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Hominids (Neanderthal Parallax #1)

by Robert J. Sawyer (Goodreads Author)

3.77 · Rating details · 9,817 Ratings · 574 Reviews

Neanderthals have developed a radically different civilization on a parallel Earth. A Neanderthal physicist, Ponter Boddit, accidentally passes from his universe into a Canadian underground research facility. Fortunately, a team of human scientists, including expert paleo-anthropologist Mary Vaughan, promptly identifies and warmly receives Ponter. Solving the language prob ...more

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Paperback, 444 pages

Published February 17th 2003 by Tor Books (first published 2002)

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Community Reviews

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Jan 24, 2009 Jamie Collins rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction

This is worth reading for the intriguing depiction of an advanced neanderthal society, but it's not a very well-written novel.

The narrative was more readable when it focused on the neanderthals, perhaps because the alienness of the society kept my attention, but as soon as it returned to the homo sapiens the prose became clunky enough to pull me out of the story. The characterizations are poor, particularly that of Mary, one of the main protagonists.

And the author almost ruined my enjoyment of t ...more

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Oct 29, 2012 Greg rated it liked it

Shelves: sf-fantasy-and-other-dorky-shit

The idea of this novel is fairly interesting. In an alternate universe Neanderthals survived instead of our branch of the evolutionary tree. While testing a quantum computer a swap ends up happening between the two realities and a Neanderthal scientist finds himself in our reality. The Neanderthals get some radioactive water from us. Fair trade.

Culture shock follows and a compare and contrast between our present society and the what might have been if Neanderthals lived and we just disappeared The idea of this novel is fairly interesting. In an alternate universe Neanderthals survived instead of our branch of the evolutionary tree. While testing a quantum computer a swap ends up happening between the two realities and a Neanderthal scientist finds himself in our reality. The Neanderthals get some radioactive water from us. Fair trade.

Culture shock follows and a compare and contrast between our present society and the what might have been if Neanderthals lived and we just disappeared only to be known by a handful of bones found here and there.

If the novel was able to just give this reality/alternate reality sort of thing, and talk about some of the pop-science behind how this all might have happened then I would have really enjoyed the book. I'm not quite sure how this would have been done though, since what I'm trying to say is if basically the ideas of the book were kept but most of the plot (that weren't directly connected with the ideas), most of the characters and all the none ideas dialogue were excised from the book I would have liked it.

Instead the book has these great ideas, but terrible terrible terrible dialogue, characters and writing (when the writing isn't about the ideas).

Even though I was reading this book in the privacy of my own home, while a storm was going on, so no one was even possibly outside my window looking in (this happens, really, people just look in my window to watch me read, honest) I was still embarrassed at times to be reading the book. Especially whenever anything remotely sexual was being written about. Most of the 'romantic' elements in the book sound like they were written by a horny 13 year old (yes, but romantic I do also mean such things as checking out someone's 'buns'). One of the main characters is a super-model level gorgeous woman who happens to be a brilliant post-doctoral physicist and also happens to walk around in skimpy clothes, and outfits like daisy-dukes with rock t-shirts bunched and tied up just below her breasts. She's also obviously one who sleeps with lots of geeky guys. Really. It is also painful to read a woman's psychological state after being the victim of a sexual assault. It's not that the author isn't sympathetic, but there is just a shallowness to the reaction. But this isn't that surprising there is a shallowness to most of the characters and the way they react to things.

This isn't the worst example of the dialogue, but it's the point where I finally decided to make a note of it.

"I'm talking about Mary-not you, Professor Vaughan, Mary, the mother of Jesus. You're a Catholic, aren't you?"

Mary nodded.

"I noticed your crucifix." Mary looked down, self-conscious. "I'm a Catholic, too," continued Louise. (who we just found out isn't just the ultimate in sexy librarian but can also be the ultimate Catholic school girl, woo-hoo).

It's not like this was terrible, but it was sort of unnecessary, and it's the kind of stilted exchanges people have through-out this book.

So why three stars? I found the science parts interesting, and Sawyer could write when he was doing ideas. It was just people that tripped him up. So I thought, the ideas get about four stars, and the characters / dialogue get about two, so three stars it is.

And guess what? Because I'm stupid I started the second book in the series, driven by a curiosity to see where he is going to take the ideas (I'm sort of a sucker for alternate history stuff, thankfully I rarely indulge in this geeky enjoyment) and partially to see where the train-wreck of a story goes. So far it's actually not as bad as I thought it would be, but the sexy scientist has just come upon the scene, and in this book and the second volume when he's writing about the Neanderthals his quirks don't seem as bad, maybe because they are all imagination based, or maybe because Sawyer is much more sympathetic to them as a whole than to the Homo-sapien sapien. ...more

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May 16, 2011 Brendon Schrodinger rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, parallel-universes

Robert Sawyer can be a bit hit and miss to me, but 'Hominids' is the best hit he has had with me. This was a reread after about a decade at a guess. And while I knew the plot, the thought experiment is still strong and is a delight to read.

