Following reading Alice Roberts' trilogy and having recently delved into contemporary genomics I was excited to learn more about this interesting hominid.
I often find that the transition between one writing style and another is one that takes a little time to adjust to. Perhaps it was the case that with the recent books that I've read having been particularly well written I was expecting something similar. From the very start I found the writing style rather opaque - I would often reread a sentence in search of meaning. As the book is translated from the Russian this perhaps contributed to these difficulties. On the other hand a translation can provide an opportunity rather than being a burden.
Beyond the style of the writing I found the content was rambly. I kept going in the hope of learning something tangible while being taken off at various tangents. The author is fond of referring to Ancient Greek thoughts which I found particularly irrelevant as the Ancient Greeks knew nothing of the Neanderthals.
In terms of genetic information this turned out to be scant. I was frustrated to learn that modern humans contain some Neanderthal genes whereas no human genes have been located within the Neanderthal genome; but what are the implications in this ?
On the more positive side I did learn that Neanderthals inhabited Europe before Homo sapiens
arrived at which point Neanderthals rather mysteriously became extinct. There is apparently no real explanation for this.
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