No, this book is not perfect.

Perhaps it might seem a bit immature in places to some readers.

However, in the long run, this will turn out to be one of the books that you may end up thinking of as a classic.

There are 6 books in the series.

The first one, "The Clan of the Cave Bear", was published in 1980.

Then came "The Valley of Horses" in 1982, "The Mammoth Hunters" in 1985, "The Plains of Passage" in 1990, "The Shelters of Stone" in 2002, and finally "The Land of Painted Caves" in 2011.

While every book seems to go a bit downhill from the first one (at least the last 3 books seem to in my opinion), they actually provide a platform in which Ayla, our main character, grows.

This first book truly shows how the author had researched the Ice Age (Europe during the Upper Paleolithic Age) to write this. You can tell that she did her own physical research too.

The story is an interesting one. It begins with an earthquake that leaves our main character, a Cro-Magnon child, lost at about 5 years old. After being mauled by a cave lion, she is found by a group of Neanderthals and her life is saved.

She now grows up in a very difficult situation which ends up being sort of - modern man vs prehistoric man. If you read this book, towards the end you will see why I say it like that.

The growth of the character Ayla shows very dramatically in this first novel, especially if you consider she was only about 11 or so when she had her first child. Throughout the series, you will see her growing more and more as she goes off to find "her own people".

Most people felt that the last book was a cop out, but I happened to find it a gentle conclusion after so many long years of waiting. I hadn't been happy with the last several books, so the last one did not surprise me at all.

I am now off to re-read the entire series!

Happy Reading!

Suddenly, with a magician's flourish, he produced a skull. He held it high over his head with his strong left arm and turned slowly around in a complete circle so each man could see the large, distinctive, high-domed shape. The men stared at the cave bear's skull glowing whitely in the flickering light of the torches.

Contemporary anthropology can be quite confusing, and science may have disproved some of what’s on display here. However, this novel does give the impression that it was well researched. At any rate, let’s leave it at that. After all, it’s still just a story, and an historical-fantasy at that.

We all know the story by now. A Cro-Magnon girl is orphaned by an earthquake and is adopted by a Neanderthal clan. Drama and intrigue follow. It’s no surprise that emphasis is placed on the differences, and perceived differences, between H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens.

This book was quite popular in its day. It also seems to be引发 all kinds of debate. The reviews on Goodreads alone make for interesting reading, and there is more than a little contradiction. Is the book racist? Is the book sexist? Is the book factually correct? More importantly, is the book any good?

The intimacies of clan interaction are set against a terrifically epic backdrop of prehistoric (paleolithic) Europe. The author does a good job of conveying the solitude; you really do get the sense that there are not many people around. However, expect a bit of an infodump. There are pages and pages of descriptions of plants and their medicinal properties. If you can skip-read over these, you’ll finish the book in half the time I did.

It’s an interesting story, but it’s also somewhat cyclical. Some events seem to be repeated in one form or another throughout the story. Season follows season; day to day depictions of paleolithic Neanderthal life serve as a backdrop for the power struggle between Ayla and Broud. Wash, rinse, repeat.

One thing that reviewers seem to be avoiding is the rape scene in the story. I found it quite brutal, especially given the context (the victim is a 10-year-old girl). Even though it does serve to move the story along, I would have expected the author to show a bit more sensitivity in the writing. The reason I’m mentioning this incident specifically is because it did affect my reading experience. Perhaps this was the author’s intention, to set a more sinister tone for the rest of the novel.

In the end, it’s a testament to the novel’s staying power that I still enjoyed it despite its flaws. With a few tweaks and edits, it could have been great. As it is, it’s still very good. 3.5 Stars. Read as part of the must-read agreement with my wife – 2015.

This is an outstanding novel; it truly qualifies as a masterpiece.

I have a profound affection for the entire series, yet I firmly believe that this particular book is by far the best within it. Even though it can stand alone, I became utterly captivated and have been eagerly anticipating each new installment in the series. I sincerely hope that Auel concludes this remarkable series!

I have a great admiration for these epic books. I have a deep appreciation for stories that fall into the genres of historical fiction or fantasy, where a complex society and intricate details regarding the lives of the inhabitants are vividly described.

I feel that I have gained an extensive amount of knowledge about the evolution and differences between Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon people. I was able to clearly discern the traits and personalities of homo-sapiens within both groups, which made this not only a fun but also an emotionally engaging read.