The book has its faults though. Like most of all Sawyer's books it revolves around a great idea, fleshed out to find interesting consequences and peopled with pawns to do his bidding. These people are a little more rounded than most SF characters, but still l ...more

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Jun 16, 2012 Clouds rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction-stand-alone, hugo, science-fiction, reviewed, read-in-2014, pub-2000s

Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so I’ve decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my HUGO WINNERS list.

This is the reading list that follows the old adage, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I loved reading the Locus Sci-Fi Award winners so I'm going to crack on with the Hugo winners next (but only the post-1980 winners, I'll follow up with ...more

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Jan 23, 2017 Sarah Anne rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, author-man, parallel-world

Awesome! Totally freaking awesome!

Ponter is working in a quantum physics lab with his partner and man-mate, Adikor, when he accidentally crosses over between their world and ours. Ponter is a Neanderthal and comes from a parallel universe where we died out and Neanderthals became the dominant species. Ponter ends up in a Canadian lab and his part of the story is about his interactions with these scientists. Unfortunately his disappearance in his own world has led to his partner being charged wit Awesome! Totally freaking awesome!

Ponter is working in a quantum physics lab with his partner and man-mate, Adikor, when he accidentally crosses over between their world and ours. Ponter is a Neanderthal and comes from a parallel universe where we died out and Neanderthals became the dominant species. Ponter ends up in a Canadian lab and his part of the story is about his interactions with these scientists. Unfortunately his disappearance in his own world has led to his partner being charged with his murder.

This book does an absolutely amazing job of creating the Neanderthal world and all of its differences. I always figure that if aliens landed the hardest thing to describe and explain is Twitter. It turns out religion is a whole hell of a lot harder, followed closely by the idea of hunting species to extinction. Can you imagine looking out your window and seeing a mammoth stroll by?

Throughout the book the two societies are compared with each believing their own to be superior until further discussion makes them see the pluses and minuses in each. Their discussion about why morality exists is especially fascinating. I prefer the Neanderthal outlook, personally.

A couple of gems:

"Is everyone like that in your world?" asked Louise, stabbing some lettuce with her fork. "Bisexual?"
"Just about." Ponter blinked, getting it at last. "You mean it's different here?"
"Oh, yes," said Reuben. "Well, for most people, anyway, I mean, sure, there are some bisexual people, and lots and lots of gay - homosexual - people. But the vast majority are heterosexual. That means they have affectionate contact only with the members of the opposite gender."
"How boring," said Ponter.
Louise actually giggled.

and after discussing the large Neanderthal nose and it's sense of smell:

"Ponter," said Reuben, quickly, "we can't smell you at all."
"Really?"
"Yes. Oh, if I stuck my nose right into your armpit, I might smell something. But normally we humans can't smell each other."
"How do you find one another in the dark?"

This book was just chock full of exchanges like these as these two very different societies tried to understand each other. I can't wait to read the sequel! What more will I learn?

Oh, and one of the funnier citizen concerns in the book was whether or not he had entered Canada legally. Because we totally have border control on parallel universes, right? Every few chapters the author would put a sequence of headlines that showed these absurd concerns. And apparently we Americans were pissed that Canada had sole control over Ponter.

There were just so many great ideas in this book! ...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Lyn rated it liked it

Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer concerns a parallel universe where Neanderthals became the dominant branch of humanity while Homo sapiens dies out, much in the same way that Neanderthals died out in our world.

By an accident of quantum physics, the two worlds are joined briefly and a Neanderthal physicist is sucked into our world. Sawyer uses this event to show the differences and distinctions of the two species, how they diverged and also as a vehicle, almost utopian or Brobdingnagian in nature, t ...more

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May 18, 2008 Sandi rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2008, sci-fi

Wow! I have grown really sick and tired of books that take 100-200 pages to get into. I'm even more sick and tired of whole books that just set up the reader for the sequels. "Hominids" is neither. The first chapter just sucked me right in. It was probably the most exciting first chapter I've read in a long, long time. And, the book is a self-contained story. It does leave room for a sequel, but doesn't require that you read it. The premise is terrific too.

