Jean M. Auel

The Valley of Horses

The Clan of the Cave Bear

Leave 21st century London and go back to Ice Age Europe. Follow Ayla, a Cro-Magnon child who loses her parents in an earthquake and is adopted by a tribe of Neanderthal, the Clan. See how the Clan's wary suspicion is gradually transformed into acceptance of this girl, so different from them, under the guidance of its medicine woman Iza and its wise holy man Creb. Immerse yourself in a world dictated by the demands of survival in a hostile environment, and be swept away in an epic tale of love, identity and struggle.

Lucy Marshall

Amazing and awesome and I absolutely loved it. Definitely a bit of a slow burner at the start but even then it’s written so well and so detailed and it’s just such a different story than I’m used to reading that I couldn’t put it down! I need to read all the rest of the series now!

The clan of the cave bear

this one took me a while to get into but i did really enjoy it. i’m also reading a book called kindred, which is also about neanderthals, but there are 40 years between the writing of the two books, and new research has changed our understanding of them significantly. this did make reading clan of the cave bear a bit jarring for me, but while i disagree with some of the ways that the neanderthals were characterised, i love that the author still showed them a lot of respect, and made their intelligence clear. the writing was very emotive, the characters were compelling, and i did fall in love with this vision of the upper palaeolithic. i had a slow start with this book but i read the vast majority of it in one day, and enjoyed the experience immensely. i’m looking forward to where ayla goes next.

wren

Jaymie Lemke

One of my all time favorite books. I have read it many times.

Vilde

The first book in the Earth's Children book series, which is one of my favourite book series of all-time, although this book is actually the one that I like the least (which I'll get back to later). 

I absolutely love Auel's narration of a fictional prehistorical time; the society, the culture, the religion/beliefs and etc. Although I can see the critism over her tendency to give the reader an information overload several times throughout this book, and the book series. But I rather appreciate that fact, as I consider it as a part of her writing style. It's startling to see how much this fictional novel reflects our own society, and a lot of the same issues, we can still see in our world today. Even though my strong fascination and enjoyment to read and listen to this book series again and again. I find myself time and time again rolling my eyes at Auel's repeated repetitions, this is perhaps not that evident in her first book, but by the second book, you'll get a lot of repetitions. The entire series is also... very, very mature. There's a ton of sex in this series, and there's a lot of non-consensual sex in this book, which is one of the reasons why this book is the least liked of the book series for me. It's perhaps this first society that our main character Ayla is in, that leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth. It's like a mirror of the time where women were nothing but a property of a man, meant to cook, clean "the house", have children, and be there for the slightest hint of a need or want to a man.

Ayla, an injured and orphaned child adopted by a primitive tribe, carries within her the seed and hope of humankind in this epic of survival and destiny set at the dawn of prehistory. Reissue.

A Novel

Sarah Ryan

3.5 stars. I found it hard to get into initially - the prose style hopped about a lot. But I enjoyed the story and the characters were well written; fulfilling the very black-and-white roles reflective of the clan’s minds.

Isabella Brouwer

In the beginning a bit boring, alot of descriptions of things I actually didn't mind knowing, causing me to sometimes feeling like I was reading a History assingnment. But even though that irritated me I thought it was a nice book, I wouldn't recommend it, maybe only if you're very patient, as this book is one you should be very patient with.

Amber Laha

Christina Baltimore 

I finished this book and pondered on it a bit before writing this review. I really liked this book. I found the Cave Bear Clan's culture interesting and I enjoyed the story of Ayla's addition to the Clan. Most of all I enjoyed reading about the day-to-day life of the characters. I found their reactions to Ayla very interesting. I would recommend this book to others and it is easily a book that I would read again. 

I personally have decided not to continue with the series for a few reasons. The biggest reason is that I really enjoyed reading about Ayla and the Cave Bear Clan together. I found the clan very interesting. Ayla is a human and I understand more of what life can be like for her. Prior to this book, I had never thought about the day-to-day neanderthal life. I found myself very interested in how they would deal with the events at the end of the book. I was thoroughly invested in the story and Ayla's future with the clan or at the very least, the clan's future after Ayla left. I would have continued with the series if there were parallel stories that described the aftermath. When the book came to a close and I realized that the direction of the future books were of Ayla finding her way away from the clan and in search of love, I simply lost interest. I can imagine her re-acquaintance with her kind and how she will adjust. What I can't imagine is what happens to the clan and how this author could have written those events. This is just left dangling. I know what happened to Neanderthals from history books but I was invested in this Clan and wanted to know more about the downfall that led to their demise. Even if they didn't continue on through the extinction of Neanderthals in general, I would have liked to know more about their future struggles and how they cope with the obvious mistakes of the new leader. It was obvious that no one in the clan trusted him and they all felt his actions were wrong. I don't believe that once Ayla was gone, they all just fell in line and followed their inadequate leader. However, if that had happened, I would have liked to known more about them and how they moved forward. 

Overall, this is a good book and well worth reading but if you expect to learn more about the clan in future books you will be disappointed. If you would like to read more of Ayla's struggles, then books two, three and four are a good continuation of Ayla's life and re-connection with her kind. I did not read all of book 2 and have only read summaries and discussed the later books. I've been told that after book four it is all downhill as far as good books are concerned. I choose to stop after book one because I did not care for the sole focus of Ayla's future.

An injured and orphaned infant carries within her the seed and hope of mankind in this epic of survival and destiny set at the dawn of prehistory.

Carla Aquino

Ohhh-M-Geeee!!! This book was so good! The tensions between Ayla and Broud geesh. I just can't even explain in words how much I loved this book. I'm going to buy the rest of the series ASAP!!! Thank you for recommending this book...it's the second book recommended to me by my coworker that has been awesome! And to think this came out 1980 and I never heard of it until this year! Insane!!!

Geneviève Rouleau

This book is heavily researched and detailed, it is simply amazing. I thought the first half was very long and hard to get into, but I was warned that these elements were essential to understand the rest of the series. The second half had a lot more action, and the end left me heartbroken. I'm really looking forward to reading the next book.

Lauren James

I really struggled between one and two stars. I ended up with one star because it was so unbelievably boring! The concept is interesting even though I don't believe in evolution. I would have liked this a lot more if it was more entertaining. There is no way I can make it through five more books.

The Clan of the Cave Bear The Valley of Horses

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