In the late 90ies and early 00es a popular motive in speculative fiction seemed to be a „better“ human species. So here it is a parallel world where the Neanderthals did everything right, we did wrong. I’m not sure, I like this motive. It implies, that we as a species are doomed, not able to overcome our tendency to hatred and violence. But somehow I liked this book. Not everything in it. The author has some ideas concerning moral and religion (as I have also seen in other books by him I read), I don’t want to follow or think are wrong. But I liked the story and the characters and the occasional hints to popular culture.