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trin's review against another edition
2.0
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!)
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!)
noodlerabbit88's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
linzthebookworm's review against another edition
4.0
Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer was a new subject for me to read about, and I'm really glad I took the time to do so. I've never read much Speculative Fiction, and I have definitely never read anything regarding Neanderthals. I thought the way the parallel world was approached was really interesting and logical. The characters were likable, and the science was approachable and not overwhelming.
For my entire review check out: https://linzthebookworm.blogspot.com/2022/08/book-review-hominids-by-robert-j-sawyer.html
For my entire review check out: https://linzthebookworm.blogspot.com/2022/08/book-review-hominids-by-robert-j-sawyer.html
daed's review against another edition
3.0
La historia parte de una idea interesante y a lo largo del libro hay algunas discusiones científicas muy buenas, sin embargo es una historia algo aburrida.
Me parece que para todo el trabajo de documentación del autor, se ha quedado algo corto, dedicando muchas páginas a mero relleno. Además el como ha imaginado la cultura Neanderthal es excesivamente utópico.
En general es una lectura entretenida, pero me parece que la ha faltado mucho más de "Hard-Sci-Fi".
Me parece que para todo el trabajo de documentación del autor, se ha quedado algo corto, dedicando muchas páginas a mero relleno. Además el como ha imaginado la cultura Neanderthal es excesivamente utópico.
En general es una lectura entretenida, pero me parece que la ha faltado mucho más de "Hard-Sci-Fi".
badseedgirl's review against another edition
3.0
Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer is the 2003 Hugo winner for best novel. Although this was the first novel in his “Neanderthal Parallax” series, it was the only winner. Mr. Sawyer is a “one and done” Hugo winner, in that this novel was his only winner. He is not in bad company and is not necessarily a sign of anything, I just wanted to point this out. I actually quite enjoyed many parts of this novel.
The plot and storyline was an original one to me. A “modern” Neanderthal man is transported to “Homo Sapiens” Earth. Fortunately, his society is much more technologically advanced and he has an implant that learns English quickly. This was a novel set in Canada by a Canadian author. I’m not sure if this is why the scientist who meet Ponter, the name of the Neanderthal physicist, are so very naive. I mean there is a Geneticist and a Physician, as well as several Physicist in the “team” that interact with Ponter and not one of them consider that Ponter has no immunity to our bacteria. Hell, I’m not any kind of doctor and I was questioning this line 100 pages before he got sick! The reality of this situation would be that the minute that man walked through the portal he would have been sept away to a secure location and kept in a clean room where he would be examined and interrogated until he eventually died in captivity, and the world would never know anything about him except in whispers on some strange conspiracy website. At least as an American, that is how I feel it would go down.
I’m pretty sure it shows some kind of sick weakness on my part that I found the budding romance between Ponter and Mary to be one of the best aspects of the book. That and the murder trial being held on “Neanderthal Earth.” I’m not sure if it is a reflection of my lack of sci-fi “chops” or I just never got completely over that Harlequin romance obsession I had at 12 years old. I was secretly (and now not so secretly) hoping that the next novel is about this relationship.
The character development was pretty good, although most of the secondary characters read a little flat to me. Again this could be because all the characters were just so damn nice. And trusting. And innocent. One aspect of the character development did bother me. We are introduced to one of the characters, Mary Vaughan, right before she was brutally raped. Now I understand why the author chose this action. It was a way to create tension between two characters, Ponter and Mary, but I found it to be a lazy way to do it. This was a for all intents and purpose an alien creature, it would totally reasonable to have had Mary to be hesitant to enter into anything but a scientific relationship with Ponter.
All in all, I loved this book, but you know, was not in love with. It was more than ok, but less than good. I just know I will be reading the next two books in the series.
I’ll give this one 2.5 of 5 stars.
