From Publishers Weekly
In this polished anthropological SF yarn, the first of a trilogy from Nebula Award winner Sawyer (The Terminal Experiment), Neanderthals have developed a radically different civilization on a parallel Earth, as both sides discover when a Neanderthal physicist, Ponter Boddit, accidentally passes from his universe into a Canadian underground research facility. Fortunately, a team of human scientists, including expert paleoanthropologist Mary Vaughan, promptly identifies and warmly receives Ponter. Solving the language problem and much else is a mini-computer called a Companion implanted in the brain of every Neanderthal. A computerized guardian spirit, however, doesn't eliminate cross-cultural confusion permanent male-female sexuality, rape and overpopulation are all alien to Ponter nor can it help his housemate and fellow scientist back in his world, Adikor Huld, when the authorities charge Adikor with his murder. Ponter's daughter Jasmel believes in Adikor's innocence, but to prevent a horrendous miscarriage of justice (Adikor could be sterilized), she must try to reopen the portal and bring her father home. The author's usual high intelligence and occasionally daunting erudition are on prominent display, particularly in the depiction of Neanderthal society. Some plot points border on the simplistic, such as Mary's recovering from a rape thanks to Ponter's sensitivity, but these are minor flaws in a novel that appeals to both the intellect and the heart.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Ponter Boddit, a physicist in a world in which Neanderthals are the dominant primates, is performing a quantum computing experiment in a Canadian mine, where cosmic rays won't disturb the test's delicate parameters. Suddenly, he is transferred into a heavy water tank in the same mine, but in the universe in which humans predominate. Human scientists are alarmed, then amazed by the spluttering Neanderthal in modern clothing with a curious AI implant in his wrist. Ponter's scientific partner, Adikor, is equally shocked, but what's more, he now faces an inquiry into his best friend's disappearance and suspected murder. Ponter is a most winning creation--thoughtful, brave, and charming as, facing the loss of everything he loves, he befriends a wounded female scientist in the strange human world. The smaller-scale, peaceful, environmentally savvy world of Ponter's people is equally well realized, though Sawyer loses a little steam trying to pin humanity's woes on organized religion. An engaging, thought-provoking story to read after either The Clan of the Cave Bear or Greg Bear's Darwin's Radio (1999). Roberta Johnson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“Sawyer is a writer of boundless confidence and bold scientific extrapolation.”—The New York Times
“A rapidly plotted, anthropologically saturated speculative novel . . . [with] Sawyer-signature wide appeal.” –The Globe & Mail
“Hominids takes sophisticated paleoanthropological data, cutting-edge theoretical physics, and characters that will warm your heart; and mixes then into a charming, witty, and provocative novel. Hominids is anthropological fiction as its best.” - W. Michael Gear & Kathleen O’Neal Gear, authors of Raising Abel
Review
“Sawyer is a writer of boundless confidence and bold scientific extrapolation.”—The New York Times
“A rapidly plotted, anthropologically saturated speculative novel . . . [with] Sawyer-signature wide appeal.” –The Globe & Mail
“Hominids takes sophisticated paleoanthropological data, cutting-edge theoretical physics, and characters that will warm your heart; and mixes then into a charming, witty, and provocative novel. Hominids is anthropological fiction as its best.” - W. Michael Gear & Kathleen O’Neal Gear, authors of Raising Abel
Book 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?
About the Author
Robert J. Sawyer is the Nebula Award–winning author of The Terminal Experiment. He lives in a suburb of Toronto, Ontario.
