SOJALS rating:

Awful (1/5)

I first read this on the 27th January 2004.

This is the second volume of Robert Sawyer's trilogy. In the first, "Hominids". the neanderthal scientist Ponter Boddit was transported from his world to ours. Surprisingly, well at least, much to my surprise, this resulted in a most enjoyable read.

This time around, the neanderthals reopen the gateway rather more permanently than last time. Ponter takes geneticist Mary Vaughn across to his world and the rest of the book is spent describing Mary's provincial attitudes when confronted with an alien culture.

What's it got? Travel to parallel worlds, neanderthals and mammoths, ecological concerns, moralizing about crime and religion and (hee, hee) alien (well, interspecies) sex. But little of interest. A big disappointment.