The plot and storyline was an original one to me. A “modern” Neanderthal man is transported to “Homo Sapiens” Earth. Fortunately, his society is much more technologically advanced and he has an implant that learns English quickly. This was a novel set in Canada by a Canadian author. I’m not sure if this is why the scientist who meet Ponter, the name of the Neanderthal physicist, are so very naive. I mean there is a Geneticist and a Physician, as well as several Physicist in the “team” that interact with Ponter and not one of them consider that Ponter has no immunity to our bacteria. Hell, I’m not any kind of doctor and I was questioning this line 100 pages before he got sick! The reality of this situation would be that the minute that man walked through the portal he would have been sept away to a secure location and kept in a clean room where he would be examined and interrogated until he eventually died in captivity, and the world would never know anything about him except in whispers on some strange conspiracy website. At least as an American, that is how I feel it would go down.
I’m pretty sure it shows some kind of sick weakness on my part that I found the budding romance between Ponter and Mary to be one of the best aspects of the book. That and the murder trial being held on “Neanderthal Earth.” I’m not sure if it is a reflection of my lack of sci-fi “chops” or I just never got completely over that Harlequin romance obsession I had at 12 years old. I was secretly (and now not so secretly) hoping that the next novel is about this relationship.
The character development was pretty good, although most of the secondary characters read a little flat to me. Again this could be because all the characters were just so damn nice. And trusting. And innocent. One aspect of the character development did bother me. We are introduced to one of the characters, Mary Vaughan, right before she was brutally raped. Now I understand why the author chose this action. It was a way to create tension between two characters, Ponter and Mary, but I found it to be a lazy way to do it. This was a for all intents and purpose an alien creature, it would totally reasonable to have had Mary to be hesitant to enter into anything but a scientific relationship with Ponter.
All in all, I loved this book, but you know, was not in love with. It was more than ok, but less than good. I just know I will be reading the next two books in the series.
I’ll give this one 2.5 of 5 stars.
djredhawk's review against another edition
4.0
AWESOME BOOK! Parallel universes have developed -- ours (where Homo Sapiens became the superior species) and Ponter Boddit's (where Neanderthals survived the twilight of Man). Ponter is a quantum physicist, Neanderthal by race, who accidentally stumbles into our universe. Robert J. Sawyer has done a stupendous job of creating a plausible advanced Neanderthal culture. I can't wait to read the next in the series! Excellent work!
sharonrhh's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
lehmancharlotte's review against another edition
Seems to be decently written, just not my type of book
spitzig's review against another edition
2.0
Read a little too much like an imaginary textbook, of how neanderthals live. Sawyer was obviously "world-creating" as his main purpose.
Not enough plot. What little plot there was, wasn't very good. Same with the characters.
Not enough plot. What little plot there was, wasn't very good. Same with the characters.
professorfate's review against another edition
4.0
This series was in my to-be-read mountain and I wasn't going to get to it for a while. I got it because I loved Sawyer's "WWW" trilogy and wanted to read more. Mom was taking a class on Coursera on the history of humanity, and the first few lectures talked about Neanderthal man. I showed her these books, remembering that they dealt with Neanderthal, and she read them (perhaps "devoured" is the more correct work). Mom is not big into science-fiction, and the fact that she read and loved all three books, I think, says more about how good the book is than anything I can say.
So as not to give too much away, the basic premise is that there is a parallel universe where Neanderthal became the dominant species of man and not Homo sapiens. Through an accident, a Neanderthal physicist is transported into our world.
There is more to this book (and it is open to the next book in the series), but I think this is one of those books where it is best to leave the reader to discover all of the ideas that Mr. Sawyer explores. I have always been a fan of alternate histories, and this book will join many of my Harry Turtledoves on the shelf.
So as not to give too much away, the basic premise is that there is a parallel universe where Neanderthal became the dominant species of man and not Homo sapiens. Through an accident, a Neanderthal physicist is transported into our world.
There is more to this book (and it is open to the next book in the series), but I think this is one of those books where it is best to leave the reader to discover all of the ideas that Mr. Sawyer explores. I have always been a fan of alternate histories, and this book will join many of my Harry Turtledoves on the shelf.