I've never read anything by Robert J. ...more

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Mar 22, 2010 Ian rated it liked it

Shelves: question-reality, hugo-winners, unfulfilled-expectations, audiobook

Hominids is a pretty good first book in a trilogy with a cool premise, namely, that there is a parallel universe where Neanderthals became the dominant hominid species on an otherwise-identical Earth. I use the term “pretty good” deliberately, knowing full well this book won the 2003 Hugo. And let’s be clear: I did enjoy the book insofar as it was, well, pretty good. Ultimately, though, I was a little disappointed given the awards and attention this book has received. So I wonder if what it com ...more

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Jul 01, 2011 Jonathan rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2011, four-guy-book-club

-- Warning, contains spoilers, mostly regarding an early traumatic event for a main character --

I would like to read the sequel to this book, although probably not for the right reason. I found the core concept interesting, but in some ways, it felt like the thought experiment was flawed. I'll stipulate that the premise interested me: how would things be different if things had gone another way in early earth life? It's a nice twist on the rugged science fiction horse of how an alien society com -- Warning, contains spoilers, mostly regarding an early traumatic event for a main character --

I would like to read the sequel to this book, although probably not for the right reason. I found the core concept interesting, but in some ways, it felt like the thought experiment was flawed. I'll stipulate that the premise interested me: how would things be different if things had gone another way in early earth life? It's a nice twist on the rugged science fiction horse of how an alien society compares with ours. But what I struggled with was why it was a meaningful comparison. In the end--or at this point in the series--it seems like the alternative society is held up as superior or preferable to our own in many ways, but, just like comparing mankind to some distant alien life-form, the seemingly superior choices of non-violence and co-operative life stem from physiologic differences, not choices that mankind has made. The book sets up a world where violence is anathema and wonders at the various, generally wonderful, consequences, but then makes this the natural consequence of how strong the natives in the alternate world are. This seems to weaken the comparison or argument that mankind might consider its own relationship to violence. You might build a similar, equally uninteresting, argument that a world where mankind evolved the ability to photosynthesize would have preferable results to our own.

I found myself moving quickly through the book, interested in what Ponder might experience and his reaction to it...and frequently I came away thinking, well, that was a little one-sided. Many parts of our world are held up in comparison to Ponter's, and most are found lacking. We hunted to extinction. We still deal with crime. We have religion. It is not that I object to these points being argued as possible (sometimes definite) demerits; it is the fact that Ponter's human interlocutors do not seem to raise any even half-hearted attempt at explanation of long-held beliefs or the state of our world. They usually just accept Ponter's point and grimace about the sorry state of humanity. It's a little demoralizing. Meanwhile, while most of Ponter's world is held up as a seeming paragon of peaceful coexistence and harmony, the problems it presents (particularly the travesty that is made of its justice system, which rolls over nicely to facilitate drama) are left largely unaddressed. This, more than anything, is why I want to read more. Does Sawyer really intend to continue presenting the alternate world as so preferable to our own? Or is the other shoe going to drop in a later book? I am curious.

I'm less tempted to keep going because of the almost silly sexual politics and thin characterizations of most individuals. Female characters, in particular, seem unable to even nap without arousing sexual interest in passing males, and frequently seem unable to go more than a scene without developing a romance with someone nearby. That, coupled with introducing the female lead and *immediately* subjecting her to a brutal rape (Where does your character arc go when you open with rape? What's going to top that for life-changing drama? I submit that even a parallel universe might not be sufficient *the next day*), are my two most persistent frustrations, that and why Canada is left alone to handle such a momentous event. Does anyone outside Canada really think they're ready for that kind of thing? :) Perhaps more to the point, does anyone think that peace-and-good-government loving Canada is about to spirit Ponter away to a secret prison?

All in all, an enjoyable read, if occasionally frustrating. I am hopeful that the main parts of my frustration will be addressed in the seemingly inevitable cross-over of a human to Ponter's world. We shall see. ...more

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Apr 01, 2012 Mike Moore rated it did not like it

It seems that every so often, the sci-fi community embraces a new variant of the old story where an enlightened figure from a superior society descends to point out everything that's wrong with us. I've pretty much lost patience with this motif, I think it's intellectually lazy and philosophically infantile. Besides, they've all blended together in my mind at this point, and so this book is doomed to merge with a composite that includes the Dispossessed, the Man who Fell to Earth and Crocodile D ...more

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Jan 01, 2016 oguz kaan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, parallel-universe, hugo-winner

Bu kitap beni çok arada bıraktı.

