Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Reviews of The Ugly Little Boy

The Ugly Little Boy
The Ugly Little Boy
Author: Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg
ISBN-13: 9780553561227
ISBN-10: 0553561227
Publication Date: 8/1/1993
Pages: 387
Rating:
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 16

3.5 stars, based on 16 ratings
Publisher: Bantam
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

4 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

reviewed The Ugly Little Boy on + 3 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Easy to read. Good information, which is expected from these authors.
reviewed The Ugly Little Boy on + 37 more book reviews
Wwhat a great story! But the Asimov is such a great author.
tleeg avatar reviewed The Ugly Little Boy on + 21 more book reviews
I really enjoyed this book . It was a good read and I love the concept of a child from our ancestors survived the ice age
perryfran avatar reviewed The Ugly Little Boy on + 1172 more book reviews
This novel really got me hooked from the very start of the story. Most enjoyable! This was originally a short story by Asimov that first appeared in the September 1958 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction under the title "Lastborn". It was later republished under the current title in the 1959 collection Nine Tomorrows. Robert Silverberg later expanded it into a novel with the same title, published in 1992 as this full-length novel (also published as Child of Time in the UK).

The story is about a Neanderthal child who is brought to the present day as a result of time travel experiments by a research organization, Stasis Inc. He cannot be removed from his immediate area because of the vast energy loss and time paradoxes that would result. To take care of him, Edith Fellowes, a children's nurse, is engaged. She is initially repelled by his appearance, but soon begins to regard him as her own child, learns to love him and realizes that he is far more intelligent than she at first imagined. She names him 'Timmie' and attempts to ensure that he has the best possible childhood despite his circumstance. She is enraged when the newspapers refer to him as an "ape-boy". Edith's love for Timmie brings her into conflict with her employer, for whom he is more of an experimental animal than a human being. When Stasis decides to end the project with Timmie and move on to another experiment, Miss Fellowes decides on an unexpected drastic step to help him. The book also alternates with the story of the group of Neanderthals from which Timmie was taken. This part of the novel was part of the expansion by Silverberg.

Overall, I would give this a high recommendation. Silverberg and Asimov are two of my favorite science fiction authors and this collaboration was very good. This novel version was published in 1992, the year Asimov died, so this was probably a tribute to him by Silverberg.