Neanderthals

Isaac Asimov's Wonderful Worlds of Science Fiction #6

by Charles G. Waugh (Editor), Robert Silverberg (Editor), Martin H. Greenberg (Editor)

A medley of tales focusing on humankind's ancestor, the Neanderthal, features works by Poul Anderson, Philip Jose Farmer, Isaac Asimov, L. Sprague de Camp, and Bertram Chandler

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fiction

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 3, 1987

About the author

Charles Gordon Waugh was born in Philadelphia, PA, in 1943.
He has published over 261 books, most of which are SF, fantasy, or horror anthologies and he has taught at Syracuse University, Ithaca College, Kent State University, and the University of Maine at Augusta.

Waugh is known primarily as a co-editor (with Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg) of the “Mammoth Book” series of genre anthologies.

Reviews

[Lucy Batson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beneath this eye-catchingly cheesy cover lies a fairly strong and well curated collection of stories involving Neanderthals, as promised! The standouts here are Isaac Asimov's poignant "The Ugly Little Boy" (depicted on the cover!), L. Sprague de Camp's "The Gnarly Man" (about an immortal Neanderthal navigating the dangerous curiosity of the modern world), and Philip Jose Farmer's "The Alley Man", which reads like speculative fiction as authored by Tennessee Williams.

[Aaron Axvig · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reasonable collection of stories. "The Ugly Little Boy" and "The Treasure Of Odirex" were my favorites. A couple I skipped because the first page or two didn't hook me and one had a really annoying dialect for some characters ("The Alley Man").

[Eric]

Full review: https://monsterbookclub.com/2021/07/2...

[John Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Asimov story is great. Not surprised to learn that he expanded it into a novel. The rest are decent.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think my problem with the book was that I usually don't like the "low tech" SF. There wasn't much Science to the fiction, other than neanderthal character(s).

It didn't really present me with drastically new worlds.

Also, like most shortstory collections, I'd already read a couple.

There were more misses than hits.