Hominids: Volume One of The Neanderthal Parallax (Neanderthal Parallax, 1)
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Community Reviews
Hominids (Neanderthal Parallax #1)
by Robert J. Sawyer
I read this back when Robert Sawyer was one of my favorite authors, though even at the time I couldnât help noticing some giant flaws in his story telling. Like his dinosaurian series, the Neanderthal Parallax is an interesting thought experiment. Sawyer is fun to read because of his imaginative ideas but he often fall flat with the logical constituencies in his execution. He also tends to be pretty light on character development and is about as subtle as a sledge hammer. Characters are used to describe the world he has imagine and really serve no other purpose.
In this series, he asks us to imagine a parallel universe that split form our own around the time Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthal coexisted. In this other world, Neanderthals survived and built a civilization and Homo Sapiens died out.
Interesting premise.
The story opens on our side, with scientists in Canada conducting a physics experiment underground. Suddenly there is a man in the heavy water, a seemingly impossible event. Even more impossible is the man himself. Strange clothes and a strange language puzzle the scientists who send the man to the hospital.
The story jumps backwards to the beginning of the day, where we meet Ponter Boddit on the Neanderthal side. We learn that he and his partner (man-mate) Adikor are physicists working on a quantum computer. The book description calls Adikor Ponterâs âhousemateâ I guess in an attempt to be coy about their actual relationship. Sawyer has crafted an interesting lifestyle to the Neanderthal in which everyone is bi-sexual and not is the usual sense that one might be attracted to both sexes but in that everyone has two mates. One woman-mate and one man-mate. The same gender couples live together and the male and female only get together a few days a month. This is a part a highly regulate dand complicated birth control system.
The book alternates between Adikorâs story after Ponterâs disappearance and Ponterâs experiences in the human world. The doctor at the hospital quickly identifies his patient as a Neanderthal.
Then we meet Mary Vaughan on the night she is raped. Sort of clumsy story telling - it is a total plot devise that if Sawyer was set on needing then he could have revealed this in flash back. This chapter inserted in between Ponter arriving at the hospital and his waking up confused is a real non-sequitur and from a narrative stand point breaks up the flow of the story.
Back at the hospital, conveniently, Ponter has an AI implant named Hak. Ponter talks with him, questioning where he is at the same time the scientist and doctors hover around and discuss Ponter. Later Hak learns English with just a few lessons.
The immediate discussion with reporters is really weird and unrealistic, sort of straight out of a movie or television drama.
Meanwhile, Adikor is accused of Ponterâs murder. This story line alternates with the human side story and serves to describe Neanderthal society and justice system.
Mary Vaughan, a geneticist who is an expert on Neanderthal DNA is brought to meet Ponter. She takes a DNA sample, but surely they could have simple sent her one? Right?
Meanwhile, Adikor and Ponterâs daughter Jasmel are convinced that Ponter isnât dead.
Ponter is released from the hospital and Louise and Rueben (from the science team) take custody of him and take him to Ruebenâs home outside the city. Mary confirms he is Neanderthal, well duh.
While Adikorâs trial goes on (and on and on), the humanâs definitively determine that Ponter is from an alternate universe and sort of explain how their experiment (the quantum computer on the other side) brought him over. Mary ends up staying at Ruebenâs house as well, and becomes a love interest for Ponter. Ponter comes down with a cold or flu or something that he isnât immune to and of course they all panic.
Sawyer then has one of his characterâs deliver a pretty accurate explanation of why civilizations that have domesticated animals tend to have waves of plague disease. That introduces one of the biggest flaws in his depiction of the Neanderthal society - he proposed that they have no agriculture or domesticated live stock. That is a pretty big pill to swallow give that he has also given them very advanced technology. Ignoring that a leap in computing probably would have not happened with out the space race which in turn probably wouldnât have happened with out the cold war.
Once Ponter recovers, with a little hand waving, it is stated that he and his AI have made enough progress in the language to have complicated discussions. Then come the meat of what Robert Sawyer likes to write about. They compare politics (his is gerontocracy), population (only 185 million), religion (Neanderthal are atheist), space travel (they have not done any)â¦and so forth. At each turn, Ponter is shocked. Mary is in turn shocked to find that a punch is considered attempted murder among Neanderthals since they are so strong it is easy to kill someone that way. This of course reflects the evidence being presented against Adikor.
They have a long talk about âalibi archivesâ stored by the electronic companions they all wear (the AI imbedded in Ponter). Again this is Robert Sawyer running thought experiments through his characters mouths as the discussions could between just about anyone and are all very intellectual. As Iâm re-reading it much does seem dated now that we do have GPS and phone trackers etc.
About three quarters through the book, Ponter reveals that Adikor is his sexual partner. This has been completely skirted even on the other side of the story. I suppose the reader is supposed to be shocked? There is some cute misunderstandings around the word âhomosexualâ which revolves around the biologists definition of sex. Finally coming to an understanding, he is shocked to learn that bisexuality is not the norm in the human world. He then goes on to explain their social construct where women live in the central cities and men live on the outskirts and only visit each other one a month. Long discussion of why their society developed as it did (all conjecture as it happened prehistorical).
Another flaw is Sawyerâs obsession with the Neanderthalâs having a greater sense of smell because their noses are âbiggerâ - it doesnât really work that way.
Mary and Ponter get all romancyâ¦speaking of which with those separate lives how do the males court females on the other side? Any why is Ponter so comfortable hanging with women all the time?
On the other side, Adikor and Ponterâs daughter Jasmel manage to open the portal and send a robot with a camera through.
