The New World Neanderthals: The Rise of the Gang

By Gini Graham Scott

The New Neanderthals: The Rise of the Gang is the second of a series of stories that build on the story in The Neanderthals Are Back.  The book begins after a criminal gang leader learns from the media about the success of a team of Neanderthals who are helping the cops find and capture criminals.  He creates a criminal gang of six Neanderthals by obtaining Neanderthals who are part of a workforce developed by the robot company that provided the cops with their team.  The gang leader and his associate then train these new recruits to commit crimes, such as robberies and hits for revenge, help criminals escape the police, and undermine the efforts of the New World Neanderthals Force.

            The Rise of the Gang describes how this new gang in recruited and trained.  Then, they go on their first two assignments.  The first is to steal a marijuana shipment from a rival gang.  The second is to help the gang leaders collect protection money from store owners.  But can the New Neanderthals Gang accomplish these missions successfully?  And what happens when they encounter a series of challenges in undertaking both assignments?  The Rise of the Gang tells their story. 

            Future stories in the series describe how the New Neanderthal Gang fares as it undertakes new assignments, has run-ins with the New Neanderthal Force, and encounters new challenges and dangers along the way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Changemakers Publishing
• Release date: Sep 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393641193

Gini Graham Scott

Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D., CEO of Changemakers Publishing and Writing, is an internationally known writer, speaker, and workshop leader. She has published over 50 books with major publishers on various topics and has written over 3 dozen children's books. Her published children's books include Katy's Bow, Scratches, The Crazy Critters First Visit, and Where's the Avocado? published by Black Rose Writing. She has published 8 children's books through her company Changemakers Kids and is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. She does workshops on self-publishing and creativity. She also helps clients write books as a ghostwriter and self-publish or find publishers and agents. Her websites are www.changemakerspublishgandwriting.com and www.ginigrahamscott.com.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCING THE NEW WORLD NEANDERTHALS AND THE GANG

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If you haven’t read the introductions to the Neanderthals in the first two books in this series: The Neanderthals Are Back: The Beginning and The New World Neanderthals: The Rise of the Force, this is a short introduction to who the Neanderthal were.  It will also explain why I wrote this series.

I started thinking about the Neanderthals after I wrote a book on current efforts to seek immortality and a longer life: The Science of Living Longer.  That book got me thinking about genetics, cryonics, DNA, and gene editing techniques.  Then, I started thinking about the many types of humans who were forerunners to who we are today.

And so I learned about the Neanderthals, who went extinct about 35,000 years ago after living successfully for over 200,000 years.  Then, that got me thinking about what might happen if with our new technologies the first Neanderthals could return, and I wrote about them in my first book The Neanderthals Are Back.

In the book, two scientists bring six Neanderthals back through cloning and raise them in a lab with the help of a nursery school teacher.  When they are five or six, the scientists place them in a group home for kids.  Later, the Neanderthals grow up in foster homes, go to school, have romantic relationships as teens and young adults, and find jobs doing unskilled work.  Along the way, they experience the challenges of everyday life in modern society, though with the added challenge of being Neanderthals.  And a few get a genius pill, so they become very smart, at least for a while or longer.

Then, I imagined that if this effort to bring back the Neanderthals was successful, other entrepreneurs and scientists would continue the process.  That was the beginning of The New World Neanderthal Series and the first story in the series: The Rise of the Force.  It begins when the owner of a company manufacturing robots and using them for shipping decides to create a workforce of Neanderthals, since they will be more productive and cost-effective.  After that program proves successful and word of it spreads, some detectives decide they could use a team of Neanderthals to help them find and capture criminals who have eluded their efforts.  Once these Neanderthals prove their worth, they take part in a series of other missions, and face challenges and danger along the way. 

The Rise of the Gang builds on this story, based on a criminal gang leader deciding to create his own gang of Neanderthals with the help of scientists to commit crimes for profit and revenge and to counter the efforts of the team of Neanderthals working with the cops.  The stories in this series take off on this premise. 

Who Are the Neanderthals?

Who are the Neanderthals who have inspired these stories.  Here’s a brief recap, that you can skip if you have read the introductions to the Neanderthals in previous books.

Based on discoveries of their skeletons and bones at hundreds of sites in Europe and Southern and Central South Asia, the Neanderthals lived from 250,000 to 350,000 years ago.  For a time, they appear to have lived separately from Homo sapiens.  Then, about 100,000 to 30,000 years ago, some Neanderthals interbred with humans, so modern humans have about 2% Neanderthal DNA.  About 30,000 to 40,000 years ago they went extinct, perhaps due to the superior skills of Homo sapiens in a climate that was becoming colder.

But before they disappeared, Neanderthals were very successful strong, fierce hunters, who hunted all types of game, including the mammoth and woolly rhinoceros.  They were skilled at hunting in groups and used ambush hunting to trap their prey.  They had a language and the skills to communicate, so they could organize small groups to hunt down game.   They cut stones and turned them into hand axes and spear points they could use when they attacked their prey by charging in for the kill.  They had fire, too.

Mostly they lived in caves in small family groups that combined together into small communities of perhaps 10 to 15 families.  They appear to have buried their dead in their caves, and even had the beginnings of symbolic thinking and art in the form of handprints in red ochre found in some caves. 

Can the Neanderthals Come Back?

Based on recent scientific research, it is likely that Neanderthals can be brought back, though scientists debate whether they should do so.  The developments that make this possible are new technologies enabling scientists to extract DNA from bones and then using