an "A" story and a "B" story. The "A" story tells of a Neanderthal quantum physicist named Ponter Boddit who is accidentally transferred from his version of reality (one where Neanderthals survived to the present day and we did not) to our version of reality. This gives Sawyer a "Stranger in a Strange Land" on a par with Heinlien's (the master's) Michael Valentine Smith, providing all sorts of wry, insightful social comment.

The "B" story takes place back in the Neanderthal version of reality, telling us of the aftermath of Ponter's disappearance, and a murder charge brought against his research partner -- Ponter's disappearance is taken as a sign that he's been killed. Sawyer uses this counterpoint subplot to let him show us the varied workings of draconian Neanderthal justice and keep a wonderfully ticking clock going in the background. The science is good and accurate, the philosophy well-grounded and compelling, and the characters believable and (mostly) likable.

HOMINIDS has a real beginning, middle and end, and so can be read as a standalone novel, but I'm sure you'll like it enough that you'll want to read the other two volumes in the NEANDERTHAL PARALLAX trilogy: HUMANS and HYBRIDS. Good books all.

Rating:
Summary: Paleoanthropological sci fi
Review: On an Earth much like our own, Neanderthals evolved and became the dominant species, while humans became extinct. Ponter Boddit, a Neanderthal physicist, is working on a quantum-computing experiment with his partner Adikor Huld when they accidentally create a rift that pulls Ponter through to our Earth. Finding himself a true stranger in a strange land, he is befriended by the scientists who rescue him and slowly begins to learn about our human civilization. Meanwhile, Adikor is stunned at the loss of his partner and is shocked to find himself accused of murdering Ponter, even though a body is nowhere to be found. If he can only get through the trial, he might be able to replicate the experiment and find out what happened to Ponter. "Hominids" is the first book in the Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, and is full of intriguing ideas about Neanderthal culture, like the separation of the sexes and the apparent bisexuality of most of the citizens. The book is more about humanity than anything, and has a fascinating array of characters, each of which is fully fleshed. This is an excellent story that gives readers much to ponder.

Rating:
Summary: Good read, despite alot of little annoyances
Review: I had recently tried to read another book by Sawyer (Flash Forward) and could not really get into it, because I thought it was a little too technical for my tastes. But my brother recommended this to me, so I thought I would give it a shot. I thought the story was much more interesting than Flash Forward and it was not weighed down by a lot of technical details.

There were a lot of things that bothered me in this book, but they were mostly pretty superficial and didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the story. First, I didn't like the way the neanderthal culture was portrayed. I never like it when a book deals with a new culture and they seem to be very vanilla and bland (all wearing the same clothes, using the exact same greeting whenever they see each other, all focused entirely on the community, and having a big ceremonial event which their entire society revolves around) all these things seemed a little bit too formulaic to me. I think it would have been much better had their society been a little more complex. I also thought that this story did not need a love story at all. However, I realize that this is a trilogy, and it will probably be explored more in the other books in the series, but for this book alone, I think it would have been better without it, and if it had to be there, I think it should have been given more time. It seemed much too quick to me for them to overcome the obstacles involved to even think about each other in that way. Also, I thought it was far too convenient that the companion implant was able to make communication so easy between the two cultures, especially after finding out that Ponter's companion was unusual in this reagrd. Finally, I thought Mary did a lousy job of explaining religion for someone who is supposedly a Catholic. It made me think that the author may have different beliefs and has a hard time expressing the other side.

Despite all these things that bothered me, I was very interested in the story and the characters involved throughout the entire book. I think the premise behind the book is a very interesting one. And I think the author did a very good job of discussing the technical aspects of quantum mechanics without the story getting bogged down or boring. I also really liked hearing about the alternate history of the neaderthal world.

I would recommend this book for it's interesting story and characters, but it is far from great.

Rating:
Summary: This Year's Hugo Winner -- You Read it Here First
Review: I had to read this thing twice for business reasons, so this review acts in the way of payback.

This is Wellsian didactic SF on the kindergarten level. Intelligent Neanderthals turn out to be bisexual, atheist Canadians, and are willing to tell us about. And tell us about it. And tell us about it. Passage unto page unto chapter. (And just think--this is the beginning of a trilogy.)

If that sounds like your thing, go to it. Otherwise, your time would be better spent reading... oh, the government-mandated cooking directions in chicken packages. You'll learn a lot more of value there.

