I circled around this series for a long time,

unable to decide if it was something I was interested in or not. However, it's been recommended to me many times, so I began to pick up the book second hand over a few years.

As ever, it was the first books that I took a while to find.

It was an unexpectedly brilliant read. I thought I would enjoy it,

I didn't go in with the idea that it would be dull or a waste of time, but I hadn't counted on the intensity of it.

It's got a soap opera feel to it in some ways maybe, but it's done in an epic, rather believable (for this reader at least) way.

Of course everything is dramatic, and like many books the heroine experiences a dizzyingly vast array of disasters and misfortunes.

It's not really a spoiler to say that she loses her entire family, and all her people, right at the beginning. And then wanders lost and starving.

And then is attacked by a cave lion - and at this point the book is just getting started. But I bought into it all, and was riveted.

This was a very creative book, filling in history that in many ways is unknowable with ideas that make sense.

Ayla's life with the Neanderthal Clan who find her is endlessly fascinating, and I especially loved anything featuring Creb, my favourite character.

There are harrowing details aplenty, violence of all kinds, including sexual, lots of hunting (which I had expected) and an environment that is harsh but also beautiful.

I noticed some readers don't love the information heavy aspects of the novel, but for me these were a highlight.

I realise these books are fiction, so I'm not claiming this series will make me any kind of expert, but the author has clearly done her research and her passion for the knowledge she has accumulated and woven into her story shows.

I spent a lot of time Googling various things she mentioned, and that in itself added to my level of involvement in the world she was building.

I also didn't expect the hunting scenes to be so interesting. Although I have no desire to follow suit,

it was incredible to read about the hunts, and even learning something about ancient weapons.

It's not all killing, there is much focus on gathering as well, and herbal medicine, which was interesting and was another topic I was looking up online as I read.

The initially small ways in which Ayla began to grow into herself, and push back against the Clan was inspiring.

When she began hunting in secret, practicing with her slingshot until she was better than the men, I cheered her on, while feeling a great deal of worry for her.

I also had sympathy for the clan. As time goes on the differences between Ayla and her adopted family become more stark.

Yet neither are truly at fault - they are simply different.

Well, I say neither are truly at fault, but in reality, Broud cannot be excused by mere difference.

He is a bully - and I could use many other, stronger words to describe him. I'll stick with bastard.

I realise most stories have a villain. Jean M. Auel really delivered with this one.

Some people might find the repeated rape difficult to read (I did and I am not overly sensitive [I don't think] about these things, especially historical fiction) but I also think realistically this would have been a weapon used.

It still is a weapon used. However, if this a topic you struggle with, I would skip this book.

When Ayla eventually has her son, I knew, as I'm sure most readers did too, especially when it becomes clear what a good mother she is and how devoted she is,

that she was likely to be separated from this child somehow. I was anticipating this, and it was still an emotional blow when it finally happened.

In some ways having the echo of the opening of the novel was a little on the nose, yet I also thought it worked.

And this time, though alone again, Ayla is not a little girl, she is skilled, capable, and has been told to search for her own people.

There is a kind of hope in that ending - and I was glad I had a copy of the second book to resume the story!

There were many other things I loved - the relationship between Ayla and her adopted mother, Iza and the information Iza shares with Ayla about medicine and healing.

I loved the landscapes, the family dynamics, the spiritual ceremonies, even if one did make me feel physically sick.

Most of all I loved the totems, spirit animals and the signs. I am someone who is rather practical in may ways, but also drawn to things like signs,

and Ayla's experience with the signs that guide her was oddly resonant (though I've never had to contend with a cave lion) as was the attitude she took to keep herself going during the gruelling challenges she faced.

In a way I think the novel focuses on resilience, and perhaps learning some independence.

But it's also set up so she will use that independence to find her people, so it's not this idea that you don't need anybody, but maybe that you shouldn't be entirely dependent on them.

Or maybe I am over-thinking it!

