Hominids
The Neanderthal Parallax, Book I
Tor 2002
ISBN 0-312-87692-0
Monika says:
Quantum computers and parallel worlds are the most
important ingredients of Hominids,
the first volume of Sawyer's trilogy about an alternate earth where the
Neanderthals developed into a technological civilization while Homo sapiens died out.
Deep in a mine in Sudbury, Canada, a scientific
experiment goes horribly wrong; the testing plant is destroyed during the
accident, and the involved scientists rescue a man from drowning in a tank
filled with heavy water. At first everyone thinks that some lunatic tried to
blow up the facility, but then they notice that the miraculously saved stranger
features a couple of really odd physical traits, suggesting that he is not Homo
sapiens sapiens.
In Toronto, geneticist Mary Vaughn receives a phone
call summoning her to Sudbury in order to confirm the suspicion that the
mysterious stranger could be a Neanderthal. Mary, who was raped on her way home
the night before, is grateful for the distraction, even if she doesn't want to
believe the whole thing at first. Unexpected problems make her stay longer in
Sudbury than she had intended.
If Hominids
isn't your first novel by Robert Sawyer, you will already know it's not your
run-of-the-mill story about rediscovered Neanderthals or some other kind of
fossil hominids. You won't find any clichés of superior Homo sapiens in it, nor does it resemble the
script for an action movie like John Darnton's Neanderthal (which read like a rollercoaster ride the first time
around and made me wonder what I had liked about it when I tried to reread it),
but a character driven story like Calculating
God.
Ponter Boddit who was born on an Earth where the
Neanderthals not only survived but developed a technological civilization just
like modern man, is thrown by accident into a world where not only the humans
are completely alien to him. After solving some basic communication problems, a
discussion about the fundamental meaning of life fires up between the involuntary
visitor and his hosts. Ponter definitely suffers a cultural shock in the
process, but it's an interesting experience for the humans, too, to look at
their own world through the eyes of a stranger originating from a completely
different type of society, though being their equal on an intellectual level.
The odd thing is that he is also an inhabitant of Earth, but in Ponter's world
there is no overpopulation, no environmental pollution, and criminal behaviour
was eliminated a few generations ago. It sounds like paradise, but the events
on the "other side", while our heroes are talking about their
respective social structures, question some of the fundamental values of
western civilization, namely the right to privacy and the principle that
someone is innocent until proven guilty.
What I liked about Hominids
is the philosophical debate about the blessings and curses of different social
structures, as well as the believable characters. Even though it's the first
book of a trilogy, it has a proper ending and stands well on its own. But if
you got attached to the characters (like me), you'll probably read the next two
instalments as well.
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Any comments? Write us:
Monika
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