I adored everything about Ayla and a great deal about her new tribe as well. I loved learning about how herbs, foods, and medicines were utilized and prepared, and I was both surprised and excited by the level of expertise demonstrated. While I am aware that the "facts" presented here involve some speculation, in my opinion, Auel has conducted more than sufficient research.

You know what...

This has been on my 'to-read' list for years... years and years and years, and yet I only just got to it...

WELL

It was worth the wait!

This is the story of a young child called Ayla who is born over 35,000 years ago during Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon times. Ayla, a Cro-Magnon, is adopted by a group of Neanderthal people when they find her stranded and abandoned after a heavy snowfall and a great Earthquake. Ayla has managed to reach a Cave where she was chased by (but evaded) a Cave Lion. Many of the Neanderthals in this story believe in the Gods and signs/omens from their Totems, one of which is the great Cave Lion, mighty beyond nearly all others. As this young girl has been marked by a Cave Lion and survived, they deem it acceptable (even positive) to take her along with them.

Ayla is taken with the Clan (as they call themselves) to a new cave far from the place where the Quake happened and she lost her own people. At first, the others in the Clan are afraid of her blue eyes and the water she produces when she's sad. However, as time passes and the years go by, she becomes integrated into their small community. This is the story of her culture clashing and melding with theirs. It's what occurs when two entirely different races and cultures meet in the form of one young girl, and it's the story of how Ayla defied everything they could ever have anticipated for her.

What I truly loved about this story was the poise and clarity that Auel gives these characters. There's evidently a great deal of research that went into these characters, and they do feel like highly plausible beings who may once have walked our very same Earth.

At many points in the story, Auel points out various problems with anatomy, struggles with ideas, and challenges of build that both the Clan and Ayla have respectively. It made me really start to think about how things that seem so basic, simple, and easy to us today are the products of years and ages of evolution and development from beings much like these.

Auel's writing reminds me of Lois McMaster Bujold's fantasy, J.V. Jones (though maybe this is more in terms of setting than prose), and even Robin Hobb to some extent. I think all of these authors share something about the quality and unique authenticity of their writings, and it just registers with me really well.

I loved the character of Ayla right from the start, probably because she is much more like me and has many of the traits that will no doubt develop into humanity as we know it today. Ayla is resourceful and filled with a desire to develop, learn, and be excited by the world, something the Clan find hard to comprehend, let alone to emanate.

Of course, the magic described by Auel is certainly imagined more than researched, but there may well be grains of truth scattered in. The idea of gods and Totem animals as guiding factors for life certainly seems plausible as belief systems for societies like this one, and even the rituals and strange occurrences could relate to magic.

I really enjoyed the creativity and ingenuity Auel brought to the Clan and their magic, and I feel like it worked really well as a vital part of the story and culture for this world.

Honestly, I could go on for quite some time with all the things I completely loved about this book, but I think I'll finish by saying it's great and you should read it for yourself. I am so glad that there are quite a few more in the series as I have a feeling I am going to love the rest too, and I can't wait to read them. 5*s

The only elements that hold any semblance of accuracy in this book are found within the countless infodumps. The facts might have been meticulously researched, but the concepts that Auel is promoting are both scientifically unfounded and highly unpleasant.

Primarily, her perspective on evolution should be shielded from our impressionable youth. They, lacking better knowledge, might be led to believe that evolution has a purpose, which is but a short step away from the idea of intelligent design. Phrases such as "nature's experiment", "in an effort to postpone extinction nature tried...", and even "destiny" constantly crop up. Consider this: no one can say for sure what led to the extinction of the Neanderthals, but it was most likely a combination of external and entirely random factors. It could have been something like being pushed through a bottleneck by disease and then being struck by a climate change - just an example, and it could just as easily have happened to us; it could even still occur.

I was initially going to cite the entire "genetic memory" as a second example, but upon further thought, it's blatantly obvious that this is firmly in the realm of fantasy, leaving speculative fiction far in the dust.

However, even when regarded as a work of literature, this falls significantly below par. The writing is needlessly repetitive and redundant, and constantly referring to the thesaurus doesn't enhance it. The tone and atmosphere are nonexistent. Whenever a weak attempt is made to establish either, an infodump or a disruptively modern, scientific-sounding term pops up. And every single inference is spelled out for us supposedly stupid Cromagnons - wait, we're innovative and brilliant Cromagnons, not at all bound by tradition, never, never...

