Rating: 
Summary: If only there were more than five stars to give!
Review: Over the years I have owned four copies of this book and number four is falling to shreds from being reread. I even have a fifth in French; that one is in pristine condition!I read it first when I was 10 years old -- yes 10 everyone and it did me no lasting damage! I was entranced the whole way through and finished the last 300 pages in two hours. I wasn't a speed reader before, but I have been ever since! It is simply the most delightful romance I have ever read. I read it before Clan of the Cave Bear and have never regretted it. Without the promise of the beautiful and self-sufficient Ayla and her amazing Jondalar I would not have made it through the much longer Co/tCB. I was ten, after all! Each time I read it I am amazed anew by the amazing storytelling and the depth of detail. I learned an enormous amount about herblore, hypothetical Cro Magnon-Neanderthal interactions, and of course, sex. My husband thanks you, Jean Auel! Inspired by Jean Auel's books, I became an art history major with an emphasis on prehistoric and Classical art, and a minor in archaeology. Her research was excellent, based on the info available when the early books were written. I have a theory on why the fifth book in the series is slow; perhaps she is having to rewrite based on more recent DNA analyses and radiometric dating. I will not spoil the books by saying that it is all wrong -- quite to the contrary, she brings up some wonderful and very valid points. BTW, her art history is wonderful! Please, buy this book, even if you have not read the first. If you enjoy romance, sci-fi, fantasy, hypothetical history, or just good writing, this is the book for you. Even the sexuality is well-written and integral to the storyline and character development. I wish you good reading! KGJ
Rating:
Summary: Awesome sequel
Review: This spellbinding sequel to Clan of the Cave Bear is the beginning of a journey for the reader and the main character, Ayla, through prehistoric Europe. Auel's knowledge of the environment of this era and her captivating writing style transports the reader to the time of the last ice-age. In this sequel, Ayla finds a home in a cave overlooking a valley of horses. Her innovative ways keep allow her to survive and her loneliness causes her to seek comfort with the wild creatures that she shares this land with. Then, by a strange twist of fate, she finds Jondolar, one of the Others who is injured and close to death. She uses her medicinal knowledge that she learned from the Clan to keep him alive and when he recovers, she struggles with communicating and the clashing of cultures. This book is just the beginning of many exciting adventures for Ayla. Read more about her and Jondolar in The Mammoth Hunters and The Plains of Passage. And then you can anxiously await the final sequels to this fascinating series (along with the rest of us Earth's Children fans!)
Rating:
Summary: Just as good as the first!
Review: After I read The Valley of Horses, I just couldnt help but think it was just as good as the first. It starts off with the young 14 year old Ayla on a journey to find the others of her own kind. After being exhiled from the clan of Neanderthals that she was raised by and cared for, she finds herself alone in the world. At the time she had no idea where she was going, or how she was going to live and survive. After traveling for several days alone and with winter fast approaching, she finds a small prairie like valley that she thinks she might be able to learn to live in, at least until the following spring when she could presume her search. Then the story starts off telling about Jondular and Thonalan. Two brothers of the cro magnon race who are on a jouney to see Europe and follow the "Great River", that flowed near their village, to its end. After they meet up with a few unfamiliar tribes, and Thonalan is hurt in a standoff with a whoolly cave rhino, Jondular is forced to live with a tribe of hunter/fishers for a few years. Meanwhile Ayla has mastered life in the valley and after months of loneliness and despair from having to leave the people she loved, she adopts a young horse. Though the author probably fit in a 3 year time period, skills that probably took mankind 1,000 years to accomplish, the story is well written and well thought up. Despite several other reviews, it's not at all boring in the first half of the book and is filled with as much action and adventure as "The Clan of the CAve Bear." During the middle and end of the book their are some pretty well described sex scenes, but lets face it, sex is a deffinate part of our culture and it always was. As well as the rest of the story, even these scenes are well written out and are in no way "dirty." Willing sex between two people, unlike the first book where several rape scenes are described, is a beautiful thing. I think some of the people that cant understand this and cant stand to read it need to grow up. I'd deffinently give "The Valley of Horses" my two thumbs up.
Rating: 
Summary: You go, girl!
