Hominids

I'm not usually much for science fiction, but I loved Hominids. The concept of an alternative universe in which it is the Neanderthals who survived rather than Homo sapiens sapiens is incredibly clever. And Sawyer's assumption that, had they survived, Neanderthals would have, like us, evolved science, culture, and civilization makes perfect sense.

Sawyer spins a modern tale of Gulliver among the Lilliputians, a naïf who is both inspired and appalled by the good and bad in human civilization. I won't spoil the novel by giving too much away -- suffice it to say that the reader comes away re-evaluating much of society.

When someone who doesn't usually read SF likes a book this much, it's high praise, indeed.

Protagonist(s): Expert paleoanthropologist Mary Vaughan and physicist Ponter
Boddit
Setting: present-day Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
Series: #1 in a trilogy

I enjoyed Sawyer's End of an Era so much that I decided to try another of
his books, the Hugo Award winner, Hominids, which is the first in a trilogy.
Deep in a mine, physicist Ponter Boddit is working on a quantum computer
when an accident throws him into a parallel world--ours. In our world,
Neanderthals became extinct. In Boddit's world, the opposite is true. While
Boddit is being welcomed into our world, his partner, Adikor Huld, is being
charged with murder. The story jumps back and forth between the worlds. Huld
trying to defend himself while searching for his partner and friend. show more Boddit
coming to terms with an alien culture in a world that looks so
familiar...knowing that he will probably never be able to go home.

This book held me enthralled from almost the very first page. Sawyer once
again has done his homework on anything from quantum physics to mines to
neutrinos to Neanderthal physiology. He's developed an
entire world, an entire culture, for the Neanderthals, and it's fascinating!
Their language, how they tell time, their thoughts on the differences
between the sexes, religion, the crime rate. Sawyer gave me a lot of food
for thought and a hunger to read the other two books in this trilogy. I came
to know and care for the characters of both worlds. I love the way Sawyer's
mind works! show less

Hard to see how this won the Hugo. He's taken a great idea and turned it into a dull, cliched book. Basically, it's an update of "Brave New World". In our enlightened times the idea of the noble savage has been squashed (they killed off the mammoths, didn't they?), so Sawyer has replaced them with Neanderthal. These Neanderthals have the perfect Utopian society (although lacking a bit in privacy) so can preach on the evils of human civilization. This preaching, on the usual subjects of war, pollution, racism etc. has priority over a plot that is minimal and characters that are heavily stereotyped.
The science is not all that hot either. Nowhere is it explained how a small hunter gatherer population could create and sustain an advanced show more technological civilization. A 10% increase in brain capacity is not enough to account for the difference. Explaining the Big Bang away as mass differing over time does not explain the relative distribution of elements (H, He and Li) - inflation does. show less

Ponter Boddit is a theoretical physicist working with his professional and life partner--his man-mate--Adikor on a quantum computer, deep in the bowels of a nickel mine, when something goes horribly wrong and, from Adikor's perspective, Ponter disappears.

From Ponter's perspective, he's suddenly in a tankful of water in a large, dark room.

Ponter and Adikor are Neanderthals, from a world where H. sapiens sapiens died out, and H. sapiens neanderthalis survived to become the dominant species.

Now Ponter is stuck in our world, where he emerged into the heavy water tank of a neutrino detector deep in a nickel mine in northern Ontario. Reuben Montego, a medical doctor, and Mary Vaughn, a very distinguished geneticist who has done work on show more recovered Neanderthal DNA, are two of his major allies in this world, but he's facing a huge challenge, building a new life for himself, isolated from everything he's ever known. And since Neanderthal society is much lower-density, the total Neanderthal population much lower, and they never developed agriculture but instead have systemitized hunter-gatherer food collection and distribution, modern industrial civilization with a population in the billions, is very tough for him to quickly absorb.

Meanwhile, back home in the Neanderthal world, the woman-mate of Ponter's late woman-mate has accused Adikor of murdering Ponter. She's not deterred by the lack of a body; Adikor was the only person there when he disappeared, Adikor has a volatile temper, and Adikor, to her way of thinking, must have been jealous of Ponter's greater prominence in their shared profession.

Also, Adikor can't explain quantum physics in a way that makes sense to an adjudicator who was apparently never required to study any science.

There's a lot to like about this book. The science is interesting, though not as new and startling as it was in 2002, and the Neanderthal society is really, really interesting. And who can dislike a world where woolly mammoths still roam North America?

But I do have some problems with it, too.

I won't deal with Mary Vaughn's rape and its aftermath, as others have done that at some length.

