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Summary: The latest from the greatest sci-fi writer of today
Review: I really think Sawyer is the greatest sci-fi writer of today. He's go the same level of big ideas that are in Greg Egan's novels, but with better characters. He's got the same ability to integrate disparate ideas into a synergistic whole that you find in Paul Levinson's work, but with better prose. And he's got the social consciousness of Kim Stanley Robinson, but without bloating his books to double or triple the length they really should be. HOMINIDS has all these virtues, and more. It's a great human story and a great sci-fi story, thought provoking and lots of fun. Sawyer is clearly up to date on paleo-anthropology, and his modern day Neanderthal culture is fascinating and appealing. Enjoy!
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Summary: Two interwover plotlines, different but equally excellent
Review: HOMINIDS, like many novels, interweaves two plotlines. But often in other books there's an "A" plot, which is the main story, and a "B" plot which, frankly, is little more than filler to pad out a novelette idea into a book. Not so with Sawyer's remarkable HOMINIDS. His two plotlines (one set in our world of 2002 mostly in northern Ontario, Canada, and the other set in the exact same geographic location but on a parallel Earth where Neanderthals survived to the present day and we did not) are both equally fascinating, and counterpoint each other beautifully. Yes, as one might expect from a science fiction novel, we learn a lot about the putative aliens of the piece (Sawyer's lovingly depicted Neanderthal culture), but we also learn a lot about ourselves, and what it means to be our kind of human. A first rate book I expect to see on the Hugo Award ballot.
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Summary: Another hit from Canada's King of Smart Science Fiction
Review: "Hominids" begins a trilogy, the "Neanderthal Parallax," and as such I was worried that I'd be left with such a cliffhanger that I'd be frustrated and wanting part two just to continue the story. I do want part two - "Humans" - but "Hominids" itself was a self-contained story with a plot that was resolved even though there is definitely more coming.
Parallel worlds are old-hat to Science Fiction, but Sawyer has managed to take a refreshing look at the hook in this novel. The parallel world is an earth where Neanderthal were the humans who rose to the position of dominant species, not Homo Sapiens. The society that Sawyer crafts for these Neanderthal is extrapolation at its best, with an admixture of social commentary that doesn't quite reach preachy status. The parallels drawn are at once both interesting and slightly embarrassing: in nearly all things, it seems, those Neanderthal's are our better. Though that's an initial thought and emotional reaction, the more I read, the more I felt the gap shortening. I have a strong feeling Sawyer is going somewhere with this theme.
Two plots co-exist in this novel: a Neanderthal scientist is rudely dropped into our world, the first plot. The second plot is that of the scientist's partner, who is accused of murdering the scientist, who has so completely vanished.
For intelligent, thought-provoking science fiction, go no farther than Robert J. Sawyer. This is one of his best yet...
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Summary: Asks question but lets readers reach their own conclusions
Review: The previous (July 1, 2002) reviewer is wrong on several counts. First, nowhere in the text of HOMINIDS does Sawyer "belittle" any character for his or her beliefs, or lack thereof --- least of all belittling his Neanderthal protagonist Ponter for not believing in a divine Jesus. Rather, Sawyer portrays a very interesting dialogue between two characters that have opposite beliefs, a Catholic homo sapiens and an atheist homo neanderthalensis. Sawyer certainly does not "insinuate" (the wrong word anyway, but the one the previous reviewer used) his own beliefs into the text. Rather, in novel after novel, he raises fascinating issues while letting the reader make his or her own conclusions. To accuse Sawyer of racism or intolerance is simply ridiculous (and, ironically, I note that this review goes up the day after Amazon pulled a ridiculous review that accused Sawyer of being an ANTI-racist for supposedly offensively having a black man sleep with a white woman). Also, finally, the previous reviewer has broken the main rule of reviewing: he didn't even finish reading the book. In other words, he doesn't really know WHAT conclusion, if any, Sawyer made. All he knows is that he didn't find immediate gratification while reading a single passage. That the reviewer gave up at that point may tell us volumes about him, but it says nothing about Sawyer, and his very evenhanded, sensitive and balanced exploration of a plethora of difficult issues in HOMINIDS ... which I give five stars only because I can't give it six.
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Summary: We can do without the retoric.
