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Hybrids (Neanderthal Parallax #3)

3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 · rating details · 1,993 ratings · 90 reviews

In the Hugo-Award winning Hominids, Robert J. Sawyer introduced a character readers will never forget: Ponter Boddit, a Neanderthal physicist from a parallel Earth who was whisked from his reality into ours by a quantum-computing experiment gone awry - making him the ultimate stranger in a strange land.

In that book and in its sequel, Humans, Sawyer showed us the Neandertha

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Paperback, 400 pages

Published November 1st 2004 by Tor Science Fiction (first published 2003)

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Jul 22, 2011 Ian rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: religion-spirituality, audiobook, genre-bending, politics, spec-fic

I started my review of Hominids, the first book, by saying it was a pretty good start to the trilogy. Not great, but pretty good, and ultimately a little disappointing because a Hugo-winner should be better than, well, pretty good. Now I’ve finished the trilogy and Hybrids is solid ending. Not great, but, well, solid. Still I don’t feel the minor disappointment I felt with the first book because my expectations had been lowered from great to average, so reading a nice, solid ending was satisfyi...more

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May 27, 2013 Leslie rated it 1 of 5 stars

The most cringe worthy book I have EVER read. This series started off with an interesting concept but proved to be totally repulsive. It's like the author crammed a bunch of- ill give him this- actual scientific theories together with awful plot lines and character dialogue making one huge awkward mess. This last one was by far the worst. I really don't see how an extremely uncomfortably graphic depiction of a woman's rape in the first book was remotely necessary, unless you count the ridiculous...more The most cringe worthy book I have EVER read. This series started off with an interesting concept but proved to be totally repulsive. It's like the author crammed a bunch of- ill give him this- actual scientific theories together with awful plot lines and character dialogue making one huge awkward mess. This last one was by far the worst. I really don't see how an extremely uncomfortably graphic depiction of a woman's rape in the first book was remotely necessary, unless you count the ridiculous castration of the rapist leading to some kind of epiphany about the "cure" for violent urges in males being the removal of testosterone. The beginning and middle of this one was really difficult to even continue reading, but, by the end some action finally happens and it's way too much all at once to even make me care about anything except the book finally ending. It left me saying, out loud, countless times, REALLY?! Followed a couple times by an actual laugh of disbelief at the preposterous phrase in question. The author slams too many massive ideas together. Pretty much all the big aspects of humanity- religion, violence, global warming, loss, even biology and anthropology- are put into some kind of misguided attempt at questioning our entire existence and morality as a species. If one or two were examined on a broad scale with decent character developments, it would be easier to digest and care about, but it's much too chaotic to take seriously. The main character is full of contradictions- a die hard catholic that believes in everything Catholics are against and frequently uses phrases like "Jesus Christ! God damn it!" And eventually ends up deciding to leave her religion all together. That would normally make for an interesting plot development but its done in a completely non believable manner that is just arbitrary and ultimately a waste of time. Do NOT spend money on any of these books. Yes, there were a few ideas that are pretty interesting, but they're lumped into this giant messy heap of characters and substories that just left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It clearly begs the reader to question humanity and hold our species under a microscope but the only thing that ends up making me do that is the fact that somebody published these books. Sorry this is kind of harsh but I really wish somebody had told me these things before I spent money on this. (less)

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Jun 25, 2012 Ward Bond added it · review of another edition

This is the climactic book of Robert J. Sawyer's Neanderthal Parallax trilogy. Torn between two worlds, geneticist Mary Vaughan and Neanderthal physicist Ponter Boddit struggle to find a way to make their relationship work. Aided by banned Neanderthal technology, they plan to conceive the first hybrid child, a symbol of hope for the peaceful coexistence of two versions of reality.But after an experiment shows that Mary's religious faith--something completely absent among Neanderthals--is a quirk

...more

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Jan 06, 2012 Mei-Lu rated it 2 of 5 stars