Mary gives an awkward speech to Ponter on the elevator ride down to his possible return home. Ponter easily climbs through the portal and breaks the connection between worlds. He gets home just in time to derail the trial by showing up not dead. They then talk about re-opening the portal between worlds and making way for a sequel.
by Robert J. Sawyer
I read this back when Robert Sawyer was one of my favorite authors, though even at the time I couldnât help noticing some giant flaws in his story telling. Like his dinosaurian series, the Neanderthal Parallax is an interesting thought experiment. Sawyer is fun to read because of his imaginative ideas but he often fall flat with the logical constituencies in his execution. He also tends to be pretty light on character development and is about as subtle as a sledge hammer. Characters are used to describe the world he has imagine and really serve no other purpose.
In this series, he asks us to imagine a parallel universe that split form our own around the time Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthal coexisted. In this other world, Neanderthals survived and built a civilization and Homo Sapiens died out.
Interesting premise.
The story opens on our side, with scientists in Canada conducting a physics experiment underground. Suddenly there is a man in the heavy water, a seemingly impossible event. Even more impossible is the man himself. Strange clothes and a strange language puzzle the scientists who send the man to the hospital.
The story jumps backwards to the beginning of the day, where we meet Ponter Boddit on the Neanderthal side. We learn that he and his partner (man-mate) Adikor are physicists working on a quantum computer. The book description calls Adikor Ponterâs âhousemateâ I guess in an attempt to be coy about their actual relationship. Sawyer has crafted an interesting lifestyle to the Neanderthal in which everyone is bi-sexual and not is the usual sense that one might be attracted to both sexes but in that everyone has two mates. One woman-mate and one man-mate. The same gender couples live together and the male and female only get together a few days a month. This is a part a highly regulate dand complicated birth control system.
The book alternates between Adikorâs story after Ponterâs disappearance and Ponterâs experiences in the human world. The doctor at the hospital quickly identifies his patient as a Neanderthal.
Then we meet Mary Vaughan on the night she is raped. Sort of clumsy story telling - it is a total plot devise that if Sawyer was set on needing then he could have revealed this in flash back. This chapter inserted in between Ponter arriving at the hospital and his waking up confused is a real non-sequitur and from a narrative stand point breaks up the flow of the story.
Back at the hospital, conveniently, Ponter has an AI implant named Hak. Ponter talks with him, questioning where he is at the same time the scientist and doctors hover around and discuss Ponter. Later Hak learns English with just a few lessons.
The immediate discussion with reporters is really weird and unrealistic, sort of straight out of a movie or television drama.
Meanwhile, Adikor is accused of Ponterâs murder. This story line alternates with the human side story and serves to describe Neanderthal society and justice system.
Mary Vaughan, a geneticist who is an expert on Neanderthal DNA is brought to meet Ponter. She takes a DNA sample, but surely they could have simple sent her one? Right?
Meanwhile, Adikor and Ponterâs daughter Jasmel are convinced that Ponter isnât dead.
Ponter is released from the hospital and Louise and Rueben (from the science team) take custody of him and take him to Ruebenâs home outside the city. Mary confirms he is Neanderthal, well duh.
While Adikorâs trial goes on (and on and on), the humanâs definitively determine that Ponter is from an alternate universe and sort of explain how their experiment (the quantum computer on the other side) brought him over. Mary ends up staying at Ruebenâs house as well, and becomes a love interest for Ponter. Ponter comes down with a cold or flu or something that he isnât immune to and of course they all panic.
Sawyer then has one of his characterâs deliver a pretty accurate explanation of why civilizations that have domesticated animals tend to have waves of plague disease. That introduces one of the biggest flaws in his depiction of the Neanderthal society - he proposed that they have no agriculture or domesticated live stock. That is a pretty big pill to swallow give that he has also given them very advanced technology. Ignoring that a leap in computing probably would have not happened with out the space race which in turn probably wouldnât have happened with out the cold war.
Once Ponter recovers, with a little hand waving, it is stated that he and his AI have made enough progress in the language to have complicated discussions. Then come the meat of what Robert Sawyer likes to write about. They compare politics (his is gerontocracy), population (only 185 million), religion (Neanderthal are atheist), space travel (they have not done any)â¦and so forth. At each turn, Ponter is shocked. Mary is in turn shocked to find that a punch is considered attempted murder among Neanderthals since they are so strong it is easy to kill someone that way. This of course reflects the evidence being presented against Adikor.
They have a long talk about âalibi archivesâ stored by the electronic companions they all wear (the AI imbedded in Ponter). Again this is Robert Sawyer running thought experiments through his characters mouths as the discussions could between just about anyone and are all very intellectual. As Iâm re-reading it much does seem dated now that we do have GPS and phone trackers etc.
About three quarters through the book, Ponter reveals that Adikor is his sexual partner. This has been completely skirted even on the other side of the story. I suppose the reader is supposed to be shocked? There is some cute misunderstandings around the word âhomosexualâ which revolves around the biologists definition of sex. Finally coming to an understanding, he is shocked to learn that bisexuality is not the norm in the human world. He then goes on to explain their social construct where women live in the central cities and men live on the outskirts and only visit each other one a month. Long discussion of why their society developed as it did (all conjecture as it happened prehistorical).
Another flaw is Sawyerâs obsession with the Neanderthalâs having a greater sense of smell because their noses are âbiggerâ - it doesnât really work that way.
Mary and Ponter get all romancyâ¦speaking of which with those separate lives how do the males court females on the other side? Any why is Ponter so comfortable hanging with women all the time?
On the other side, Adikor and Ponterâs daughter Jasmel manage to open the portal and send a robot with a camera through.
Mary gives an awkward speech to Ponter on the elevator ride down to his possible return home. Ponter easily climbs through the portal and breaks the connection between worlds. He gets home just in time to derail the trial by showing up not dead. They then talk about re-opening the portal between worlds and making way for a sequel.
