Hominids
From back cover Tor paperback February 2003: Hominids examines two unique species of people. We are one of those species; the other is the Neanderthals of a parallel world where they became the dominant intelligence. The Neanderthal civilization has reached heights of culture and science comparable to our own, but with radically different history, society and philosophy. Ponter Boddit, a Neanderthal physicist, accidentally pierces the barrier between worlds and is transferred to our universe. Almost immediately recognized as a Neanderthal, but only much later as a scientist, he is quarantined and studied, alone and bewildered, a stranger in a strange land. But Ponter is also befriended -- by a doctor and a physicist who share his questing intelligence, and especially by Canadian geneticist Mary Vaughan, a woman with whom he develops a special rapport. Ponter's partner, Adikor Huld, finds himself with a messy lab, a missing body, suspicious people all around and an explosive murder trial. How can he possibly prove his innocence when he has no idea what actually happened to Ponter?
Stats for nerds
2recommend
4mentions
4people
2012–2026years
50% recommend25% neutral25% critical
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What Hacker News says
- You might enjoy Hominids by Robert Sawyer
- Seconding Barsk, and just about anything by Robert Sawyer; I would recommend his Neanderthal Parallax series, which begins with Hominids: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/264946.Hominids
- Wow, I hadn't heard about the fraud in 2024, which I looked up in response to your comment. That's troubling to say the least.
Bias, though, is going to be inevitable and the Hugos are going to represent the taste of the Worldcon voters. It seems like overall there's been a happy confluence for awhile now between their taste and general sf taste.
I've discovered three of my favorite contemporary sf authors through recent Hugos: Ann Leckie, Arkady Martine, and Tamsyn Muir. I've read other recent nominees where I was unmoved or even questioned their inclusion.
I've also read a decent selection of historical winners, by no means exhaustive or even the majority, and the worst was without a doubt Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer.
- There seems to be a general misunderstanding of what quantum computers are capable of in the public mind, or at least that slice of it that is even aware of quantum computers' existence. I was just reading Hominids by Robert J Sawyer and it involves a quantum computer. He describes how it 'checks every possible answer simultaneously' to find the prime factors of a number instantaneously...which of course is not how Shor's algorithm actually works.