And let's not forget the whole "white supremacy" message. I'll concede that Ayla being a blue-eyed blonde while everyone else is relatively dark-skinned might just be the author's way of working out a kink, making her "ugly" when we know she's actually beautiful, and not truly racist. But as far as I'm concerned, she could be bright green and still have offensively "white" connotations. Do you really enjoy reading about someone who excels at everything, and I mean everything, solely by virtue of her birth? Mastering all the Neanderthal skills of both sexes as a child, inventing new things, not sacrificing anything in the emotional aspect of her life with all that intellect, and even being the only one to sense the earthquake! So what's the challenge? What could form an effective plot with a protagonist like that and an antagonist like a small piece of carefully blacked tough-cured hide? Ayla always wins and is always the best. I'm certain that even the slowest reader would have grasped that after about five repetitions, and we get scores of them.

This is the kind of book that some people recommend to young readers, thinking that the repetitions and the spelled-out inferences are aimed at them. In reality, both are harmful to them, disabling them as interested and active readers and conditioning them to like bad literature in general. It's a pity there's so little fiction set in the prehistoric era - otherwise, this wouldn't have been nearly as popular.

***

Update: I took a look at the reviews for the subsequent books in this series and discovered that there's no mention of the fate of Broud's clan. What? At the end of the book, their situation is almost as precarious as Ayla's. What would they do next? While the clan consists of not very well-developed, often interchangeable characters, I was disappointed to find that even the author herself doesn't seem to care about what becomes of them. Only the blue-eyed girl matters, that's right. This would make me rate this book even lower if that were possible.

Ugh.

Throughout my entire childhood, this particular book remained tantalizingly off-limits on my parents' bookshelf. I was that kid who devoured "White Fang" a whopping 9 times in just one year, so you can imagine my eagerness to hop aboard the train of its primitive-wilderness-and-spunky-heroine allure. However, I was flat-out not allowed to do so. Apparently, some of its scenes were judged to be 'too graphic' by my parents. (Now, looking back, I have a better understanding of why.)

This past fall, I finally managed to purchase it at a discount paperback book store. But here's the thing - I still haven't been able to finish it in a whole year. The prose? Ugh. It's just so lackluster and unappealing. The nature-porn cheesiness? Double ugh. It's overdone and bordering on the ridiculous. And the heavy-handed foreshadowing? Triple ugh. It's so blatant that it takes away any element of surprise.

Alas, the book of my childhood dreams has truly let me down. It's a disappointment that I never expected, considering how much I had built it up in my mind all those years.

So, I read this book during my high school days, and it was truly amazing.

It tells the story of a little girl named Ayla who becomes an orphan and is left alone in prehistoric times. She is then picked up and raised by Neanderthals. They consider her ugly and strange, but in fact, she is a breathtakingly beautiful, tall blonde woman with long legs. She is simply living among a group of less evolved people who don't recognize her beauty. (I think I loved this book because I could relate it to my own life. I believe I am much more attractive than people give me credit for.)

Anyway, she grows up, leaves the Neanderthals, meets her own people, and falls in love with a hot tall blonde guy named Jondalar. They have many adventures together. There is a lot more to the story, and I found the book extremely fascinating. I really want to read all the other books in the series. I don't know why I haven't found the time over the years. I have read at least part of the second book in the series, maybe even all of it. Oh, if only the internet had been available in high school and I had known about this website, I would remember for sure!

Now, here's an embarrassing story about this book. About 3 - 4 years ago, I went to an Enrichment (a church women's meeting), and they were having a book sharing activity. Everyone brought good books, and we shared ideas about what to read. When it was my turn to share a book I really liked, I mentioned this one. Another (very nice) girl at the table then said, "That book actually has a lot of really passionate parts in it, I believe." (In other words, that book has some really steamy love scenes.) I said, "Oh, really? Ummmm. well... I read it a long time ago, I guess I forgot about those." (What I really meant was, "Crap, I shouldn't have mentioned a book with R-rated parts at a church activity.") The girl said, "Well, you were a teenager when you read it. You probably didn't understand what they were talking about." I replied, "Yep." (Actually, it would be almost impossible not to have known what they were talking about.)

So, anyway, I was completely embarrassed. Then about a year ago, it occurred to me: WAIT A MINUTE. If she knows there were "passionate parts" in it, then SHE READ THE BOOK TOO. And obviously, she didn't stop at the first sign of a "passionate part," or she wouldn't have known that there were multiple passionate parts. Right? RIGHT!

