Speaking of...
Knuckle-dragging Neanderthals, I just finished reading Hominids by Robert Sawyer. It was an interesting quick read about two parallel universes, one being ours and the other being one in which Neanderthals survived and we died out. Very enjoyable and I thought it brought up some interesting ideas and concepts that made me think. Unfortunately I felt the book wasn't that well written and the characters were a little too plastic.
The story is very creative. A Neanderthal from the parallel universe is accidentally transported into our world via a Quantum computer accident and finds himself in a world both familiar and wildly unfamiliar. There are lots of interesting bits about anthropology, history and religion, though I did find that the author used an overly idyllic Neanderthal society to point out our flaws. Evidently I'm not alone in this criticism as it was fairly common remark among reviewers on Amazon.
The author's writing style left something to be desired for me. I felt it was overly simplistic, verbose without adding any real detail or depth and totally lacked subtlety. In particular I felt a lot of the characters were just too one dimensional and in many cases the dialogue between them was an undisguised mode of dumping necessary story info. Everything in the book seemed rushed and condensed and as I finished it I was disappointed knowing this is first in a trilogy and what could have been one big book is chopped up into three for no other reason than to expand profitability. But I guess everyone has to make a buck and I was lent the book by a friend so I shouldn't complain.
In the end I really did like the book, it was a quick read; the benefit of the author's writing style is that the action keeps going and you don't get bogged down much. I do wish some of the plot lines had been re-thought I just felt that this was a very interesting and creative story line and it deserved more, for lack of a better word, umpf!. Oh well, I still look forward to reading the second book when it comes out in paperback.