evolution by Stephen Baxter

Stephen Baxter's "evolution" is a really ambitious piece of writing, he's attempted no less than to novellize ALL human history from our early rat-like primate ancestors scurrying around the feet of giant dinosaurs, all the way through pre-human and more human ancestors, the stone age, the invention of agriculture, all the way up to the modern day, the near future, and then the far future. He's mostly succeeded.

By the very scope of the subject, the book is really a linked series of short stories, where a female ancestor is the central character. Baxter's description of the motivations and perceptions and most importantly, the relationships of his characters is amazing. Starting the book, I wasn't certain I could stay interested in animal stories while waiting for the humans to emerge, but Baxter rewards the reader for persisting.

It was fascinating to read about how our basic body plan evolved way before our brains, and that our bodies are optimized for running. Two legs are faster than four, and we were once the fastest and most persistent of predators, before we could even speak. Just when you start to get impressed with these people, you discover that there are giant sabre toothed tigers that have evolved to out-smart the clever pre-humans. Baxter gets into the minds of our ancestors and convincingly describes how they feel, and to what extent they think. He shows how consciousness evolved in response to social relationship needs, and how originally our ancestors only had "selves" when they interacted with others. The invention of grandmothers has as huge effects as the invention of stone tools.

Baxter charts the time when there were several different human species all living in competition and cooperation, the stagnant millenia when human culture was stuck in a stone-age balance with the environment, the effects of schizophrenia and creativity, deception and political manipulation. Our brains evolved to deal with other people, and the people are realized very sharply and believably.

Baxter has done such a remarkable job that I was almost disappointed when the people have developed into modern humans with an agricultural feudal society with an aristocrat called "Potus" at the head of the empire. POTUS stands for "President of The United States" to fans of the West Wing TV series. However Baxter comes through with continuity from the ancestor characters, and keeps you fascinated, on up to the present, and into the far future.

"evolution" takes a little patience and persistance at times, but you'll come away looking at the world with new eyes.