The Clan of the Cave Bear, the Valley of Horses, the Mammoth Hunters, the Plains of Passage (Earths Children, #1-4) by Jean M. Auel

The Clan of the Cave Bear, the Valley of Horses, the Mammoth Hunters, the Plains of Passage (Earths Children, #1-4) Reviews

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  midnightfaerie

  *The Earth Children Series by Jean Auel are outstanding books. Along with Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, these are my favorite books. It’s a story of a girl named Ayla, who lived during the ice age in Europe. She gets seperated from her people by an earthquake and near death, gets found and rescued by the Clan of the Cave Bear people. A type of cave people that becoming extinct while Ayla’s race thrives. It tells of her story of fitting in, being raised by people so different, yet so similar, and her struggle to be like them without loosing herself. If they put as much money into them as they have Harry Potter, they would be as popular as Harry Potter. I often compare them to Harry Potter in that they are just all around good stories. Filled with love stories, action, and suspense, you get lost easily. And Auel’s supurb description of the time period makes you feel like you could be there, standing next to the glacier in all its beauty. Being such good stories, I’ve reread them many times. These are Auel’s life work and she has finally finished the last one of the series and it’s coming out in March of 2011. I can’t wait. As a side note, I have to mention the God-awful movie adaptation they made starring Darly Hannah years ago. Please don’t watch it. It is nothing like the book and goes so far as to do it a disservice by making people not want to read them. Auel’s research and detail in the history of the time period and landscape and her ability to tell the story in such rich detail makes this an instant and lasting classic. I can’t recommend these books enough.
  
  
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  Leia Spencer

  I love all historical fiction books, especially books about pre history. I have read all of these books and I can say that the first one is the best. The story is original with the two separate humanoids living at the same time. My biggest complain about the writing has always been the dialogs. And how the story is told twice, first in the narrative and then second in the dialogue. For example when the main character noticed that flint made sparks down by the river she ran back and told the exact same story we just read to her mate. I do not need to read a story twice. Too many times people are introduced over and over again by their blood relations. The reader would be told who a new character is, and then the characters are told who the new character is. I skip so much when I read these books. Often I miss entire paragraphs because I don't want to read the same thing again. If the writing could be edit down then the books would be much more enjoyable. I know that the author is very well researched on what the terrain would have been like and what type of plants would have grown and what their uses would have been used for. Because of all this knowledge it seems like she wants us to learn it all too. There are too many pages I skipped over because I was done with learning about goldenrod or lavender. The story dragged because of the lack of editing. Other than that I read the books because I enjoyed the storyline and the concept.
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  Ashlen Taylor

  I found Auel's writing style to be pretty annoying. She repeats herself to the point of ridiculous and the amount of descriptive language, particularly that describing the setting, can go on for pages. You'll have just finished eight pages detailing the tundra region and then up pops virtually the same environment a few pages on and she starts prattling on about low lying vegetation again. It was so hard to stop myself from skipping large chunks of these pretty sizeable novels.
  Having said this, I've read the entire Earth's Children series and largely enjoyed it. These books are barely disguised soft porn (I've learnt some pretty creative names for a woman's vagina) but they are well researched. I found them to be a really interesting insight into some theories behind the fall of the neanderthal man and the subsequent rise of cro-magnon. So, I say persevere.
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  Eh?Eh!

  Mom sure didn't know what this book contained back when she saw it on the Costco table and suggested it to me, resulting in an early unintentional softcore exposure. These books were favorites of mine for the terrific, pages long enumerations of gathering food, describing food, preparing food, serving food, and eating food. What does mammoth taste like? After reading these books you'll feel like you know. Also, you will be versed in mammoth anatomy, migration, and mating behavior. Deeply researched. The following books in the series don't read as well.
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  Nikki

  I read all the books in this series and yes they were very good.. I loved the story line...it was great to see how Ayla was able to survive with the Clan by adapting, then later in each of the various clans or tribes that she met .. It's her personal growth as a woman..It's very much a study of social life...though very similar to today in a sense that not everyone is accepted in their social environment.... Overall I enjoyed the books very much....my big negative issue about all the books is that far too often the book is over descriptive...I get wanting to describe the environment but please....Ayla getting from point A to point B would take pages and pages and pages of geographic description not to mention the vegetation .. At times it was just too much...seem like authors like to publish BIG books and use a lot filler. I also enjoyed checking out the actual area online to see some of the real site that are well documented... Very interesting!!!!! I absolutely still enjoyed all the books and would recommend these books to anyone.
  
  
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  Robin Cox

  so far so good. I read the rest of the series and find it fasicnating. You can almost believe that this was the way people lived back in the early days of humankind. I especially love the strong female characters. These books also bring me closer to my Mom who passed in 1999, they were a favorite of hers also.
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  Beth

  Awesome books! I've been reading these authors books for yrs!
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  Kurt Ellis

  I read this book series many years ago and immensely enjoyed it.
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  M.M. Strawberry Library & Reviews

  If you're going to read the Earth's Children series, I personally recommend you just stick with Clan of the Cave bear, but if you absolutely insist on going further, I feel that the first four (out of six books) are the best in the series. Things could drag on a bit in the third and fourth books but we still had plenty of good storylines, things don't really get bad until Book 5. So do yourself a favor and if you want to maintain fond memories of this series, stop with book 4.
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  Jane

