History YMMV / TheNeanderthalParallax

* HarsherInHindsight: In the last book, Mary lists Bill Cosby as one of the men who ''isn't'' evil while thinking about male violence. This was before the accusations against him were well known. It's especially ironic since she's a victim of rape, and this is a large part of her character's arc throughout the books.

* MarySuetopia: The Neanderthal world has very little crime, hasn't had a war in hundreds of years, and lives in harmony with nature.
** Deconstructed in later books. The Neanderthal society deliberately chose to breed violence out of its population because due to the size and strength of an average individual, a minor dispute could easily end with someone getting killed. One such scene is depicted in the first book; a dispute that two characters escalates into one having his mandible essentially destroyed with one punch-it's later stated that most past assassinations consisted of someone simply walking up to the target and caving their head in by their fists alone. The problem arose when they started sterilizing anyone sharing half or more of the violent person's genome as well. It's implied that the sterilization policy has actually created a pretty significant problem with domestic violence, since the victim can't report the crime without condemning any children they might have to the same fate as the abuser.
** Sawyer has argued both in other novels and RealLife for something like the surveillance system of the series, feeling privacy is not only overrated but dangerous, and increasingly disappearing anyway.

* HarsherInHindsight: In the last book, Mary lists Bill Cosby as one of the men that ''isn't'' evil while thinking about male violence. This was before the accusations against him were well known. It's especially ironic since she's a victim of rape, and this a large part of her character's arc throughout the books.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: In the last book, Mary lists Bill Cosby as one of the men that ''isn't'' evil while thinking about male violence. This was before the accusations against him were well known. It's especially ironic since she's a victim of rape, and this a large part of her character's arc throughout the books.

* AuthorTract: When a magnetic pole reversal happens, all of humanity's religious, superstitious, and paranormal beliefs disappear. This causes peace to break out in the Middle East, [[FridgeLogic conveniently ignoring all the other causes of conflict in the region.]] [[SarcasmMode Very subtle there, Sawyer.]]

* ScienceMarchesOn:
** The research available at the time the books were written indicated that Neanderthals and ''Homo sapiens'' were genetically incompatible, which plays a pivotal role in the plot. New research shows the opposite: not only were the two species compatible, there was significant interbreeding.
** Dogs in the Neanderthal universe are physically indistinguishable from wolves. The reason given is that Neanderthals only selected for behavior and hunting companions, and did not care what their dogs looked like. Research with tame silver foxes has shown how selecting for tameness inevitably results in other neotenous traits (short legs, larger skulls, folded ears, curled tails), even without specifically breeding for them. With this in mind, Neanderthals would have had to actually put a great deal of work into breeding dogs that still resembled wolves in any way shape or form, and the primitive appearance of dogs would actually have had to be very deliberate.
** The book's anthropologist character says there's no clear evidence for Neanderthals believing in an afterlife. Subsequently, this seems to be why Sawyer depicts them as uniformly having no concept of that, or gods. Since then, anthropologists have concluded that they did deliberately bury their dead with tools intended for use in another world.

** Dogs in the Neanderthal universe are physically indistinguishable from wolves. The reason given is that Neanderthals only selected for behavior and hunting companions, and did not care what their dogs looked like. Research with tame silver foxes has shown how selecting for tameness inevitably results in other neotenous traits (short legs, larger skulls, folded ears, curled tails), even without specifically breeding for them. With this in mind, Neanderthals would have had to actually put a great deal of work into breeding dogs that still resembled wolves in any way shape or form, and the primitive appearance of dogs would actually have had to be very deliberate.

