Helpful Score: 1
This 3rd book helps clear up some things that were left hanging in book 1. I think this story would be better as a single novel with much of book 2 omitted.
Helpful Score: 1
gotta love ponter.
Helpful Score: 1
A great conclusion to the trilogy. I was not prepared for the ending.
Helpful Score: 1
Best of the series, ended very well.
Final book in the Neanderthal Parallax trilogy. Each book opens immediately following the previous one, with no intervening time or events. So they really need to be read in sequence. In general, this series isn't RJS's best work (check out "Calculating God"), but he wraps up the story lines well, while introducing a few new sub-plots.
The final book of the trilogy, and certainly the weakest in my opinion. In far too many places this is less a work of fiction than an ideological treatise wrapped in fiction, and not a good job of packaging. Issues were belabored far too long and rather condescendingly far too often. The main character, Mary Vaughan, seemed to be slow witted for someone who is supposed to be a world renowned scientist, taking an extremely long time to figure out basics of the Neanderthal society (and sometimes having them explained very slowly and repeatedly) that are obvious to a reader paying even moderate attention.
If you fell in love with the earlier books, then naturally you will want to read the final one. But if you thought they were only okay, then you can skip this one and probably not miss anything.
If you fell in love with the earlier books, then naturally you will want to read the final one. But if you thought they were only okay, then you can skip this one and probably not miss anything.
Sequel to Hominids - a must-read
In this concluding volume of the trilogy, the improbable love story between Neanderthal Ponter Boddit and human Mary Vaughn comes to its fruition. Some of the events are fantastic and improbable, but Sawyer handles the pace well. A great ending and a satisfying read.
I am glad to have come to the end of the series. While I was glad to see that there were some problems pointed out in the culture of the Neanderthals (finally)I was still left with the feeling that I was being soundly critisized for being a white male. I learned a long time ago that reading fiction about things that I know about can lead to frustration and this book only reenforced that. It was an okay set of books but no better than that. If you have spent much time in nature at all or have ever tried to live off the grid you will see the Neanderthal world as hopelessly utopion and unworkable. If not you will be left wondering if the you shouldn't feel deep guilt everyday for your life. Fiction is fiction but there has to be enough fact in the scenes to make them believable. This story falls far short of that.
The third book of the Neanderthal trilogy, and while it's not necessarily a let-down from the earlier novels, it does suffer greatly from a kind of "why are we complaining, again?" overbearing feeling.
This whole trilogy has had, as an undercurrent, a comparison between modern North American culture and an idyllic, unpolluted, nearly-communist, pan-surveillance state. And that comparison comes rushing to the fore here. To such a state as to become obnoxious.
The story stays quick and easy to read; the main characters seem reasonable (though the villain is stiff); and so from that standpoint, this is great escapist literature. But that grass-is-greener vibe grates on my nerves as the novel progresses.
Ultimately, that's what lowers the score. 3 of 5.
This whole trilogy has had, as an undercurrent, a comparison between modern North American culture and an idyllic, unpolluted, nearly-communist, pan-surveillance state. And that comparison comes rushing to the fore here. To such a state as to become obnoxious.
The story stays quick and easy to read; the main characters seem reasonable (though the villain is stiff); and so from that standpoint, this is great escapist literature. But that grass-is-greener vibe grates on my nerves as the novel progresses.
Ultimately, that's what lowers the score. 3 of 5.
Not nearly as good as the first two. It got to be a little preachy towards the end, but the series as a whole is great.
Some of the events are fantastic and improbable, but Sawyer handles the pace well. A great ending and a satisfying read.
