Customer Reviews

Hominids

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

If you're interested in what an anthropologist has to say about this book, read on.

This book asks the questions, What if there were a parallel universe in which Neanderthals, instead of Homo sapiens sapiens, had survived and developed civilization? What would their world be like? How would their society be different from our own? How might they interact with us?

I think these are interesting questions and worth the effort to try to answer them via the sci-fi genre. Through much of the book, Sawyer presents in an entertaining way current thinking on and debates about Neanderthal anatomy, physiology, behavior and social structure. Unfortunately, in his attempt to explain why Neanderthals eventually achieved civilization (and why, in our world, our species did the same), Sawyer reveals a fatal flaw in his thinking that demonstrates a distinct lack of careful research and, in my view, undermines his entire project. That is, unless his project is to write a romance novel.

Toward the end of his book, two of Sawyer's protagonists, Louise, a post-doc quantum physicist who happens to be a brunette bombshell "wearing tight-fitting denim cutoffs and a white T-shirt tied in a knot over her flat midriff" (p. 369 in the hardcover version), and Mary, a plain Jane geneticist who happens to be a devout Catholic, engage in a one-sided discussion about the origins of consciousness. Louise has had an epiphany that she shares with Mary after carefully testing her idea on "some guys...in the physics department" (370). It's all become crystal clear to her: the reason humans were able to develop civilization was because, forty-odd thousand years ago, they became conscious through the "quantum superposition of isolated electrons in the microtubules of brain cells" (380). Louise doesn't explain this mechanism, apparently assuming that Mary needs no further details because she's a smart cookie and because the sacred word "quantum" has been invoked.

Mary, perhaps disabled by her envy of her colleague's gorgeous body and disarmed by her romantic feelings toward their Neanderthal visitor, swallows Louise's argument hook, line and sinker. This, despite the fact that she is a specialist in Neanderthal genetics and has some sort of training in paleoanthropology. It also could be because Mary is Catholic and Sawyer would have us believe that Catholics accept that consciousness never existed on earth until humans discovered it during the Upper Paleolithic (circa 40, 000 years ago). If nothing else, it would appear that physicists believe this to be true.

This is where the entire story falls apart as far as I'm concerned. I can suspend my disbelief - after all, this is science fiction - enough to enjoy the notion that multiple parallel universes exist and that it is possible for them to intersect through the intercession of a quantum computer (never mind, read the book). And I can put up with Sawyer's host of two-dimensional characters. But you couldn't pay me to accept the idea that consciousness is something humans invented. Louise falls into the same trap that has caught less sexy but more intelligent philosophers and theologians since humans began pondering the origins of consciousness: anthropocentrism, that is, the crippling assumption that humans are the Cat's Meow of creation. For example, 500 years ago, Rene Descartes, in his "cogito ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am) revelation, made the same mistake, which led to a widely held belief that humans were the only creatures that could think and feel. This, in turn, led to a perception of all other animals as simple machines that were incapable of feeling pain or making decisions. As a result, scientists conducted many "experiments" on animals that were little more than torture fests. I thought we'd come a long way since then, but Louise (aka Sawyer) has set me straight.

What does this have to do with anthropology? A lot, as it turns out. Louise suggests that "all other primitive forms of life...are just chemical machines" (376). We don't need to mire ourselves in a paleontological debate about whether, to quote Mary, a trilobite showed volition when it "decided to go left instead of right" (376). Sawyer pays out more than enough rope to hang his thesis when Mary, in a rare moment of critical thinking, challenges Louise's theory by alluding to evidence for sophisticated behavior by Homo ergaster, Homo erectus and other hominids that preceded the emergence of Homo sapiens. Amazingly, Louise successfully dismisses her point by saying, "Well, I realize this is your field...but I've been reading up on this on the Web. As far as I can tell, those earlier kinds of man didn't really have behavior any more sophisticated than a beaver building a dam" (377). As far as she can tell. Who needs a Ph.D. in anthropology when rigorous research is only a few mouse clicks away?