It's more than a mite annoying that the contrast between our society and Ponter's is largely used as an opportunity for one-sided criticism of ours. H. sapiens hunted most of the megafauna to extinction. (This is no longer believed to be true.) H. sapiens wiped out H. neanderthalis. (This is no longer believed to be true, and with another decade of research, we now know there was interbreeding among Sapiens, Neanderthals, and Denisovans.) We still have violent crime. We do not successfully feed all of our very large population. We pollute the air. And, oh dear, we have religion.

What's interesting is that Ponter assumes without question that H. sapiens wiped out H. neanderthalis in our world, and H. sapiens wiped out H. sapiens in his world. It would seem that there's another possibility, especially since the means by which the Neanderthals have effectively culled violent behavior from their genome could not possibly have begun until they had advanced scientifically enough to reason out the genetics.

What's annoying is the discussion of religion between Ponter and Mary. Mary's a Catholic as well as a world-class geneticist, and might reasonably be expected to have a slightly more sophisticated understanding of religion. It's treated as an unquestionable fact that religious believers believe that religion, belief in God, is a necessary precursor of morality. That's a belief that is troublesome in many ways as well as demonstrably false. But having been raised Catholic myself, albeit in a different country than Mary was, I was taught that, on the contrary, the moral impulse comes first. "If anyone says "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar, because he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen." 1 John 4:20 (English Standard Version) In short, that the innate moral impulse is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for belief in God.

Robert J. Sawyer is a smart guy, and knows how to do research. Perhaps he didn't realize he needed to do research on this. Certainly, if he had incorporated this view of the relationship between religion and morality, as taught by the religion Mary is said to believe in, it would have made Mary's position in that discussion rather stronger--perhaps uncomfortably so, for the agenda Mr. Sawyer seems to have been pursuing.

Now, it's not that he portrays the Neanderthals as perfect. By no means. It's just that Neanderthal failings seem to be matters of individual character, while Sapiens failings are shown as systemic and pervasive, despite the fine characters of Ponter's friends in this universe.

I think the ideological blinders do weaken the story and the book overall, but I like Ponter, Adikor, and their friends on both sides of the portal, and overall I enjoyed the book.

Recommended with reservations. show less

Reading Sawyer’s first book in his Neanderthal trilogy, I was struck by how simple a read it was. He did not get into a super-pretentiousness when he would do a little world-building. His descriptions of the Neanderthal alternate-Earth were in some ways veiled criticisms of our judicial system (in their world, you’re guilty until proven innocent) and lack of privacy (everyone has a computer, a Companion, grafted to them when they are recently born) as all your actions are recorded at a central database.

The other Earth, us, is a recent future where a Canadian company, INCO, is doing heavy water experiments in an old mine, cleaned up and rocking with a few goofy, cardboard-cut-out scientists.

The main character in our Earth is Mary, show more whom Sawyer creates as a sympathetic character by having her raped. Sorry but I thought this was unnecessary and graphic. I think the reader could have had some sympathy for her without her being violated. Further, we hear nothing more about the rapist for the rest of the book! What happened to him?

Despite this tragic scene, nothing is made much of it. Mary is nervous around men but that’s about it. When Ponter, the Neanderthal scientist, gets sucked into our world, Mary becomes infatuated with him. A touching scene at the end of the novel wraps that up a bit.

A third of the book is dedicated toward the trial of Ponter’s best friend, who is being tried for the supposed murder of Ponter, since Ponter disappeared and the idea of falling into an alternate Earth is just beyond anyone’s reality.

Last Thoughts: Decent pacing, good science. Love how the media is portrayed as a bunch of wolves after a story (same in the Neanderthal world – called Exhibitionists!). The relationship between Mary and Ponter could have been better explored, as well as further developing the scientist Louise and her new boyfriend.

So far I’m reaching for the next in the trilogy, “Human.” show less

Hominids is an interesting spin on utopian science-fiction, with a keen attention to detail. In a parallel universe, neanderthals have become the dominant hominid species. Two neanderthals physicists are working on a quantum computer when they accidentally open a portal to our planet. One of them is sucked through, and arrives in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. The plot continues along two arcs, revealing differences between the two species. Pontor, "our" neanderthal, learns English with the help of his computer and a small group of Canadian scientists, while the world does a very realistic flip out. In the other universe, Adikor, Pontor's partner is accused of murder, and has to clear his name through a very unusual justice show more system.

The most interesting parts are those relating to the neanderthals. They're a utopian society, high-tech but still ecologically sustainable, with little violence and social crime. Men and women are mostly segregated in different parts of the city, coming together for a monthly sexual holiday that is only set to a fertile period every 10 years. Elders make the key political decisions, and public safety enforced by a system of private and voluntary recordings. The 'Omelass moment' is that violence has been eliminated by brutal culling. Anyone 50% related to a murder (parents, siblings, children) is sterilized, and over time the propensity for violence has been mostly bred out of neanderthals. Over all, though, neanderthal society is peaceful and rational, a blend of biological basis and cultural aspirations, and almost irritating perfect.