Hybrids is the final volume in Robert J. Sawyer's Neanderthal Parallax Trilogy and I have to say... the series really degenerated from a promising start. While this book is better than the second book, it's not as good as the first. The problem is Sawyer's characters. I feel as though Sawyer writes his novels in the same way an academic writes a paper. He has done all of this research into paleoanthropology and primatology and now he's assigned each characters aspect of society that he wants to...more Hybrids is the final volume in Robert J. Sawyer's Neanderthal Parallax Trilogy and I have to say... the series really degenerated from a promising start. While this book is better than the second book, it's not as good as the first. The problem is Sawyer's characters. I feel as though Sawyer writes his novels in the same way an academic writes a paper. He has done all of this research into paleoanthropology and primatology and now he's assigned each characters aspect of society that he wants to write about. In Hybrids we have two violent male specimens (it's a compliment to call them characters) and they behave in absolutely the most predictable way you can imagine. Which considering they're the main devices for moving the plot forward doesn't make for a very tense story. This is NOT good science fiction, it's not even good science. Sawyer is like one of those scientists who has decided the outcome of an experiment before he's even done it. He's like those famous anthropologists who studied Native American tribes and then used their findings to support assumptions they'd made before they'd even set foot in South America. If he had more confidence in his beliefs, he would have presented his readers with the evidence and allowed us the luxury of coming to our own conclusion about humanity rather than bludgeoning us over the head with his ideas.

While reading the Neanderthal Parallax, I kept thinking Mary Doria Russell's two books The Sparrow and Children of God. Both sets of novels use the precedent of Europeans and Native Americans as a model for their novels of first contact. In Russell's The Sparrow, the first contact is with extraterrestrial, intelligent beings whose cultural interactions are so different from those of the humans that despite all the best intentions in the world, the meeting has tragic consequences (which mirror the experiences of the first Jesuits who came to America). Russell's books are amazing - beautifully written and deep in every possible sense of the word. There are no outright villains in Russell's two books - that, ultimately, is both the tragedy and the saving grace of the stories she tells. Sawyer takes a different, less sophisticated tack. In his story, the Neanderthals are the stereotypical noble savages - hunter-gatherers whose Earth is literally described as an Eden compared to the overpopulated, corrupted, polluted Earth that we live in. It's a simplistic, reductionist story. Furthermore, whereas Russell takes on the issue of religion (and the relationship between religion and science) in a deep and compelling way, leaving it up to the reader and the characters to decide what they believe in, Sawyer literally has all the characters he likes, all the good guys, believe what he believes. The "happy ending" in this series is that the one strongly religious character sees the evil of her ways and converts to atheism. Even though I am in sympathy with Sawyer and what he was trying to say, I was ultimately turned off by his storytelling technique. I compared the first book in the trilogy to a Michael Crichton or John Grisham novel. Now I feel like the lurid villains, two-dimensional characters and sweaty-palmed sex scenes are worthier of comparison to Jackie Collins. Actually, no, what it reminds me of, more than anything else, is the kind of simplistic parable one read in Sunday school.(less)

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Oct 13, 2011 D.L. Morrese rated it 3 of 5 stars