Review: I first read this story late in 2001 and early 2002 when it was serialized in Analog magazine.
I stopped reading after the third installment because I lost interest in it at that point.
One of the main characters, Mary, was trying to explain to Ponter, the Neanderthal about Jesus and religion. He was from a people that didn't believe in an afterlife and she was trying to explain it to him.
It took several pages and it belittled him since he didn't believe in a supreme being. If someone, like myself isn't catholic, the heavy handeness of it's inclusion can really discourage oneself from reading.
It is similar to another science fiction novel I read last year that takes place at the time of the inquisition which insults jews. There is enough bigotry and religion hatred in this world. We don't need it in our science fiction. This is the first of three. I might wait until my library receives it, but I don't think I would waste money on it. I gave it three stars because there is some good to it and would have been a fine novel if the writer didn't insinuate his views upon the readers.
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Summary: Excellent as always
Review: Robert J Sawyer is known for his non-genre SF writing. This is a guy who steers clear of spaceships and death rays and, instead, gives the reader pause for thought. In Hominids, Sawyer proposes (using quantam physics) that the universe split during the Great Leap Forward and two realities were created. One world is present-day Earth. In the other, neanderthals lives on while humans died out. In Hominids, through an accident in a physics lab, the two universes come into contact with one other and an evolved neanderthal ends up on our Earth. Sawyer has created an interesting construct based on sound scientific and historical principles. His characters are strong and believable and, most importantly, help to further the scientific supposition rather than get in the way. the book read squickly and contains all of what a good novel should: conflict, suspense and strong character development. Hominids is a stand-out in the new crop of SF, and Sawyer has shown, once again, that he puts the Speculative in SF.
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Summary: Another Success from Sawyer - A Great Ancient Man Story
Review: Well, not quite an ancient man story. Its not like a preserved Stone Age guy reborn today and groping around, but an alternate universe story, where Neanderthals were the evolutionary winners - not Homo sapiens. Of course, not unlike a previous novel of his "Flashforward", a physics experiment goes awry. As a result, a subject from the Neanderthal universe gets transported to our world - and then the fun begins. What is also hilarious, are the cutbacks to the Neadnerthal world and what Sawyer has conjured up there! What fun. I can't wait for more of this in his trilogy.
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Summary: Best SF Book I've Read in Years
Review: I have very high expectations of any new book by Sawyer, but this one exceeded even those high expectations. I read this book in one sitting, and was totally enthralled by the way that Sawyer gave us a great story, based in solid science and even through in a Neanderthal murder trial. I can't recommend this book enough.
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Summary: The Neanderthal Economics
Review: A very good read. I enjoyed the day I spent reading it. The physics seemed fine as far as I could tell and I really appreciate the reading list at the end. But if I were the editor I would have moved some of that peripheral stuff as well as Sawyer's offputting two pages on "T" and "TH" in Neandertal (current German) versus Neanderthal (19th Century German) and then English to Sawyer's great home page and saved a few trees.
The economics seems less well handled than the physics. In our world no non-agricultural people has had a scientific or industrial society. It seems to me that it is unlikely that a pastoral or hunter-gatherer society could progress technologically so as to be ahead of us in a similar span of time. Also the economics of relationships between men and women in the alternative world could use some more examination.
The biology of the Neanderthal also seems not well examined. Why should the Neanderthal all be white? By the way the next movie on the Cro Magnon should make them brown. They were just out of Africa and hadn't had long enough in the North evolve the pink skins of their Euopean descendants.
As for the Neanderthal most of them surely have spent the last 30000 years since they whipen out our ancestors in or near the tropics and those would be brown for the same sunshade reasons East Indians and Africans are brown. Perhaps Sawyer will enlighten us in the next two volumes.
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Summary: An Excellent Read!!
Review: What a fun book this is!! Rob Sawyer likes to takes fantastical happenings (alien encounters, visions of the future, etc..) and plop them down in the middle of regular people doing regular things. I also enjoy the book's Canadian's setting as I often get tired of books being set in Los Angeles, New York, etc.. If you like any of Sawyer's other books, you'll like this one and if you like this one: make sure you read his other books. The initial premise should tell you most of what you need to know. Its not a heavy SciFi book, but focuses more on events and characters.
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