The Canadian B plot is less interesting, mostly because contemporary Canadian society is the opposite of exotic. Characters are rational scientists, Sawyer has done his research on neanderthals and quantum physics, and the interludes about how the press and the world see the visitor from another universe as proof of their prejudices seems about right. I'm not knowledgeable enough about physics to have an opinion about Copenhagen vs. Many Worlds Interpretations, but Sawyer does, and the cosmology of consciousness drives this book. The Canadian characters were (for quiet professionals) pleasantly diverse: Anglo, French, Jamaican, Indian. I enjoyed the budding romance between Pontor and viewpoint Canadian geneticist Mary Vaughn.

Mary's story is the turd in the punch-bowl, however. We're introduced to her with a rape by an unknown assailant, and her difficulty dealing with it due to the patriarchy and Catholic guilt. It's realistic and treated with appropriate gravity, but also entirely gratuitous. show less

Hominids is an extremely well-written novel. It tells the story of a Neanderthal physicist living in an alternate timeline where humans, not Neanderthals, went extinct. The Neanderthal physicist, while working on a quantum computing experiment, is accidentally transported to an alternate universe, our universe. The novel then splits into two stories. The story of the Neanderthal's friend at home who is trying to retrieve the lost Neanderthal while fending off an accusation of murder against his friend. And the story of the Neanderthal and his interactions with humanity. Sawyer is a brilliant writer, and the book was never dull. The trial of Adikor, the Neanderthal's friend, was especially gripping. So much so that I often skipped ahead show more to read more of the trial before going back. But it was all well-paced, well-characterized reading.

It was also pure nonsense. I'm no scientist, and I have no doubt that Sawyer had basis for all of his ideas in this novel. Normally, I wouldn't question the science in a book, because perfect accuracy is not the point of science fiction. But midway through the book it was painfully obvious what Sawyer was doing. The Neanderthal, Ponter, became a mouthpiece for everything Sawyer doesn't like about modern human culture. The Neanderthals were not a realistic society with flaws and strengths, they were the culmination of what humans could be, in Sawyer's mind at least. The criminal justice system, religion, the media, even some aspects of the scientific community are his targets. Sometimes with justification, but never with nuance. The Neanderthal society is presented as almost perfect, due to a combination of culture and technology. They are at one with their surroundings, have no religion, and little crime thanks to unhackable surveillance devices. Logically of course all systems have a weakness, and Sawyer has clearly never read 1984 but then again, Neanderthals are just that great.

Sawyer throws humanity a few bones. Our fundamental violence and competitiveness did allow us to go to the Moon. But that's about the only thing we can do better than our cousins and even that we screwed up. It's ridiculous, not because humanity is portrayed negatively. I'm all for pointing out our flaws. But because the Neanderthal society is portrayed as so utopian. What few flaws he identifies in their society are minor and I'm not sure were intentional. They practice eugenics, castration, and 24 hour surveillance, but Sawyer makes sure to balance that with the very emotional inclusion of a female scientist who is brutally raped, so you see that all that terrible stuff would actually make society better. Yes, at one point we see a Neanderthal who is driven to grief by unfair aspects of their society, but Sawyer clearly is advocating the Neanderthal approach to crime stopping.

What makes this worse is the scientific certitude with which Sawyer writes. It's a fictional book and he doesn't claim otherwise. But he does have sources at the end of his novel, which lead you to believe a lot of the extrapolations he is making are justified scientifically, when they are not. Does not finding any evidence of ritual burial mean Neanderthals didn't have religion? Is there any solid evidence Neanderthals had any more respect for the environment than humans? Etc. I say no. I say we can put pretty much any face we want on Neanderthal culture because we will never know what they were really like. There may or may not be evidence for some of Sawyer's claims. But to have a society be so idealistic is just not believable. All societies have flaws, major flaws, not the minor foibles of these Neanderthals. You can, in fact, present a superior society that shows humanities faults without the pie in the sky version of Neanderthals.

I could forgive a lot about this book if it weren't so heavy handed. Sawyer spends so much time explaining why humans are bad and neanderthals are good that he forgets about the story. It turns out that it takes about five minutes to bring our friend Ponter home. Buried in this are some actually interesting quantum ideas about the way consciousness may or may not affect the universe. But even these are ruined by the cheap why they are used to further the rushed ending. So what did we learn? What changes were made in the characters and in the societies? For me, not much. It all felt very empty.

Sawyer is a better writer than that. I've never read a book that was so interesting and well-paced, that left me feeling so disappointed.

By the way, humans also hunted Neanderthals to extinction, as well as all mega-fauna on the planet. Climate changes played no role in any of it. show less