  It's been a while since I read "Clan" but I definitely wasn't impressed. From my perspective it could have been titled, "Prehistoric female explores sexual rampage" and then I would have been forewarned not to pick it up. There is some redemption in the research and detail of the narrative, but I pretty much end it there. Sorry folks - not my cup of tea.
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  Asursomi

  Historical fiction that comes to mind continually as archeology and science report on a newly discovered aspect of the previous Homo Sapien condition.
  I'd read that Jean had embarked on extensive research, especially in the Urals. Sometimes.seems more historical fact than fiction.
  How differently the Flatheads and Others developed and survived is fascinating reading, to be sure.
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  Kristi Strelow

  Great if you're interested in anthropology, human ecology, culture, societies. Entertaining.
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  Merrie Muss

  I really enjoyed this series, there are actually 6 but I couldn't find the listing of all the series.
  I liked almost everything, I read some as books and listened on audible to others while I worked (artist). Extensively researched the science content is excellent; discussion of illness, anatomy, healing, food, domestic arrangements, travelling issues, and buildings etc are brilliant. It is a vast relief to read a historical/science fiction series (it really is a combination of the genres) which does not ignore, or presumably actually completely forget about, the extensive issues of day to day survival, food, clothing, shelter, heat, cooling, health, sex, pregnancy, birth, death, art, storytelling, education. So often historical and science fiction works (which I still love and read constantly) tell the story of power and conflict.
  Now for the negative side:
  A. The first few books really do labour the sex scenes a tad. Then again it simply forces you to remember how central sex is to our real lives. I had to take some of my own advice and focus on what is real in human life not on the usual content of stories. Then I really enjoyed the lengthy sex scenes. After all isn't so much of our adult life with our partners really about sex? Let's stop being precious and be more like the characters in this story.
  B. There is quite a lot of repetition, ok there is an awful lot. This is really the biggest fault of the books. I know that there is a convention of sorts that information in earlier novels is inserted into following novels in a series, but it can be done more subtly, and once only. I didn't bother counting but I'm certain that some information was re-inserted multiple times into the one novel. This becomes more pronounced in the last two books, and really quite astoundingly so in the last one: The Land of the Painted Caves. I actually stopped the book (listening at the time) and considered not going on at one point, but reminding myself that I really love so much else about the books, and wanted to hear where Auel took Ayla. I am aware that Auel was actually quite elderly by the time she wrote the last one, and this may explain the repetition: it is a mammoth book (oh yes I did) and the work would have been extensive. I did wonder often however how the blatant repetition of "info dumps" was not picked up by an editor. Is it as I suspect that as an author's series becomes highly successful the editors put less and less time into revision? I have seen that to be the case with Rowlings, and GRR Martin. Oh well they're all cracking reads, and none of us is perfect!
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  Climbedhighestmountain

  I've finished the first 4 books, ready to start the 5th. So it's time for a review. The story is good. The research is impressive. The writing, not so great.
  
  The good parts: It's fascinating to watch the development of early humans. Much of the story seems to be based on research and plausible guesses. The curiosity of some groups, but not others, the inventions, the language capabilities - all interesting. All interesting enough to keep me reading, despite the flaws listed below.
  
  The not so good parts:
  Many paragraphs have so many pronouns that it is difficult or impossible to tell to whom they refer. Let's try some proper names or clear antecedents some time soon.
  
  The descriptions of plants and landscape are highly detailed, and interesting in the first book. But then they go on and on and on. I skipped several pages at a time, many times, in each book.
  
  The sex among the "Others" seems unbelievable to me, with their high levels of care towards women, oral sex, levels of cleanliness, etc. The Clan's methods sound more realistic. Regardless, it's unnecessary after the first 3 times. I don't need 15 3-page descriptions of sex in each book.
  
  
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  Judy Bloomberg

  I loved this series. It is a great combination of a good story and an opportunity to learn more about prehistoric times. Obviously, some of the things are made up by the author (who obviously did not live in pre-historic times), but I was interested enough to do a little research afterwards, and much of what is in the book corresponds to what archeologists and scientists believe. It was interesting to learn, for example, that Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons really did live at the same time and may actually have interacted with each other.
  
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  Alyssa

  This series will always mean more to me than any other just because it was so dear to me as a middle schooler.
  
  If the descriptions of nature in The Plains of Passage bore you then I've got beef-- it is impressively researched immersive world building. If it becomes tedious, then think of it as a device to parallel the characters' experience on their incomprehensibly long journey. What else are you going to do when walking the entire length of paleolithic Europe besides observe nature?
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  Vero

  I really enjoyed those books.
  They gave an incredible insight into live thousands of years ago without being dry or boring at all.
  They were vivid like any good novel.
  
  I have to say, I liked the first one best.
  
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  Dena Gregoire

  Great series. Engaging page turners each and every one of them!
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  Miles

  EXCELLENT SERIES HOWEVER BEGAN TO GET REPETITIVE.
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  Stephanie Robinson

  If there were a 10th star, I'd mark it. It's such a great series and even better after reading it the second time around. The only downside is the exhaustive description of the landscape and botany.
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  Tracie Sneed

  Enjoyed my time with the Clan; adult only.
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  Marian

  Great, just great.
  I read them all when they first came out, in the 70's.
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  Ellie Finlay

  Good fun. Page turners.
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  Maddy

  unrealistic, not all women bleed after having sex for the first time