What if Neanderthals had become the dominant human instead of Homo Sapiens?  What would their world be like today?  And what if, during a quantum science experiment, one of them accidentally slips into our reality?  What would we think of him?  What would he think of us?

These are questions tackled by the novel Hominids, by Robert J. Sawyer.  It's no surprise this is a Hugo Award winning book.  It's one of those books you happily read until 3am in the morning, knowing you should put the book down and go to sleep because you have to work tomorrow, but you just can't stop.  Literally, I read it in less than a day.  No skimming.

Although this is book one in the Neanderthal Parallax Trilogy, it is a self-contained story and there is closure by the end.  The story primarily follows Ponter Boddit and Adikor Huld, Neanderthal researchers stuck on opposite sides of an accidental portal between our Earth and theirs.  It's a fascinating look at our society and values through the eyes of someone who had only known us as fossils, and a terrific ideation of an alternate society with certain basic Homo Sapien concepts stripped away.

The Good: The amazing amount of research done by the author really gives the story life and believability.  Great writing.
The Bad: With one exception, I think the sapiens in general come off more altruistic than in reality
The Ugly: Me after reading instead of sleeping.