Hominids (Neanderthal Parallax #1)
by Robert J. Sawyer
I read this back when Robert Sawyer was one of my favorite authors, though even at the time I couldnât help noticing some giant flaws in his story telling. Like his dinosaurian series, the Neanderthal Parallax is an interesting thought experiment. Sawyer is fun to read because of his imaginative ideas but he often fall flat with the logical constituencies in his execution. He also tends to be pretty light on character development and is about as subtle as a sledge hammer. Characters are used to describe the world he has imagine and really serve no other purpose.
In this series, he asks us to imagine a parallel universe that split form our own around the time Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthal coexisted. In this other world, Neanderthals survived and built a civilization and Homo Sapiens died out.
Interesting premise.
The story opens on our side, with scientists in Canada conducting a physics experiment underground. Suddenly there is a man in the heavy water, a seemingly impossible event. Even more impossible is the man himself. Strange clothes and a strange language puzzle the scientists who send the man to the hospital.
The story jumps backwards to the beginning of the day, where we meet Ponter Boddit on the Neanderthal side. We learn that he and his partner (man-mate) Adikor are physicists working on a quantum computer. The book description calls Adikor Ponterâs âhousemateâ I guess in an attempt to be coy about their actual relationship. Sawyer has crafted an interesting lifestyle to the Neanderthal in which everyone is bi-sexual and not is the usual sense that one might be attracted to both sexes but in that everyone has two mates. One woman-mate and one man-mate. The same gender couples live together and the male and female only get together a few days a month. This is a part a highly regulate dand complicated birth control system.
The book alternates between Adikorâs story after Ponterâs disappearance and Ponterâs experiences in the human world. The doctor at the hospital quickly identifies his patient as a Neanderthal.
Then we meet Mary Vaughan on the night she is raped. Sort of clumsy story telling - it is a total plot devise that if Sawyer was set on needing then he could have revealed this in flash back. This chapter inserted in between Ponter arriving at the hospital and his waking up confused is a real non-sequitur and from a narrative stand point breaks up the flow of the story.
Back at the hospital, conveniently, Ponter has an AI implant named Hak. Ponter talks with him, questioning where he is at the same time the scientist and doctors hover around and discuss Ponter. Later Hak learns English with just a few lessons.
The immediate discussion with reporters is really weird and unrealistic, sort of straight out of a movie or television drama.
Meanwhile, Adikor is accused of Ponterâs murder. This story line alternates with the human side story and serves to describe Neanderthal society and justice system.
Mary Vaughan, a geneticist who is an expert on Neanderthal DNA is brought to meet Ponter. She takes a DNA sample, but surely they could have simple sent her one? Right?
Meanwhile, Adikor and Ponterâs daughter Jasmel are convinced that Ponter isnât dead.
Ponter is released from the hospital and Louise and Rueben (from the science team) take custody of him and take him to Ruebenâs home outside the city. Mary confirms he is Neanderthal, well duh.
While Adikorâs trial goes on (and on and on), the humanâs definitively determine that Ponter is from an alternate universe and sort of explain how their experiment (the quantum computer on the other side) brought him over. Mary ends up staying at Ruebenâs house as well, and becomes a love interest for Ponter. Ponter comes down with a cold or flu or something that he isnât immune to and of course they all panic.
Sawyer then has one of his characterâs deliver a pretty accurate explanation of why civilizations that have domesticated animals tend to have waves of plague disease. That introduces one of the biggest flaws in his depiction of the Neanderthal society - he proposed that they have no agriculture or domesticated live stock. That is a pretty big pill to swallow give that he has also given them very advanced technology. Ignoring that a leap in computing probably would have not happened with out the space race which in turn probably wouldnât have happened with out the cold war.
Once Ponter recovers, with a little hand waving, it is stated that he and his AI have made enough progress in the language to have complicated discussions. Then come the meat of what Robert Sawyer likes to write about. They compare politics (his is gerontocracy), population (only 185 million), religion (Neanderthal are atheist), space travel (they have not done any)â¦and so forth. At each turn, Ponter is shocked. Mary is in turn shocked to find that a punch is considered attempted murder among Neanderthals since they are so strong it is easy to kill someone that way. This of course reflects the evidence being presented against Adikor.
They have a long talk about âalibi archivesâ stored by the electronic companions they all wear (the AI imbedded in Ponter). Again this is Robert Sawyer running thought experiments through his characters mouths as the discussions could between just about anyone and are all very intellectual. As Iâm re-reading it much does seem dated now that we do have GPS and phone trackers etc.
About three quarters through the book, Ponter reveals that Adikor is his sexual partner. This has been completely skirted even on the other side of the story. I suppose the reader is supposed to be shocked? There is some cute misunderstandings around the word âhomosexualâ which revolves around the biologists definition of sex. Finally coming to an understanding, he is shocked to learn that bisexuality is not the norm in the human world. He then goes on to explain their social construct where women live in the central cities and men live on the outskirts and only visit each other one a month. Long discussion of why their society developed as it did (all conjecture as it happened prehistorical).
Another flaw is Sawyerâs obsession with the Neanderthalâs having a greater sense of smell because their noses are âbiggerâ - it doesnât really work that way.
Mary and Ponter get all romancyâ¦speaking of which with those separate lives how do the males court females on the other side? Any why is Ponter so comfortable hanging with women all the time?
On the other side, Adikor and Ponterâs daughter Jasmel manage to open the portal and send a robot with a camera through.
