Rating: 
Summary: Loved book #2 and can't wait to read #3....
Review: The clan of the cave bear and the valley of the horses were both great. I was a little skeptical to start reading this series at first, don't ask why, but I was. Now I am glad that I did. The character development is awesome.... You feel like you are there.
Rating: 
Summary: A truly disappointing sequel
Review: I felt that Clan of the Cave Bear was a work of literary genius. Naturally, I couldn't wait for the sequel. Clan of the Cave Bear was a fascinating intellectual insight into the lives of prehistoric humans. Unfortunately, The Valley of Horses has none of that. In my opinion, The Valley of Horses was a tepid story that took a severe nosedive at the end. There is none of the rich tension that made Clan of the Cave Bear so irresistable. The plot of The Valley of Horses is thin and utterly predictable and the book then disintegrates into a lifeless, suspenseless work of dull pornography. Those readers who loved "Clan" would do well to skip this one.
Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: This is a great book. It is interesting as Auel has obviously put a lot of research into it.
Rating: 
Summary: old stuff back again
Review: little new stuff mainly (70%) rewrighting on the last abook
Rating: 
Summary: thought-provoking and gripping
Review: After really enjoying the Clan of the Cave Bear, I was slightly apprehensive about the next book as it left the familiarity of the clan and focused more on contact with the Others. However, the writer did a good job of keeping my interest with Ayla's storyline - initially, I wondered whether it would still be gripping now that Ayla had settled in one place and was very much alone, but the descriptions of her new discoveries were fascinating, if slightly unbelievable that they all occurred so close to each other, and with such fortuitous timing. I also found Ayla's self-monologues a bit distracting at times, although it did reinforce how alone she was.
My problem was with Jondalar's storyline - as the book progressed, I found myself identifying less and less with his character, partly because of the way he was portrayed as so sexually driven (graphic details of the sex scenes jolted a bit). Also, I felt his character was quite flat, despite that half the book was devoted to building it and his culture up. The writer spent a lot of the chapters about the Others describing in detail their society and crafts, and the book creaked under the weight of getting all that information across at times (for example, the in-depth description of boat-building dragged for me).
I had been looking forward to the meeting between Ayla and Jondalar ever since it became clear that was what the book was leading up to, but I thought it was quite a let-down in reality. Ayla's sudden grasp of the language (through a dream?!) was jarring and unbelievable, although I did like the scene where Jondalar's prejudice about the 'Flatheads' was finally revealed.
In summary, the book was very good, but at times there was too much detail about a certain event or procedure; the reader lost touch with the central human and character-based side of the novel. I felt like the book switched too much from almost non-fictional explanation suddenly to a character passage, and consequently I never felt, especially with the Jondalar plotline, that I really knew much about the character - we never got deep enough into their thoughts and feelings, and some of the emotional passages weren't satisfying enough for me. However, I have given this book 4 stars, so it was good - I've just concentrated on its negative aspects, but despite its flaws it's a gripping and entertaining story and I'm keen to read the rest in the series.