Louise should have tested her idea on "some guys" in the anthropology department before she talked to Mary. Mind you, they may have become just as distracted by her cutoffs as her physics guys seem to have been. ("Louise, I think you're really onto something here!") Or maybe she was using the wrong keywords in her Google search. She obviously didn't think to enter the word "Acheulean" (why would she?), which would have brought her to websites depicting the famous stone hand axes that Homo erectus and their ilk started producing over a million years ago. These Lower Paleolithic stone tools have been found in many places in the world and were made on a variety of rock types. If you're a skilled flintknapper (stone tool chipper), you can make one with relative ease, but that's because you've learned how to work with the quirks and subtleties found in each piece of stone. Every whack you take at a rock has to be calculated and the finished product has to remain in your mind as you work. Can this be accomplished without consciousness? Perhaps Sawyer should try it in his sleep. Moreover, I call on beaver biologists to rise up and refute Louise's implication that beavers lack consciousness, too. Fiddlesticks!

In my opinion, quality works of science fiction build on what we already know or think we know and, based on this knowledge and theory, speculate about what might be possible now or in the future. Sadly, Robert Sawyer's book, Hominids, while making Neanderthal studies palatable for a wider audience, stumbles as a fictionalization of science and work of science fiction. Will I read the next two books (Humans and Hybrids) in the series? You bet. I've just got to find out how things go with Mary and her Neanderthal boyfriend!

This is the second Sawyer novel I have read and after all the rave reviews, good press and a Hugo award to boot, I was excited to get my hands on a copy. But I have to say when I was reading the book, I became quite angry.

Briefly the plot: There is a parallel universe where neandethals survived and we became extinct. During a failed scientific experiment using quantum computers, one of the neanderthals is transported into our world.

This book is a light, quick read despite being over 400 pages. There are two parallel stories, one of the neanderthal in our world, the other of the neanderthal world where on man is being trialled for the murder of the missing neanderthal. Of the two plots, the story set in the neanderthal world is the far more compelling.

So let's get to the meat of it, why did this book make me angry?

Firstly, the author uses incredibly cheap plot devices that really stretch the realms of plausability. For example, four characters (including the neanderthal) are quarantined in a house. To push the romance element of the story, the author decided that Mary and the neanderthal needed to be alone. So how does he get them alone in the house? The other two character lock themselves in their own room to have sex, that's how. Think about it, there is a man from another dimension who could quite possibly be the most amazing experience in your life, but instead you lock yourself away from him to have sex? Yeah right.

The second thing that made me angry was the so called "social commentary". This term can hardly be used to describe what is a sneering, down the nose look at man's history. Sawyer seems content to oversimplify complex issues (he sums up the cold war in one sentence) and call them bad without ever exploring the issues or making any attempt to understand. No, he'd just prefer to point the finger and call it wrong.

Leading on from this, we have Sawyer's attempt to create utopia in the form of the neanderthal world. It is interesting that Sawyer has taken a point completely opposite to Orwell's great novel 1984. Amazingly, Sawyer argues that being monitored 24/7 and having every move you make recorded is a good thing!. Yes, according to Sawyer we would all be better off having no privacy. Hmpf!

The next thing that made me angry - the ending. I won't dwell on it too much here lest I ruin it for anyone, but let me just say this - Sawyer took the easy way out and made a very simple ending. Also, given the understanding of what was discussed in the book, the conclusion Ponter makes at the end is simply stupifying.

To top it all off, this book won a Hugo award. So that makes me angry too. This is an embarrassment to the award.

So there you have it. Intelligent readers looking to read something meaningful and challenging, steer clear of this. For people who like light entertainment which pretends to be clever but isn't, you may enjoy this book.

Hominids is an intriguing speculative fiction book. The main premise is based on Quantum theory. Parallel to our world are many other worlds. Some very close to ours and some not. In our story, Ponter Boddit, often referred to as Scholar Boddit, is one of our main characters. He is a Quantum Physicist from a parallel world. While working on a Quantum computer, he is translated into the same location in our Universe; unfortunately it is the center of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. Then the true adventure begins.

Ponter is given Canadian Citizenship, which is unusual because he is a Neanderthal. One could argue however, that a Neanderthal emerging from an INCO mine in Sudbury might not be that far out of the question. Many around the world believe it is a hoax - some believe it is true and a Ponter cult begins. Some want to control him and his knowledge.

In our sister earth, they have not ever had a global war, not developed nuclear weapons, or destroyed the environment the way we have. There is much we could learn from our cousins in this world.

