# Fiction where the Neanthertals weren't extinct? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 28, 2008, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196 "2008-04-28T08:29:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Walpurgis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Walpurgis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walpurgis)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/1 "2008-04-28T08:29:48Z")
So I was watching an Eddie Izzard DVD (Unrepeatable or Sexie - one of those) the other night and he was doing a skit about if Neanderthals had survived to this day. It was incredibly funny (if you like Izzard). Since I’m a sucker for alternative history fiction - especially alternative history science fiction - that made me try to remember novels with the same theme. I know there’s an SF novel or two about this, but I can’t remember any titles. Any ideas? ETA: I did remember Jeff Long’s _The Descent_ just now, which sort of fits the bill - a separate branch of humanity that adapted to underground life. But there has to be something else! ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/2 "2008-04-28T08:36:37Z")
Michael Crichton’s _The Eaters of the Dead_. It posits that isolated neandertal communities existed into the early middle ages in Scandinavia, and may have been the source of various folk tales (the book deals with a variation on the Beowulf story). Pretty good book, and I generally hate Crichton. It also served as the basis for the truly awsome movie _The Thirteenth Warrior_, starring Antonio Banderas and a bunch of beefy Vikings. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/3 "2008-04-28T10:11:04Z")
Ben Bova’s \*Orion \* has a neanderthal survivor element to it. ---
**Author:** ![Shecky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shecky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shecky)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/4 "2008-04-28T10:53:43Z")
_Sliders_ on the sci-fi channel had a race of Cro-Magsthat never died out. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/5 "2008-04-28T11:00:51Z")
Harry Turtledove’s _A Different Flesh_ posits a world in which Neanderthals were present in North America when Columbus and such got here because Cro-Magnons never made it across the Bering Straight (for whatever reason). It’s a series of short stories covering the period from Jamestown to the 1980s. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/6 "2008-04-28T11:21:35Z")
[Neanderthal](http://www.amazon.com/Neanderthal-John-Darnton/dp/0312963009/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209381583&sr=1-1) > [@](#): > > Matt Morrison and Susan Arnot, archaeologists and ex-lovers, are summoned to investigate an odd find: an apparently new Neanderthal skull. They rush to Tadjikistan and foray into some of the least hospitable terrain in Asia. Not too unexpectedly, they find their quarry only to discover a long-lost mentor who is guarding unsettling moral, political, and archaeological secrets that threaten their lives and those of the reclusive Neanderthals. I bought it from a bargain bin and it was pretty mediocre. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/7 "2008-04-28T11:31:23Z")
Both L. Sprague de Cam,p and Poul Anderson wrote stories about Neanderthal individuals in the modern world. de Camp’s is **The Gnarly Man** (See **Aristotle and the Gun** and **The Best of L. Sprague de Camp** , or read half of it here: [http://baens-universe.com/articles/The\_Gnarly\_Man](http://baens-universe.com/articles/The_Gnarly_Man) ). ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/8 "2008-04-28T11:32:44Z")
> [@Shecky](#): > > Sliders on the sci-fi channel had a race of Cro-Magsthat never died out. Those characters were called “Kromaggs”, if I recall. They were primates who evolved on an alternate version of Earth. In the real world, Cro-magnons were _Homo Sapiens_, our species, and live on in anybody with European ancestry. [QUOTE=Jonathan Chance] Harry Turtledove’s _A Different Flesh_ posits a world in which Neanderthals were present in North America when Columbus and such got here because Cro-Magnons never made it across the Bering Straight (for whatever reason). It’s a series of short stories covering the period from Jamestown to the 1980s. [/QUOTE] Not Neandertals – Australopithecus. The famous L. Sprague de Camp story “The Gnarly Man” has a 50,000-year-old immortal Neandertal living in the modern world. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/9 "2008-04-28T13:33:38Z")
Turtledove’s novella “Dpwn in the Bottomlands” is set in an alternative reality in which the Mediterranean basin never flooded, and what are inferentially very human Neanderthals and modern man living comfortably side by side is a minor plot element. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/10 "2008-04-28T13:49:06Z")
Jasper Fforde’s Tuesday Next series has a race of Neanderthals that were cloned from mumble mumble living along with the people of England. ---