Mary gives an awkward speech to Ponter on the elevator ride down to his possible return home. Ponter easily climbs through the portal and breaks the connection between worlds. He gets home just in time to derail the trial by showing up not dead. They then talk about re-opening the portal between worlds and making way for a sequel.
by Robert J. Sawyer
I read this back when Robert Sawyer was one of my favorite authors, though even at the time I couldnât help noticing some giant flaws in his story telling. Like his dinosaurian series, the Neanderthal Parallax is an interesting thought experiment. Sawyer is fun to read because of his imaginative ideas but he often fall flat with the logical constituencies in his execution. He also tends to be pretty light on character development and is about as subtle as a sledge hammer. Characters are used to describe the world he has imagine and really serve no other purpose.
In this series, he asks us to imagine a parallel universe that split form our own around the time Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthal coexisted. In this other world, Neanderthals survived and built a civilization and Homo Sapiens died out.
Interesting premise.
The story opens on our side, with scientists in Canada conducting a physics experiment underground. Suddenly there is a man in the heavy water, a seemingly impossible event. Even more impossible is the man himself. Strange clothes and a strange language puzzle the scientists who send the man to the hospital.
The story jumps backwards to the beginning of the day, where we meet Ponter Boddit on the Neanderthal side. We learn that he and his partner (man-mate) Adikor are physicists working on a quantum computer. The book description calls Adikor Ponterâs âhousemateâ I guess in an attempt to be coy about their actual relationship. Sawyer has crafted an interesting lifestyle to the Neanderthal in which everyone is bi-sexual and not is the usual sense that one might be attracted to both sexes but in that everyone has two mates. One woman-mate and one man-mate. The same gender couples live together and the male and female only get together a few days a month. This is a part a highly regulate dand complicated birth control system.
The book alternates between Adikorâs story after Ponterâs disappearance and Ponterâs experiences in the human world. The doctor at the hospital quickly identifies his patient as a Neanderthal.
Then we meet Mary Vaughan on the night she is raped. Sort of clumsy story telling - it is a total plot devise that if Sawyer was set on needing then he could have revealed this in flash back. This chapter inserted in between Ponter arriving at the hospital and his waking up confused is a real non-sequitur and from a narrative stand point breaks up the flow of the story.
Back at the hospital, conveniently, Ponter has an AI implant named Hak. Ponter talks with him, questioning where he is at the same time the scientist and doctors hover around and discuss Ponter. Later Hak learns English with just a few lessons.
The immediate discussion with reporters is really weird and unrealistic, sort of straight out of a movie or television drama.
Meanwhile, Adikor is accused of Ponterâs murder. This story line alternates with the human side story and serves to describe Neanderthal society and justice system.
Mary Vaughan, a geneticist who is an expert on Neanderthal DNA is brought to meet Ponter. She takes a DNA sample, but surely they could have simple sent her one? Right?
Meanwhile, Adikor and Ponterâs daughter Jasmel are convinced that Ponter isnât dead.
Ponter is released from the hospital and Louise and Rueben (from the science team) take custody of him and take him to Ruebenâs home outside the city. Mary confirms he is Neanderthal, well duh.
While Adikorâs trial goes on (and on and on), the humanâs definitively determine that Ponter is from an alternate universe and sort of explain how their experiment (the quantum computer on the other side) brought him over. Mary ends up staying at Ruebenâs house as well, and becomes a love interest for Ponter. Ponter comes down with a cold or flu or something that he isnât immune to and of course they all panic.
Sawyer then has one of his characterâs deliver a pretty accurate explanation of why civilizations that have domesticated animals tend to have waves of plague disease. That introduces one of the biggest flaws in his depiction of the Neanderthal society - he proposed that they have no agriculture or domesticated live stock. That is a pretty big pill to swallow give that he has also given them very advanced technology. Ignoring that a leap in computing probably would have not happened with out the space race which in turn probably wouldnât have happened with out the cold war.
Once Ponter recovers, with a little hand waving, it is stated that he and his AI have made enough progress in the language to have complicated discussions. Then come the meat of what Robert Sawyer likes to write about. They compare politics (his is gerontocracy), population (only 185 million), religion (Neanderthal are atheist), space travel (they have not done any)â¦and so forth. At each turn, Ponter is shocked. Mary is in turn shocked to find that a punch is considered attempted murder among Neanderthals since they are so strong it is easy to kill someone that way. This of course reflects the evidence being presented against Adikor.
They have a long talk about âalibi archivesâ stored by the electronic companions they all wear (the AI imbedded in Ponter). Again this is Robert Sawyer running thought experiments through his characters mouths as the discussions could between just about anyone and are all very intellectual. As Iâm re-reading it much does seem dated now that we do have GPS and phone trackers etc.
About three quarters through the book, Ponter reveals that Adikor is his sexual partner. This has been completely skirted even on the other side of the story. I suppose the reader is supposed to be shocked? There is some cute misunderstandings around the word âhomosexualâ which revolves around the biologists definition of sex. Finally coming to an understanding, he is shocked to learn that bisexuality is not the norm in the human world. He then goes on to explain their social construct where women live in the central cities and men live on the outskirts and only visit each other one a month. Long discussion of why their society developed as it did (all conjecture as it happened prehistorical).
Another flaw is Sawyerâs obsession with the Neanderthalâs having a greater sense of smell because their noses are âbiggerâ - it doesnât really work that way.
Mary and Ponter get all romancyâ¦speaking of which with those separate lives how do the males court females on the other side? Any why is Ponter so comfortable hanging with women all the time?
On the other side, Adikor and Ponterâs daughter Jasmel manage to open the portal and send a robot with a camera through.
Mary gives an awkward speech to Ponter on the elevator ride down to his possible return home. Ponter easily climbs through the portal and breaks the connection between worlds. He gets home just in time to derail the trial by showing up not dead. They then talk about re-opening the portal between worlds and making way for a sequel.
