Humans

The Neanderthal Parallax, Book 2

By: Robert J. Sawyer

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Robert J. Sawyer

Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

In this Hugo-nominated novel, Neanderthal physicist Ponter Boddit brings Canadian geneticist Mary Vaughan back to his world to explore the near-utopian civilization of the Neanderthals. Boddit serves as a Candide figure, the naive visitor whose ignorance about our society makes him a perfect tool to analyze human tendencies toward violence, over-population, and environmental degradation. The Neanderthals have developed a highly artistic, ethical, and scientific culture without ever inventing farming - they're still hunters and gatherers - and this allows the author to make some interesting and generally unrecognized points about the downside of the discovery of agriculture.

BONUS AUDIO: Author Robert J. Sawyer explains why one particular chapter of Humans is his very favorite.

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

©2003 by Robert J. Sawyer (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

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

Missed the Mark

Sadly Mr. Sawyer completely misunderstood what made volume one of his series excellent. I say sadly because volume one did not try to feed opinions down the reader's throat but instead presented two civilizations each of which was equally flawed, and most importantly Mr. Sawyer did not make it obvious what their flaws were. He didn't tell me what to think; he let me decide. Book one was quite simply good science fiction; it made its point by creating likable characters and creating a plot written for adults.

Book 2 of the series, Humans, lacks everything the first had. As I listened to the audio book I was tortured by long periods of time where I felt the author was insulting my intelligence, and the times he wasn't insulting he was quite simply boring. And gosh almighty he made the heroine a stupid dimwit in book two. Also, if I wanted to listen to long sermons on atheism I'd rather listen to more eloquent authors such as Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion. Mr. Sawyer can't even preach to the choir convincingly.

Book one compared fictional society with specific people; and book two tried to tell me stuff about human society that made me feel it was being told by a thirteen year old who thought I would be shocked because he was shocked, but instead bored me to misery.

Worst of all for the author he had an introduction to the audio book where he told me that this book two was his best book he ever wrote and that it had the best sex scene in science fiction. First nobody should tell me what to think of a book before I read it, and second only a fool would try to sell his book saying it had a good sex scene.

And as someone who's been reading science fiction for at least three decades I'd have to say this book had the most boring and immaturely told sex scene I've ever read.

Audible.com has delighted me with wonderful trilogies such as Hyperion, Ender's Game and more. But for Hominids I do wish I'd have stopped after book one.

Very disappointing

I tried very hard to like this book. I so loved the premise and the whole idea of the two parallel universes. I was excited to read it and see which direction it took, after the first book established the whole situation so well. So it took me a long time to admit that the author was actually just using the book as a thinly veiled opportunity to expound his personal opinion. At length. The whole book just turned into a sequence of dialogues, which were really monologues, about issues of the day. If Robert Sawyer had written a book of essays to express his personal opinion, it would have been a more honest presentation of his views than using his characters to say it for them. I know that authors express their personal opinions in their books, but it is possible to do so with more finesse and an actual story line than was done in this book.

Runs Out of Steam

Book one was entertaining but, book two mostly drags on with a tiresome exploration of religion and sentimenal reasons to believe in life after death. It is true that huntergatherers had lots of time on their hands but, the author is unable to convince me that they had any incentive to develop an iorn age or advanced technologies. I'm stopping at book 2 after reading the reviews by other readers.

A platform for hostility

Sawyer took a concept that had potential for an intriguing story, then butchered it by devoting the whole series to attacking any faith system other than atheism. While the series was intended to be a platform for social commentary, it doesn't really have anything to say other than the world would be a better place if we had technologies that don't exist, men took no hand in child rearing and just stayed away from women and children, and that all would be just butterflies and lollipops if we did no homework into religion, blamed all our problems on it, and turned to the guiding light of atheism for moral clarity. Really, he could have covered that in a pamphlet. Going through that over and over in a trilogy was painful. Save yourself the frustration. AVOID THIS SERIES.

Slog through it for the revenge payoff.

I definitely enjoyed the first book, Hominids. It was hard sci-fi mixed with emotionally engaging mystery.

This book and the attached prologue for the third book have thoroughly convinced me to stop right here.

This second book has me wondering if Sawyer is a bit like Orson Scott Card. Card's stand-alone novels and first novels in a series tend to be very strong, with interesting premises and robust philosophical explorations. They almost invariably and rapidly devolve into preachy soap operas the moment the first book ends. This seems to be the case with "Humans". Quite a disappointment after such and excellent first book.