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| View Larger Image | Hominids (Neanderthal Parallax)
by Robert J. Sawyer
| | List Price: | $7.99 |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 164976 | | Studio: | Tor Science Fiction | | | Binding: | Mass Market Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 448 | | Publication Date: | February 17, 2003 | | Publisher: | Tor Science Fiction |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Hominids examines two unique species of people. We are one of those species; the other is the Neanderthals of a parallel world where they became the dominant intelligence. The Neanderthal civilization has reached heights of culture and science comparable to our own, but with radically different history, society and philosophy.
Ponter Boddit, a Neanderthal physicist, accidentally pierces the barrier between worlds and is transferred to our universe. Almost immediately recognized as a Neanderthal, but only much later as a scientist, he is quarantined and studied, alone and bewildered, a stranger in a strange land. But Ponter is also befriended—by a doctor and a physicist who share his questing intelligence, and especially by Canadian geneticist Mary Vaughan, a woman with whom he develops a special rapport.
Ponter’s partner, Adikor Huld, finds himself with a messy lab, a missing body, suspicious people all around and an explosive murder trial. How can he possibly prove his innocence when he has no idea what actually happened to Ponter?
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CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 92 reviews)
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Must have been a slow year for the Hugos 
I was really looking forward to this book and rarely have I ever been more disappointed in a book. It takes ALOT for me to hate a book but this book was simply horrible. I read the entire thing so I could justify my review but it only got worse.
It is nothing but a political correctness manifesto by the author. In the end he simply comes across as ignorant and VERY prejudiced. It is anti-Christian, anti-man, anti-society.
There is a gratuitous and graphic rape scene so women beware. You will also hate the way the author then portrays women as pathetic weak beings unable to confront their attackers and instead merely running toward their "pathetic" religion.
I am such a fan of science fiction and it brings tears to my eyes to think that the quality of what is considered award winning writing has sunk to such depths. The only value this book has is as a study in bad writing.
How could so many people could find this a good book. Are so few truly well read? Do so few even recognize talented writing?
Stay far far away from this toilet paper. I feel like I was robed.
September 27, 2008 | |
Alternate evolutionary vision 
Interesting alternate world story; think what the world would be like if Neanderthals had survived and thrived ... as evolved from loving and peaceful bonobo primates (see Our Inner Ape - great book on evolution). Throw in some quantum physics where the alternate reality of our Human world is intact (evolved of course from the more violent chimpanzees) and, of course, some Stranger in a Strange Land sensibility, and you get the basic premise of this novel. Although the plot is compelling and my attention never wavered, most of the characters are poorly drawn, particularly the women; one is a weak victim, the other a bombshell physics grad student who uses men rather than her intellect - puuhleese, the author really needs to spend some time with actual women rather than making them up in his head.
If you don't take it too seriously, this is definitely an enjoyable read however. The people who have a hard time with it need to remember it is just fiction. White men are so sensitive these days! Especially conservative, religious White men who happen to be in denial. The human race has been responsible for an incredible array of atrocities, and the state the world is in right now is no accident. I never really thought the author was actually advocating atheism, bisexuality, collectivism, but just presenting what the aforementioned alternate reality could be like. And since when is social commentary a bad thing - we wouldn't have most of our great novels if authors like Dostoevsky, Salinger, or Vonnegut paid attention to such detractors. Get a grip and relax people - it is just science fiction!
September 15, 2008 | |
beware
OK, here is my assessment. I've read a couple of other Robert Sawyer books and I picked this one up by accident, not realizing he wrote it/. I'm a business traveler and I needed something for a long flight. I decided to let the Hugo winner's guide me and I settled on Hominids as it sounded promising.
As I read it I began to feel uneasy, as if I knew where the whole plot was going. Finally, I had to peek ahead and skipped to the end, then read the reviews of the other books in the series. It was just as I had feared.
We all bring our biases to what we watch and read. If you have a very very liberal slant, you may actually enjoy Hominids and its successors. If the thought that the most evil force in the universe is a white, male, American, than stay away. I'm speaking, somewhat for the whole series here. But as i planned to read all three until I found out what they were about, I wanted to warn you off. The book is essentially a PC manifesto, where all the ills of the world can be laid at the feet of men. White men. White American men. White American Christian men. Just be warned, if you start down the path of this series, you will be inundated with description of how horrible our society is and how flawless the Neanderthal version turns out. They don't have overpopulation because their government controls it (I think the Nazis tried that). Descriptions such as "it wasn't because of the wall that she'd been raped. It was because of him-that monster-and the sick society that had produced him" will fill your pages. Even an appendix describing our calendar are not free of criticism "many of our religions obfuscated the calendar to reserve power to the clergy." Again, many of you will read this and say "so what." If that's your slant, then you will probably enjoy this book. However, if you're not interested in reading yet another book that follows the new, hip, trend, of showing how evil a species we humans are, then I advise you to save your money. Go re-read Dune.
P.S. I can't take credit for my favorite line from another review but I want to paraphrase it. If this book is even 10% accurate, I now understand out ancient past. After being badgered again and again by Neanderthals about how messed up our society is, I'm glad our ancestors wiped them out.
July 25, 2008 | |
The hominid we are 
Among the many mysteries of human evolution, Neanderthals are one of the most intriguing. Once depicted as brutes, now many scientists consider them a different, advanced species of hominids not ancestral to ours. And what if in an alternate realities Neanderthals had prevailed? Through an improbable but not implausible accident, a member of a Neanderthal civilization evolved in a parallel Universe finds himself in ours. I think Baxter's a most interesting speculation, full of intelligent and insightful notation on human's nature.I find it comparable to Harry Harrison's Yilanè series for the inventiveness in devising an alternate evolution pattern. Compare also with Asimov's story "The Ugly little Boy", and Lester Del Rey's poignant story "The day is done".Here we see Neanderthals not as inevitably doomed victims, but as a potential alternative human species at par with self-glamorized "Sapiens".Highly recommended!
July 08, 2008 | |
Does Not Disappoint
Robert Sawyer is one of my favorite authors, and as an avid fan, Hominids (Part 1 of the Neanderthal Parallax) did not disappoint. This is one of the few books of which I not only own a signed copy, but also the audio book. When reading (or listening to) this novel, is very apparent why it won the 2003 World Science Fiction Society's acclaimed Hugo Award. It is perfect story telling. The words come alive on the page, and the reader is soon engulfed into both the story and the world as viewed by the protagonist Ponter Boddit, a Neanderthals from a parallel universe. As in most of the author's stories the focus is not on the hard science of "how this happened" but more of the possibility "what if this happened." The audio version is a masterpiece, the narrator, Jonathan Davis, is one of the best I have heard. He effortlessly goes from one character's voice to the next with ease and a distinction that clearly let's the listener knows that someone else is talking. The only disappointment was the book coming to a close, however that was soon to be forgotten because there are two more novels in this trilogy, Humans and Hybrids.
June 10, 2008 | |
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