Basically, she incriminated herself along with me. If she was smart, she would have just pretended never to have heard of the book.

As another side note, I believe I mentioned in a recent book review on here that I have never belonged to a real-life book club, I just talk about books on here. Well, that's because the girl I mentioned in the previous paragraphs has been in charge of the book club in my ward for years. I'm afraid she'll ask for book suggestions, and I'll suggest one with swear words in it or something.

This novel is the first book of what will be a saga of another five.

Set in prehistory, it will narrate the life of Ayla, our protagonist.

Ayla loses her Homo Sapiens family due to an earthquake and is rescued by the shaman, another very important character in the story, of a different species.

Ayla is accepted by the clan, and we will live with her through her first years of life, seeing how some treat her with contempt for being different, while others with great affection. The little one will suffer a lot during her coexistence as she wants to be recognized and know who she is.

So we will experience the customs of this clan, the setting of the time, the way of life, and the way of relating, taking into account that everything belongs to an invented story since there are no data on this period, although all the work behind it can be seen.

For me, this novel has a feminist touch, a world where men clearly rule and women are treated as inferior beings, but Ayla arrives and revolutionizes everything because she always wants to do what she likes and what she wants, and that is sometimes not something for women…

The downside, and why it doesn't get five stars, is that there are moments that become very repetitive. The theme of rituals and religion is used for everything, and there are parts that are a bit of a mess.

But the ending is magnificent, a perfect ending to start the second part.

Overall, this novel offers an interesting look into a prehistoric world and the life of its protagonist. Despite its flaws, it manages to engage the reader and leave them eager for more.

This was an extremely fantastic book.

I read it when I was in 7th grade, and I was completely and utterly obsessed with it.

It's truly stunning because at that age, most books that didn't have dragons seemed not worth my time at all.

In a sense, it's perfect for around that age as it's all about the struggle for acceptance and the attempt to learn the social norms of a society.

But in reality, everybody has dealt with those issues and will be able to empathize with the characters.

Moreover, the setting is so unique and the writing is so vibrant that I imagine most people will find themselves highly engaged.

However, the rest of the series isn't nearly as good.

"Valley of the Horses" is somewhat fun but it lacks depth.

I actually stopped reading them after the third book in the series.

It has been approximately a decade since I last read this story.

Recently, I decided to pick it up again and give it another go. To my great surprise and delight, the experience of re-reading it was even better than I remembered.

The story, which I had initially found quite engaging, now seemed to have an even deeper charm. The characters came to life more vividly in my mind, and I was able to appreciate the nuances of the plot and the author's writing style on a whole new level.

It was as if I was seeing the story through a new lens, and every page revealed something new and wonderful. I found myself completely immersed in the world of the story, forgetting about everything else around me.

Re-reading this story has truly been a rewarding experience, and I'm so glad that I took the time to do it. It has reminded me of the power of a good book to transport us to another place and time and to touch our hearts in ways that we never thought possible.

This was one of the first "grown-up" books I read, along with The Thorn Birds, excluding Harlequins.

To be honest, I didn't have a great affection for it and I didn't even bother to read all the sequels. However, I still remember my friends chatting animatedly about it.

During that time, I had already discovered the wonderful works of Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, and Ken Follett. Their books provided me with a wealth of reading materials and opened up a whole new world of literature for me.

I was completely immersed in their stories, losing myself in the fictional universes they had created.

Although this particular book didn't capture my heart, it was still an important part of my reading journey, as it led me to explore other amazing authors and their works.

It shows that sometimes, even if a book doesn't resonate with us immediately, it can still have a significant impact on our literary tastes and preferences.

Looking back, I'm grateful for the diverse range of books I've read and the experiences they've given me.

Each one has contributed to my growth as a reader and has helped shape my understanding of the power and beauty of literature.

I have a special connection with this book. When I was a teenager, I absolutely loved it.

It had such a profound impact on me that, indirectly, it influenced my decision to pursue a BA in Anthropology.

At that time, the book seemed to open up a whole new world of knowledge and understanding for me.

However, now, 25 years later, something has changed.

Perhaps it is the Anthropology degree that I obtained, which has made the book unreadable for me.

The concepts and ideas that once fascinated me now seem simplistic or outdated.

It's strange how time and education can change our perspective on things.

Nevertheless, I still remember the excitement and inspiration that this book brought to me during my teenage years.

It will always hold a special place in my heart as a significant part of my personal and intellectual journey.