Hominids FROM OUR EDITORS
Imagine two parallel worlds. In one, not unlike our own, homo sapiens dominate. In the other, Neanderthals rule. Both civilizations have achieved impressive levels in culture and in science, but they remain quite different. When a Neanderthal physicist is popped accidentally into "our" world, he becomes a captive and the target of intense curiosity. How both species cope with this strange insertion is the subject of this novel, the first in a projected trilogy.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Hominids is the first book of The Neanderthal Parallax, a trilogy that will examine two unique species of people. They are alien to each other, yet alike in their never-ending quest for knowledge and essential humanity. We are one of those species, the other is the Neanderthals of a parallel world where they, not Homo sapiens, became the dominant intelligence. In that world, Neanderthal civilization has reached heights of culture and science comparable to our own, but with a radically different history, society, and philosophy." "During a quantum-computing experiment, Ponter Boddit, a Neanderthal physicist, accidentally pierces the barrier between worlds and is transferred to our universe. He is 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 boundless enthusiasm for the world's strangeness, as well as by Canadian geneticist Mary Vaughan, a woman with whom he develops a special rapport." "Meanwhile, 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?" Contact between humans an Neanderthals creates a relationship fraught with conflict, philosophical challenge, and the threat to the existence of one species or the other - or both. Yet their meeting is also rich in possibilities for cooperation and growth on many levels, from the practical to the esthetic to the scientific to the spiritual. In short, Robert J. Sawyer has done it again.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
In this polished anthropological SF yarn, the first of a trilogy from Nebula Award winner Sawyer (The Terminal Experiment), Neanderthals have developed a radically different civilization on a parallel Earth, as both sides discover when a Neanderthal physicist, Ponter Boddit, accidentally passes from his universe into a Canadian underground research facility. Fortunately, a team of human scientists, including expert paleoanthropologist Mary Vaughan, promptly identifies and warmly receives Ponter. Solving the language problem and much else is a mini-computer called a Companion implanted in the brain of every Neanderthal. A computerized guardian spirit, however, doesn't eliminate cross-cultural confusion permanent male-female sexuality, rape and overpopulation are all alien to Ponter nor can it help his housemate and fellow scientist back in his world, Adikor Huld, when the authorities charge Adikor with his murder. Ponter's daughter Jasmel believes in Adikor's innocence, but to prevent a horrendous miscarriage of justice (Adikor could be sterilized), she must try to reopen the portal and bring her father home. The author's usual high intelligence and occasionally daunting erudition are on prominent display, particularly in the depiction of Neanderthal society. Some plot points border on the simplistic, such as Mary's recovering from a rape thanks to Ponter's sensitivity, but these are minor flaws in a novel that appeals to both the intellect and the heart. Agent, Ralph Vicinanza. (July 17) FYI: The author has won an Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada along with many other national and international awards for his fiction. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Sawyer (Calculating God, 2000, etc.) returns to a familiar device: parallel universe civilizations weighing each other's values. In the first installment of a projected Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, both civilizations are afflicted with cancer. Long ago in a parallel world, Neanderthals took the Great Leap Forward over Homo sapiens and developed a civilization to rival ours. Down in a deep shaft, Neanderthal research scientist Ponter Boddit, whose mate has died of leukemia, is working on a new quantum computer measuring hydrogen particles when he is transported to a similar experiment in our world. That experiment is also taking place deep in a Canadian shaft, and Ponter finds himself drowning in a huge ball of heavy water being used to observe neutrinos. The very big scientist, who has the usual Neanderthal cranial features, is rescued by sapient Louise Benoit and taken to the surface. Radiology shows his bone structure to be truly Neanderthal. While we follow the terrors of DNA specialist Mary Vaughan, who gets raped at knifepoint but survives, we learn that Ponter wears a wrist implant, a black box that records his entire life history, including his immediate physiological experiences, follows his movements through Global Positioning, and talks to him through cochlear implants. Neanderthals have few crimes of violence in part because they all have this box (called a Companion), which follows their every movement and allows judicial scrutiny should there be a crime. Back home, as it happens, fellow scientist Adikor is being tried for Ponter's murder. Big question: How about humans having Companions? Lots of crimes would be stopped. With the quantum computer gateway now working, willsapiens travel to Ponter's home in volume two? And in volume three, will they go for a synthesis of civilizations? You betcha.
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