Anyway, I loved this book. It's taken me months to review it (eleven months actually),

so I've probably left out points I originally intended to make, but do remember a fair bit, especially that I read this at an ideal time,

and it was clarifying and enlightening about things in my life that were utterly unrelated to the novel, yet were heavily influenced by it anyway.

I am grateful to Jean M. Auel for that, and also for writing a hugely entertaining and interesting story.

This book and the series that follows is truly endearing, troublesome, and whole-heartedly compassionate.

It holds a special place in my heart as it is the very book my grandmother read to me as a little girl during the middle of a tornado. We huddled together, waiting out the storm by the soft glow of candlelight.

This book was the catalyst that started me on my reading journey... really reading.

From it, I learned that I can cherish my quiet time. Apparently, I have a deep love for stories about the ancient human race, our beginnings.

The ways of survival, the paths of development, natural medicine, culture, and anthropology all fascinate me.

The flavor of this book is distinctly 'tribal', but the sentiment and the moral it conveys is profound. It tells us that "the totem that chooses you can present many hardships and challenges, but the gifts are worth it."

This simple yet powerful message has stayed with me throughout the years and has influenced my perspective on life.

Circa 30,000 years ago, in the regions around the expansive Black Sea, which would later become part of Europe, a cataclysmic event took place.

This was not an entirely uncommon occurrence in that area, but for the superstitious Ice Age people, it was a truly devastating incident.

A family of Cro-Magnons, the first modern humans and our direct ancestors, was wiped out near a small river, except for a little girl named Ayla, who was just five years old.

She loved to sneak away and joyfully jump into the stream at dawn, being a swimmer even before she could walk.

The shaking soil and rumbling sounds frightened the girl, and all her relatives, who were inside a lean-to hut, disappeared beneath the earth as if swallowed by a giant beast, never to be seen again.

Alone and not knowing how to survive or where to go, she wandered for days, drinking the clear waters of the river that she followed and eating anything edible nearby.

As she grew hungrier, her weakened body finally collapsed on the ground.

However, a small band of twenty Neanderthals, whose cave had also been destroyed in the earthquake and who had lost six of their members, were searching for another place to live.

They found the child, but she was an "Other", a strange species that they usually avoided.

This was easily done as the few scattered groups of men rarely encountered anyone else in the vast world.

Iza, the wise medicine woman, felt sorry for the little girl, who was all alone and nobody cared about.

She lifted her up and carried the orphan away, and thus Ayla was saved.

Brun, the bold leader of the clan and Iza's brother, was not happy about this but still let Ayla stay.

Her other sibling, Creb, the powerful spiritual chief of the band whom the rest of the tribe was afraid of, not just because he was born deformed but also because he radiated menace.

Half his body was affected, he was a cripple with only one leg working properly and one piercing eye on his hideous face.

These three ruled the Neanderthals, and Broud, the son of Brun and the heir apparent, took an instant and quite insane hatred towards Ayla.

Maybe it was because the helpless girl was from a strange, mysterious new people.

He thought they didn't resemble them and were a threat somehow.

For generations, the Others had not been seen until now, and they could compete later for the scarce food supply and the wild animal herds that constantly roamed the lonely steppes near the cold glaciers from the north.

They were always a danger too, and someday would start moving down again, killing everything in their path.

Life was very precarious in the primitive, prehistorical times.

The hunter-gatherer humans did not survive for long as it was a continuous struggle to keep warm, get an adequate amount of food and shelter, escape unknown illnesses with no cures, and there was no safety.

There was little compassion for strangers, especially from the "Others".

Ayla must adopt to her new clan, The Clan of the Cave Bear, learn a different language, unfamiliar customs, pray to unseen spirits, and fit in to endure.

She had no choice, but her blonde hair, tall stature, and weird, unattractive face would always remind the Neanderthals (less brutish and more intelligent than commonly believed) that she could never be like them.

This is an interesting tale of an ancient, long gone era, but will we ever know how accurate this depiction is?