Rating:
Summary: The Great Goddess
Review: ... From the eye-opening Clan of the Cave Bear to the serene Valley of Horses, from the thought-provoking Mammoth Hunters to the uplifting Plains of Passage, readers are immersed into the world of a young girl as she is transformed into a teenage mother and high-spirited woman -- her heart, her mind, her values, her fears, her triumphs. Losing her family after an earthquake, blond-haired and bluish-gray-eyed Ayla is raised by creatures of the land far different from her. They call themselves the Clan, but the white men call them "flatheads" -- or worse, "animals." In the Earth's Children series, Ayla is more than just a three-dimensional heroine as we sense her every struggle and will to live and survive in a cruel world peopled with crueler humans, mostly people of her own kind, whom the Neanderthals call "the Others." Skillfully, author Jean Auel has molded Ayla into a four-(or even five-)dimensional character we can see, hear, smell, feel -- and even taste! The people whom Ayla has inspired and whose lives she touched along the way are all inclined to believe that she is the Mother of the Earth herself. But come to think of it, Jean Auel herself -- the Omniscient Writer and Researcher, the Pleistocene Pre-historian and Chronicler -- could just be the Great Earth Mother of the last 25,000 years. This is no Middle Earth or Hogwarts fake. Neanderthal bones found at the Shanidar Cave north of Turkey are evidence enough that Auel's "flatheads" did exist. They're not orcs or hobbits, much less elves or witches. They may not be anatomically modern men but they are intelligent breathing beings who make tools and gaze on stars and, perhaps, communicate through sign language. Jean Auel has humanized and personified what could have been an abstract or even boring topic in history -- or pre-history, for that matter. Like the fire in a subterranean hearth, Auel has warmed up what could have been an aloof and cold topic as the Ice Age and the glacial epoch. Tell me. Who would be bored at the sight of big ice walls and white snow fields, or red loess soil and dry arid plains? Who would be bored at the sound of woolly mammoths and giant cave lions, at the odor of vicious hyenas and gigantic cave bears, at the touch of domesticated horses and docile wolves -- at the flavor of warm human contact and affection amidst the fury of the Pleistocene Era? Who would not be mesmerized at the crystal clear waters of the rampaging Great Mother River (the present-day Danube), which runs all the way to the Beran Sea (the modern-day Black Sea) in the early days of the vast European continent? Who would not savor the taste of fresh caviar, the eggs from the bosom of 10-foot-long beluga sturgeons which were once abundant and now extremely scarce for being the most expensive and sought-after food in the entire universe? The only thing missing in Earth's Children is the saber-toothed tiger, although there was a brief mention of this dirk-toothed feline. And if Michael Crichton's dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and Lost World were comical enough in the film versions, wait until right-minded people in Hollywood breathe life into the chase for fantastic bisons and huge mammoths, into the hunt for white arctic foxes and pesky little wolverines. As a skillful and classy craftswoman in her own genre, Auel has perfected a work of art as fine as the blade of an expert Zelandonii toolmaker and flint knapper, as sheer as the chiseled tusks of a master Mamutoi ivory carver. In fact, the entire Earth's Children series are more than just a "survival manual" and an "environmentalist's handbook," as some critics view them. Any book in the series would be worthy anytime of a shelf space just beside the Holy Bible, considered as the greatest work of all time. As for Auel, well, She's just heaven-sent. A great Goddess. MITCH R. CONFESOR
Associate Editor
Mindanao TIMES
Davao City, Philippines
CANDLEBOX column
February 3, 2003
"Children of the Earth"
Rating:
Summary: The Great Goddess
Review: The Great Goddess SOME people have gone gaga over the witches and warlocks of J.K. Rowling's seven-part Harry Potter mania. And some have equally gone crazy over the elves and hobbits of the non-existent "existentialist" Middle Earth in J.R.R. Tolkien's three-part Lord of the Rings fad. But dear, I choose to be neither, as I would rather go for the real-life Homo sapiens and extinct Neanderthals in the long forgotten world of Jean Auel's six-part Earth's Children classic. As it is, Earth's Children is realist, justifiable, worldly, down-to-earth. For earthy reasons, I will tell you why. So here's why ... . From the eye-opening Clan of the Cave Bear to the serene Valley of Horses, from the thought-provoking Mammoth Hunters to the uplifting Plains of Passage, readers are immersed into the world of a young girl as she is transformed into a teenage mother and high-spirited woman -- her heart, her mind, her values, her fears, her triumphs. Losing her family after an earthquake, blond-haired and bluish-gray-eyed Ayla is raised by creatures of the land far different from her. They call themselves the Clan, but the white men call them "flatheads" -- or worse, "animals." In the Earth's Children series, Ayla is more than just a three-dimensional heroine as we sense her every struggle and will to live and survive in a cruel world peopled with crueler humans, mostly people of her own kind, whom the Neanderthals call "the