One of the funniest parts of The Hominid to me was the line “Reuben Montego, a Jamaican-Canadian in his mid-thirties, hurried over to them. He shaved his head completely bald—meaning he was the only person allowed into SNO without a hair net—but, like everyone else, he still had to wear a hardhat.”

It somehow asserts that we would find it dubious he wore a hard hat, like being bald is a superpower. It’s described as though we need to suspend our disbelief that baldness is invincibility, and that it naturally protects against objects falling towards you head. A man not needing a hair net but needing a hardhat is just a really funny way to say he’s bald. Later in the story, Ponter picks up on his baldness and finds it strange, as within the context of his society the gene for baldness is most likely eradicated. To reassure himself that all is well, he decides that Reuben chose to shave his head and that he didn’t have a congenital condition (after spotting the stubble).

“Whoever he was, Louise reflected, if he did finally die from his injuries, he’d be a prime candidate for the Darwin Awards.” I wonder if Louise would find Marilyn Lee Cross a prime darwin award candidate too, or if there was any sympathy for her fellow young homo sapien girl. Sneaking off the Stardust and onto Barton’s ship despite the sign was as “incredibly stupid” as she perceived Ponter.

In Chapter 3, they say “Healthy day” instead of good morning. The longer I read about the world of the Neanderthals, the more it felt like a version of every dystopian novel like The Giver or 1984. Everyone is treated really kindly, crime doesn’t happen, everything is surveilled, and politically correct culture has won. If you value the collective over the individual, it’s the world for you. We’ve been raised to value individuality and privacy, so although the quality of life is good, we’re still uncomfortable by the idea of every interaction recorded.

As I read Dolphin’s Way, I had a feeling that Jane and Mal are not who they purported to be. Even the name Mal means “bad,” and I believed it was an allusion to the character being shifty (before learning his name was Malcolm). At the introduction of Jane and the dolphin’s alertness, I felt she was an ultra-elite and intelligent dolphin in human form. I felt that Mal being the closest to communication and his willingness to jump into the water and “be a dolphin” would end in a plot twist where dolphins had been breeding with humans for a while, and that Mal was a hybrid who was meant to return home.

I was unprepared for the real plot twist in the end where Jane was otherwordly and was attempting to make contact with earth’s true intelligent life. Oddly enough, the rejection that Mal received felt personal. It felt more like his romantic advances were rejected, when in reality a huge decision for all of humanity was occurring. His people were not smart enough and that this alien contact was not meant for him, despite how badly he wanted it to happen (both romantically and for science).