Rating: 
Summary: A Fantastic Read with just one flaw...
Review: I imensly enjoyed the first installment of this trilogy and looked forward to getting a copy of "Humans",
It does not disapoint. Anyone with a facination about Anthropology will not be let down by this rip roaring adventure acorss the dimentional divide.
HOWEVER, there does appear to be a running theme throughout the book that White Men are the sole cause of all of societys ills.
All the major characters(with the exception of the neanderthal) are white women and men of colour, I enjoyed this refreshing twist on things however the non stop negative references toward european based culture and caucasian males are just a little bit ridiculous and over the top and in my mind political correctness run amuck.. otherwise a fab read...!
Rating: 
Summary: Every bit as good as its Hugo-winning predecessor
Review: I picked up this book with great trepidation. HOMINIDS, the prequel, had been just fine on its own. I didn't think it needed a sequel and I was afraid that this book would somehow lessen the impact of that one. But my fears were misplaced. If anything, HUMANS is an even better book than HOMINIDS. It concentrates on the relationship between Ponter and Mary and so is a very character driven tale--almost a science fiction love story. But there's still plenty of science and big ideas. Not quite sure this one stands on its own, but it definitely is a worthwhile followup to HOMINIDS.
Rating:
Summary: more philosophy than story
Review: I read the first installment in Analog as a series, and it was interesting enough that bought this second of the series. I was very disappointed, however, with the constant comparison of our human culture and the "can do no wrong" neanderthal world. This book is almost all the author's ideas of what is wrong with our world, and very little story line or action. I had to force myself to finish the book, just to be fair to the author. Also, why is it that an author feels he/she has to include graphic and explicit gratuitous sex scenes.? If he feels his story isn't good enough to hold our interest without the explicit sex, then don't write the story in the first place. He makes the neanderthals out to be saints with a perfect eden of a world. I don't believe I will buy or read the next book.
Rating: 
Summary: I wanted to like it
Review: I wanted to like this book , but the heavy handed religious tone and the rather neurotic female character were a real let down.
Rating:
Summary: Midwest Book Review - written with panache
Review: I'm delighted to report that Humans did pick up where Hominids left off. Volume II relies less on technical and scientific data - although that ground is covered in effective and interesting ways - and more on Neanderthal interaction with Homo Sapiens and their two very different worlds.
Ponter Boddit, the Neanderthal physicist, is reunited with the paleoanthropologist Mary Vaughan and made an official envoy to the parallel world she lives in. Despite polluted air, filthy cities, and human over-population, Ponter sees a goodness in his Homo Sapien counterparts. He believes there is hope for their world, and that both Mary's people and his can benefit each other with their knowledge. To that end, he and his friend Adikor create another portal and figure out a way to keep it open, more or less permanently.
To Mary's way of thinking, Ponter is a gentle hearted man, quite appealing in his guileless fascination with her world. This time around, Ponter learns a great deal more about Homo Sapiens and their history. He's shocked to witness the results of terrorism and war, horrified to learn that millions died in battle, and infuriated to know that Mary's rapist has thus far gone unpunished. And Two finally become One - Ponter's euphemism for making love - on a night that both he and Mary find educational and immensely satisfying. New relationships are formed and old ones shattered as Ponter accepts that he's in love with a female not of his species.
Jealousies and very human failings are acted out on both sides of the portal. Mary visits Ponter's world, enthralled by the peace and untainted atmosphere she finds there. And Ponter demonstrates Neanderthal justice in a way no rapist could ever forget. All in all, it was a fascinating read as explorations and information gathering between the worlds begins.
As is Mr. Sawyer's hallmark, Humans is well-researched and written with panache. The Neanderthal Parallax is fantasy that reads as very real. I highly recommend it to mature adolescents and adults. (There is some strong sexual content in this book.) Volume III is due out in September. That's too long to wait. The name alone promises an exciting finale - Hybrids.
Rating:
Summary: Best Novel Ive ever read
Review: Im not much of a reader but I have read this novel and really enjoyed it.