Hominids (Neanderthal Parallax #1)
by Robert J. Sawyer
I read this back when Robert Sawyer was one of my favorite authors, though even at the time I couldnât help noticing some giant flaws in his story telling. Like his dinosaurian series, the Neanderthal Parallax is an interesting thought experiment. Sawyer is fun to read because of his imaginative ideas but he often fall flat with the logical constituencies in his execution. He also tends to be pretty light on character development and is about as subtle as a sledge hammer. Characters are used to describe the world he has imagine and really serve no other purpose.
In this series, he asks us to imagine a parallel universe that split form our own around the time Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthal coexisted. In this other world, Neanderthals survived and built a civilization and Homo Sapiens died out.
Interesting premise.
The story opens on our side, with scientists in Canada conducting a physics experiment underground. Suddenly there is a man in the heavy water, a seemingly impossible event. Even more impossible is the man himself. Strange clothes and a strange language puzzle the scientists who send the man to the hospital.
The story jumps backwards to the beginning of the day, where we meet Ponter Boddit on the Neanderthal side. We learn that he and his partner (man-mate) Adikor are physicists working on a quantum computer. The book description calls Adikor Ponterâs âhousemateâ I guess in an attempt to be coy about their actual relationship. Sawyer has crafted an interesting lifestyle to the Neanderthal in which everyone is bi-sexual and not is the usual sense that one might be attracted to both sexes but in that everyone has two mates. One woman-mate and one man-mate. The same gender couples live together and the male and female only get together a few days a month. This is a part a highly regulate dand complicated birth control system.
The book alternates between Adikorâs story after Ponterâs disappearance and Ponterâs experiences in the human world. The doctor at the hospital quickly identifies his patient as a Neanderthal.
Then we meet Mary Vaughan on the night she is raped. Sort of clumsy story telling - it is a total plot devise that if Sawyer was set on needing then he could have revealed this in flash back. This chapter inserted in between Ponter arriving at the hospital and his waking up confused is a real non-sequitur and from a narrative stand point breaks up the flow of the story.
Back at the hospital, conveniently, Ponter has an AI implant named Hak. Ponter talks with him, questioning where he is at the same time the scientist and doctors hover around and discuss Ponter. Later Hak learns English with just a few lessons.
The immediate discussion with reporters is really weird and unrealistic, sort of straight out of a movie or television drama.
Meanwhile, Adikor is accused of Ponterâs murder. This story line alternates with the human side story and serves to describe Neanderthal society and justice system.
Mary Vaughan, a geneticist who is an expert on Neanderthal DNA is brought to meet Ponter. She takes a DNA sample, but surely they could have simple sent her one? Right?
Meanwhile, Adikor and Ponterâs daughter Jasmel are convinced that Ponter isnât dead.
Ponter is released from the hospital and Louise and Rueben (from the science team) take custody of him and take him to Ruebenâs home outside the city. Mary confirms he is Neanderthal, well duh.
While Adikorâs trial goes on (and on and on), the humanâs definitively determine that Ponter is from an alternate universe and sort of explain how their experiment (the quantum computer on the other side) brought him over. Mary ends up staying at Ruebenâs house as well, and becomes a love interest for Ponter. Ponter comes down with a cold or flu or something that he isnât immune to and of course they all panic.
Sawyer then has one of his characterâs deliver a pretty accurate explanation of why civilizations that have domesticated animals tend to have waves of plague disease. That introduces one of the biggest flaws in his depiction of the Neanderthal society - he proposed that they have no agriculture or domesticated live stock. That is a pretty big pill to swallow give that he has also given them very advanced technology. Ignoring that a leap in computing probably would have not happened with out the space race which in turn probably wouldnât have happened with out the cold war.
Once Ponter recovers, with a little hand waving, it is stated that he and his AI have made enough progress in the language to have complicated discussions. Then come the meat of what Robert Sawyer likes to write about. They compare politics (his is gerontocracy), population (only 185 million), religion (Neanderthal are atheist), space travel (they have not done any)â¦and so forth. At each turn, Ponter is shocked. Mary is in turn shocked to find that a punch is considered attempted murder among Neanderthals since they are so strong it is easy to kill someone that way. This of course reflects the evidence being presented against Adikor.
They have a long talk about âalibi archivesâ stored by the electronic companions they all wear (the AI imbedded in Ponter). Again this is Robert Sawyer running thought experiments through his characters mouths as the discussions could between just about anyone and are all very intellectual. As Iâm re-reading it much does seem dated now that we do have GPS and phone trackers etc.
About three quarters through the book, Ponter reveals that Adikor is his sexual partner. This has been completely skirted even on the other side of the story. I suppose the reader is supposed to be shocked? There is some cute misunderstandings around the word âhomosexualâ which revolves around the biologists definition of sex. Finally coming to an understanding, he is shocked to learn that bisexuality is not the norm in the human world. He then goes on to explain their social construct where women live in the central cities and men live on the outskirts and only visit each other one a month. Long discussion of why their society developed as it did (all conjecture as it happened prehistorical).
Another flaw is Sawyerâs obsession with the Neanderthalâs having a greater sense of smell because their noses are âbiggerâ - it doesnât really work that way.
Mary and Ponter get all romancyâ¦speaking of which with those separate lives how do the males court females on the other side? Any why is Ponter so comfortable hanging with women all the time?
On the other side, Adikor and Ponterâs daughter Jasmel manage to open the portal and send a robot with a camera through.