Rating:
Summary: Fun plot, implausible science
Review: According to the NY Times (as quoted on the cover of the paperback) : "Sawyer is a writer of boundless confidence and bold scientific extrapolation."

That's a polite way of saying that he hasn't allowed any great concern for plausibility to stifle his creativity, at least where his "scientific extrapolations" are concerned. So if you want the science in your science fiction to be believable, you may not enjoy this book too much.

That said, if you don't worry too much about the plausibility of it all, this is a fun, easy read. The characters are engaging and the plot moves along nicely.

Rating:
Summary: The story promised on the back cover is never fullfilled
Review: I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, the story promised on the back cover is never fulfilled. Instead the author uses the idea of the story as a framework to showcase (what I assume is) his politics. Even the reviewers who give this book 4 or 5 stars refer to it as "Multicultural mélange, "the plot is thin," and "Rather lightweight." I actually agree with the comment that "there is no 'there' there."

The plot is a take off on the "Planet of the Apes"-genre. But the author's unique take on that idea is never fully developed. Worse, the people in the story do NOT act like real people do. And, when characters don't even attempt to act like real people, I get pulled out of the story. The characters do and are exposed to things solely to make the author's political points easier to make. A main character is introduced in a rape scene (which has been criticized in this forum before) and the rape has nothing to do with the story. But apparently, the author, using the character's internal dialog, wants to talk about rape. Fine, do that in a story where rape fits. In another example, two characters aren't needed for a while in the book, but they can't realistically leave the house. So, the author sidelines them by making them have sex in the bedroom all of a sudden and all day long. That way the other two main characters can discuss, in the living room, how good Neanderthal society (a politically left-leaning society) is versus ours.

In addition, every time there is a problem, the characters (in both universes) know the correct answer immediately. I hate to relate it to a bad Star Trek plot, but at least we've all been exposed to those. What's worse, the political philosophy the author wants to talk about doesn't seem much more than stock left-wing philosophy. If you're going to hit me up with a philosophical point of view, could you have something original to say? (This is not a criticism, pro or con, of the philosophy. This is a criticism of the author's execution.)

Generally, I try to steer clear of philosophy laden books. However, the premise of this lured me in. Be warned, the book really is a bit of political philosophy masquerading as SciFi.

Rating:
Summary: First Contact Across Time
Review: Hominids is the first novel in the Neanderthal Parallax series. Within a nickel mine in Sudbury, Ontario, is located an advanced neutrino observatory, with a ten-story-tall detector chamber containing a 12 meter acrylic sphere filled with heavy water and surrounded by light detectors waiting for a neutrino to collide with a neutron. One Friday, the detector alarms went off again and again. When the lights were turned on, remote cameras showed a man within the sphere, drowning in the heavy water. Then the sphere burst and flooded the chamber.

When the staff entered the room leading to the detector chamber, they found the trapdoor sealed with forty separate bolts. Before they could find a tool to release the bolts, internal pressure tore the bolts apart and blew open the trapdoor. After fishing the man out of the water, they found that he had a pulse but was not breathing, so they applied mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until he began to gasp on his own.

The man was quite stocky and had an unusual face: broad, but not flat, angled cheekbones, a gargantuan nose, with a thick, dark blonde beard on his lower jaw and straight blonde hair. When he awoke, he spoke no known language. At the hospital, the X-rays showed that he had a long skull, with a rounded protrusion at the back, a doubly arched browridge, a gigantic nasal cavity, and a huge lower jaw without any chin and a gap between the last molar and the rest of the jaw. The attending physician recognized the skull as that of a Neanderthal.

This novel tells the story of a Neanderthal who was thrown across the timelines to another reality -- our own -- by a malfunctioning quantum computer. Since quantum-computing assumes that calculations will be performed in parallel continuums, a malfunction may well cause a fault in the separation between two adjacent timelines so that a physical object, the Neanderthal in question, might have been ejected from his own universe into ours.

This story describes the problems the Neanderthal has in learning how to communicate in our society. Moreover, it tells of the troubles his partner has in the other timeline when he disappears without any trace.

The social differences between these two forms of humanity are portrayed as the effects of physical differences. Since the Neanderthals have more sensitive olfactory organs, the smells of human civilization are exceeding offensive to them, so they are less likely to pollute the environment. Moreover, the Neanderthal women's synchronized fertility cycle reduces the influence of sex in their society to five or so days a month; sublimated sex just isn't a factor in everyday life, so their equivalent of Madison Avenue never really developed. The Neanderthal are physically strong enough to kill one another with a single blow, so society has developed customs to alleviate anger between individuals and to weed out such traits. The author spends more time on portraying positive cultural differences in the Neanderthal population than in speculating about possible negative consequences. Also, some of the effects may be overstated. However, this story is a satire of our society, not a utopian novel.

