Slashdot Mirror
Hominids: The Neanderthal Parallax
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.
You can purchase Hominids from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to submit yours, read the book review guidelines, then hit the submission page.
Where is Chuck Heston when you need him.
If a person is disturbed enough to make them commit a murder, putting a locator implant in their arm will not make them less disturbed. It will not lead to a happier society.
Their anger will simply be manifested differently. Would you want to work in the same office with a person like this? Would you want to live in the same building? Treating the Symptoms != Solving the problem.
While absolute certainty of punishment would drive down random murder rates, it would not eliminate murder. A majority of women murdered are murdered by someone they know, normally a male.
So long and thanks for all the fish . . . !!!
Does anyone besides me have a hard time suspending disbelief long enough to get over the idea of "modern neanderthals"? I can't get the image of a guy with a big forehead and a deer leg club going around smashing traffic lights and computers out of my head.
Either that or the Flintstones... *shrug*
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
Perhaps this may be modded as redundant, but I'll say it anyway. I read this series when it first came out in Analog this year. I looked forward to each issue that came out and read it rapidly.
What struck me the most about this whole series was the striking differences in our culture and the one developed by the Neanderthal alternate universe culture. Yes, it's fiction, but it did an excellent job pointing out how historical changes can influence generations of culture, beliefs, and technology. For example, the Neanderthals decided to have everyone monitored with personal monitoring devices, so in the event of a crime, there was a 100% chance of proving or disproving who did the crime. The ultimate in police state monitoring, and yet, the entire Neanderthal culture agreed to not abuse this monitoring, and had it set up in such a way that the monitoring would only be accessed during the event of a crime. Privacy wasn't an issue with this culture, so it came as quite a shock to the main Neanderthal when he was transplanted to our universe that we had such issues.
The parallels and contrasts between such two entirely different, and yet very possible cultures that could have happened here on earth make this series well worth reading. I'm looking forward to more work from the author.
-When going for broke, go for Ithaca!
And Canadian to boot!
At CAN-CON, we have had Rob and his wife Carolyn as guests many times, and they are wonderful people. Take the time to listen to either of them if you ever get a chance at a Science Fiction convention.
And, of course, read his books!
ttyl
Farrell
co-founder of CAN-CON, a conference promoting Canadian SF Writers, Poets, Artists and other creative people for over a decade!
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
To read more of Sawyer's stories and order autographed copies direct from him, visit:
http://www.sfwriter.com/
Best way to support an author is a direct sale. (:
Human nature is the same everywhere; the modes only are different. -- Earl of Chesterfield
How many here would willingly fight to their own deaths to start a revolution against such an authority? I would.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
For those who didn't know, the novel was serialized in Analog, starting January 2002, and running for about three issues.
I know the concept sounds goofy. I wasn't all that keen on reading a "Neanderthals run around Toronto" story either, considering the crap that's been made using plotlines like this in movies.
Nevertheless, the book's well researched, well written, and altogether enjoyable. You do owe it to yourselves to at least thumb through this one.
I mean, we all know someone with an Analog subscription, right? Just go bug them for a couple of back issues.
"Isn't that the sweetest little well-balanced undergraduate-level philosophy of life."
It was serialized in the Jan 2002 - Apr 2002 issues of Analog
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
Most books reviewed are either technology books or SF, and they seldom (ever?) reach any level of literary accomplishment.
The people writing the books don't read magazines like the Atlantic, New Republic, New Yorker, or the NYTimes Review of Books and have no idea what a real book review looks like.
That being said, the reviews here are occasionally interesting because they tend to summarize what's interesting about the book (SF plot, technical details from tech books).
I've read plenty of literary reviews that spend half their time describing the review subject's rumored anal sex experiences and how they might have influenced their writing, and that's not always helpful or insightful, either.
I hope this isn't too off-topic. :) But hopefully I can recommend my own favorite (so far) Sawyer novel.
...
I've thoroughly enjoyed his Far-Seer , 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
i am a soviet space shuttle
after reading hominids you will realize that it purposefully leaves a lot of loose ends, since it quite likely sets the scene for something big bound to happen on the next two books on the series. So while by itself hominids might not seem like robert sawyer's best (a notion with which i disagree, so far i haven't read a rjs book i didnt like and i prefer not to rate them against each other), do keep in mind that its just the beginning of something that could be good.
For what it's worth, I've read four of Sawyer's novels and I'd recommend the other three far above this one:
1. Flashforward
2. Calculating God
3. Factoring Humanity
4. Hominids
I'm going to add another dissenting opinion to the mix. I read it serialized in Analog this winter/spring. I enjoyed it enough to finish it, but really not very much.
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.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
This novel was published in a multi-part format in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine just a few months ago. It definately kept me waiting for the next issue.
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.
Interbreeding of closely related individuals also has benefits of bringing out other traits, which actually increases genetic diversity.
Confirmed.
Indeed interbreeding is very common in thoroughbred Horses, Pigs, Cattle and pretty common in Pedigree Cats and Dogs. That is why today we the most productive farm animals and most attractive pets in history. Typically interbreeding in not so bad when a very strong selection mechanism against defects is at work. In both these cases a only repeat winners (Races/Shows) are bred and very widely. Though this *can* result in a homogeneous group, it is not certain. Indeed it aid the development of new species, there is considerable genetic difference between the various type of horse, so much so that some types of horse can considered seperate species because they cannot interbreed successfully.
The main issue is the accumulation of recessive genes and since breeders think in terms of breeding lines (not individuals), a strong selective mechanism is at work against recessive genes when they are defective.
Interestingly in Humans almost the opposite mechanism is at work, modern medical science, indeed all social security diminish selective breeding and even legal prevents it. The obvious consequence is that Human species is moving from a qualitative nurturing strategy towards an quantitative nurturing strategy.
If you knew that you were constantly monitored against your will you would commit just as many crimes. Because you would be slowly be degraded to sub human state and in short order you would come to believe that there is nothing in your life that is under your control. As a result you would simply go out and do whatever the fuck you wanted anyway. Might as well have a good time doing bad things.