Mary gives an awkward speech to Ponter on the elevator ride down to his possible return home. Ponter easily climbs through the portal and breaks the connection between worlds. He gets home just in time to derail the trial by showing up not dead. They then talk about re-opening the portal between worlds and making way for a sequel.
by Robert J. Sawyer
I read this back when Robert Sawyer was one of my favorite authors, though even at the time I couldnât help noticing some giant flaws in his story telling. Like his dinosaurian series, the Neanderthal Parallax is an interesting thought experiment. Sawyer is fun to read because of his imaginative ideas but he often fall flat with the logical constituencies in his execution. He also tends to be pretty light on character development and is about as subtle as a sledge hammer. Characters are used to describe the world he has imagine and really serve no other purpose.
In this series, he asks us to imagine a parallel universe that split form our own around the time Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthal coexisted. In this other world, Neanderthals survived and built a civilization and Homo Sapiens died out.
Interesting premise.
The story opens on our side, with scientists in Canada conducting a physics experiment underground. Suddenly there is a man in the heavy water, a seemingly impossible event. Even more impossible is the man himself. Strange clothes and a strange language puzzle the scientists who send the man to the hospital.
The story jumps backwards to the beginning of the day, where we meet Ponter Boddit on the Neanderthal side. We learn that he and his partner (man-mate) Adikor are physicists working on a quantum computer. The book description calls Adikor Ponterâs âhousemateâ I guess in an attempt to be coy about their actual relationship. Sawyer has crafted an interesting lifestyle to the Neanderthal in which everyone is bi-sexual and not is the usual sense that one might be attracted to both sexes but in that everyone has two mates. One woman-mate and one man-mate. The same gender couples live together and the male and female only get together a few days a month. This is a part a highly regulate dand complicated birth control system.
The book alternates between Adikorâs story after Ponterâs disappearance and Ponterâs experiences in the human world. The doctor at the hospital quickly identifies his patient as a Neanderthal.
Then we meet Mary Vaughan on the night she is raped. Sort of clumsy story telling - it is a total plot devise that if Sawyer was set on needing then he could have revealed this in flash back. This chapter inserted in between Ponter arriving at the hospital and his waking up confused is a real non-sequitur and from a narrative stand point breaks up the flow of the story.
Back at the hospital, conveniently, Ponter has an AI implant named Hak. Ponter talks with him, questioning where he is at the same time the scientist and doctors hover around and discuss Ponter. Later Hak learns English with just a few lessons.
The immediate discussion with reporters is really weird and unrealistic, sort of straight out of a movie or television drama.
Meanwhile, Adikor is accused of Ponterâs murder. This story line alternates with the human side story and serves to describe Neanderthal society and justice system.
Mary Vaughan, a geneticist who is an expert on Neanderthal DNA is brought to meet Ponter. She takes a DNA sample, but surely they could have simple sent her one? Right?
Meanwhile, Adikor and Ponterâs daughter Jasmel are convinced that Ponter isnât dead.
Ponter is released from the hospital and Louise and Rueben (from the science team) take custody of him and take him to Ruebenâs home outside the city. Mary confirms he is Neanderthal, well duh.
While Adikorâs trial goes on (and on and on), the humanâs definitively determine that Ponter is from an alternate universe and sort of explain how their experiment (the quantum computer on the other side) brought him over. Mary ends up staying at Ruebenâs house as well, and becomes a love interest for Ponter. Ponter comes down with a cold or flu or something that he isnât immune to and of course they all panic.
Sawyer then has one of his characterâs deliver a pretty accurate explanation of why civilizations that have domesticated animals tend to have waves of plague disease. That introduces one of the biggest flaws in his depiction of the Neanderthal society - he proposed that they have no agriculture or domesticated live stock. That is a pretty big pill to swallow give that he has also given them very advanced technology. Ignoring that a leap in computing probably would have not happened with out the space race which in turn probably wouldnât have happened with out the cold war.
Once Ponter recovers, with a little hand waving, it is stated that he and his AI have made enough progress in the language to have complicated discussions. Then come the meat of what Robert Sawyer likes to write about. They compare politics (his is gerontocracy), population (only 185 million), religion (Neanderthal are atheist), space travel (they have not done any)â¦and so forth. At each turn, Ponter is shocked. Mary is in turn shocked to find that a punch is considered attempted murder among Neanderthals since they are so strong it is easy to kill someone that way. This of course reflects the evidence being presented against Adikor.
They have a long talk about âalibi archivesâ stored by the electronic companions they all wear (the AI imbedded in Ponter). Again this is Robert Sawyer running thought experiments through his characters mouths as the discussions could between just about anyone and are all very intellectual. As Iâm re-reading it much does seem dated now that we do have GPS and phone trackers etc.
About three quarters through the book, Ponter reveals that Adikor is his sexual partner. This has been completely skirted even on the other side of the story. I suppose the reader is supposed to be shocked? There is some cute misunderstandings around the word âhomosexualâ which revolves around the biologists definition of sex. Finally coming to an understanding, he is shocked to learn that bisexuality is not the norm in the human world. He then goes on to explain their social construct where women live in the central cities and men live on the outskirts and only visit each other one a month. Long discussion of why their society developed as it did (all conjecture as it happened prehistorical).
Another flaw is Sawyerâs obsession with the Neanderthalâs having a greater sense of smell because their noses are âbiggerâ - it doesnât really work that way.
Mary and Ponter get all romancyâ¦speaking of which with those separate lives how do the males court females on the other side? Any why is Ponter so comfortable hanging with women all the time?
On the other side, Adikor and Ponterâs daughter Jasmel manage to open the portal and send a robot with a camera through.
Mary gives an awkward speech to Ponter on the elevator ride down to his possible return home. Ponter easily climbs through the portal and breaks the connection between worlds. He gets home just in time to derail the trial by showing up not dead. They then talk about re-opening the portal between worlds and making way for a sequel.
