Jean M. Auel: The Earth's Children Series

[Deerskin]

Any Auel fans here?

I first picked up The Clan of the Cave Bear aged about fourteen and read it every summer for years before I read the next three. I think that as a 'stand alone' book it's one of my all-time favourites - I can't remember any book which ever made me cry so much (with the possible exception of Anne of Green Gables!).
The rest of the series is, IMHO, a lot weaker, although there are several strands in the overall story which I am particulary interested in and I will definately be reading the last two (waiting for the Shelters of Stone in paperback - has anyone read it yet?).

I love the way that Auel has 'created'/researched a world and given the reader so much detail about all aspects of life in the Ice Age - from hunting and cooking techniques to medicine and religion. The people of the clan are 'real' enough to earn the sympathy of the reader, while being different enough to provide a contrast to Ayla and create the feeling of her isolation from her own kind. Outside of the immediate story of Ayla there are other fascinating themes like the extreme results of evolution and the development of a species.

Any comments?

 

[Prolixic]

I've read all but the lastest one. The first two, Clan of the Cave Bear and The Valley of the Horses are my favorites. I found myself very sympathetic with Ayla's struggle to fit in with the Clan and then eventually being forced to make her own way in the first. In the second it was just the sheer wonder of her coming up out of the depths of depression about her losses and find that there was something to live for.

However, toward the end of Valley and throughout the rest of the books it seems that sex takes over and (IMHO) it reads more like a romance novel. In spite of that she tells a very possible tail in plausible circumstances. It could have happened.

 

[lies]

I read the series a few years back, and I must say, after The Valley of the Horses (I even think that was the first book I read in English) she kinda lost my interest. I'm still gonna read the fifth (waiting for the paperback as well), but I doubt she'll be able to capture me like she did in the first two books.

Has anybody read that other series, by Joan Cline (William Sarabande)? It already has twelve volumes I think (I only made it to the fourth), but the first book is so much like Jean Auel's books.