Reddit reviews Hominids: Volume One of The Neanderthal Parallax

Pretty much anything by Robert Sawyer. And they're not just set here. Canadian-ness is essential to most of the plots. Start with his Neanderthal Parallax (Hominids, Humans, Hybrids). You don't get a lot of SF set in Sudbury.

Children of Time and Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovksy both have strong sociological themes. If you enjoy these books you might also want to check out Semiosis: A Novel by Susan Burke.

Foundation by Isaac Asimov is about the fall and rise of a galactic empire. It is a bit dated in terms of science fiction but a classic in the genre.

Exhalation and Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang are collections of short stories and some of them contain strong sociological themes around communication and intersubjective understanding.

A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge also have some interesting speculative sociology.

Hominids: Volume One of The Neanderthal Parallax by Robert J. Sawyer also contains interesting speculative anthropology and sociology (but not a very interesting plot IMO) and is also worth a read.

>Imagine if instead of Homo Sapiens it was the Neanderthals that became the dominant species, I wonder what kind of world would exist at this point in time. Would they have developed agriculture? Technology?

You might enjoy the book series Hominids by RJ Sawyer who explores this idea in his sci-fi novel. "We are one of those species; the other is the Neanderthals of a parallel world where they became the dominant intelligence. The Neanderthal civilization has reached heights of culture and science comparable to our own, but with radically different history, society and philosophy."

>I find it all fascinating. All the millions upon millions of people who exist now and before us, each and every one was a real individual with lives and thoughts just as nuanced and unique as mine or yours is now. They were all as real as you or I.

Me too, its very interesting to think about all the past lives of humans and how, I think at the root of it all their struggles probably weren't so different from ours. Lots has changed over the millennia but we still have the same basic needs, wants, and desires.

Author Robert J Sawyer wrote a fiction called Hominoids which speculates on a world where Neanderthals lived among humans, after separately achieving their own cultural and scientific achievements.

I have read both, and count them among my favorite books. In the real world today governments already exercise control over us in ways that even Orwell could never have imagined. These novels, however are works of fiction that necessarily predict a dystopian future for dramatic effect.

Since we're recommending books now, I would suggest you read the works of Robert J. Sawyer specifically the Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, and the WWW trilogy to see how 100% surveillance society may not be a bad thing.

I can't contribute on the what if question, but I did enjoy a trilogy of books a bunch of years ago by Robert J Sawyer on a similar subject.

https://www.amazon.com/Hominids-Neanderthal-Parallax-Robert-Sawyer/dp/0765345005

There exists an excellent series of sci-fi novels in which this happened. Everything went better than expected.

Edit: People on the internet don't like books? I should have expected as much.