Hominids

The Neanderthal Parallax, Book 1

By: Robert J. Sawyer

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Robert J. Sawyer

Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Neanderthals have developed a radically different civilization on a parallel Earth. A Neanderthal physicist, Ponter Boddit, accidentally passes from his universe into a Canadian underground research facility. Fortunately, a team of human scientists, including expert paleo-anthropologist Mary Vaughan, promptly identifies and warmly receives Ponter. Solving the language problem and much else is a mini-computer, called a Companion, implanted in the brain of every Neanderthal. A computerized guardian spirit, however, doesn't eliminate cross-cultural confusion; permanent male-female sexuality, rape, and overpopulation are all alien to Ponter. Nor can it help his housemate and fellow scientist back in his world, Adikor Huld, when the authorities charge Adikor with his murder.

BONUS AUDIO: Author Robert J. Sawyer explains why Ponter Boddit is his favorite among all the characters he's created.

Hunt and gather: listen to more in the Neanderthal Parallax trilogy.

©2002 by Robert J. Sawyer (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Hugo Award Winner, Best Novel, 2003

"Sawyer is a writer of boundless confidence and bold scientific extrapolation." (The New York Times)

Captivating

loved it! kept me interested the entire listen. Great story. well thought out and a real pleasure .

Interesting Science Ideas

Liked the quantum physics and quantum biology ideas. Consciousness tied to quantum biology. Sorry to say there is lots that still is unexplained by science. Thankfully the story is interesting and easy to follow re Neanderthal genes (maybe a bit more bonobo) versus cromagnon.

It's OK.

I don't know about this one. It's interesting from a data gathering point of view, but the story difficult in parts. I actually sped up the playback speed to 2x about halfway through.

Awesome!

Seriously! Freaking awesome! I can totally understand why it won a Hugo award. I would have driveway moments just as I got home from work listening to the book in my parked car. It is a good sci-fi book because it focuses on the characters and their interaction to the technology. The sci-fi part itself is spectacular and raises a bunch of what-if questions. It is the kinda sci-fi where it seems like it could almost happen, that it is not so much of a stretch. Another great thing about it, is that the storyline is episodic, so you almost get several stories at once. My next Audible purchase is going to be the next book in this series. I might actually put this up there with Ender's Game, and Starship Troopers, as one of my favorite books.

Great premise, good story, decent reading

I really liked the premise of this book and thought that the story was told well although there were a few passages that seemed forced. The reading was fine, the Jamaican accent sounded more Scottish or Irish to me, but what does this American know about accents! I didn't like the intro by the author, it was self-congratulatory and also seemed like he was trying to sell me a book I'd already bought. Then the first 5 minutes of the reading were about how the author's decision on which spelling of Neanderthal to use. Start playback at 7:29 and you won't miss a thing from the story.

A great book from Robert J. Sawyer

This is one of those books that really makes you stop and look at how we fit into the overall picture. I LOVE these types of books. You may, or may not agree with Sawyer's take on humanity, but it really makes you step back and evaluate where the human race is, and where we are going...

Jonathan Davis was a treat to listen to as well. Well done!

Very Interesting.

I now have listened to two of Sawyer's novels. Calculating God and Hominids. Both are extremely entertaining and well worth the credits and/or price. I have not been a fan of science fiction before listening to these books and now I am.

Jonathan Davis narrates both and does a excellent performance.

Another Great Story by Sawyer

Two nuclear physicists have a breakthrough in the design of a quantum computer, only in doing so, they create an openning into a parallel world, only the physicists are neanderthals and one of them gets sucked into our world.

An incredible story is used to draw interesting and well educated comparisons between humans and what neanderthals could have been like. It's not great science fiction... Instead, it's great science... and great fiction.... and a little bit of a mystery.

One of my all-time favorites!

I loved Robert J Sawyer's Parallex Series (there are 3 books in the series) so much, I've listened to it twice! Using a parallel universe, Sawyer sets the stage whereby he can compare the current state of the universe with a more ideal one of his own creation. And I would love to live in the world Sawyer’s created, along with Ponder Bondit – the Neanderthal that travels between the two universes – with a “Companion” implanted in my arm (a prescient take and extrapolation on today’s smart phone mini-computers).

I’ve listened to a lot of interviews with Robert J. Sawyer, and read quite a bit about his views and philosophies, and find many of his interesting ideas coalescing in The Neaderthal Parallax trilogy. For example, I read somewhere that Sawyer does not believe in citizen privacy. He reasons that if citizens are behaving legally then they have nothing to hide. When you think about it, this makes a lot of sense. If you’re not shirking your responsibilities to family, paying your taxes, and not causing anyone any harm, then what do you really have to hide? (Face it, everyone in government is an adult that knows that everyone else masturbates too; so what else is there to be shy about? And I can’t see a good government being interested in outing its citizens for perfectly normal biological behavior? Can you?) So it’s these sorts of ideas, along with a myriad of others, that flesh-out Sawyer’s parallel universe.

If you like science fiction (or speculative fiction, as Margret Atwood calls it) do yourself a favour and listen to: Homids: The Neaderthal Parallax, Book One, today. You’ll be glad you have two more books in the series to look forward to!

PS I love the Canadian-like multi-cultural characters that people this series. I think they truly represent 21st century Canadian cultural mores.

A very intriguing read!!!!!!

The premise behind this book grabbed me as soon as I read the book description. A Neanderthal physicist named Ponter Boddit and his partner from an alternate universe where Neanderthals rather than humans became the dominant civilization on Earth, had opened a portal to our universe at our present time, and Ponter became trapped in our universe.

He as well as Human physicists and geneticists in our universe got to know one another, and were able to figure out communication with some help from Neanderthal technology and had shared cultures with one another, explained differences between the species, and their differing beliefs in life after death, technological discoveries, and other things.

I won't give away much more of the plot, other than to say this is a very intriguing read hitting deeply on subjects such as physics, religion, quantum theory, gender relations, and what it means to be human and how we possibly came to believe as we as humans have since we developed true consciousness.

A solid 5 out of 5 star read, a Hugo Award winning novel, and I'll be starting the next book in the series now!!!