* UnfortunateImplications: The Neanderthals have a perfect society, they live in harmony with nature, haven't had a war in hundreds of years, have an omnipresent big brother government, a eugenics program to stop crime, and most people can't vote. DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything?
** Their society isn't entirely perfect. At least one major hole in their criminal justice system is explored in detail in ''Hybrids'', and individuals predisposed to violence and antisocial behavior continue to appear in the Neanderthal population despite their eugenics program. As for voting, the only limitation is age; otherwise anyone who reaches a certain age can vote. The Companions are limited in not being able to report back to the central repository if one is too far away from a city (which would make ''H. sapiens'' space technology all that more valuable to the Neanderthals--a satellite monitoring system would improve the efficiency of the Companions dramatically). And Ponter was absolutely crazy about consuming domesticated chickens dipped in a flour-based batter seasoned with 11 agricultural products and fried in vegetable oil, none of which would have been possible in his world. Overall the two sides seem about equally balanced.
** I doubt they can be considered equally balanced, if, as the book claims, they have no war, far less crime, sexual liberation and lack religion (obviously YMMV will vary about those last two).
*** They're not "more sexually liberated"-if anything they're less. The government keeps men and women segregated for most of the month, and only allows them to have children once every ten years.
*** True, but they all practice bisexuality (though individuals with solely heterosexual or homosexual attraction, not to mention anything else, are apparently unknown). Ponter also mentions that adultery is not considered a big deal, as their superior sense of smell lets them tell instantly if a partner has slept with someone else, or a woman's gotten pregnant, thus letting men avoid being cuckolded (the fear of which is something anthropologists have postulated as a major factor behind possessive monogamous practices). When the sexes meet, it's also apparently acceptable for them to sleep with people beside their primary partners, given Adikor's causal question of whether Ponter had sex with a woman he isn't mated to (and one who had sought to get Adikor castrated for supposedly murdering Ponter in the previous novel, no less).
*** The only real difference between Neanderthal voting practices and ours is degree. We allow people to vote on any issue as soon as they reach legal adulthood, no matter how little knowledge and experience they have, not to mention the fact that the brain is still in adolescence; the Neanderthals only allow those with (what they consider) a reasonable amount of life experience to vote, but even they can vote on any issue, informed or otherwise. It also seems that Neanderthalls aren't allowed to become members of their legislative bodies before they reach even greater age, as these are called Gray Councils in reference to their hair color. "Gray" is a synonymous for wisdom among Neanderthals-they appear to have gerontocracy, or rule by the elderly.
* ValuesDissonance: See above.

** Deconstructed in later books. The Neanderthal society deliberately chose to breed violence out of its population because due to the size and strength of an average individual, a minor dispute could easily end with someone getting killed. One such scene is depicted in the first book; a fight between two main characters ends with the losing party getting most of his mandible destroyed with one punch-it's later stated that most past assassinations consisted of someone simply walking up to the target and caving their head in by their fists alone. The problem arose when they started sterilizing anyone sharing half or more of the violent person's genome as well. It's implied that the sterilization policy has actually created a pretty significant problem with domestic violence, since the victim can't report the crime without condemning any children they might have to the same fate as the abuser.
** Sawyer has argued both in other novels and RealLife for something like this, feeling privacy is not only overrated but dangerous, and increasingly disappearing anyway.
* UnfortunateImplications: The Neanderthals have a perfect society, they live in harmony with nature, haven't had a war in hundreds of years, have an omnipresent big brother government, a Eugenics program to stop crime, and most people can't vote. DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything?
** Their society isn't entirely perfect. At least one major hole in their criminal justice system is explored in detail in ''Hybrids'', and individuals predisposed to violence and antisocial behavior continue to appear in the Neanderthal population despite their eugenics program. As for voting, the only limitation on voting is age; otherwise anyone who reaches a certain age can vote. The Companions are limited in not being able to report back to the central repository if one is too far away from a city (which would make ''H. sapiens'' space technology all that more valuable to the Neanderthals--a satellite monitoring system would improve the efficiency of the Companions dramatically). And Ponter was absolutely crazy about consuming domesticated chickens dipped in a flour-based batter seasoned with 11 agricultural products and fried in vegetable oil, none of which would have been possible in his world. Overall the two sides seem about equally balanced.

