I enjoyed the book. The (individual) stories (chapters) were well put together, and showed a pattern of progress over time with regard to human rights and sim(homoerectus) rights. Slavery of blacks ended much earlier, and in a more peaceful way in the book, than in our history. The author implied that with another species of less intelligent humans around the differences in our races and cultures are not significant enough to allow people to justify slavery of other humans as long as occurred in our history. I think maybe that is a simplistic view of the issue, but maybe that was for the readers benefit to make the story less complicated. The only thing that really bothered me about the book, was they way each section was written like an independent story. At times reading it i felt like i was reading a group of short stories about the same topic. Im not really a short story person. There were attempts to try the characters together, but they felt added on as an after thought. Plus, I feel that the "hybrids" that are mentioned in several parts of the story should have been flushed out, almost nothing was explained about them. All that being said, i would recommend the book as a good read.
This is one of the most thought provoking books I have ever read. This is not a single novel, but rather a series of short stories on a single theme. That theme is a species of primates discovered in America, which are just called, "Simps."The first story begins with the English beginning to colonize America in the 1600's. Much to their suprise, they discover a species of ape which walks on it's two hind legs, covered with short hair, and is very gentle. It looks almost human, but does not speak, and cannot understand speech. Still they seem highly intelligent and some are soon trained to perform simple tasks around the camp. Soon the question is raised, "Are the Simps human, or animals?" And that is the question which is raised in each chapter. The development of this country closely parallels our own American, each chapter moving forward a century or so. And as society develops and changes, does their relationship to the Simps, into the 21st century, when mankind has learned the Simps can be taken into the house, and used as servants to perform simple chores.This book stimulates your grey cells so much it is almost painful. What is a human, and what ultimately defines us?