Hominids (Neanderthal Parallax #1)
by Robert J. Sawyer
I read this back when Robert Sawyer was one of my favorite authors, though even at the time I couldnât help noticing some giant flaws in his story telling. Like his dinosaurian series, the Neanderthal Parallax is an interesting thought experiment. Sawyer is fun to read because of his imaginative ideas but he often fall flat with the logical constituencies in his execution. He also tends to be pretty light on character development and is about as subtle as a sledge hammer. Characters are used to describe the world he has imagine and really serve no other purpose.
In this series, he asks us to imagine a parallel universe that split form our own around the time Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthal coexisted. In this other world, Neanderthals survived and built a civilization and Homo Sapiens died out.
Interesting premise.
The story opens on our side, with scientists in Canada conducting a physics experiment underground. Suddenly there is a man in the heavy water, a seemingly impossible event. Even more impossible is the man himself. Strange clothes and a strange language puzzle the scientists who send the man to the hospital.
The story jumps backwards to the beginning of the day, where we meet Ponter Boddit on the Neanderthal side. We learn that he and his partner (man-mate) Adikor are physicists working on a quantum computer. The book description calls Adikor Ponterâs âhousemateâ I guess in an attempt to be coy about their actual relationship. Sawyer has crafted an interesting lifestyle to the Neanderthal in which everyone is bi-sexual and not is the usual sense that one might be attracted to both sexes but in that everyone has two mates. One woman-mate and one man-mate. The same gender couples live together and the male and female only get together a few days a month. This is a part a highly regulate dand complicated birth control system.
The book alternates between Adikorâs story after Ponterâs disappearance and Ponterâs experiences in the human world. The doctor at the hospital quickly identifies his patient as a Neanderthal.
Then we meet Mary Vaughan on the night she is raped. Sort of clumsy story telling - it is a total plot devise that if Sawyer was set on needing then he could have revealed this in flash back. This chapter inserted in between Ponter arriving at the hospital and his waking up confused is a real non-sequitur and from a narrative stand point breaks up the flow of the story.
Back at the hospital, conveniently, Ponter has an AI implant named Hak. Ponter talks with him, questioning where he is at the same time the scientist and doctors hover around and discuss Ponter. Later Hak learns English with just a few lessons.
The immediate discussion with reporters is really weird and unrealistic, sort of straight out of a movie or television drama.
Meanwhile, Adikor is accused of Ponterâs murder. This story line alternates with the human side story and serves to describe Neanderthal society and justice system.
Mary Vaughan, a geneticist who is an expert on Neanderthal DNA is brought to meet Ponter. She takes a DNA sample, but surely they could have simple sent her one? Right?
Meanwhile, Adikor and Ponterâs daughter Jasmel are convinced that Ponter isnât dead.
Ponter is released from the hospital and Louise and Rueben (from the science team) take custody of him and take him to Ruebenâs home outside the city. Mary confirms he is Neanderthal, well duh.
While Adikorâs trial goes on (and on and on), the humanâs definitively determine that Ponter is from an alternate universe and sort of explain how their experiment (the quantum computer on the other side) brought him over. Mary ends up staying at Ruebenâs house as well, and becomes a love interest for Ponter. Ponter comes down with a cold or flu or something that he isnât immune to and of course they all panic.
Sawyer then has one of his characterâs deliver a pretty accurate explanation of why civilizations that have domesticated animals tend to have waves of plague disease. That introduces one of the biggest flaws in his depiction of the Neanderthal society - he proposed that they have no agriculture or domesticated live stock. That is a pretty big pill to swallow give that he has also given them very advanced technology. Ignoring that a leap in computing probably would have not happened with out the space race which in turn probably wouldnât have happened with out the cold war.
Once Ponter recovers, with a little hand waving, it is stated that he and his AI have made enough progress in the language to have complicated discussions. Then come the meat of what Robert Sawyer likes to write about. They compare politics (his is gerontocracy), population (only 185 million), religion (Neanderthal are atheist), space travel (they have not done any)â¦and so forth. At each turn, Ponter is shocked. Mary is in turn shocked to find that a punch is considered attempted murder among Neanderthals since they are so strong it is easy to kill someone that way. This of course reflects the evidence being presented against Adikor.
They have a long talk about âalibi archivesâ stored by the electronic companions they all wear (the AI imbedded in Ponter). Again this is Robert Sawyer running thought experiments through his characters mouths as the discussions could between just about anyone and are all very intellectual. As Iâm re-reading it much does seem dated now that we do have GPS and phone trackers etc.
About three quarters through the book, Ponter reveals that Adikor is his sexual partner. This has been completely skirted even on the other side of the story. I suppose the reader is supposed to be shocked? There is some cute misunderstandings around the word âhomosexualâ which revolves around the biologists definition of sex. Finally coming to an understanding, he is shocked to learn that bisexuality is not the norm in the human world. He then goes on to explain their social construct where women live in the central cities and men live on the outskirts and only visit each other one a month. Long discussion of why their society developed as it did (all conjecture as it happened prehistorical).
Another flaw is Sawyerâs obsession with the Neanderthalâs having a greater sense of smell because their noses are âbiggerâ - it doesnât really work that way.
Mary and Ponter get all romancyâ¦speaking of which with those separate lives how do the males court females on the other side? Any why is Ponter so comfortable hanging with women all the time?
On the other side, Adikor and Ponterâs daughter Jasmel manage to open the portal and send a robot with a camera through.