The third book in The Neanderthal Parallax series returns to the soft science fiction theme of two cultures colliding. This final book has a single antagonist, a racist (or would it be species-ist?) bigot who wants to take the unexploited and unpolluted Neanderthal world for Homo sapiens. Of course to do so will involve a minor case of genocide but he has the tools and he has the technology, kindly provided by the Neanderthals themselves. Mary, the geneticist heroine from the last book, has to s...more The third book in The Neanderthal Parallax series returns to the soft science fiction theme of two cultures colliding. This final book has a single antagonist, a racist (or would it be species-ist?) bigot who wants to take the unexploited and unpolluted Neanderthal world for Homo sapiens. Of course to do so will involve a minor case of genocide but he has the tools and he has the technology, kindly provided by the Neanderthals themselves. Mary, the geneticist heroine from the last book, has to stop him. She is still annoying and she is still a bag of internal contradictions but her hard to understand romance with the Neanderthal, Ponter, is demoted to a major subplot rather than the main story.
I have a hard time with the Mary character because she simply does not make sense. She is described as a devout Catholic and accepts that the Pope speaks for God but she doesn’t seem to agree with Catholic doctrine on pretty much anything including divorce, homosexuality, contraception, abortion, or celibacy for clergy. So why, I kept asking myself, does this woman identify with this particular faith when, in fact, she doesn’t agree with its stand on most issues? Why does she get defensive when Ponter questions her about religion? She is supposed to be a brilliant scientist and self sufficient woman but she comes across as intellectually and emotionally weak for not asking herself these questions a long time ago given her positions on these issues.
The main scientific flaw that continues to bother me and which makes it hard to really suspend disbelief enough to go with the flow of the story is the reliance on the assumption that human consciousness, a particularly tenuous and inexact concept, emerged suddenly 40,000 years ago because of a shift it the Earth’s magnetic field. There is finally some techno-babble to explain this but it is far from compelling although the whole scientific community in these books seems to accept it as established fact.
I do like the contrast Sawyer draws between the ethically enlightened Neanderthals with the selfishly competitive Homo sapiens. This shines the light of inquiry on our species and all good soft science fiction must do that in some way. But this contrast, I think, would have been clearer and more believable if the Neanderthals were described as ethically, philosophically and even perhaps artistically more advance while Homo sapiens retained the clear edge on technology and science. Giving the Neanderthals an arguable advantage in almost all areas made them simply too good to believe.
(less)

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Feb 07, 2011 Alaina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction-fantasy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 04, 2010 Bruce Kroeze rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

I could not finish this book. This book is literally the single worst SF book I have tried to read in a decade.

The characters? Abysmal, cardboard cutouts who go on rants which last pages. Worse than Ayn Rand, worse than Arthur C. Clark.

The ideas? Nothing new at all. Just more of the same. Neanderthals are smarter, nicer, more moral, and all-around-better than Homo Sapiens. Their world is unspoiled, ours is a hell hole.

The political ideas?

- Eugenics are great. It would benefit society to force-s...more

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Jun 06, 2009 Shomeret rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, my-reviews, worldcat-reviews

Well, I'm the reader who supposedly doesn't exist that started with the third book in the trilogy. I'm the sort of person who does that on a regular basis because I think that all novels ought to be able to stand on their own. So the repetition of events from the previous novels was valuable orientation. I think that authors should recapitulate. Even though most readers aren't like me, they will often forget what happened in the previous books and need the reminders.

I really like the premise of...more

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May 28, 2009 Allison rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, adult

Of the three, I enjoyed the first book the most, probably because of the freshness of the idea.

I really enjoy Sawyer as an author, and while the concepts of these books is really cool, I felt like I could see the cogs working here. Meaning that the story and characters seemed purely to be a conduit for social, religious, political, and moral discussion. Which is all well and good--I am a firm believer that science fiction challenges us to rethink our world and to reexamine it in the light of oth...more

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Feb 21, 2013 Nepeta Thompson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Once again, there were some discrepancies between this and previous books in the series. At one point the main characters go down to an underground facility, and the author talks about them climbing down a long ladder. In book one they had a ladder, since the facility was only infrequently accessed by maintenance crews, but by beginning book two they had put in an elevator to accommodate the increased number of people coming and going. Apparently by book three he forgot about the elevator.

There...more

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Sep 02, 2011 Merredith rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: archaeology and anthropology lovers

Shelves: 4-or-5-stars, anthropologyish, sci-fi

This is the third and last book in the trilogy about modern time, where a portal opens up between this earth and a parallel dimension where neanderthals rule the world instead. Their world is way better than ours, there's no overpopulation, everything is clean and unpolluted. People all wear built in cell phones/computers/monitors in their arms that can't be taken out and they record everything that happens, cutting crime to almost zero. this last one brings everything to a head, of how the two...more

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Sep 20, 2011 Cwilson466 rated it 2 of 5 stars

I didn't hate this book as much as some people did. However, I did have some of the same issues. I read this book because I enjoyed the first two in the series. But, the story in this book was a little bit slower, so I think I had more opportunity to notice some of the author's biases. For example, it is clear that this author has a very low opinion of women. The main character is supposed to be a preeminent scientists, but she is overly emotional, incapable of remembering simple conversations f...more

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Feb 13, 2013 James rated it 3 of 5 stars

Hybrids is the least likeable of the Neanderthal Parallax trilogy. The implications for Man of a doorway to another alternate Earth is put aside as a subplot in favor of Mary’s transformation.

