Hominids – Robert J Sawyer

Louise Benoît is a physicist working on neutrino research in the bowels of a nickel mine in Canada – its depth from the surfacing and the shielding offered by heavy rock, allow observations that would not be possible elsewhere. The computer monitoring the heavy water tank where the experiment is being conducted pings every time a neutrino enters it. When the computer begins lighting up and pinging non-stop it’s obvious that something’s gone wrong, but she could never have expected to find an unconscious man in the tank – the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory is secure, monitored, and two kilometres below the surface of the earth.
While her assistant calls for help, Louise dives into the tank, and rescues the heavy-set man. Her surprise at his presence is outweighed by the shock of his appearance – hospital radiology studies confirm that he is a Neanderthal. Rather than having been brought back from the past, some 40,000 years ago, Ponter Boddit is a physicist from an alternative earth, one where it is we who died and out and an alternate hominid species survived.
Neanderthal society is significantly different from ours – a smaller population, no reliance of fossil fuels, and different approaches to any number of things, from the colour for danger to what constitutes a ‘normal’ relationship. One of the most significant things that set the Neanderthals apart is that there is not (and never has been) religious faith. Without the concept of God, sin, and eternal life, the Neanderthal society has embraced the installation of companions, miniature computers implanted in the wrist that monitor all individuals. Other people can only access one’s memory cube by the authority of the Neanderthal equivalent of a court order.
The novel switches between what’s happening on our earth, with Ponter learning about a wholly alien way of life, and what’s happening on his earth in his absence. Unfortunately, due to the depth of the cave, there is no memory cube recording of what happened to Ponter, and his partner is charged with his murder, a truly unique event in a world where all is recorded.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the first instalment in the second trilogy (the first, the unrelated Quintaglio trilogy, involves sentient saurians and will be reviewed at some point) by one of my favourite authors, a rare see-and-buy. Sawyer has a beautiful ability to explore truly alien mindsets, mix reality-rooted science with imagination, and create vivid characters who are coherent and multi-layered. - Alex