As with any scientific problem of this magnitude, the difficulties are caused mostly by human perversity. This adds a touch of challenge and potential danger to complicate the plot, but when hasn't human greeds and fears made life more difficult. Apparently, the same holds true for Neanderthals.

Recommended for Sawyer fans and anyone else who enjoys scientific mysteries with more than a touch of human folly.

Rating:
Summary: Great idea. Dreadful execution.
Review: The idea of this book, in which there is contact between our universe and an alternate one in which the Neandertals inherited the earth, is promising. Unfortunately, that's the most I can say for this book. Turns out the Neandertals are all a bunch of Sensitive New-Age Guys, and I just couldn't get past their cloying sweetness. Yes, they're sexually egalitarian, and non-violent, and they don't pollute, and they are just generally too damn nice to be real or interesting. Our universe, on the other hand, is fraught with conflict, but it's rendered so one-dimensionally as to make it equally boring. Early in the book a woman is raped (in the Homo sapiens universe, of course) and while the assault is in progress, she's thinks "It's not about sex...It's a crime of violence." No doubt true, and maybe someone being attacked might choose that moment to review some pamphlets from the local women's center, but it seems to me that some original or individual response might make her seem more like a real person.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Effort
Review: Rather lightweight, this, but otherwise "Hominids" rates as one of the most thoroughly entertaining books I have read in quite a while. The characters are sympathetic, the plot, for most of the way, runs smoothly, and the whole thing has a charm and skillful erudition that few sci-fi novels can match. I particularly liked the way the questions of time and language were handled. The scenes in the world of homo sapiens work better than those in the Neanderthal world and there are a couple of places where the story seems in danger of wandering off the point, but otherwise I can only say - well done, Mr. Sawyer, well done indeed.

Rating:
Summary: Midwest Book Review - masterful story teller
Review: This author won the Nebula Award for good reason if Hominids is an example of his work. I devoured the book, sympathized and empathized with the characters, and eagerly anticipate beginning Volume II. Be prepared to make an emotional connection you did not expect. This work of science fiction is beguiling, and the story teller masterful.

Ponter Boddit is a physicist still grieving over the loss of his wife. Humorous and gentle hearted, he now shares a home with his long time friend and colleague, Adikor Huld. Adikor is the computer genius who brings Ponter's quantum physics theories to life. Both men are Neanderthals, living in a world where humans as we know them went extinct before recorded time. When their latest experiment unexpectedly succeeds, Ponter is transported into a parallel world - modern day Canada - where he is first rescued, then nurtured by curious strangers.

Louise Benoit works far below earth's surface in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory complex. When a Neanderthal in modern dress materializes out of nowhere into a tank of heavy water, she and her colleagues rescue him from drowning first and ask questions later. She and the company doctor, Reuben Montego, rush the strange specimen to the hospital and then begin to evaluate their situation. X-rays prove that they do, indeed, have a fully developed Neanderthal man on their hands. They call in one of the world's most honored paleoanthropologists in the field of Neanderthal research, Dr. Mary Vaughan. When DNA sampling proves that Ponter is genetically Neanderthal, Louise, Reuben and Mary band together to protect him and learn more about his world. Meanwhile, in his parallel universe, Adikor is up on murder charges because of Ponter's sudden disappearance.

It all seems so incredible, but from page one this author makes it work beautifully. The bewildered Ponter learns to like and respect his Homo Sapiens counterparts. They in turn appreciate and admire his intelligence and personality. Before long, the differences between Neanderthal and modern human fade, replaced by friendship and a growing fondness between Ponter and Mary, made more poignant by her history with males.

The contrast between Ponter's world and ours was indelibly detailed in Hominids. Ours is noisy and messy, with vehicles roaring and factories belching foul smoke. His is quiet and peaceful by design, where wooly mammoths graze quietly outside his bedroom window and violence is rare. Ponter's sorrow on learning that most of the familiar animals in his world have been hunted to extinction in ours was heart breaking.

In short, yes, Mr. Sawyer drew me into this science fiction fantasy and the lives of his characters. Technically precise background information aside, it was the humans in this story who kept me reading. I'm hoping Humans, Volume II, will pick up where Hominids left off. This book is highly recommended reading for adolescents and adults.