Book Review: Hybrids

The third book in a series by Robert J Sawyer.

Book 1: Humans
Book 2: Hominids
Book 3 Hybrids

The series takes place in reality where 40,000 years ago the universe split. In one history humans became intelligent while the Neanderthals died off. In the other the Neanderthals became intelligent while the humans died off.

In the first book Neanderthal researchers doing experimentation in quantum computing accidentally punched a hole through to our world and one dropped through.

In the second book a permanent porthole was established allowing travel back and forth by scientists and diplomats.

In this third and final book the Neanderthal that fell through in the first book and the Neanderthal genetics researcher who confirmed he really was a neanderthal are in a serious relationship. They're looking at getting married and having children. But Neanderthals only have kids once every ten years. This means the two must have children on a schedule if their kid is to fit in on both worlds. Plus, we have 23 chromosome pairs while they have 24. Even if they do have a kid naturally it'll be like a Neanderthal with Downs Syndrome. Luckily a scientist on the other world has developed a device that would allow them to tweek the genes so that they could not only match up, but determine what characteristics the kid would have. Most difficult is the part of the brain that makes people imagine there's gods, ghosts, and UFOs. Neanderthals don't have it.
Plus, the device is banned in that world and the researcher has disconnected from the network and gone to live in the woods. They hunt her down, get the device, smuggle it back to our world, and leave it with a trusted friend. This trusted friend starts using it to develop a Neanderthal specific version of Ebola so he can wipe them all out and take over their world for mankind.

There's less of the anthropology science that was in the first two books. We've also gotten past the religious debates and most of the genetic science. There's some genetics, but most of the hard science is in the development of the virus. The interesting philosophical discussion in this book is related to whether or not, given the option, you'd make sure your child couldn't believe in God. Plus, some about whether or not all human men should be banned from the other world.

It was a good end to a strong trilogy. This series, as with everything by Robert J Sawyer, goes near the top of my recommended reading list.