Humans: Volume Two of the Neanderthal Parallax (Neanderthal Parallax, 2) (N)

neanderthal Physicist Ponder Boddit, A Character You Will Never Forget, Returns To Our World And To His Relationship With Geneticist Mary Vaughn, In This Sequel To hominids, Winner Of The Hugo Award For Best Novel, As Cultural Exchanges Between The Two Earths Begin.robert J. Sawyer, An Award-winning And Bestselling Writer, Hits The Peak Of His Powers In This Trilogy About Our World And A Parallel One In Which Neanderthals Became The Dominant Intelligent Species. This Powerful Idea Allows Sawyer To Examine Some Of The Deep-rooted Assumptions Of Contemporary Human Civilization, By Confronting Us With Another Civilization, Just As Morally Valid, That Made Other Choices. As We See Daily Life In A Present-day World That Is Radically Different From Ours, We Experience The Bursts Of Wonder And Enlightenment That Are The Finest Pleasures Of Science Fiction.publishers Weeklyin This Solid Sequel To Hominids (2002), The Much-praised First Volume In Sawyer's Neanderthal Parallax Trilogy, Which Introduced An Alternate Earth Where For Reasons Unknown Our Species, Homo Sapiens, Went Extinct And Neanderthals Flourished, Neanderthal Physicist Ponder 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 High 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. Much Of The Novel Is Devoted To Either The Discussion Of Ideas Such As These Or To Boddit And Vaughan's Developing Love Affair. Sawyer Keeps Things Moving By Throwing In An Attempted Assassination, His Protagonists' Confrontation With A Rapist And, On A Larger Scale, The Growing Danger Of What Appears To Be The Imminent Reversal Of Earth's Magnetic Field. As The Middle Volume In A Trilogy, This Book Doesn't Entirely Stand On Its Own, But It Is Extremely Well Done. When Complete, The Neanderthal Parallax Should Add Significantly To Sawyer's Reputation. (feb. 26) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.