Not since Jurassic Park has a novel so enthralled readers everywhere. Now, enter the world of Neanderthal...

The expedition of the century...uncovers the find of the millennium...Neanderthal.

In the remote mountains of central Asia, an eminent Harvard archeologist discovers something extraordinary. He sends a cryptic message to two colleagues. But then, he disappears.

Matt Mattison and Susan Arnot-- once lovers, now academic rivals-- are going where few humans have ever walked, looking for a relic band of creatures that have existed for over 40,000 years, that possess powers man can only imagine, and that are about to change the face of civilization forever.

Amazon.com Review
An exciting novel that will do for pre-historic man what Jurassic Park did for Tyrannosaurus Rex.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.0 based on 168 reviews)

Yegads

The idea of the book sounded interesting, but I found it to be poorly executed. Like all to many modern novels, it has utterly gratuitous, clumsy "bedroom scenes." Various other inane plot elements have already commented on by other reviewers.

The saving grace (promoting this book from one star to two star) is that the author doesn't introduce a perfectly bilingual interpreter to make communication with the Neanderthals virtually flawless. That would have been the ultimate "deus ex machina." Instead, it turns out that the Neanderthals don't have a language capacity analogous to our own. They communicate with each other, but the barrier to communication with Homo sapiens is only slightly bridgeable. If we ever run into intelligent alien species (more likely extraterrestrial rather than terrestrial), we really will face a communication challenge. They won't all conveniently speak American English like they do on sci fi TV shows. In fact, we may find it hard to communicate at all. Even the sorts of things we might think important to communicate may be of little interest to non-humans. So I will give Darnton credit for at least this much creative thought in an otherwise uninspiring novel.
May 06, 2008

PROVOCATIVE IDEAS, STUPID PLOT

This book, through its improbable story, illuminates a number of interesting ideas. Did the Neanderthals really die out, or are they another version of the coelacanth, that "prehistoric" fish that was thought to be long extinct but found very much alive and swimming in the ocean during the 20th century? The author connects the Neanderthal to the sightings of "wild men" (also known as Big Foot, Sasquatch, Yeti, Alma and many other names) who could represent a surviving remnant of Neanderthal. He places his creatures in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan, and if you do any research on this subject, you will find that this very area has been the locale of many sightings in actual fact.

His Neanderthals do not have speech, but communicate through a kind of ESP-like ability to go inside each others' heads. This too has some basis in what is known, both from creature sightings and from the bones that have taught us what we know of their anatomy. They could have been speechless, but whatever other form of communication they had is unknown and mental telepathy is pure speculation.

But once past the pluasible ideas, we're left with a sappy story populated by unrealistic characters. The first part of the book is best, where the scientists are considering the possibilities and planning their journey to the Pamir Mountains. Once they get there and meet the Neanderthals, the story goes badly downhill. Matt and Susan somehow adjust to living with Neanderthals and fail to be traumatized by experiences that would leave real people so shaken they'd hardly be calmly discussing, during their escape, whether they should publish their findings.

The author tackles the important question of why homo sapiens sapiens (that's us) won out over home sapiens neanderthalensis, and his conclusion is so outrageous as to make me wonder how he came up with it. It turns out that we are the winners because we are capable of greater treachery than the poor Neanderthals can even imagine. We're just plain meaner than they are.

The plot left a lot of loose ends and involved a host of minor characters who contributed little to the story, except to populate the subplot of the CIA government conspiracy plans to steal the telepathy ability of the Neanderthals. I liked the central idea of the book - that Neanderthals could still be alive in remote parts of our planet, but the story became wearisome and predictable and the final conclusion was unsatisfying and unbelievable.

For an interesting account of what is known of "wild men" I recommend the book Forbidden Archeology: The Full Unabridged Edition by Thompson and Cremo. They have a large chapter on this subject that has a lot of the same information you find in Darnton's book. They got a lot of their information from Myra Shackley, who has visited the remote areas and researched reports of these creatures. The question of whether a primitive form of hominid survives in remote corners of the world makes for fascinating conjecture. But I can't buy into Darnton's vision of them.

December 29, 2007

A little less action, a little more conversation, if you please

Pros:
- the basic premise is thought provoking, if you (like me) never pondered the question of why we survived and Neanderthal didn't.
- there's probably some actual history lessons in here that the characaters cite, which of course should be researched independently before being taken as fact (fortunately there's a bibliography if you want to read more).
- it's mostly entertaining.
Cons:
- Way too many cliches - the evil government trying to beat the Russians to the mysterious power, the ex-lovers forcibly reunited, the noble heroic sacrfices from "savages," etc, etc. I bet the author has read a lot of books himself! :-)
- The "sex scenes," while not pornographic by any stretch, were just forced, clumsy and made me feel embarrassed reading it - not because I'm easily offended, but because I could picture any female reading the passage and thinking, "typical male!"
- I got to a point where I just wanted it to end - I got the point, I saw the conclusion, I understood the characters, and I was still 100 pages away.

I guess I'm talking myself into a relatively low rating, but I actually would read more by this author. If he has a couple thought-provoking ideas to stir up in every book, it's worth a read.
July 31, 2007

Enjoyable read

I was surprised to see the negative ratings about this book. It's been a while since I read it, but I remember enjoying the plot, the characters, and exotic locale. Nothing profound but just a very enjoyable read.
June 03, 2007

acceptable read

I didn't think the book was as bad as some of the reviewers here. It did the job of keeping me entertained on my flight. Although the ESP angle was a little weird and far fetched.

The author's firearms knowledge was, however, lacking. There's no such thing as a three forty five. There's .357" diameter handgun cartridges (.357 Mag and .38 Special) and .355" diameter handgun cartridges (9mm Luger, 9mm Makarov, 9mm Kurtz). Also, you can fire a wet firearm. And no, you shouldn't defrost your loaded gun over an open fire. Finally, if you're participating in an expedition to search for murderous Neanderthals, then everyone should be armed (joke).

May 15, 2007

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Darwin Conspiracy, The
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Mind Catcher
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