Mary has fallen in love with Ponder, one of the Neanderthal scientists. The “Barasts” have their own code of ethics and Mary struggles with it as it interferes with her Catholic faith.

Much is made of Mary’s beliefs and her struggles, much more than she deserves. She’s a flighty character, who discovers th...more

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Dec 31, 2009 Ben Babcock rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: from-library, 2009-read, alternate-history, canadian-author, science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Didn't we just do this? I need to take a break from Robert J. Sawyer for a while now, since I just read Hominids , Humans , and now Hybrids. The complete trilogy! Do I get a set of steak knives?

If you're really interested in a critique, I advise you to read my reviews, neither of which are very spoilerific, of the first two books. All my criticism (and praise) of those books holds for Hybrids as well. It saves me typing and saves you bandwidth and valuable time you could otherwise use for, say,...more

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Apr 23, 2012 John added it

Shelves: read-in-2010

A solid ending to an excellent trilogy, marred a bit by uneven pacing between action and exposition towards the end, a touch too much of deus ex, and a complex plot issues being resolved a bit too neatly. That noted, this is great biological sci-fi, and is recommended.

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Jan 10, 2012 Fred Hughes rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the third book in The Neanderthal Parallax trilogy. The other two being Hominids (book 1) and Humans (book 2).

In this book we find Dr Mary Vaughan (human geneticist) and Ponter Boddit (Neanderthal physicist) continuing their relationship that developed when they first met. Mary has gone over to the parallel Neanderthal world to learn more about their culture.

From the first books we have learned that in the Neanderthal world:

1) The population has been limited to 185 million
2) All the men...more

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Feb 28, 2011 Beth Quittman rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The conclusion to a bafflingly successful series. The author descends to new depths of misandry as he demonstrates how all the world's violence and problems are because of men and/or religion. Meanwhile the Neaderthal utopia is a Nazi's dream, with 24-hour surveillance, forced sterilization, and eugenics. I'm still not sure if this is tongue in cheek or obliviousness. I would assume it was commentary but the heavy-handedness of the rape subplots lead to believe it may very well be straight up.

E...more

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Mar 19, 2012 Darren Vincent rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

An incredible read...personally disappointing.

As a conclusion to the trilogy, the book was incredible. Once again, it is a book (and series) that makes you think about the world you live in and the consequences of our actions. The author does a wonderful job of balancing multiple plots & subplots and revisiting them at just the perfect time and at just the perfect order to keep them active, relevant and interesting. His commentary on society is very aware and acute and whether I agree or not...more An incredible read...personally disappointing.

As a conclusion to the trilogy, the book was incredible. Once again, it is a book (and series) that makes you think about the world you live in and the consequences of our actions. The author does a wonderful job of balancing multiple plots & subplots and revisiting them at just the perfect time and at just the perfect order to keep them active, relevant and interesting. His commentary on society is very aware and acute and whether I agree or not, it is good the see the other view.

As far as the personally disappointing, well, I should have seen it coming. There were seeds in the first two books about the authors feelings about religion for me to have seen the writing on the wall, but I thought that maybe, just maybe, he would flip it at the last second and make a worthy statement, something deep. Instead, in the coldest fashion I might have ever seen in fiction, Sawyer decides that science trumps faith and that we, the readers who value religion, are blind sheep. The main characters then ride off into the most liberal sunset ever created on paper. If there had been some ambiguity in his statement, giving those who feel differently than the author something to latch onto about how faith is even stronger in the absence of proof, I might could have gotten on board. I don't mind an author having different views than myself, and I don't even mind that he uses the written word to put them forth. But I guess I like my authors to at least not play to one side only. Show the other side and don't demean or belittle the other side by implying that they are following a fruitless path.