Hard sci-fi kitapları okurken yazarın anlatım yeteneği kitap hakkında ki fikirlerimi etkiliyor. Kafamı allak bullak edecek, okurken ipin ucunu kaçıracağım farklı, ilgi duyduğum veya duymadığım konuyu baz alıyorlar. Fakat bu durum okurken beni zorlayacak biçimde mi ele almış yoksa anlaşılabilirliği üst seviye de olan bir anlatım mı var? Açıkcası bu soruya vereceğim cevap beğenim için önemli oluyor. İnsansılar'da ki Neanderthaller veya kuantum teorisi ilgimi çeken Bu kitap beni çok arada bıraktı.

Hard sci-fi kitapları okurken yazarın anlatım yeteneği kitap hakkında ki fikirlerimi etkiliyor. Kafamı allak bullak edecek, okurken ipin ucunu kaçıracağım farklı, ilgi duyduğum veya duymadığım konuyu baz alıyorlar. Fakat bu durum okurken beni zorlayacak biçimde mi ele almış yoksa anlaşılabilirliği üst seviye de olan bir anlatım mı var? Açıkcası bu soruya vereceğim cevap beğenim için önemli oluyor. İnsansılar'da ki Neanderthaller veya kuantum teorisi ilgimi çeken konular değillerdi. Fakat yazar, tüm hikayeye bu bilgileri, teorileri güzelce yerleştirimiş ve anlatımını baltalamadan, okur olarak cahil olan bana eziyet etmeden kitabı yazabilmiş. Hikayenin sürekliliğine belli esler koyarak topluma, insanlığa ve kurallara karşı belli yorumlamalar, yergiler ve övgüler dizerek kitabın düşüncesel olarakta dolu olduğunu sadece süregelen bir aksiyon ve kuantum, paleontoloji borbardımanı da olmadığını göstermek istemiş. Ah! Bir de insanlık bu kadar aşağılık olmasa...

Ortada orjinal bir hikaye var ama karakterler -süslü bir sözcük olan- boyutsuzlardı. Herhangi bir gelişim, arkaplan kurgulanması gördüğümüz sadece iki karakteri vardı. Onlarda bu dünyadan değiller. Sert olacak ama kadın karakter yazmayı beceremiyorsanız ve klişe tiplerden başka bir fikriniz yoksa; erkeklere her istediğini yaptıran güzel ve alımlı bir bilimkadını, erkeklere her istediğini yaptıran kadını kıskanan iç güzelliğin önemi vurgulayan düşüncelere sahip diğer kadın karakter... Bu karakterlerinizi hikayenin ön planına getirmemeye çalışın ki göze batmasınlar. Hatta iki karakter arasında romantik ve seksüel bir ilişki başlatacaksanız bunu ucuz ve bayat klişelerle yapınca elinizde kötü paragraflar ve diyaloglar oluyor.

Uzatmadan Hugo kazanmış ve Türkçe'ye çevrilmiş eserleri okuma mücadelemde bir kitabı daha sonlandırdım. Devam kitapları şu an için okumayı düşünmüyoum. Kitapların sonunun dizi finalleri gibi "devam edecek" şeklinde bitmesi çoğu zaman beni soğutan bir durum ve açıkcası bu karakterlerin başına ne geldiğini hiçte merak etmiyorum.

Not: Çevirmen olan Petek Tozan'a teşekkür etmemek haksızlık olur. Hard sci-fi çevirmenin zor olduğunu düşünüyorum. ...more

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Oct 29, 2011 Althea Ann rated it it was ok

I read this as part of my "reading all the Hugo winners" goal.
All I have to say is: This book was up against China Mieville's 'The Scar' - and THIS won? WHAT?
Sorry, but this is just not a very good book.

The premise is that, due to an accident that occurs during a quantum physics experiment, a Neanderthal scientist from a parallel universe where humanity is the race that went extinct, finds himself stranded in our world.
There's plenty to work with there, lots of potential. However, that potentia I read this as part of my "reading all the Hugo winners" goal.
All I have to say is: This book was up against China Mieville's 'The Scar' - and THIS won? WHAT?
Sorry, but this is just not a very good book.

The premise is that, due to an accident that occurs during a quantum physics experiment, a Neanderthal scientist from a parallel universe where humanity is the race that went extinct, finds himself stranded in our world.
There's plenty to work with there, lots of potential. However, that potential is not realized.
The book is written in the style I like to refer to as "late 20th-century Mainstream Bestseller." However, this breezy beach-read style is broken up by extended awkward and unbelievable dialogues. Sawyer's point is to show the problems of our society by contrasting it with his imaginary Neanderthal society. Unfortunately, his way of doing this is to get two characters stuck in a room together and make them talk at length, in a very stilted, artificial manner about the topic at hand.
So we get to hear polemics on religion, gender relations, overpopulation, etc, etc. I absolutely agree with some of Sawyer's opinions, I disagree strongly with others. Whether or not I agree with his points is not relevant, the problem is that the topics are introduced and discussed in such a clunky fashion.

