Hybrids, by Robert J. Sawyer

Oh, boy. Why did I do this to myself? This series went through ups and downs (actually, downs mostly), but I had some faith that Sawyer would manage to redeem himself in the end. Well, it didn't really happen. I didn't find much science in this fiction. This book was the olive on the martini Sawyer had been stirring all along: a preachy book based on some interesting ideas that could have otherwise been developed into something really outstanding but didn't. In the end, the feeling I experienced somewhere along the earlier books of the Neaderthal Parallax trilogy hit me hard in the face: this read like a soap opera on scientific steroids. The material on human relationships was far too trite to be engaging and convincing.

You may want to read my comments on Hominids and Humans for more details on the series. Suffice it to say that this book evolves into an unfulfilling exploration of topics such as faith, sexuality, the societal development of Homo sapiens as a species, and "the evil that men do" (yup, reference to the old Iron Maiden song). The climax is quite pathetic and wraps up a muder mystery that the attentive reader can spot coming from miles away. The best about the way the book ends is that it ends. What disappoints me the most is that Sawyer seems to be taking a dangerous turn away from writing solid science fiction to writing pop-scifi in the style of Michael Crichton. This would have been ok for a summer, beach book, but no more. Where it will end, I hope not to find out. When I read Sawyer again, I'll make sure to look for titles from his back-catalogue.