Follow Ponter as he develops friendships, experiences religion and learns that we don't have to be homo sapiens to be human.

I agree wholeheartedly with Steven Taylor's review of this book. I love Sawyer's writing in general, but he REALLY hits you over the head with social commentary. I felt preached to in many places, and it seems his intent is to make you feel guilty for being a human, especially a male human.

Furthermore, I don't like how the privacy-less neanderthal society is presented as The Answer. It's ridiculous to think there wouldn't be any corruption in the system, that they got everything right the first time.

The love story aspects of it are entirely not necessary for the plot in this book, and come across as being superfluous marketing. Though he may be building for something in the sequels.

I've already purchased and plan to read the two sequels. I like the concept of the parallel neanderthal world and our interactions with it and am very curious about how it plays out. I just hope the guilt-trip gets toned down, because in general I dig Sawyer's writing.

Robert J Sawyer is known for his non-genre SF writing. This is a guy who steers clear of spaceships and death rays and, instead, gives the reader pause for thought.

In Hominids, Sawyer proposes (using quantam physics) that the universe split during the Great Leap Forward and two realities were created. One world is present-day Earth. In the other, neanderthals lives on while humans died out. In Hominids, through an accident in a physics lab, the two universes come into contact with one other and an evolved neanderthal ends up on our Earth.

Sawyer has created an interesting construct based on sound scientific and historical principles. His characters are strong and believable and, most importantly, help to further the scientific supposition rather than get in the way. the book read squickly and contains all of what a good novel should: conflict, suspense and strong character development.

Hominids is a stand-out in the new crop of SF, and Sawyer has shown, once again, that he puts the Speculative in SF.

The idea of this book, in which there is contact between our universe and an alternate one in which the Neandertals inherited the earth, is promising. Unfortunately, that's the most I can say for this book. Turns out the Neandertals are all a bunch of Sensitive New-Age Guys, and I just couldn't get past their cloying sweetness. Yes, they're sexually egalitarian, and non-violent, and they don't pollute, and they are just generally too damn nice to be real or interesting. Our universe, on the other hand, is fraught with conflict, but it's rendered so one-dimensionally as to make it equally boring. Early in the book a woman is raped (in the Homo sapiens universe, of course) and while the assault is in progress, she's thinks "It's not about sex...It's a crime of violence." No doubt true, and maybe someone being attacked might choose that moment to review some pamphlets from the local women's center, but it seems to me that some original or individual response might make her seem more like a real person.

Hominids is a masterful weave of two modern scientific theories - one focussed on the (evolutionary) past or our world and the other on the nature of the universe itself (quantum physics). The idea to combine a forward- and backward-looking science into one tale is enough in my mind to redeem even a horribly written book. But Hominids is far from a literary dud. Scenes and dialogue are well-crafted, and the story kept me up till the wee hours some nights because I could not put the book down.

The main idea is simple, what if Neanderthals had not died off, and instead developed their own advanced society. And what if somehow our world and theirs met, what would be the differences? The book has many plot threads, but they all tie back to this main idea. What results is a creative view of some of the latest theories on Neanderthals, an imaginative look at what sort of society they might have evolved, and a commentary(more a criticism I'd say) of the psychological underpinnings of homosapiens and the culture we've developed - highlighting the fact that it is our biological evolution that has shaped much about our culture we take for granted.

I think there are a few criticisms that can be made of this book. First is that it became a little 'preachy'(too idealistic of the Neanderthal culture) and bloody obvious. It left little nuance or depth that only the perceptive reader could pick up on. Of course, that is a criticism that can be placed on most pop SF these days. Second, unfortunately, the plot lines were transparent in their goal, and at some points 'believability' was sacrificed so that comparitive discourse could flourish. The characters are not superbly developed, and half of the book leaves you with the feeling that you're sitting at a scientific conference table (the other half is more redeeming).

So, who would this book appeal to? If you're a formulaic, action-SCIFI lover, take a pass. This book is neither. If instead you enjoy a more Asimovian type story (slower, grounded in research) then this is a most entertaining must-read for your collection.

What a fun book this is!! Rob Sawyer likes to takes fantastical happenings (alien encounters, visions of the future, etc..) and plop them down in the middle of regular people doing regular things. I also enjoy the book's Canadian's setting as I often get tired of books being set in Los Angeles, New York, etc.. If you like any of Sawyer's other books, you'll like this one and if you like this one: make sure you read his other books.