Also, as a woman, I felt that Sawyer showed a significant lack of understanding of women in general. His depiction of the reactions of a female character who is raped read like they come straight out of some psychology text, without ever genuinely getting inside her head or creating empathy. I also objected to his depiction of a gender-separatist society that apparently has developed because women are so bitchy due to PMS that men have to live separately from them. I will admit the actual existence of PMS (supposedly it occurs in 2 to 5% of women), and maybe Neanderthals could potentially be more susceptible to it. But yeah, Sawyer's depiction of women in general rubbed me the wrong way.
...more

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Mar 27, 2008 Brad rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, canadian-lit

This is going to be one of those reviews where I'll sound much more negative than I really feel, so please bear with me.

Is Neanderthal Parallax really the best Canadian Sci-Fi has to offer? I ask the question seriously because I've been told repeatedly that this series is the finest Canadian Sci-Fi and that Robert J. Sawyer is Canada's finest Sci-Fi writer. If this is really the case then Canada is a Sci-Fi ghetto. After all, Sawyer is no Iain M. Banks (Scotland), no Richard Morgan (England), n ...more

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Jul 01, 2016 Grumpus rated it liked it

Shelves: kindle, fiction-series

Not bad. Good enough that I will likely read book two in the series. I liked the concept of a parallel world in which Neanderthals survived and humans did not. To them we are the extinct and spindly Gliksins.

The story revolves around a Neanderthal physicist who was accidentally transported to our world during a scientific experiment in their world. The author then focuses on the reaction to a discovery of Neanderthal in our world while simultaneously covering a murder trial involving the scient ...more

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Sep 05, 2008 Stephen rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, award-nominee-campbell, award-nominee-hugo, multiple-award-nominee, award-winner-hugo, audiobook, 2000-2005

3.5 stars. Excellent premise, great world-building and well drawn characters. The concept of a society evolved from Neanderthals was deftly handled. Recommended.

Winner: Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Nominee: John W. Campbell Award for Best Science Fiction Novel

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Dec 17, 2009 Ben Babcock rated it liked it · review of another edition

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

Few things are probably scarier than suddenly being utterly and totally alone. Robert J. Sawyer reminds us of that fact by transposing Ponter Boddit, a Neanderthal physicist, from the parallel universe in which he resides to our universe, where Neanderthals have been extinct for tens of thousands of years. Aside from having instant celebrity status—including the paparazzi that come with it—Ponter must face the fact that he might never return to his own universe. And back in his universe, this ha ...more

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Mar 30, 2017 Rubén Vilaplana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Una historia que no te deja indiferente, el autor ha retratado de forma muy satisfactoria de como sería la sociedad Neandertal en un mundo paralelo al nuestro.

Lo que más me ha gustado es la mezcla de los diferentes campos de la ciencia y como va afectando a la trama, también esta muy interesante la interacción que hay entre los personajes.

Lo que menos, en algunos momentos el regusto ese pastelero que no acaba de encajar bien.

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Jun 11, 2010 Chris rated it liked it

What a pity a book with a reasonable array of new angles on ideas and social commentary had to be marred by clunky, clumsy, even offensive, writing, such as the author's emphasis and harping on what he unblushingly calls "periods" (no, not a full-stop, but yes indeed, that very embarassing menstruation thing); not to mention the graphic rape scene that he introduces one of the main characters with.

..and indeed the character undergoing this (seemingly unneccessary to the plot, except for it allow What a pity a book with a reasonable array of new angles on ideas and social commentary had to be marred by clunky, clumsy, even offensive, writing, such as the author's emphasis and harping on what he unblushingly calls "periods" (no, not a full-stop, but yes indeed, that very embarassing menstruation thing); not to mention the graphic rape scene that he introduces one of the main characters with.

..and indeed the character undergoing this (seemingly unneccessary to the plot, except for it allowing for a very contrived juxtaposition of the "gentle" Neanderthal as opposed to us brutal humans) rape, is a very incongruent character indeed. A mass of contradictions, she feels a bit under the weather because of the rape for a day or so, but very quickly perks up again. In thruth, real rape victims are usually in denial for days (or weeks or months) and it takes real victims months and years (or never) to recover.

