The Mammoth Hunters

Rating:
Summary: That's more like it
Review: After VOH, I was worried when I saw how long the book was. Luckily, this one moves much faster. What I liked: the pace, the new characters, and, yes, I liked the dreaded triangle. After all, it would just be weird if Jondalar was the only guy ayla was ever attracted to. Only problem was that I liked Ranec better, even though you're supposed to root for the J-man.
What I didn't like: Too much repetitive description! I like the herbal lore, but after the first few times discussing the uses of willow bark, foxglove, and datura, I think I got it. Also, this is the book where Ayla begins to become very unbelievably perfect. She does everything but create world peace and invent tupperware.

Rating:
Summary: Mammoth Hunters no White Elephant
Review: Jean Auel does it again, painting a picture so vivid, you think you live in the ice age, developing charactars with so much emotion and compassion you wish you could step inside the book and guide them. Auel does not accomplish this by the seat of her pants either. She has done meticulous research, adding accurate details which serve the legitimacy of the entire epic. Of course there is fictitous surmise, but done in the style of an historic novel, putting a make believe story in the context of a true back drop. Read these in order and then read them again as you wait ofr the next installment!

Rating:
Summary: Painfully Drawn Out
Review: I thought Clan of the Cave Bear was great; it was an interesting and unique story. The characters were like-able and well constructed. The second book was fine, but predictable and romance novel-ish. The plot drowns in descriptions. The Mammoth Hunters however, was downright painful. Pages and pages of angst, all of it contrived and repetitive. I was practically grinding my teeth in agony over the never-ending Ayla/Jondalar/Ranec love triangle. Nothing in this book is new, and all of it is predictable. Only until the last few chapters did the story finally pick up and move on (literally). If you want to know the plot, read the book jacket, and it will tell you everything you need to know. Then move on to the next book and hope it is better.

Rating:
Summary: 3rd book in a well researched prehistoric saga
Review: When I finished this book, The Mammoth Hunters, I again marvelled at Jean Auel's ability to create a fictional, and well researched, world set in a fascinating pre-historic environment. Ayla meets up with her first clan of people, the Mammoth Hunters, who are at first hostile, and then come to love her. Her love with Jondolar is tested and she learns new skills and abilities. I recommend this book and could not wait to get started on the next in the series The Plains of Passage.

Rating:
Summary: I Love This Book.
Review: That's pretty much all I have to say.I HATE when people fell the need to be big shots and pick apart a book down to every sentence, then complain about it.Not in all the reviews does anyone mention the great characters, richly described.I thought it was sad when Rydag died.And another thing that bugs me is why do people hate that Ayla invented stuff?Somebody had to do it, why not her.And I have to say, IF YOU WANT A GOOD BOOK, WHY DON'T YOU WRITE ONE YOURSELF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?It takes time and effort to put together a great piece of work like this, believe me, I know.Oh yeah!In the beginning of one of the books, I'm not sure which one, in the acknowledgements, Jean M. Auel mentions that she did not aim for accuracy in her books, AND COMPLETELY MADE UP THE CULTURE!So there!And how DO you know it's not right?We don't exactly have a written book called A CAVEPERSON'S LIFE DAY BY DAY, so we don't know what they did.Maybe they did have tangled love lives.Maybe some woman did invent the sewing needle and domesticate dogs and wolves.Maybe people should shut up about books that they hate and just be grateful that people spend their time writing them for others' enjoyment.

Rating:
Summary: Prehistoric bodice ripper
Review: Loved the first book, second book OK, never made it through this one. The tedium of a prehistoric soap opera finally defeated me. The concept of prehistoric hunters and gatherers who live a difficult subsistence life involved in all this love and jealousy nonsense is just ludicrous. I do not have a problem with the notion that women were more or less equal to men in prehistoric times as gathering no doubt provided the majority of the meals. We have seen in similar societies still exhisting today that women do most of the work while men have a great deal of free time between hunts -- no doubt devoted to inventing things like religion, rites and rules for the tribe between sessions of telling tall tales about hunting prowess. It was not until man settled down to farming that inequality between the sexes became the rule. Of course a book that was less romance novel with a blond heroine no less (I wonder what the chances of blondeness were 25 thousand years ago) and more a story of what life really might have been like in those times would probably not attract many readers.

Rating:
Summary: You go, girl!
Review: Ayla gets a roving eye in this episode of the series. Poor Jondalar. I liked this all-too-human problem, it reminds me of a similar one between the heroine and hero of my other favorite series, Dinosaur Wars. She's got to make up her mind. I like the modern-day, feminine perogative question, set in a primitive environment. Somehow, it makes it all too real and believable. Alya's rapport with animals is one of her most endearing features to me, as with Kit Daniels in Dinosaur Wars. The ability to somehow communicate with primitive beasts is a feminine wyle I wish I possessed.

Rating:
Summary: Mammoth Hunters
Review: Liked the book but it was tedious. The Mammoth Hunters were so sweet it made my teeth ache. The book could have done better with more conflicts. Loved the Jondalar jealousy.

Rating:
Summary: Thought it was really awesome and interesting
Review: This book was better than the last book (Valley of Horses). I liked that it was so realistic and the way Ayla invented items that we use now days. I also liked Ayla's way of taking care of the animals and the way people treated her. I like that Ayla is strong and honest in this book. She would not lie about her strange background with the Clan. One thing I didn't like was her fight with Jondalar. It made me mad that they didn't talk about it earlier in the book. They waited until the very end of the book to resolve it.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth reading
Review: Most of the book is about a big argument between Ayla and Jondalar. I found this very unplesant to read. I kept trying to slog through the argument part because I liked the first 2 books but I am giving up on this book 300 pages into it. I don't recomend this book.