The Earth's Children Series
Author(s): Jean M. Auel; Andy Black
The Clan of the Cave Bear
It’s difficult to express just how much I enjoyed this book, but I’ll try! It has been on my reading list for many years and I’m so glad I finally got the chance. The Clan of The Cave Bear is set 30,000 years ago and describes the first interactions between Cromagnons (early modern humans) and Neanderthals. Our central character is Ayla, a cromagnon child who is near death after losing her family in an earthquake. Found by a group of Neanderthals known as the Clan of The Cave Bear, Ayla learns their ways and finds a permanent home with the Clan over several years to become a skilled hunter and medicine woman. This book is not for the faint of heart (I sobbed uncontrollably reading about a wholly mammoth hunt), and there is no shortage of male dominance and violence. But, if you like female hero narratives and stories about persevering against the odds, this book tells a spectacular story. Ayla is a strong, fierce and unflinching character whose journey had me deeply moved and mesmerised. Thankfully, this is only the first of six books in the Earth’s Children Series which follows Ayla on her epic prehistoric adventure; I can’t wait to see what’s next.
The Valley of Horses
This sequel to Clan of The Cave Bear and second book in the Earth’s Children series begins where the former left off: following a change in Clan leadership, Ayla is inflicted with a “death curse”, forcing her to leave the Clan, her son, and only life she’s ever known. Heartbroken, Ayla sets out, resolving to find “The Others” (cromagnons like her). Instead, she discovers a cave that is seemingly perfect for shelter in a lush, plentiful valley full of resources. Ayla spends the next three years alone in the valley, discovering freedom she never had before: learning and perfecting new hunting techniques, raising a cave lion and a horse, and coming to rely heavily on the animals for practical and emotional purposes. When she meets Jondalar and nurses him back to health following an attack by her cave lion, Ayla’s life is forever changed as he helps her learn verbal language, and the warmth of love and affection. Jondalar learns of Ayla’s past and her incredible way with hunting, medicine and animals. While astonished by her abilities, he is also ashamed of her roots with the Clan, worried other people or his family will shun him. This book was a little slow at times, and the split narrative between Jondalar and Ayla could be tedious. But the way Auel describes the many “firsts” in Ayla’s journey of human discovery (riding a horse, or taming a cave lion, for example), is utterly fascinating and captivating.
The Mammoth Hunters
In the third chapter of Ayla’s journey, Mammoth Hunters was incredibly enjoyable. Ayla and Jondalar decide to leave the valley on a journey to meet The Others. It doesn’t take long before they arrive at Lion Camp, the winter home of the Mamutoi (“Mammoth Hunter”) people. Wary of Ayla and her “magic” of taming horses at first, the group begins to be awed and surprised by Ayla’s many talents with animals, hunting and medicine. Learning the Mamutoi language quickly, she even teaches the camp Clan sign language, to help them to communicate with one of their own. These impressive abilities make her the object of desire for both Jondalar and Ranec, a dark-skinned carver. As she builds meaningful friendships, connections and skills, turmoil rages within as she struggles to reconcile her feelings for the two men and her future.
What I also thoroughly enjoy about Ayla is her unflinching resolve to NOT hide her upbringing and stand tall and proud in the face of criticism and ridicule for living with “flatheads and “animals” (derogatory terms for The Clan). Showing that the Clan and The Others are more alike than different, Ayla is a shining beacon for humility, kindness and humanity.
The Plains of Passage
The fourth book in this wonderful series was somewhat tedious, only because Ayla and Jondalar spend much of the time alone, travelling across ice-age Europe to get back to the Zelandonii, Jondalar’s homeland. This means that there are large sections of the book dedicated to detailed descriptions of landscapes and landmarks, animal types and behaviours, and fittingly, the state of the glaciers in Europe during this prehistoric period. While this is an incredibly relevant and insightful history lesson, it can make for heavy reading. The dialogue that occurs is mostly between the two travelers, and sometimes between them and the various groups of people they meet on their journey. The book is most interesting when other characters are woven into the narrative, especially when it plays to Ayla’s strengths, and we really get to see her shine. Due to her incredible skill as a medicine woman, animal whisperer, craftsman, and hunter, she endears herself to everyone she meets, with many offering to adopt her. As much as Ayla wishes for a home of her own, she cannot live without Jondalar and ultimately decides she must accompany him home. It is a pleasure to watch Ayla, such a forthright, unflinching character persevere against all odds (mainly created by her Clan upbringing), and win the hearts of all who meet her, time and time again. Yet, she knows her biggest challenge lays ahead: once they arrive home, will Jondalar’s family be as accepting?