..but then Mary's character is just as paper-thin (though more confusing) than the other characters in this jumbled novel. It is especially the way this scientist experiences and clings to the less rational aspects of religion, that had me a bit puzzled. I came away from it still trying to puzzle out whether Sawyer sees himself as a Christian (Catholic)apologist, or an atheist one? Perhaps he was trying to be a neutral observer and trying to strike a fair balance between the two viewpoints?

I find it interesting that some reviewers tout the Neanderthal Big Brother system as a "totalitarian" state, while it is made quite clear that there is no political coercion and that the members of this society can indeed vote.

..so, interestingly, the Big Brother voyeristic system is, in this scenario used purely for reasons of detecting crime, (and not for political reasons) which of course, will never work in a homo sapiens society, where a system such as this will of course be used for information gathering for marketing and other purposes of influencing the population for ostensibly benevolent or not-so benevolent reasons.

So, yeah, nice idea if humans could have been as simplistic as the Neanderthals that Sawyer portrays. I won't say anything about his genetic manipulation ideas, since I think Sawyer quite ably pointed out some of the possible evils that such a system would carry with it.

All in all, I would have given this book four stars for the nice attempt at an alternative history, and the rolling around of ideas, were it not for the clumsy and offensive bits. ...more

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Jan 01, 2011 Matt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction, favorites

In the interest of writing a fair review, I try to point out everything I can think of about a novel, both good and bad. I try not to gush too much about the things that I like, and similarly, I would like not to completely tear apart everything I don't like. The unfortunate thing about reviewing Robert J. Sawyer's Hugo award winning novel Hominids is that no matter how hard I try, I cannot come up with a single part of it I don't like.

The story is simple and brilliant: in a parallel universe in In the interest of writing a fair review, I try to point out everything I can think of about a novel, both good and bad. I try not to gush too much about the things that I like, and similarly, I would like not to completely tear apart everything I don't like. The unfortunate thing about reviewing Robert J. Sawyer's Hugo award winning novel Hominids is that no matter how hard I try, I cannot come up with a single part of it I don't like.

The story is simple and brilliant: in a parallel universe in which Neanderthals have become the dominant and surviving human species, two Neanderthal physicists do an experiment in quantum mechanics that results in one of them, Ponter, being sucked into our universe, and the other, Adikor, being falsely accused of his murder.

Meanwhile, in our Earth, the scientists involved in a series of experiments involving neutrinos and a chamber of heavy water are perplexed by the sudden appearance of a man in the air-tight chamber that holds the aforementioned water of experiment. They break him out, resuscitate him. Upon bringing him to a hospital for observation and tests, they discover they have a Neanderthal on their hands.

There are a lot of threads to this novel. On one hand, it is a story about people from two backgrounds coming together despite immense differences, in the friendship that blossoms between Neanderthal physicist Ponter, and Homo sapien geneticist Mary. There are much bigger questions asked; Sawyer uses the comparison of this fictional Neanderthal semi-utopia to criticize the major downfalls of our human society. He does it tastefully, although perhaps hamfistedly, but I am one who believes that sometimes we really need to be beaten over the head with our moral conundrums.

There are basically six main characters of the novel. Among the humans, there is the aforementioned Mary, the Jamaican-Canadian Reuben Montego in charge of the heavy water experimentation site, and French-Canadian scientist and apparently super-attractive Louise Benoit. Aside from the two Neanderthals previously mentioned there is Jasmel, daughter of Ponter, who works with her father's best friend Adkior in trying to clear his name. Each of these characters is unique, memorable, and very strong. It is usually a bonus when reading a novel to find that you really like one of the characters, but it is a rare treat to find a book in which each character is at least likable, if not speaking to you in a powerful way.

There are apparently some people who don't care for this novel. I have trouble wrapping my mind around that. It is a little over 400 pages, and I read it in about a day and a half. Often people refer to themselves as being unable to put down a book, but this is one of the few times where I literally felt compelled to skip meals so I could finish it. I would recommend this book to absolutely anyone. ...more

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Mar 24, 2014 ashley c rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, award-winning

4.5 stars. Read it really fast during work because it was a slow day. And when I mean slow I mean no one walked into the shop. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, because I've been reading my ebooks in the pretext of doing Something Important on my phone, like checking my email.

(Partial, non-important spoilers ahead)

Once again, RJS wowed me with his ability to dream up and write into being whole, plausible worlds, with this one endearingly familiar yet so wondrously different. While quantum p ...more

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Mar 03, 2010 Cindy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, near-future, social-sf, alternate-history

Part of my March 2010 Hugo Award winner bonanza.