The initial premise should tell you most of what you need to know. Its not a heavy SciFi book, but focuses more on events and characters.

I wavered between 4 stars and 5 for Hominids, but ultimately decided on 5. Although Hominids as a stand-alone book is perhaps not quite in the same league as FlashForward or Calculating God, it is only the first of a three-volume series, and the next installments will presumably flesh out some of the details that were glossed over in volume I. In any event, it is head and shoulders above most of the SF being published today, and, like all of Sawyer's work, a terrific read.

Like a number of Sawyer's prior books (Illegal Alien, Calculating God), Hominids is as much social commentary as it is SF. As in those works, he drops an "alien" (here, a Neanderthal from a parallel universe) into our midst and then proceeds to have the newcomer examine our world, compare it to his/her own, and then explain the myriad ways in which our society is comparatively flawed (too violent, too greedy, etc.). Hopefully the second installment will examine the flip side of the equation, because Ponter (and Neanderthal society) are portrayed as just a little too perfect for the criticism to work as effectively as it could with a more nuanced and balanced treatment. For example, Sawyer strongly implies that the vicious homo sapiens killed off the neanderthals in our universe, but never even addresses the question of what happened to the homo sapiens in Ponter's world. Whether the most likely scenario is true -- that they did the same thing to us in their world as we did to them in ours -- must await volume II. And what about the ethical and societal downside(s) to wearing a permanently implanted "alibi recorder" in your wrist? Or the genetic cleansing practiced by the Neanderthals? One has to hope that Sawyer will critically examine these aspects of Neanderthal society in the next installment.

Hominids is extremely well written, and the fictional "news reports" Sawyer uses to begin several new chapters strike me as so on-target as to be uncanny. (And the Letterman-inspired "top ten reasons why we know that Ponter Boddit must be a real neanderthal" is laugh-out-loud funny.) The science of quantum mechanics and alternate universes is well presented, but really serves as little more than a backdrop to the main event: Sawyer's forcing us to examine what makes us human, and getting us to think about how the world might become a better place.

Hominids is a great book. I can't wait for volume II.

It's easy to see why Robert Sawyer won the Hugo award (finally!) for this novel - it is emminently readable, has some neat ideas, and even some nifty scientific extrapolation. What is more difficult to understand is the apparent strong negative emotion (based on the number of 1-star reviews) the book has generated amongst some who have read it.

The basic physics of the story revolves around the infinite universes theory of quantum mechanics - every time a decision is made (not only conscious, but even of photons refracting), all possible outcomes occur, each one in a different universe. In one of these alternate universes, Homo sapiens has been wiped out and Homo neanderthalis has become the dominant intellegent species. The Neanderthals are working on a quantum computer, and in the process of their experiments, one of the workers gets teleported (?) into our universe. Obviously, his dissapearance in his own universe is as problematic as his appearance in our own.

Sawyer deftly switches back and forth between the two universes - the stranded Neanderthal trying to understand what's going on around him, and his colleague trying to figure out what happened to him (and being accused of his murder). This obviously sets the stage for discussion of a variety of topics including quantum mechanics, the philosophical differences between the Neanderthals and Humans, etc.

Here is where the meat of Sawyer's books lie - the philosophical implications of the world(s) he's created. Refreshingly, for a science fiction writer, he does not shy away from religion - obviously the existence of a parallel universe would have profound theological implications. Unfortunately, he does not fully develop this idea (although maybe it shows up again in one of the sequels). Another unfortunate aspect is his development of a peaceful, stable, and very small Neanderthal culture. It's exceedingly hard to believe that a planet whose entire population is only 180 million could have acheived such a high level of scientific advancement, especially one where war (the ultimate technological driving force) is unknown. It makes Sawyer's social commentary implausible.

However, the book ranks very high in terms of enjoyment. His multicultural cast (including a black Jamaican, a Quebecoise, and a Sikh), his attention to detail, and his low-key approach to the narrative give the book a pacing that makes it easy to read straight through in a single sitting. It's a refreshing change of pace from the lurid action-thrillers that many people seem to have expected based on the plot of the story.