So why four stars even still? Because the author is a genius in my opinion. His books are smart and engaging, well paced and well thought out. They play in a different ballpark than the other science fiction books that I read. The man can certainly tell a unique story and this is certainly a very unique story, just one that ended differently than I had hoped.(less)

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Sep 25, 2010 R. Michael Litchfield rated it 2 of 5 stars

Is it accurate to consider a book disappointing when you really don't expect much from the writer? Hybrids was the most lame of the trilogy, actually that's not fair, hominids was actually pretty good and humans was better than most of the other Sawyer books I've read but this was just a mess. The characters were flat and lifeless, they seemed to stumble around on his stage with no real point or purpose and on the whole it was a struggle to give a damn about them. The only excitement was at the...more

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Mar 16, 2011 Meghan R. rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: library, fiction-science, fiction-speculative, fiction

Tidy ending with a (view spoiler), but it's safe to say that Sawyer has thoroughly exhausted what he could offer based on this premise by the third volume in the trilogy.

Everyone in these novels seems to use extremely short and simple declarative sentences, even when they aren't trying to communicate across a language and species barrier. I have no idea if this is a deliberate stylistic choice and what if anything it means, but I suppose one might try them out on a...more

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Apr 29, 2013 Simone rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: scifi-paranormal-fantasy, series, 2013

Overall I loved it: The entire Trilogy. I just couldn’t get enough of Mary trying to explain (justify) our society to Ponter, I thought that it brought up so many different and interesting issues: Religion, Crime and Punishment, The Right to Choose, Environment, Relationships, Science and Technology etc … I found it endlessly interesting!

Having said that, I didn’t like the Jock storyline and I won’t say more about it because I don’t want to spoil it for those who have not read it yet. The book s...more

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Apr 10, 2010 Rob rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: random-comments-review

...Despite its flaws I did enjoy reading the Neanderthal Parallax and its final volume Hybrids at some level but I very much doubt they represent Sawyer's best work. Hybrids is a fast paced novel rich in ideas and scientific concepts but with a rather unlikely plot. I guess it shows that it takes more than a good premise and fascinating ideas to write a really good science fiction novel. If you are like me, unable to put down a trilogy once you started, then this book is very readable but I woul...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

In Hominids, Robert J. Sawyer introduced a character listeners will never forget: Ponter Boddit, a Neanderthal physicist from a parallel Earth who was whisked from his reality into ours by a quantum-computing experiment gone awry ? making him the ultimate stranger in a strange land. In that book and in its sequel, Humans, Sawyer showed us the Neanderthal version of Earth in loving detail ? a tour de force of world-building; a masterpiece of alternate history. Now, in Hybrids, Ponter Boddit and h...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

In that book and in its sequel, Humans, Sawyer showed us the Neanderthal version of Earth in loving detail - a tour de force of world-building; a masterpiece of alternate history.

Now, in Hybrids, Ponter Boddit and his Homo sapiens lover, geneticist Mary Vaughan, are torn between two worlds, struggling to find a way to make their star-crossed relationship work. Aided by banned Neanderthal technology, they plan to conceive the first hybrid child, a symbol of hope for the joining of their two versi...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Fred rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

I don't think that I liked it as much as the first book but it was quite a bit better than the second one. This series examines every social issue that we deal with on this planet. Rape, murder, homosexuality, bisexuality, eugenics, environmentalism, racism, sexism, genetic engineering and I'm sure that I'm missing a few.