Here's what my husband had to say about the book after he picked it up from the university library: "It appears to be about monkey-men. Therefore, it appears to be awesome."
______________

There's something to be said for a book that draws you in every time you pick it up. Each time it only took a page before I was fully in the "flow" - ignoring everything around me, forgetting my own life. And there are evolved Neanderthals and parallel universes! ...more

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Mar 10, 2010 Jacinda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, gender

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

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Sep 16, 2012 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: parallel-worlds, 2012-books-read

This is the second book of Sawyer's that I've read, and I'll surely read more. While I do enjoy Sawyer's philosophizing of the big ideas his stories revolve around, I do feel the lack of having an epic storyline to correspond with his epic ideas. Based on the preview I read, I'm guessing that the epic plot-line still doesn't appear in the sequels to this book. Still, it's an enjoyable read.

In this particular novel, Sawyer imagines a man crossing over to our world from a parallel Earth in which This is the second book of Sawyer's that I've read, and I'll surely read more. While I do enjoy Sawyer's philosophizing of the big ideas his stories revolve around, I do feel the lack of having an epic storyline to correspond with his epic ideas. Based on the preview I read, I'm guessing that the epic plot-line still doesn't appear in the sequels to this book. Still, it's an enjoyable read.

In this particular novel, Sawyer imagines a man crossing over to our world from a parallel Earth in which homo sapiens have died out and Neanderthals have become the dominant species. The Neanderthal who crosses over is not an idiotic brute as is our general stereotype of his species. Instead, he is a scientist named Ponter whose civilization is more technologically advanced, more ecologically responsible, and more "civil" than ours. The story follows his experiences as a newly-minted celebrity in our world as well as the plight of his partner back in his world who is on trial for murder as a direct result of Ponter's disappearance.

I'm reminded of the novel

Ishi in Two Worlds A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America by Theodora Kroeber

Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America which tells the true story of a Yahi Indian who finds himself forced to live with modern Americans in the 1910s. What we think of as civilization is barely civil when viewed through the lenses of others. There's much that modern humans could be that we're not. There's much wisdom that our religions should lend to us that we do not exercise. I'm also reminded of the native American who Benjamin Franklin quotes in his

Two Tracts Information to Those Who Would Remove to America. And, Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America. Second Edition by Benjamin Franklin

"Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America" who says that modern man has "not yet learned those little good things, that we need no [religious] meetings to be instructed in, because our Mothers taught them to us when we were children." I think that the Dalai Lama has it right when he says that "the reality of the world today is that grounding ethics in religion is no longer adequate."

Several things in the Neanderthal world that Sawyer has imagined would possibly make for great improvements in our own. They have a Big-Brother-type program in the form of built-in computer Companion and alibi-monitoring systems in their forearm. As long as a person's computer can broadcast a signal, there is never a case of a missing person and rarely a case of violent crime. The low level of crime is further supported by the fact that people who have committed a violent crime along with their genetically closest relatives (siblings and parents) and their descendents must be sterilized in order to clean up the gene pool. Would I ever advocate for such tools for changes in our society? Part of me wishes they were a reality, but they do seem an extreme invasion of privacy. Both legislating morality secularly and religiously have their own sets of problems. Both assume that humanity has not evolved in such a way as to be able to properly interact with their fellow beings without interference from an outside source.

There's much more that I'm leaving out concerning the parallel world in which the Neanderthals live that I find intriguing such as how their houses are constructed, their love lives, and their legal system. However, I'd not want to give away all these interesting concepts which are best absorbed through the reading process.

I'm a little disappointed that that the book ends such that the only part of the plot that might convince the reader to pick up the next book in the series is an inter-world romance. There's no cliff-hanging ending that leaves the reader really wanting more. I may or may not pick up the next book in the series ... or I might give his

WWW: Wake series a try instead if I'm in a mood for Sawyer again. ...more

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Mar 20, 2017 Jorid Sørli rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook

Absolutly loved it!

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Jun 04, 2007 Trin rated it it was ok

Shelves: sci-fi, queerlit, canadian-lit

In a quantum computing accident worthy of a Stargate episode, a Neanderthal physicist from a parallel Earth where Homo sapiens died out while Homo neanderthalensis (or Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, if you prefer) thrived is sucked into our world. He's rescued from drowning by physics postdoc Louise Benoît, put under the medical care of Dr. Reuben Montego, and befriended by geneticist Mary Vaughan. Meanwhile, back in Ponter's, the Neanderthal's, world, his work and life partner Adikor is accused In a quantum computing accident worthy of a Stargate episode, a Neanderthal physicist from a parallel Earth where Homo sapiens died out while Homo neanderthalensis (or Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, if you prefer) thrived is sucked into our world. He's rescued from drowning by physics postdoc Louise Benoît, put under the medical care of Dr. Reuben Montego, and befriended by geneticist Mary Vaughan. Meanwhile, back in Ponter's, the Neanderthal's, world, his work and life partner Adikor is accused of his murder...

