NEANDER by Harald Johnson #RBRT

4.5 out of 5 stars

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How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member; I offered to review it for the team, though I had already bought it after reading the author's previous publication, New York 1609.

In a Nutshell: A time travel adventure (modern day to Neanderthal times) that ponders questions of an anthropological nature.

Tom Cook is a science journalist working on an archaeological dig in Gibraltar, when disaster strikes in the form of a boat accident—his pregnant fiancée is missing.  When Tom goes searching for her, he slips through a time portal that takes him back.... way back, to 40,000 years ago.  Neanderthal man has yet to become extinct, though the threat of Homo Sapiens is on the horizon.

Tom finds ways to communicate with them and become part of their world.  Quite early on, I saw that this was not just a time travel adventure, and that Tom's actions would have repercussions, which added interest, as I looked forward to finding out how great these would be.  Tom has a wealth of knowledge to teach his new family, and draws on his own research about Neanderthal man to find the best methods to help them, especially when they come face to face with the more ruthless Sapiens.

In the notes at the back, the author mentions having read Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari; I've read three books by Harari and could feel the influence; I actually thought 'ah, he's been reading Sapiens' a couple of times, before I read the notes, but this wasn't a negative; I liked it.  

Neander held my interest all the way through; of course time travel stories always depend on disbelief suspension on the part of the reader, but the fantasy must be believeable within the fiction, and for the most part this was; I'd give it about seven out of ten, because I needed to know more about how he communicated with these prehistoric people in order to be completely convinced by the fact that he did.  Also, I was so looking forward to finding out how Tom's actions of 40K years ago impacted on the world we know now, but there was less detail than I'd hoped for.  On the whole, though, this book is fun and an easy read, an inventive, interesting and original story, as well as providing questions and ideas on which to ponder, which makes it a win-win as far as I'm concerned; yes, I recommend it!