A review by professorfate
Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer

4.0

This series was in my to-be-read mountain and I wasn't going to get to it for a while. I got it because I loved Sawyer's "WWW" trilogy and wanted to read more. Mom was taking a class on Coursera on the history of humanity, and the first few lectures talked about Neanderthal man. I showed her these books, remembering that they dealt with Neanderthal, and she read them (perhaps "devoured" is the more correct work). Mom is not big into science-fiction, and the fact that she read and loved all three books, I think, says more about how good the book is than anything I can say.

So as not to give too much away, the basic premise is that there is a parallel universe where Neanderthal became the dominant species of man and not Homo sapiens. Through an accident, a Neanderthal physicist is transported into our world.

There is more to this book (and it is open to the next book in the series), but I think this is one of those books where it is best to leave the reader to discover all of the ideas that Mr. Sawyer explores. I have always been a fan of alternate histories, and this book will join many of my Harry Turtledoves on the shelf.