Most of this novel's focus is on comparing the Neanderthals' culture with ours: they live in a society where men and women are treated equally, but live separately; where everyone has two romantic partners, a man-mate and a woman-mate; and where crime has been almost eradicated through alibi cubes—monitoring devices implanted in everyone's wrists—chemical personality readjustment, and the forced sterilization not just of convicted criminals, but also of their immediate families. While I'll admit that our world is hugely fucked up—a fact Sawyer conveyed by having a man rape Mary when she's walking home from work; an event he dealt with well, I suppose, but which I still found traumatizing—Ponter's world didn't seem so great to me, either. Parts of this are addressed when Adikor is falsely accused and has to struggle to prove his innocence—oh yeah, was it mentioned that in Neanderthal land you're guilty until proved innocent?—but in general, Sawyer seemed to think that this alternate system he came up with was just AWESOME. Now, maybe this will be further addressed in the next two books in the series, but any society where forced sterilization = fantabulous legal policy is also pretty fucked in my mind. (I'm not so fond of the "women living separately from the men" idea, either.)

When the two societies were merely contrasted, I found this book very interesting; I also liked how Sawyer showed the rest of the world's reaction to Ponter. However, that the book seemed to come down so much in favor of the Neanderthal way was troubling to me. I mean, not only did Ponter have his "I am so ashamed of what you humans have done to this planet" moment, Mary had a "sterilization FTW!" one. I hope the next book readdresses this disparity; it would be much more interesting if the series were about how two societies can learn from each other, rather than how some Other can save us from ourselves. (With castration! It's fun for the whole family!) ...more

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Dec 14, 2011 Fred Hughes rated it really liked it

This is the first book in The Neanderthal Parallax trilogy. The other two being Humans (book 2) and Hybrid (book 3).

In this book we have a Neanderthal physicist called Ponter Boddit running a quantum computer establishing a portal between his world and Earth. One minute he’s checking out a computer and the next minute he is gone.

Arriving on Earth he finds himself inside a sphere of heavy water used for neutrino research. He is rescued by Dr Mary Vaughan (human geneticist) who is monitoring the n ...more

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Dec 13, 2009 Kiri rated it it was ok

Shelves: book-club

Interesting thesis and plot, abysmal characterization (why does this keep happening to me?). Sawyer creates an interesting parallel world in which Homo sapiens died out and the Neanderthals instead took our evolutionary niche and progressed technologically to the present. Our world and theirs meet when their quantum computer "crashes" and accidentally sends us a Neanderthal (yeah, that raised a couple of scientific hackles, but I'm willing to let it go as a premise). So far, so good: lots of pot ...more

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Jun 23, 2014 Julia rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, audio

So disappointed by this book. It started out seeming very promising, but then it wasted all its potential.

I love fish out of water stories. I love alternate societies that are used as a commentary on our society. A lot of this was done well here. Honestly, this is the only good portrayal of a polyamorous person I've seen in published fiction. But it didn't go far enough. Never did the polyamory/monogamy divide become an issue. Never was Neanderthal society used to critique rape culture, which sh ...more

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Apr 12, 2009 Lilly rated it liked it

I wish I could give this 3.5. Hmph. Anyway, I liked the premise - Neanderthal physicists accidentally open a gateway into our version of Earth. Their alternate universe is one in which Neanderthals, not Homo sapiens, became the dominant (and only) humans. One of the physicists gets trapped on our side of the universe for a bit, and hilarity ensues.
The descriptions of Neanderthal society are v. interesting, with a good basis in what we know of them - it's plausible they would have evolved in that ...more

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Mar 17, 2014 Paul rated it did not like it

Shelves: scifi, fiction, hugo-award-winners, hugo-award-nominees

This book raises several disturbing questions. Questions like, "How did this get published?", "Doesn't Tor have editors on staff?", and, most shocking of all, "How the hell did this piece of shit win a Hugo?"

When encountering the unsophisticated writing style, I figured that Sawyer was some sort of scientist trying his hand at sci-fi, but that can't possibly be the case, given the myriad scientific misconceptions scattered everywhere in the book. The thing reminds me of all the horribly outdated ...more

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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 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."

http://us.macmillan.com/author/robert... ...more

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“That is fine. Feeling a need to convince others that you are right also is something that comes from religion, I think; I am simply content to know that I am right, even if others do not know it.” — 1 likes

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