Mary gives an awkward speech to Ponter on the elevator ride down to his possible return home. Ponter easily climbs through the portal and breaks the connection between worlds. He gets home just in time to derail the trial by showing up not dead. They then talk about re-opening the portal between worlds and making way for a sequel.
by Robert J. Sawyer
I read this back when Robert Sawyer was one of my favorite authors, though even at the time I couldnât help noticing some giant flaws in his story telling. Like his dinosaurian series, the Neanderthal Parallax is an interesting thought experiment. Sawyer is fun to read because of his imaginative ideas but he often fall flat with the logical constituencies in his execution. He also tends to be pretty light on character development and is about as subtle as a sledge hammer. Characters are used to describe the world he has imagine and really serve no other purpose.
In this series, he asks us to imagine a parallel universe that split form our own around the time Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthal coexisted. In this other world, Neanderthals survived and built a civilization and Homo Sapiens died out.
Interesting premise.
The story opens on our side, with scientists in Canada conducting a physics experiment underground. Suddenly there is a man in the heavy water, a seemingly impossible event. Even more impossible is the man himself. Strange clothes and a strange language puzzle the scientists who send the man to the hospital.
The story jumps backwards to the beginning of the day, where we meet Ponter Boddit on the Neanderthal side. We learn that he and his partner (man-mate) Adikor are physicists working on a quantum computer. The book description calls Adikor Ponterâs âhousemateâ I guess in an attempt to be coy about their actual relationship. Sawyer has crafted an interesting lifestyle to the Neanderthal in which everyone is bi-sexual and not is the usual sense that one might be attracted to both sexes but in that everyone has two mates. One woman-mate and one man-mate. The same gender couples live together and the male and female only get together a few days a month. This is a part a highly regulate dand complicated birth control system.
The book alternates between Adikorâs story after Ponterâs disappearance and Ponterâs experiences in the human world. The doctor at the hospital quickly identifies his patient as a Neanderthal.
Then we meet Mary Vaughan on the night she is raped. Sort of clumsy story telling - it is a total plot devise that if Sawyer was set on needing then he could have revealed this in flash back. This chapter inserted in between Ponter arriving at the hospital and his waking up confused is a real non-sequitur and from a narrative stand point breaks up the flow of the story.
Back at the hospital, conveniently, Ponter has an AI implant named Hak. Ponter talks with him, questioning where he is at the same time the scientist and doctors hover around and discuss Ponter. Later Hak learns English with just a few lessons.
The immediate discussion with reporters is really weird and unrealistic, sort of straight out of a movie or television drama.
Meanwhile, Adikor is accused of Ponterâs murder. This story line alternates with the human side story and serves to describe Neanderthal society and justice system.
Mary Vaughan, a geneticist who is an expert on Neanderthal DNA is brought to meet Ponter. She takes a DNA sample, but surely they could have simple sent her one? Right?
Meanwhile, Adikor and Ponterâs daughter Jasmel are convinced that Ponter isnât dead.
Ponter is released from the hospital and Louise and Rueben (from the science team) take custody of him and take him to Ruebenâs home outside the city. Mary confirms he is Neanderthal, well duh.
While Adikorâs trial goes on (and on and on), the humanâs definitively determine that Ponter is from an alternate universe and sort of explain how their experiment (the quantum computer on the other side) brought him over. Mary ends up staying at Ruebenâs house as well, and becomes a love interest for Ponter. Ponter comes down with a cold or flu or something that he isnât immune to and of course they all panic.
Sawyer then has one of his characterâs deliver a pretty accurate explanation of why civilizations that have domesticated animals tend to have waves of plague disease. That introduces one of the biggest flaws in his depiction of the Neanderthal society - he proposed that they have no agriculture or domesticated live stock. That is a pretty big pill to swallow give that he has also given them very advanced technology. Ignoring that a leap in computing probably would have not happened with out the space race which in turn probably wouldnât have happened with out the cold war.
Once Ponter recovers, with a little hand waving, it is stated that he and his AI have made enough progress in the language to have complicated discussions. Then come the meat of what Robert Sawyer likes to write about. They compare politics (his is gerontocracy), population (only 185 million), religion (Neanderthal are atheist), space travel (they have not done any)â¦and so forth. At each turn, Ponter is shocked. Mary is in turn shocked to find that a punch is considered attempted murder among Neanderthals since they are so strong it is easy to kill someone that way. This of course reflects the evidence being presented against Adikor.
They have a long talk about âalibi archivesâ stored by the electronic companions they all wear (the AI imbedded in Ponter). Again this is Robert Sawyer running thought experiments through his characters mouths as the discussions could between just about anyone and are all very intellectual. As Iâm re-reading it much does seem dated now that we do have GPS and phone trackers etc.
About three quarters through the book, Ponter reveals that Adikor is his sexual partner. This has been completely skirted even on the other side of the story. I suppose the reader is supposed to be shocked? There is some cute misunderstandings around the word âhomosexualâ which revolves around the biologists definition of sex. Finally coming to an understanding, he is shocked to learn that bisexuality is not the norm in the human world. He then goes on to explain their social construct where women live in the central cities and men live on the outskirts and only visit each other one a month. Long discussion of why their society developed as it did (all conjecture as it happened prehistorical).
Another flaw is Sawyerâs obsession with the Neanderthalâs having a greater sense of smell because their noses are âbiggerâ - it doesnât really work that way.
Mary and Ponter get all romancyâ¦speaking of which with those separate lives how do the males court females on the other side? Any why is Ponter so comfortable hanging with women all the time?
On the other side, Adikor and Ponterâs daughter Jasmel manage to open the portal and send a robot with a camera through.
Mary gives an awkward speech to Ponter on the elevator ride down to his possible return home. Ponter easily climbs through the portal and breaks the connection between worlds. He gets home just in time to derail the trial by showing up not dead. They then talk about re-opening the portal between worlds and making way for a sequel.
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