Review: With the attitude towards women and feminism slowly changing in today's society, the society that Jean M. Auel has created in her Earth's Children series puts no such restrictions on what a woman can do. That is, unless you are a Clan woman, which Ayla was up until the very end of "Clan of the Cave Bear." Cursed with "death", her presence in the Clan world is nullified, and she must leave her crying babe, Durc, in the caring hands of her Clan sister, Uba. Ayla, who is no ordinary Clan woman, but a woman of the "Others," hears the urgent words of her adoptive Clan mother, Iza, to go and seek her kind. Swallowing her sorrow for those she has lost, she is forced to turn her back on the Clan, and embark on a lonely odyssey in which she finds herself and tests the limits of human endurance, ingenuity and survival. Auel also threads in the storyline of Jondalar of the Zelandonii, who sets off on a great Journey with his brother Thonolan, to the ends of the Great Mother River. While one can guess the reason for Jondalar's introduction in this novel, the scenes that include him just don't pop until he meets Ayla (at the expense of losing his brother.) The real story here is all about Ayla, and how she copes with her exile, assuaged by the domestication of a young foal, which she names Whinney, and taming of a cave lion cub which she dubs Baby. Once she and Jondalar meet, Auel has finally united her two heroes, and Ayla's loneliness ends as Jondalar teaches her to speak and she nurses him to health. Soon they fall in love, and they rightly express it in joyous exultation, honoring the Mother. Auel uses descriptive language, sweeping narration, and a vast knowlegde of anthropology to tell an epic story in a terrific sequel, that, in my opinion has a very positive message for women.
Rating:
Summary: After Clan of the Cave Bear...
Review: I read The Clan of the Cave Bear a few months ago, and loved it. I was anxious to read the sequel, but I found that it really didnt compare to the first book. I found The Clan of the Cave Bear gripping, and I couldn't put it down, whereas this one was sort of slow-moving. I got to page 300 and thought, OK, is anything going to happen now? The beginning, I found, was just a whole series of events that were unrelated to the book's plot. When Ayla met Jondalar, the book got better, since I'd been waiting for that part since the beinning of the book. I don't think there are too many descriptions, because Clan of the Cave Bear was just as descriptive and I liked it. The sex was a bit... graphic, to say the least. I'm the kind of person who prefers those scenes to be just the characters kissing and then it's the end of the scene, instead of all the descriptions. I didn't really mind it, since I've read books like that, and other than the sex it was pretty good. Though, I'm not too happy about the fact that my eleven-year-old sister is just dying to read it after finishing The Clan of the Cave Bear. Don't think I hated this book or anything. I liked it a lot, but for some reason I've put all the bad parts here. I liked how Ayla started defying Clan ways when she was on her own, and how she srvived. I liked Jondalar and Thonolan too, and basically it was a pretty good book, though I couldn't compare it with the first in the series.
Rating:
Summary: As good as the first
Review: I couldnt put it down, Ayla is THE role model of her time. I felt i was acually her. This is packed with adventure, which keeps me reading. Buy it AFTER you read CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR.
Rating:
Summary: A young woman's education in love...
Review: I read this series when I was around 12 or 13 (much to my mother's surprize - she had no idea what it was about at the time) and was hooked. I love the romantic storyline between Ayla and Jondalar (oh my!) and the detailed scenery (which I didn't fully appriciate until the second or third reading). Not only was there wonderfully described love scenes but there was the amazing feats that Ayla achieved (which no one person could have done, since she was supposed to be the embodiment of woman and mankind). This is book #2 of 4 ... will there ever be a new book available in this series??
Rating: 
Summary: A pretty good but expectable sequel...
Review: This book lacks the originality of the first book, but it does show a different aspect of the living during the ice age - how the "others" had lived, and how a woman can survive all on her own. The book also tries to take a look at how man learned to control wild animals and turn them into the domestic creatures we know today... Even though I'm pretty sure they were not all tamed at the same time by the same person... :0)
Rating:
Summary: great sequel
Review: After reading Clan of the Cave Bear I read the 2nd book the Valley of the Horses and it was just as good as the 1st one. Ayla after being thrown out of the Clan of the Cave Bear by the new leader (who could not stand her and hated her) Ayla is left by herself to look for her people that she knows as the Others. Ater finding a new home in a Valley with Horses she one day finds and meets Jondalar who is hurt really bad by her pet and friend a Cave Lion named Baby. While taking care of Jondalar and him healing they get to know each other and form a friendship at first and fall in love with each other. It is a woderfull story of love and friendship you won't forget as they struggle with life and getting past the language barrier between them as they get to know each other and Jondalar struggles with learning about Ayla's past and being raised by the Clan of the Cave Bear(he calls Flatheads) and his views of them are not as bad as he was tought and told. Any one who read the first book will like the 2nd book.
Rating:
Summary: Takes one back to a land before time
Review: I read all four books in a matter of a few days and had some of the same complaints that the reader from Austin did; the repition, but like her I continued to read and was overwhelmed by Auel's descriptions of the landscape and her throughly engrossing chaecters. I couldn't put any of them down once I picked them up. I do have one small complaint, it seemed to me that all the interaction between Ayla and Jondalar was sex based. Now, I'm well aware that sex is a strong foundation of any romantic relationship, but I would have appreciated some more affectionate interaction. Other than that small little desire of mine, I would recommend this series of books to anyone, and am anxiously awaiting the fifth in the series, Jean if you're out there, PLEASE continue writing and get the next one out as soon as possible.
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