[lemming]

Well, I just read Hominids for the book club and it got me thinking about the other books I have on my shelf that deal primarily with Neanderthals... and that got me thinking about the fact that I like almost all of them. I guess I like Neanderthals. So here are the books I know about:

The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel--set in prehistoric times when Cro-magnons and Neanderthals coexisted (and didn't like each other much). Chronicles the life of a Cro-magnon girl being raised by Neanderthals. Marketed as historical fiction, I really find it pretty SF-ish in its speculation about Neanderthal society, intelligence, culture and so forth. It's much better than the rest of the series it's a part of.

The Fifth Child and Ben, in the World by Doris Lessing--these chronicle the life of a rather beastly little boy born into an otherwise happy family in the present day. While the word Neanderthal is never used, that is pretty much what he is, and the characters in the books have their suspicions. These are sad books, and will definitely scare you off of trying for that fifth child if you're a parent. :( They're well-written though. The first is better than the second.

Ember from the Sun by Mark Canter--set in the present day when a scientist discovers a miraculously preserved Neanderthal fetus and manages to implant it in a human woman. The resultant girl, Ember, is raised without knowing what she is (except she knows she's really really good at sports). A sweet book with a good main character and a touching ending.

The Ugly Little Boy by Asimov and Silverberg--tells what happens when a little Neanderthal boy is snatched through time to, I think, the fairly near future, and kept for a while in an isolated time-bubble. More concerned with ethical issues than exploring Neanderthals and their culture, though there is more of that than in the short story the book is an expansion of.

Hominids by Robert Sawyer--set in the present day, the plot kicks off when a Neanderthal scientist from an alternate universe stumbles over into ours. (In that universe our race was called Gilskins, and we died out.) The author has fun exploring the differences between our culture and theirs.

Any thoughts on any of these? What else is out there that I don't know about?

[Hobbit]

Wasn't Poul Anderson's book 'Genesis' related? I remember the cover quite well.

There's Stephen Baxter's Mammoth series (Silverhair, Long Tusk and Icebones) though, as the name suggests, there are more about mammoths and their relationship with Neanderthals, rather than the other way round. The last one is rather like Jurassic Park on Mars....

Philip Jose Farmer's 'Riverworld' books had a Neanderthal character in. (Wasn't he called 'Og'? :) )

Should I also mention 2001 here? :)

On the books you've mentioned, I found Jean Auel's very slow going. I did enjoy the Asimov/Silverberg book, though it was more Silverberg's work in this form, if I remember right. I welcomed the expansion of Asimov's original story though I think the short story had more emotional impact.

There was a great series of short stories (or a novella?) in Analog in the early eighties that I remember, though not the author or the title.. Had a cover though, if I remember right. I'll think more on that for you.

(LATER EDIT - Just been down to the vaults... The story was Which Way to the Ends of Time? by Michael McCollum. Don't remember anything about the story, but for the fact that it was the cover story for the August 1981 edition of Analog, drawn by Wayne Barlow. Neanderthal in a space suit! :) )

Hobbit

[emohawk]

Not precisely Neaderthals, but Michael Bishop's Nebula award winning novel No Enemy But Time deals with a time travelling palaeontologist and a pre-human species called Homo Habilis. Definately worth checking out if you're interested in pre-humans and their culture.

[FicusFan]

There is also a book called Neanderthal by John Darnton I think. I will have to check on amazon. Anyway it is a story that posits that in a lost, remote valley in central asia two groups of Neanderthals are found to be living. They are in conflict and there is also a secret government conspiracy. The parts set in the two Neanderthal cultures are interesting. He also includes a bibliography of Non-Fiction books on the subject at the end of the book.

[nicba]

Neverness by David Zindell - Far in the future a group of humans has elected to live as Neanderthals and gene-crafted their bodies back into a Neanderthal form.

Although the main characters doesn't belong to the Neanderthal group, and the plot really isn't so much about the Neanderthals themselves, I seem to remember that a relative large part of the book was taken up by the description of life among these "neo-Neanderthals".

I don't know if the book will fit your criteria, but it was the only one I could think of. I liked the book well enough, although it was quite a bit 'darker' and more gritty than what I normally prefer.

/Nicolai

[Hobbit]

Thanks, Nicba - I was trying to remember that one, but couldn't remember. All's clear now......

Hobbit

[FicusFan]

Ancient of Days also by Michael Bishop is about a naked male Homo Habilis found hiding in a pecan tree by a women in a small Georgia town. Great openning. The story is the habiline's attempt to fit into modern society, and how he may actually have more humanity than his modern cousins.

[confused]

I'm afraid neither of these are strictly related, but here's my two cents worth, anyway :
1. doesn't Darwin's Radio deal with neaderthals ? although I don't know if it really describes them particularly well.
2. there's a short story that I read some time ago, and I'm afraid I've no idea who the author was. The premise was that a scientist and a female assistant were tranmitted into the bodies of apes in order to study their interaction. This was meant to be a scientific investigation, but a conspiracy resulted in both of them being dumped in those bodies permanently. To get back to their own bodies, they had to fight some sort of carnivores. The descriptions of ape interaction, and the way in which the characters controlled the animals, were both quite good.

[Hobbit]

Darwin's Radio starts with the discovery of a Neanderthal body stuck in Alpine glacier ice, which leads to the scientific hypothesis that there are 'growth spurts' in evolution.

So yes, there is a Neanderthal, but it is not really central to the whole story, which is more about evolution.

Scary book though - I remember reading this as scientific research companies said in real life that they had unlocked the gene and were selling key aspects of its nature to medical companies - just like in the book!

Hobbit

[FicusFan]

Originally posted by Hobbit
Darwin's Radio starts with the discovery of a Neanderthal body stuck in Alpine glacier ice, which leads to the scientific hypothesis that there are 'growth spurts' in evolution.

So yes, there is a Neanderthal, but it is not really central to the whole story, which is more about evolution.

Hobbit

I was so happy when I read the start of the book. I was hoping it was going to be a fictional work that would be investigating an 'Otzie' type find. Boy was I wrong. I was very bummed when they disappeared never to return. For me it never quite recovered from losing the neanderthals. I have no interest in the sequel.