Classic SF with Andy Johnson
Exploring classic science fiction, with a focus on the 1950s to the 1990s.
Classic SF with Andy Johnson
#194 Where we come from: The Inheritors (1955) by William Golding
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Fateful encounters in the long dawn of early humanity
Neanderthals seem to have been a recurring theme here lately. They have shown up in Pat Murphy's The Shadow Hunter (episode 157), in Stephen Baxter's Mammoth trilogy (episode 179), and most recently in Wilson Tucker's novel Ice and Iron (episode 185).
This episode focuses on one of the most notable examples of prehistoric SF, William Golding's 1955 novel The Inheritors. What was a secondary element of Baxter's novels - the conflict between Neanderthals and early humans - is at the core of this novel, Golding's follow-up to his better known 1954 debut Lord of the Flies.
Described by the Science Fiction Encyclopedia as having "considerable, even hallucinatory, force", this is a striking novel from the alien perspective of our own ancestors.
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