**Author:** ![borschevsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@borschevsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/borschevsky)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/11 "2008-04-28T14:01:46Z")
[Hominids](http://www.amazon.com/Hominids-Neanderthal-Parallax-Robert-Sawyer/dp/0765345005/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209391041&sr=8-1) by Robert Sawyer is the first book of a trilogy in which a portal is opened between our Earth and one from a parallel universe where Neanderthals did not die out (and humans did). It’s a reasonably good book, although I would say the trilogy gets pretty silly by the end. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingDragonFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@FlyingDragonFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingDragonFan)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/12 "2008-04-28T14:20:14Z")
[QUOTE=Grammanaut] ETA: I did remember Jeff Long’s _The Descent_ just now, which sort of fits the bill - a separate branch of humanity that adapted to underground life. But there has to be something else! [/QUOTE] I loved that book. Cool idea, and I dig Long’s writing style. Then he wrote a sequel, the name of which I struggle not to remember, in which he shits all over all the coolness of the first book. ---
**Author:** ![Super\_Duper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@Super\_Duper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Duper)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/13 "2008-04-28T14:36:58Z")
_Waiting_ by Frank M. Robinson is a sci-fi thriller positing “What if Neanderthals had evolved and were still among us… and simply waiting to make their big move?” A bit iffy in the execution, but a fun read. [There’s a review here](http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2000/rk0003.htm), which also discusses two other books in a similar vein: _The Silk Code_, by Paul Levinson, and _Darwin’s Radio_, by Greg Bear. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/14 "2008-04-28T14:43:34Z")
[QUOTE=Khadaji] [Neanderthal](http://www.amazon.com/Neanderthal-John-Darnton/dp/0312963009/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209381583&sr=1-1) I bought it from a bargain bin and it was pretty mediocre. [/QUOTE] I read it and agree with your assessment. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/15 "2008-04-28T15:14:59Z")
In the spoofy _Glory Lane_ by Alan Dean Foster, the Neanderthals were evacuated from Earth by aliens back in prehistory to protect them from the less intelligent, but more warlike Cro-Magnons. The Neanderthals get really upset when some other aliens bring a few C-Ms out into the universe. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/16 "2008-04-28T16:35:18Z")
[QUOTE=borschevsky] [Hominids](http://www.amazon.com/Hominids-Neanderthal-Parallax-Robert-Sawyer/dp/0765345005/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209391041&sr=8-1) by Robert Sawyer is the first book of a trilogy in which a portal is opened between our Earth and one from a parallel universe where Neanderthals did not die out (and humans did). It’s a reasonably good book, although I would say the trilogy gets pretty silly by the end. [/QUOTE] I agree: the first book is good, but it goes rapidly downhill and is borderline unreadable by the end of the series. Roger Macbride Allen’s _Orphan of Creation_ features the discovery of australopithecine remains in a modern-era (post-Civil-War) cemetery, followed by a global investigation into their origins. A fascinating and little-known SF novel, well worth discovering. ---
**Author:** ![emmaliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/17 "2008-04-28T17:01:59Z")
Kage Baker’s excellent Company series (future history Sci Fi) has various assorted Neandertals, Cro-Magnons, etc. as major characters. _In The Garden of Iden Sky Coyote Mendoza In Hollywood The Graveyard Game The Company Dossiers: Black Projects, White Knights_ (story collection) _The Life of the World to Come The Children of the Company The Machine’s Child Gods and Pawns_ (story collection) _The Sons of Heaven_ And, um, I guess no one’s brought up Jean Auel out of pity? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/18 "2008-04-28T18:15:59Z")
Do the Geico cavemen (and their short lamented series) count? ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/19 "2008-04-28T18:33:53Z")
[QUOTE=emilyforce] And, um, I guess no one’s brought up Jean Auel out of pity? [/QUOTE] _Clan of the Cave Bear_ isn’t THAT bad. The series goes downhill rapidly after it, but that first book is interesting. ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196/20 "2008-04-28T18:57:19Z")
[QUOTE=emilyforce] Kage Baker’s excellent Company series (future history Sci Fi) has various assorted Neandertals, Cro-Magnons, etc. as major characters. _In The Garden of Iden Sky Coyote Mendoza In Hollywood The Graveyard Game The Company Dossiers: Black Projects, White Knights_ (story collection) _The Life of the World to Come The Children of the Company The Machine’s Child Gods and Pawns_ (story collection) _The Sons of Heaven_ [/QUOTE] Came in here to mention this series. I will, however, say that I think the final book in the series is rubbish. The rest of the series is fantastic, and I loved it, but the end… Ugh. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-where-the-neanthertals-werent-extinct/447196.md?page=2)