Others." Skillfully, author Jean Auel has molded Ayla into a four-(or even five-)dimensional character we can see, hear, smell, feel -- and even taste! The people whom Ayla has inspired and whose lives she touched along the way are all inclined to believe that she is the Mother of the Earth herself. But come to think of it, Jean Auel herself -- the Omniscient Writer and Researcher, the Pleistocene Pre-historian and Chronicler -- could just be the Great Earth Mother of the last 25,000 years. This is no Middle Earth or Hogwarts fake. Neanderthal bones found at the Shanidar Cave north of Turkey are evidence enough that Auel's "flatheads" did exist. They're not orcs or hobbits, much less elves or witches. They may not be anatomically modern men but they are intelligent breathing beings who make tools and gaze on stars and, perhaps, communicate through sign language. Jean Auel has humanized and personified what could have been an abstract or even boring topic in history -- or pre-history, for that matter. Like the fire in a subterranean hearth, Auel has warmed up what could have been an aloof and cold topic as the Ice Age and the glacial epoch. Tell me. Who would be bored at the sight of big ice walls and white snow fields, or red loess soil and dry arid plains? Who would be bored at the sound of woolly mammoths and giant cave lions, at the odor of vicious hyenas and gigantic cave bears, at the touch of domesticated horses and docile wolves -- at the flavor of warm human contact and affection amidst the fury of the Pleistocene Era? Who would not be mesmerized at the crystal clear waters of the rampaging Great Mother River (the present-day Danube), which runs all the way to the Beran Sea (the modern-day Black Sea) in the early days of the vast European continent? Who would not savor the taste of fresh caviar, the eggs from the bosom of 10-foot-long beluga sturgeons which were once abundant and now extremely scarce for being the most expensive and sought-after food in the entire universe? The only thing missing in Earth's Children is the saber-toothed tiger, although there was a brief mention of this dirk-toothed feline. And if Michael Crichton's dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and Lost World were comical enough in the film versions, wait until right-minded people in Hollywood breathe life into the chase for fantastic bisons and huge mammoths, into the hunt for white arctic foxes and pesky little wolverines. As a skillful and classy craftswoman in her own genre, Auel has perfected a work of art as fine as the blade of an expert Zelandonii toolmaker and flint knapper, as sheer as the chiseled tusks of a master Mamutoi ivory carver. In fact, the entire Earth's Children series are more than just a "survival manual" and an "environmentalist's handbook," as some critics view them. Any book in the series would be worthy anytime of a shelf space just beside the Holy Bible, considered as the greatest work of all time. As for Auel, well, She's just heaven-sent. A great Goddess. MITCH R. CONFESOR
Associate Editor
Mindanao TIMES
Davao City, Philippines
CANDLEBOX column
February 3, 2003
"Children of the Earth"
Rating:
Summary: Don't believe all the negative talk
Review: Reading the recent reviews I was struck by the fact that this is fiction. It contains historical data, but it is still fiction and fiction writers can take some liberties. The characters are well developed and the interplay between them is well written and interesting. It may very well be the best book of the series for this ellement. Yes the book contains explicit sexual depictions although not anywhere near as distastful as some. Auel uses sex to demonstrate or cause changes in the characters, which is what any author should convey and use sex for. I suspect the negative reviews are more a result of some people finding the material outside of their personal comfort zone, while others having found a wealth of great data about the time period forgot this was a novel and when something obviously non-historical appeared were left disappointed. This perhaps points out the series one great weakness - namely that blending history and fiction is not always an easy marriage.
Rating:
Summary: Negative/Positive?
Review: After reading the reviews, I was a little surprised; this is my second favorite of the jean m auel series after The Plains Of Passage. I loved reading about Ayla living in the cave by herself. However, the chapters of Jondalar are boring and confused me at first. When they met and they began their relationship I was also interested, but give me a break. Ayla learned his language...through a dream? Jean, this (a) implies she is a Zelandonii and (b) ruins the relearning of speaking immensely. However, it is still a good book, better than the Mammoth Hunters, at any rate. If you are looking to read this for the first time, don't turn it down.
Rating:
Summary: Yuck
Review: An out and out bad book. The dialogue is corny, and the scenes are quite boring especially those with Jondalar and Thonolan. I skipped a lot of pages because I couldn't bear to read through their dumb scenes. It's supposed to be prehistoric times but these two characters talk like they're in 2002 L.A. with the main goal of scoring on women. Pretty [bad]. How this book ever got good reviews from the critics is beyond me. The only interesting scenes are those with Ayla. Clan of the Cave Bear is really good but don't waste your time on this one.
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