*** True, but they all practice bisexuality (though individuals with solely heterosexual or homosexual attraction, not to mention anything else, are apparently unknown). Ponter also mentions that adultery is not considered a big deal, as their superior sense of smell lets them tell instantly if a partner has slept with another, or a woman been impregnated, thus letting men avoid being cuckolded (a fear of which anthropologists have speculated is a major factor behind possessive monogamous practices). When the sexes meet, it's also apparently acceptable for them to sleep with people beside their primary partners, given Adikor's causal question of whether Ponter had sex with a woman he isn't mated to (and one who had sought to get Adikor castrated for supposedly murdering Ponter in the previous novel, no less).

*** The only real difference between Neanderthal voting practices and ours is degree. We allow people to vote on any issue as soon as they reach legal adulthood, no matter how little knowledge and experience they have, not to mention the fact that the brain is still in adolescence; the Neanderthals only allow those with (what they consider) a reasonable amount of life experience to vote, but even they can vote on any issue, informed or otherwise.

** Deconstructed in later books. The Neanderthal society deliberately chose to breed violence out of its population because due to the size and strength of an average individual, a minor dispute could easily end with someone getting killed. (One such scene is depicted in the first book; a fight between two main characters ends with the losing party getting most of his mandible destroyed with one punch.) The problem arose when they started sterilizing anyone sharing half or more of the violent person's genome as well. It's implied that the sterilization policy has actually created a pretty significant problem with domestic violence, since the victim can't report the crime without condemning any children they might have to the same fate as the abuser.
** Sawyer has argued, both in other novels and RealLife, for something like this, feeling privacy is not only overrated, but dangerous, and increasingly disappearing anyway.

*** They're not "more sexually liberated"-if anything they're less. The government keeps men and women segregated for most of the month, and only allows the people to have children once every ten years.
*** True, but they all practice bisexuality (though individuals with solely heterosexual or homosexual attraction, not to mention anything else, are apparently unknown). Ponter also mentions that adultery is not considered a big deal, as their superior sense of smell lets them tell instantly if a partner has slept with another, or a woman been impregnated, thus letting men avoid being cuckolded (a fear of which anthropologists have speculated is a major factor behind possessive monogamous practices). When the sexes meet, it's also apparently acceptable for them to sleep with people beside their primary partners, given Adikor's causal question of whether Ponter had sex with a woman he isn't mated to (and one who had sought to get Adikor castrated in the previous novel, no less).

*** They're not "more sexually liberated" if anything they're less. The government keeps men and women segregated for most of the month, and only allows the people to have children once every ten years.

*** The only real difference between Neanderthal voting practices and ours is degree. We allow people to vote on any issue as soon as they reach legal adulthood, no matter how little knowledge and experience they have, not to mention the fact that the brain is still in adolesence; the Neanderthals only allow those with (what they consider) a reasonable amount of life experience to vote, but even they can vote on any issue, informed or otherwise.

** Their society isn't entirely perfect. At least one major hole in their criminal justice system is explored in detail in ''Hybrids'', and individuals predisposed to violence and antisocial behavior continue to appear in the Neanderthal population despite their eugenics program. As for voting, the only limitation on voting is age; otherwise anyone who reaches a certain age can vote. The Companions are limited in not being able to report back to the central repository if one is too far away from a city (which would make ''H. sapeins'' space technology all that more valuable to the Neanderthals--a satellite monitoring system would improve the efficiency of the Companions dramatically). And Ponter was absolutely crazy about consuming domesticated chickens dipped in a flour-based batter seasoned with 11 agricultural products and fried in vegetable oil, none of which would have been possible in his world. Overall the two sides seem about equally balanced.

** Deconstructed in later books. The Neanderthal society deliberately chose to breed violence out of its population because due to the size and strength of an average individual, a minor dispute could easily end with someone getting killed. (One such scene is depicted in the first book; a fight between two main characters ends with the losing party getting most of his face caved in with one punch.) The problem arose when they started sterilizing anyone sharing half or more of the violent person's genome as well. It's implied that the sterilization policy has actually created a pretty significant problem with domestic violence, since the victim can't report the crime without condemning any children they might have to the same fate as the abuser.

* BetterThanItSounds: Anyone reading this article would likely be turned off by the series. However, the books are actually quite good, thanks mainly to Sawyer's [[TheyPlottedAPerfectlyGoodWaste writing skills]].