Thursday 6 October 2005

Hominids by: Robert J. Sawyer

Robert J. Sawyer
Hominids
Tor Publishing

This book is the ‘One Book One Community' book for Waterloo this year.

The goal of One Book is to get a large proportion of the population to read the same book. It is always a living Canadian author, who will come and be involved in events in the community.
"Once people have read the same book they talk to friends and neighbours and it spirals from there," says Sharron Smith of Kitchener Public Library and chair of One Book, One Community.

The program chooses a novel by a living Canadian author with the hope that the author will be available for the "Meet the Author" events in all area municipalities in September.

"Readers enjoy the opportunity to hear and see talented writers whose books are successful in Canada and around the world," says Smith.

Hominids is an intriguing speculative fiction book. The main premise is based on Quantum theory. Parallel to our world are many other worlds. Some very close to ours and some not. In our story, Ponter Boddit, often referred to as Scholar Boddit, is one of our main characters. He is a Quantum Physicist from a parallel world. While working on a Quantum computer, he is translated into the same location in our Universe; unfortunately it is the center of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. Then the true adventure begins.

Ponter is given Canadian Citizenship, which is unusual because he is a Neanderthal. One could argue however, that a Neanderthal emerging from an INCO mine in Sudbury might not be that far out of the question. Many around the world believe it is a hoax - some believe it is true and a Ponter cult begins. Some want to control him and his knowledge.

In our sister earth, they have not ever had a global war, not developed nuclear weapons, or destroyed the environment the way we have. There is much we could learn from our cousins in this world.
Follow Ponter as he develops friendships, experiences religion and learns that we don't have to be homo sapiens to be human.

For more information about the Kitchener Waterloo One Book, One Community Program visit the website at: www.therecord.com/onebook/index.html .

(First Published in Imprint 2005-06-03 as 'One Book, One Community')

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