Hominids Neanderthal Parallax 01

2003 Hugo Award for Best Novel

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.

Ponters 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?

Robert J. Sawyer is the Nebula Award–winning author of The Terminal Experiment. He lives in a suburb of Toronto, Ontario.

“Sawyer is a writer of boundless confidence and bold scientific extrapolation.”—The New York Times

“A rapidly plotted, anthropologically saturated speculative novel . . . [with] Sawyer-signature wide appeal.” -The Globe & Mail

“Hominids takes sophisticated paleoanthropological data, cutting-edge theoretical physics, and characters that will warm your heart; and mixes then into a charming, witty, and provocative novel. Hominids is anthropological fiction as its best.” - W. Michael Gear & Kathleen ONeal Gear, authors of Raising Abel

Hominids, the first book of the Neanderthal Parallax, is a story of parallel worlds: our own, anti another in which neanderthals, not homo sapiens, became the dominant species. During a risky physics experiment deep in a Canadian mine, a neanderthal physicist, Peter Boddit, is accidentally transferred to our universe, where another experiment is taking place in the same mine. He is captured and studied, alone and bewildered.

Back home, Peter's research partner is left with a messy lab, a missing body, suspicious people all around, and a murder trial that he can't possibly win because he doesn't know what happened. When luck, curiosity, imagination and inventiveness combine to save the day, it's not the end at all but a new beginning, with two worlds eager to learn more about what links them and what holds them apart.

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.

Ponters 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?  Hominids is the winner of the 2003 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Robert J. Sawyer is the author of Flashforward, winner of the Aurora Award and the basis for the hit ABC television series. He is also the author of the WWW series—Wake, Watch and Wonder—Mindscan, Calculating God, and many other books. He has won the Hugo, Nebula and John W. Campbell Memorial awards—making him one of only seven writers in history to win all three of science-fictions top awards for best novel. He was born in Ottawa and lives in Mississauga, Ontario.