I have to say that if a gateway opened up to "the other side" right now, I'd try to grab my family and make a run for it. It would be amazing to live in a world like that and l...more

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Jul 05, 2010 mlady_rebecca rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone, especially those who like SF

Shelves: fiction__part_of_a_series, author__robert_j_sawyer, genre_sub__dystopias_utopias, genre_sub__science_v_religion, 2010, genre__sf, fiction__speculative

I can't give any higher marks to this, or the previous two books in this trilogy. There is nothing these books are missing. They make you think and feel. They make you laugh and cry. There is adventure and romance.

These books point out what is best and what is worst about humanity. Without preaching, the author highlights where we (as a global society) triumph, and where we've failed ourselves. Some of these failings are things we could correct here and now, while others are decisions made too l...more

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Apr 01, 2008 Bill Purdy rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who enjoys good, earthbound sci-fi

Backstory is important with sci-fi titles, since that's the foundation on which entire careers are launched. It seems the guiding principal of successfully writing SF (i.e., actually making a living doing it) is to develop and establish a compelling "universe," preferably one that resonates with the book-buying public, then milk that "universe" for all it's worth by first writing a trilogy, then (if you're really good) writing several more trilogies (e.g., "Volume 17 of the Ayy'k'brin Starquest"...more Backstory is important with sci-fi titles, since that's the foundation on which entire careers are launched. It seems the guiding principal of successfully writing SF (i.e., actually making a living doing it) is to develop and establish a compelling "universe," preferably one that resonates with the book-buying public, then milk that "universe" for all it's worth by first writing a trilogy, then (if you're really good) writing several more trilogies (e.g., "Volume 17 of the Ayy'k'brin Starquest") until your "universe" is tapped out, or until you've achieved enough acclaim (and sold enough books) to collaborate with another established sci-fi writer to develop yet another "universe" to exploit.

All well and good, except too often the "universe" gets played out after the first book. Subsequent volumes seem a bit tossed off to critical readers, while casual readers love it nonetheless and continue to buy the books. Critical readers, meanwhile, move onto some other writer to scrutinize mercilessly.

Count me in the "critical readers" category. And color me suspicious of trilogies and SF series in general. With that foreknowledge, it should come as no surprise to you that I liked the Neanderthal Parallax, since I actually went ahead and read the second and third books in the trilogy. Had I not liked Hominid, you wouldn't be reading this review at all.

Back to the backstory: Volume 1 of the Neanderthal Parallax, Hominid, established the universe in which it and the succeeding books take place. Deep underground, in an abandoned nickel mine in Ontario, human scientists in our time are working on some sort of scientific work (I can't remember what, exactly, it is) that requires a chamber filled with heavy water and a lot of shielding from cosmic rays (which explains what the scientists are doing in a lab so far underground). Meanwhile, in a parallel universe in which Neanderthals thrived while humans died out, Neanderthal scientists are working in the same underground chamber on a quantum computing experiment. One of the Neanderthals inadvertently knocks one of the quantum computing devices while it is plugging away (quantum computers, it is explained, solve a problem by performing computations simultaneously in multiple universes) and BAM, he's transported to our universe. Over the course of Hominid, that particular Neanderthal (whose name is Ponter Boddit), is stuck in our world while the other scientist (who is also Ponter's man-mate, don't ask) navigates the tricky Neanderthal legal landscape, simultaneously trying to clear his own name of the murder of Ponter Boddit (because he disappeared without a trace while on his clock) and to bring him back to his world.

It's a clever device that provides Sawyer with ample opportunity to satirize and criticize human culture, one that has been skillfully created with a great deal of imagination. Despite the quantum physics that underly the novels' premise, these are socio-scientific books, filled with concepts that are easy for laypeople like you and me to understand.

Hybrids promises in its title exactly what it delivers: Ponter and Mary, a human scientist, have fallen in love and want to have a baby. But the only way to do that is to use a fancy gene splicing machine. And a decision needs to be made about whether the offspring gets the extra chromosome, which evidently is responsible in humans for their belief in God. Sounds heavy, but it's all handled with a relatively light and completely readable touch. Three stars because it doesn't pack quite the punch of the first book in the series, but recommended nonetheless.(less)

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Nov 24, 2008 Kip rated it 3 of 5 stars

A decent conclusion to the storyline. A couple interesting plot twists, but again I see why the first book won awards and the two sequels did not. Tied up all the loose ends and left us all with a warm fuzzy. Not as emotionally complex or realistic as the Steele Coyote stories in that regard.

