Neanderthal

7/10
Page-turner with enough science to be plausible, enough romance to have an emotional side, and enough twists and turns to keep me guessing.

With all the hard-to-believe events in this book, only one was absolutely unbelievable. See spoiler below.

SPOILER ALERT:

I just can't believe these highly competent, highly competitive scientists, would throw away all there notes, sketches, etc. Just don't buy it.

If you are willing to suspend belief, this is an interesting 'what if' book about the possibility of Neanderthals having survived in small communities in very remote places, and also having the power of telepathy. I think I could have done without the whole 'secret agency with potentially nefarious purposes' side plot - on one hand it added some action to the book, but I also didn't feel like it was well resolved. I think the relationship between the main characters also could have been developed a little better. But overall, for a quick sci-fi read, it wasn't bad.

I love anything about Neanderthals, it amazes me that they co-existed with us as little as 30,000 years ago. This book is pretty interesting, a very science-fictional premise (Neanderthals with ESP) marred by no thought whatsoever about the physical mechanism for it, and a "closed-loop" ending that returns everything in the outside world to the way it was before the novel began.

Anthropology fans will love this book. It was a bit long in descriptions but overall a very good read.

I was excited about this book when I first picked it up in a bargain bin. I love anthropology and science fiction and this seemed like a nice mix of the two. Unfortunately, the story never really develops that "can't put it down" momentum. I found myself frequently bored and often knew exactly where the story was going long before it got there. In the end, there was nothing special about the story nor did it really entertain me.

This was a good read but it wasn't as thrilling as I had hoped and many of the characters were a stretch to say the least. Parts of the plotline were clichéd and the twists, which were supposed to be thrilling, were of the typical variety which have been done to death. Read the book, but don't hold out high expectations.

I enjoyed this book more than Darnton's later books. The premise required a leap of faith, but after that, this was a page turner. The science was intriguing, but basic enough.

It scared the daylights out of me.