The Silk Code by Paul Levinson is another good example, this time with H. s. n. hanging on in the Pyrenees, the high mountains of central Asia, and also, in our midst. It is a good enough read to re-read every couple years or so.

Some parts of the human family tree have been done, in Petru Popescu’s superb Almost Adam and John Darnton’s rather silly Neanderthal. There are great possibilities in the Flores people, which may in fact have lived into historical times – modern survivors would not be too great a stretch. Another interesting possibility is for someone to take the idea the Minnesota Iceman was some form of surviving prehuman, perhaps from Asia, and construct a tale around it.

Charles Wilson’s Extinct might be the silliest novel in the history of cryptofiction, with its 200-foot Megalodon. The beast would probably spend its whole life in a frantic chase for enough food to feed its several hundred tons.

This is a very entertaining genre, and, at its best, can be very thought-provoking. The boundaries, as with most genres, are fuzzy. What does one do with John Varney’s entertaining Mammoth, which mixes genetic engineering and time travel? Despite the seeming overdose of plot devices, it works anyway because the human stories woven into it are well done.

There are plenty of interesting stories left to write in this genre. I look forward to the next entry.