The first best is of course Far-Seer .... the first volume in this trilogy. But this one is a very worthy follow up. Whereas the first was about a dinosaurian Galileo, this one is about a dinosaurian Darwin. Worth the price just for the great cover, but it's what between the covers that shows why Sawyer has won both the Nebula and the Hugo. Exciting and fast-paced .... filled with sense of wonder.
Sawyer won his first Hugo for Hominids, but this was one of his earlier nominees for that award .... and it's every bit as good. A stand-alone (unlike Hominids) about a married pair of researchers at the Univesity of Toronto (Sawyer lives in that city) .... one a pscychologist and the other an artificial intelligence researcher .... and the alien technology that lets them explore the truths about the universe and in their rocky marriage. Fascinating .... literarlly mind expanding .... first rate!
It's become fashionable in some circles to denigrate the term "science fiction" .... in favor of "speculative fiction," or some such .... and to treat the "literature of ideas" .... science fiction's venerable nickname .... as pejorative. Robt J. Sawyer proves both those movements misguided. Here is real science fiction, with cutting edge science (anthropology, quantum physics, genetics, and more), and new and interesting ideas on every page. The whole Neanderthal Parallax is worth reading .... and Hybrids finishes it off in high style.
