The Humans

Read Time: 3 Minutes

The Humans by Matt Haig is a sci-fi-tinged meditation on what it means to be human, told through the eyes of an alien who starts off utterly horrified and bewildered by us humanity. He’s sent to Earth to prevent our advancement, which is about to take a giant leap forward thanks to Professor Andrew Martin solving the Riemann hypothesis.

The solution is so dangerous that an alien species who drink liquid nitrogen and teleport at will decide it could lead to humans conquering the universe. Seems like a bit of a leap, but okay, let’s go with that.

To stop this from happening, our alien narrator replaces Andrew Martin and takes over his life. The story is told like a report being filed back to his alien race to try to explain humanity to them. At first, the focus is generally on the utter absurdity of life on Earth. Typically, I’d enjoy whole “alien struggling to make sense of humanity” setup. Done right, it’s a clever way to hold a mirror up to ourselves (like the Strange Planet comics by Nathan W Pyle).

But in the early chapters, Haig lays it on so thick it felt more condescending than satire. Primitive this, embarrassing that… there’s just not enough warmth or wit behind the critique for it to land as funny.

As the story goes on, the alien’s perspective thankfully softens. He begins to see the beauty in our weird and irrational species, and the tone of the book changes along with him. There are touching moments and flashes of insight once he starts embracing the human side of who he is, and forming connections with people.

It’s a quieter, more reflective book by the end, and I appreciated that shift. I think if it just stayed human-bashing all the way through it it would have been a tough sell. Even so, I found it a bit underwhelming overall. The central conceit never quite sold me. I’m still not sure how solving a maths problem would lead to humanity becoming the scourge of the cosmos.

Well, I mean we’ve generally buggered up Earth pretty well so would like do the same on any other planet, but the universe is kinda big. I reckon the aliens would be safe.

Mark Meadows does a solid job with the narration again – he also did How to Stop Time, also by Matt Haig – and as before I have the same comments. Clean, professional, and a good tonal fit for the story. Still a little slow for my preferred listening speed.

The “Advice for a Human” section near the end had some lovely takeaways. A few were genuinely worth keeping in mind, others veered a bit too far into fridge-magnet territory Compared to other Matt Haig books I’ve enjoyed, this just didn’t have the same impact.

Not a bad listen, just not one that’s going to stick with me for long. A few nice moments, a bit of dry humour, and some late-stage warmth, but I doubt I’ll give this one another go.

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