This is a little something I found on my very first day on this ship, when I searched around for library - they are two, one for passengers and one for the crew. Passenger's library did not attract me at all because it was lined up with heavy hardbacks (probably for purpose to avoid people taking them home) while crew library - forgotten in some gloomy, dark spot - was all about paperback novels probably left behind. Tons of romance and love stories, occasional SF and some thrillers, I guess. I took this one because I love everything about Neanderthals and ancient human history, but deep inside I knew it will be just another silly paperback that is usually sold at the airports to kill time during the flight - I was right.
It was entertaining and it held my attention, but at the end it turned out just as I expected, fluffy read.
I guess this could probably be used as a basis for a adventure movie, because its very cinematic - two professors (lovers long ago, how conveniently) are sent in a deserted wilderness to found out whereabouts of third professor who had disappeared while searching for signs of Bigfoot, Yeti or possibly surviving Neanderthals. What is maddening is that this fluffy little bite could have been so much more if only author was just a little bit more ambitious - he clearly knows his way around the subject, because he mentions enough names to assure you he is fascinated with it. For whatever reasons, it all ends up boxed into typical thriller-adventure cliché (with unavoidable explosion & fire at the end) which really makes the whole story pointless and very lightweight. Somewhere deep inside there is a interesting message and a little bit of sadness - at least this is how personally I feel it - about our long lost relative. And surely, if we happen to find a surviving one, we would probably poke, pinch and stuck needles in him before we turn him into circus attraction. Not long ago I have visited a Neanderthal museum in Krapina, Croatia so this is all a very real, serious issue with me. I refuse to think they were in any way inferior to us.
No comments:
Post a Comment