Hominids: The Neanderthal Parallax 132
| Hominids: The Neanderthal Parallax | |
| author | Robert J. Sawyer |
| pages | 448 |
| publisher | Doherty, Tom Associates, LLC |
| rating | 8 |
| reviewer | Robin Ward |
| ISBN | 0-312-87692-0 |
| summary | When worlds collide, and one of them is full of Neanderthals ... |
The story of the two universes, and their interactions are told in parallel. After the failed experiment, a Neanderthal named Ponter finds himself in rural Ontario, in the world famous Sudbury Neutrino observatory. Back in the Neanderthal universe, his partner Adikor is blamed for his absence, and is put through an extensive trial.
Sawyer has obviously done his research. The alternate version of Earth where the Neanderthals exist is amazingly well thought out. Everything from the social ramifications of an enhanced sense of smell to the 1984-esque communicators that monitor everything the Neanderthals do is integrated into the story perfectly.
There is very little action to be found in the novel, but it remains exciting nonetheless. Personally, I was fascinated with the dialogue Sawyer presents between the character Mary Vaughan and Ponter the Neanderthal. Although I believe that Sawyer has a love for humanity and our technological prowess, he uses the conversations between the human and the Neanderthal as a way of exposing some of our atrocities in the thousands of years that have passed since we developed intelligence. You have to admire the honesty of the character Mary for willingly exposing things in our past that we'd rather forget, but towards the end of the book it almost becomes too much. In fact, I had a hard time believing that Ponter had anything good to say about us at all to his fellow Neanderthals.
The lack of privacy that the Neanderthal society lives with might be of particular interest to the Slashdot crowd. All Neanderthals are required to wear a communicator implant in their arm that transmits everything they do to a central recording center. Interestingly enough, Sawyer argues in favor of such technology, saying that it virtually eliminates crime (who would murder someone knowing fully well that it could be played back by the authorities?) and that we don't really have any privacy anyway. In fact, the book begins with a quote to that effect.
Sawyer's writing is simple and to the point. He has a way of explaining complicated concepts without being overly confusing or long and drawn out. The 400+ page novel is actually a fairly quick read. Unlike some oth-er authors that I'm familiar with, you don't have to go back and re-read passages to find details you might have missed. Don't get me wrong - although the book is easily digested, it manages to inspire. Also, despite the fact that this is the first novel in a series of three, it stands very well on its own. In fact, had I not known that there were two more novels dealing with the same characters being released over the next year or so, I would have been completely satisfied.
Hominids comes highly recommended. If you're at all interested in hard-SF, you owe it to yourself to head down to the bookstore and check it out.
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privacy and a great book (Score:1, Informative)
The "permanent record" non-privacy angle really irked me at first. Then I realized that there were strong safeguards and oversight in place.
...Which is what we in the US could benefit greatly from these days. Where's the oversight to all the new ways of watching in the US?
Sawyer's site, more stories, etc. (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.sfwriter.com/ [sfwriter.com]
Best way to support an author is a direct sale. (:
You could have read this earlier (Score:5, Informative)
Not a bad story, but I found it to be a bit too much "Humans Bad, Neanderthals Good" to really accept it. Basically, neanderthals have no Crime, Rape, Theft, Pollution, Overpopulation, and they have far more advanced in many physical sciences.
The sole good thing he had to say about Humans was we landed on the moon,and then he figured out a way to make us look bad over that.
Hopefully the future books become a little less one-sided
Another good book by Sawyer (Score:4, Informative)
I've thoroughly enjoyed his Far-Seer [sfwriter.com], which retells the story of Galileo using another planet and society (intelligent dinosaurs, anyone?) to educate. While there are changes in the empirical evidence available, done to compensate for the radically-different setting, the issues presented are the same.
While I'm already familiar with Galileo's story from reading other accounts of his life, Far-Seer put it into a personal perspective. The wonder of discovery, the process of reasoning how the solar system actually worked (including building on what others had written before) and the shock of being put on trial by society for upsetting the prevailing, comfortable world-view -- they are all here. So, too, is the punishment (again, changed, though I will not spoil it here.)
The Church didn't apologize to Galileo for 300 years. Give that some thought
sawyer's great, but this isn't his best (Score:4, Informative)
1. Flashforward [amazon.com]
2. Calculating God [amazon.com]
3. Factoring Humanity [amazon.com]
4. Hominids [amazon.com]
My bad review (Score:3, Informative)
First, the good points. The parallel universe is nicely done, well thought-out, and interesting. That's the main reason I continued on. And, um, I guess that's about all.
Bad points, wooden characters, horrible dialog, the "points" about humanity all boil down to "we're really pretty horrible" and they're made with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.
This is the first Sawyer book I've read. I hope the reviewer isn't right about it being consistent with his usual quality, but I probably won't be hunting out any more of his books any time soon.
Previously published in Analog + minor spoiler (Score:3, Informative)
Warning - minor spoiler
One issue dealt with the book was what happens when the all-knowing personal monitoring system is compromised or degraded. The ultimate ramifications were not completely explored by the end of the novel, but the chink in the armor was exposed.
Recommended.