* Couldn't finish
** I had nothing else to do
*** Passed the time, would be **** for genre / author fans
**** Everyone could enjoy this book
***** Everyone should read this book, I'll read it again

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Dec 31, 2012 Eddie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I'm always wondering where Sawyer is going in his novels. The endings are a little too romantic for me. But I enjoyed the story anyway. As in many contemporary novels, there is a sense that something rotten is going to happen and that the US will use the new (technology, products, etc.) for bad ends. Though it wasn't done by the Pentagon, there was still a nefarious person at the core of the betrayal. This was an interesting trilogy and Sawyer is to be commended for his wanting a beautiful, peac...more

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Apr 05, 2013 Francisco rated it 3 of 5 stars

So the story of neanderthals coming from a parallel universe trilogy ends?

I think there are a lot more issues that can be addressed. The comment of why continue to build a portal by the UN if males can no longer travel to the Barast world...Child rearing issues on both worlds...How to accuse a Barast of a crime and keep the rest of your family safe...

Ponter deals his own type of justice...a bomb is placed at the Barast world...Polution, over-population, crime & punishment.

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About Robert J. Sawyer

Robert J. Sawyer is one of Canada's best known and most successful science fiction writers. He is the only Canadian (and one of only 7 writers in the world) to have won all three of the top international awards for science fiction: the 1995 Nebula Award for The Terminal Experiment, the 2003 Hugo Award for Hominids, and the 2006 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Mindscan.
Robert Sawyer grew up in...more Robert J. Sawyer is one of Canada's best known and most successful science fiction writers. He is the only Canadian (and one of only 7 writers in the world) to have won all three of the top international awards for science fiction: the 1995 Nebula Award for The Terminal Experiment, the 2003 Hugo Award for Hominids, and the 2006 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Mindscan.
Robert Sawyer grew up in Toronto, the son of two university professors. He credits two of his favourite shows from the late 1960s and early 1970s, Search and Star Trek, with teaching him some of the fundamentals of the science-fiction craft. Sawyer was obsessed with outer space from a young age, and he vividly remembers watching the televised Apollo missions. He claims to have watched the 1968 classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey 25 times. He began writing science fiction in a high school club, which he co-founded, NASFA (Northview Academy Association of Science Fiction Addicts). Sawyer graduated in 1982 from the Radio and Television Arts Program at Ryerson University, where he later worked as an instructor.

Sawyer's first published book, Golden Fleece (1989), is an adaptation of short stories that had previously appeared in the science-fiction magazine Amazing Stories. This book won the Aurora Award for the best Canadian science-fiction novel in English. In the early 1990s Sawyer went on to publish his inventive Quintaglio Ascension trilogy, about a world of intelligent dinosaurs. His 1995 award winning The Terminal Experiment confirmed his place as a major international science-fiction writer.

A prolific writer, Sawyer has published more than 10 novels, plus two trilogies. Reviewers praise Sawyer for his concise prose, which has been compared to that of the science-fiction master Isaac Asimov. Like many science fiction-writers, Sawyer welcomes the opportunities his chosen genre provides for exploring ideas. The first book of his Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, Hominids (2002), is set in a near-future society, in which a quantum computing experiment brings a Neanderthal scientist from a parallel Earth to ours. His 2006 Mindscan explores the possibility of transferring human consciousness into a mechanical body, and the ensuing ethical, legal, and societal ramifications.

A passionate advocate for science fiction, Sawyer teaches creative writing and appears frequently in the media to discuss his genre. He prefers the label "philosophical fiction," and in no way sees himself as a predictor of the future. His mission statement for his writing is "To combine the intimately human with the grandly cosmic."

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Hybrids (Neanderthal Parallax #3)

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