after reading this one i Had to read the other two in the trilogy.. this may be the best of the 3 . but the other two are worth reading.cant wait for more books from Sawyer
I hightly recommend it
Rating: 
Summary: Not so much a Story as a Speech
Review: Just read this trilogy in the last few days. Gotta say, I'm disappointed. The premise is somewhat interesting - a Neanderthal physicist is experimenting with quantum computers and accidentally opens a portal between his earth where Neanderthals rules to the possible earth where homo sapiens dominate the planet (our world) (Sawyer never did answer my geek question - did the large possibly prime number he was trying to factor uniquely address our world, or was it due to other factors?). The Neanderthal comes over to our world, and wackiness ensues. We actually see quite a bit less wackiness than I would expect to see, and this is another place where the books fail as "hard" science fiction - the reactions of the human institutions don't seem plausible, there's far too little security and oversight in what goes on with the "alien" visitors and the gateway. The thousand+ page trilogy would have made a far better short story or novella, there just aren't that many ideas in the whole thing and the writing is not particularly engaging. As "hard" science fiction, there are basically two strong somewhat novel ideas in the books. One is the quantum computer gateway, the other is that religion is an artifact of the interaction of the homo sapien parietal lobe with magnetic fields. The first is kinda interesting, the second is just loopy. He handwaves away the environments where humans do interact with strong varying magnetic fields and then he introduces a surge in the Earth's magnetic field (on New Year's eve when our characters are in Times Square, of course) and everybody on the planet has a religious experience. Whee. The other aspect of the book is more "social" science fiction. Using the alien as a contrast to explore human society is as old as science fiction is. Such explorations, when coming from the deft hands as one such as C J Cherryh, can be both intriguing and entertaining. If the alien is 3-dimension and has both strengths and weakness that are used to contrast with humanity's strengths and weaknesses In the hands of someone less adept, this can become a cliche where the author merely catalogs the failings of humanity and simplifies the issues to blame one or two factors. Unfortunately, Sawyer does the second. Humans, especially male humans, *especially* especially white male humans, **especially** *especially* especially white American male humans (except when castrated), are bad. Oh yes, and where testosterone isn't to blame, religion is - but that's just a mutated part of the parietal lobe acting out. Neanderthals are good - and where there's bad in Neanderthals, it's because testerone was involved and the Neanderthal's eugenics program was only nearly perfect instead of completely perfect. There's a hint of a grudging nod given to homo sapiens' accomplishments, but it's lackluster and is only a few words out of a thousand+ pages. It feels like an editor said, "show some balance" and Sawyer tacked it on. Sawyer doesn't even bother to do more than handwave how homo sapiens disappeared in the Neanderthal's world, but spends a lot of time on homo sapiens' genocides. Anyway, I was disappointed. The books were vaguely entertaining but the ham-handed "social" aspects were far too simple-minded and comprised too many pages to be anything other than tedious and annoying. I've enjoy others of Sawyers' books, but I'm going to be wary of him now.
Rating:
Summary: Ham-handed social diatribe instead of hard SF novels
Review: Just read this trilogy in the last few days. Gotta say, I'm disappointed. The premise is somewhat interesting - a Neanderthal physicist is experimenting with quantum computers and accidentally opens a portal between his earth where Neanderthals rules to the possible earth where homo sapiens dominate the planet (our world) (Sawyer never did answer my geek question - did the large possibly prime number he was trying to factor uniquely address our world, or was it due to other factors?). The Neanderthal comes over to our world, and wackiness ensues. We actually see quite a bit less wackiness than I would expect to see, and this is another place where the books fail as "hard" science fiction - the reactions of the human institutions don't seem plausible, there's far too little security and oversight in what goes on with the "alien" visitors and the gateway. The thousand+ page trilogy would have made a far better short story or novella, there just aren't that many ideas in the whole thing and the writing is not particularly engaging. As "hard" science fiction, there are basically two strong somewhat novel ideas in the books. One is the quantum computer gateway, the other is that religion is an artifact of the interaction of the homo sapien parietal lobe with magnetic fields. The first is kinda interesting, the second is just loopy. He handwaves away the environments where humans do interact with strong varying magnetic fields and then he introduces a surge in the Earth's magnetic field (on New Year's eve when our characters are in Times Square, of course) and everybody on the planet has a religious experience. Whee. The other aspect of the book is more "social" science fiction. Using the alien as a contrast to explore human society is as old as science fiction is. Such explorations, when coming from the deft hands as one such as C J Cherryh, can be both intriguing and entertaining. If the alien is 3-dimension and has both strengths and weakness that are used to contrast with humanity's strengths and weaknesses In the hands of someone less adept, this can become a cliche where the author merely catalogs the failings of humanity and simplifies the issues to blame one or two factors. Unfortunately, Sawyer does the second. Humans, especially male humans, *especially* especially white male humans, **especially** *especially* especially white American male humans (except when castrated), are bad. Oh yes, and where testosterone isn't to blame, religion is - but that's just a mutated part of the parietal lobe acting out. Neanderthals are good - and where there's bad in Neanderthals, it's because testerone was involved and the Neanderthal's eugenics program was only nearly perfect instead of completely perfect. There's a hint of a grudging nod given to homo sapiens' accomplishments, but it's lackluster and is only a few words out of a thousand+ pages. It feels like an editor said, "show some balance" and Sawyer tacked it on. Sawyer doesn't even bother to do more than handwave how homo sapiens disappeared in the Neanderthal's world, but spends a lot of time on homo sapiens' genocides. Anyway, I was disappointed. The books were vaguely entertaining but the ham-handed "social" aspects were far too simple-minded and comprised too many pages to be anything other than tedious and annoying. I've enjoy others of Sawyers' books, but I'm going to be wary of him now.
Rating:
Summary: Humans: What a Sequel
Review: One could not ask for a better sequel. Little regurgitation of what was in the last book and very good story development as well as a few hints of what is to come. This is one of the best crafted trilogies that I have even seen.
Rating:
Summary: A sequel that's every bit as good as the first
Review: Rare in these days of bloated, endless series is the second volume that's every bit as good as thefirst---but HUMANS is such a novel. What's more, the book's post-9/11 sesibility makes it even more timely and cogent than its predecessor. Well done, Mr. Sawyer!
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