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Summary: New Complications and New Adventures for Ayla!
Review: In this third book Ayla and her lover are involved in many complicated situations, adventures and difficulties. There is even a third man seeking Ayla's interests. A triangle develops. The tribal customs and traditions of a new clan are now involved and Ayla must show skill and performance in many areas in order to achieve respect and acceptance. We get bogged down a bit in this book, but we are ever hopeful that Ayla and Jondalar will endure for Ayla is a great girl with a strong (totem) spirit!<...
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Summary: The Mammoth Hunters (earth's children)
Review: Upon beginning The Mammoth Hunters, I expected to enjoy the book. I liked the others in the series after all. As I have heard other's say, the book was a little bit slow to start and was a bit dragged out.However, I think that this tension added to the total effect the reader feels when all the conflict is resolved.
In the book, Ayla is in love with Jondalar, and he is, in turn, in love with her. They leave a secluded valley and meet people from a new and unique culture. There are misunderstandings between the two lovers and Ayla comes close to "joining" with another man. Of course, she ends up with Jondalar.
I can't help but feel that this book is not what my ninth grade Pre-Ap teacher calls a "Mc Donald's book" rather, it is what we call a "Dell Frisco book." I believe the book has much to say about outcast in society and them finding a place in the world where life will go on. Additionally, I think the book also has a theme dealing with Love, but not just the corney themes about love you usually incounter. It's about learning to accept people as the are and learning to appreiciate your loved ones.
All ages of people could learn from this book;however, there are quite a few passages in the book devoted to sex. Thus, the book might not be all that appropriate for younger readers. All in all, I really did enjoy this book and I find the series Earth's Children wonderful and most interesting.
Rating:
Summary: A good book
Review: This is a good book, however not as good as the previous books in the series.
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Summary: The Dead Horse Beaters - A Radical Manifesto
Review: Book 3 of the EC Series and the author has a time tested character, milieu, and style. By this book, however, the formula is wearing thin even, apparently, for the author. No longer satisfied with spinning a good yarn, in Mammoth Hunters the author abandons both the pretext of pure fiction and subtlety of delivery. The story takes a distant back seat to moral soapbox and is now merely a weak medium by which to promote the author's social, political, and economic views.While no literature stands completely divorced from the convictions of the author, few outside of political tracts and religious parables so brazenly and unapologetically beat the reader about the head and neck. Mammoth Hunters is a heavy-handed exercise in the author's literary self-indulgence. Love it or hate it, your appreciation of this book with probably depend more on your social and political leanings than on your enjoyment of the first two books.
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Summary: Enough is enough!
Review: That is what I felt after finishing this book. The quality
and interest of the series has been continuously declining
since the first book. The idea behind the series is extraordinary and the first book is excellent. I could not wait to see what will happen to Ayla... But then, Ayla's character becomes
so disproportionately strong that shadows the other elements
of the story and undermines its credibility. I suspect Ayla is a projection of the author's
inner heroine, with everything he wants to be. A nice job in
destroying an initially lovable character. After this book I do not care about Ayla anymore! And it's a pitty because I think that the idea
and the first book deserved a much better follow-up.
Two more books to go: I do not think I can stand more
super-Ayla!
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Summary: Wondeful Book
Review: I enjoyed reading The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel because it was full of mystery and suspense. There were many times when I was not sure what would happen to a character and I thought he or she was going to die or something tragic was going to happen. Jean Auel also made it so that many things did not occur the way I wanted them to. This kept me reading the book because I wanted to know what would happen as a result of these unwanted occurrences.
Another aspects of the book that I really liked were the utensils that were so similar to the ones that we use today. For example Ayla used a slingshot and Jolandar invented a spear thrower. They even had bowls, spoons, and intricate dresses. Considering that this book took place during the ice age, those are some important and amazing inventions. This book also introduces Ayla's idea that babies are created by sex and not just by women being close to men.
The author also has a wonderful way of making the reader feel as if he/she is really there in the book. She gives vivid images or parties, meals, and even the wonderful hunts. The hunts were my favorite description because Jean Auel did a wonderful job of showing how these ancient people hunted. The second best descriptions were of the dwellings that these people lived in. They were described perfectly with great details about size and content but not making it seem like a dictionary.
As I read the book a noticed a theme begin to develop. This theme was that love and friendship are more important than what others think. However I don't think that this theme applies to me because I don't put what others think about me over my friendship. I feel that this book shows that with your friends and your "people" it doesn't matter what others say or think about you, because no matter what others say your friends will always be there for you.
All together I felt like this is a wonderfully written book full of vivid images, details, and a wonderful plot. I really enjoyed reading it and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in reading a book that has a twist of science fiction and history combined.
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Summary: Not as good as the first one...
Review: If you read and loved Clan of the Cave Bear, as I did, don't expect an equivelent masterpiece with this one. The main bulk of the story is basically a plot stolen from a glorified romance novel, and while Ayla's continued transformation into her own woman is interesting, her dependance on Jondalar really makes it null. The book picks up immediately after the close of Valley of Horses, as Ayla and Jondalar find themselves in the territory of the Mamotoi, a group of mamoth hunters. Ayla feels accepted right away, as she makes new friends, learns new skills, and even aquires a few admirers. Jondalar however, is still eager to go back to his own people, and anxious to be on their way. Ayla finds herself more and more attracted to another man, which naturally makes Jondalar quite jealous, and the story basically progressess very predictably from there. The love triangle drags on for far too long, and is really only there to add some much needed variety to Ayla and Jondalar's extremelly boring and pointless relationship. By the end I was really hoping she'd ditch both the guys and go for the fourteen year old. So, while not the best in the series by a long shot, it is neccesary if you want to get the full effect of Ayla's story.
Rating: 
Summary: Two words: Bo Ring
Review: The breeze you feel is me opening the draw marked "Should Have Stopped While Ahead" and throwing this book in it. Please, don't consider another in the series, Ms. Auel. You've made me ashamed to admit I liked "Clan of the Cavebear" in literary circles. That hurts!
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Summary: I almost threw this book out of the window..
Review: What a terrible book. I thought I had read some bad books before, but this takes the cake. Auel tried to create a love triangle with Ayla, Jon and Ranec. And it was so stupid. If the characters just had the sense to talk to each other, it would have been over in a couple of seconds. But noooo, Auel has to save that moment for the very end as her "climax". She draws out the story forEVER and repeats herself so many times that I was mentally beating myself up for reading such an "abomination" of a book. (pardon my pun) Ayla becomes God in this novel. Sorry, but its true. Everyone else in the clan all but prays to her might and you get a sense of deja-vu when she adopts yet another animal after killing its mother. She invents all this stuff and the Spiritual Dude of the Mammoth Hunters tells her she has every Gift in the book. It's just too unrealistic. A waste of three good hours (I skim-read all the boring parts). If I hadnt borrowed it from the library, I would have asked for my money back. A sad thing to happen to what was otherwise a good series. Skip this book and go on is my humble advice.
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Summary: HO Hum
Review: I REALLY got bored with the discriptions of his blue eyes, exceptionally large man hood, her moist pinkness at least twice in every chapter. It was as though you could hear the editor saying "You gotta throw a sex scene in here". Ms. Auel seems to repeat herself a lot in all her books as though the reader has just dropped in and has not read the last page. Most of the books are rather far fetched (except for the location and artifact discriptions) and some of it is down right wrong. (ie. wet leather does not dry out from your body heat overnight). If you take her books as 98% pure fantasy and wishfull thinking they are OK.
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