



“Neil R. McAdam’s Hominin is a staggering, genre-defying epic that weaves together millennia of civilization, war, and evolution into a single, mesmerizing narrative. Part anthropological saga, part sci-fi mystery, this ambitious novel explores what it means to be human—and what might lie beyond.
The story begins with a haunting image: Telikus, a naked amnesiac emerging from the desert, who becomes the unlikely catalyst for a Stone Age community’s transformation. From there, McAdam leaps across eras, introducing a tapestry of interconnected lives—two Mycenaean-esque brothers locked in a primal struggle to prevent humanity’s first war; an Athenian-style farmer whose defiance sparks revolution; a sibling duo racing to decode their aunt’s secrets before nuclear annihilation. Binding these threads is an eerie, overarching presence: a dormant Super Intelligence lurking within an ancient spacecraft, waiting for the first “Hominin” to awaken it.
McAdam’s scope is breath-taking, yet he grounds each timeline in intimate human struggles. The prose shifts deftly between the mythic grandeur of early civilizations and the taut urgency of near-future crises, all while teasing a cosmic mystery. The recurring themes—war, progress, the cyclical nature of power—echo like a drumbeat, suggesting that humanity’s greatest battles (with itself, with destiny) are both timeless and inevitable.
The novel’s brilliance lies in its puzzle-box structure. Readers piece together connections across epochs, glimpsing how small choices ripple into seismic shifts. Is Telikus a messiah, a mutation, or something else? What does the Super Intelligence want? The answers unfold with deliberate, satisfying precision”