The Shelters of Stone
I thoroughly enjoyed the fifth installment in this series. After a year of travel, Ayla and her mate finally return home to Jondalar’s people, the Zelandonii. Family, friends and community members all react with shock and fear when one of their own returns after 5 years, riding a horse with a tame wolf and an exotic foreign woman in tow. As with previous books, most people’s fears are dispelled when they meet the new arrivals and realize how talented and remarkable Ayla is, as a medicine woman, hunter and animal whisperer. Her past with the Clan soon becomes known (minus the fact that she gave birth to a son of “mixed spirts” – half human, half neanderthal), and while some object, the people that matter most accept her wholeheartedly. Those who don’t attempt to embarrass Ayla, and yet, they fail miserably. Ayla keeps her head held high in all situations, and I love how the character’s strength and integrity shines through time and time again. Ayla meets Zolena, Jondalar’s former lover, who is now the top spiritual leader in Zelandoni society. She is quick to spot Ayla’s many gifts, insisting that she too, must be trained as a spiritual leader. Ayla does her best to resist this, saying she is not remarkable, and only wishes to mate with Jondalar and have his children. Nonetheless, this “unremarkable” woman brings women together to help breastfeed a starving and neglected child; stands her ground proudly when Jondalar’s ex-lover Marona makes her look foolish in front of the entire community; teaches the community Clan sign language to make their hunting quieter and more efficient; teaches people a new sewing technique; or treats a man’s wounds after being gored by a woolly rhinoceros. As with Mammoth Hunters, the best storytelling occurs when Ayla has a cast of characters to play off and situations to shine through on. The book ends with Jondalar and Ayla being mated (getting married), building a home of their own, and having a daughter named Jonayla. Her eventual joining to the Zelandonia (the spiritual leaders in the community), is also foreshadowed.
The Land of Painted Caves
As the final book in the Earth’s Children series, I was really looking forward to Ayla’s story wrapping up in a strong, amazing and exciting way. That is not what this book did, and it disappointed me and other readers deeply. I’m convinced that waiting decades between books did the author no favours in keeping the story strong and on point. In fact, it seemed like by book six, she was sick of this series and just threw this story together to be done with it. This is incredibly disappointing since she made Ayla such a strong and wonderful character, and there are so many things she could have done to do justice to her. This book is divided into three parts, aging Ayla from 20 to 26. Ayla is married to Jondalar, and a new mother to their daughter Jonayla. Ayla has committed to her donier training to become a full-fledged spiritual leader. This could have been exciting to read, had they not spent the first section of the book simply visiting cave after cave and the paintings inside, with no real purpose in furthering the story other than to show Auel’s extensive prehistoric research. Full disclosure: I stopped reading at 300 pages because it became an absolute snooze fest. I googled the remainder of the plot to see if it was worth reading and what I found angered and saddened me. Characters regress to past behaviours and the plot turns into a terrible soap opera, instead of addressing key plot points needing resolve: Ayla does not learn the fate of her son, nor find out where she came from, who her real people were, or solve the rifted relationship between the Clan and the Others. So, what is this wonderful character’s BIG accomplishment at the end of it all? She is responsible for revealing the truth that both men and women are responsible for conception, thus creating a monogamous and patriarchal society. What an absolute pile of garbage and disservice to the characters and the readers who invested so much of their time and emotion into the series. And the worst part? In a drug-induced state, Ayla learns that SHE is responsible for the extinction of the Clan (neanderthals) because she forgot to leave a sacred stone behind when they cast her out as a child. Unbelievable. The ending to this series was Game-Of-Thrones level disappointing. There was SO MUCH MORE that could and SHOULD have been done to bring readers’ long and emotional relationship with Ayla to a close.
The Sacred Mountain
Author: Andy Black
Well thank goodness for fanfiction! Following my incredible disappointment with The Land of Painted Caves, I started reading other people’s reviews and discovered that among fans of the series, there is a work of fanfiction by Andy Black called The Sacred Mountain that is considered the unofficial seventh book in the series. Believe it or not, anyone can read it for free at www.andyblackwrites.com I immediately dove into it and became obsessed! I couldn’t put it down. Somehow, Black channels Auel’s writing style without out the constant repetition of facts and long, arduous descriptions. What’s left is the characters we all know and love in an exciting and satisfying plot readers have long been waiting for. Set 10 years after the end of the last book, Ayla is now a 36-year-old woman happily married to Jondalar with a daughter and son. Following the death of her mentor, Ayla is promoted to become the top spiritual leader of the Zelandonii. Ayla quickly sets to work, using her position to build bridges between the Clan and the Others, teaching surrounding communities to tame horses, and using her incredible healing skills to save lives. Ayla and her powerful abilities and strength of character are constantly at the forefront of the plot, which makes this such a joy to read. I thoroughly enjoyed her interactions with members of the Clan and watching them finally honour her with the respect she deserves. Another welcome surprise was her reunion with members of the Mamutoi’s Lion Camp, who informed her that her Clan son Durc was alive and well. The plot also follows Jonayla, who is now 17 and much like her mother. While it didn’t address Ayla’s origins, or result in an actual reunion between Ayla and Durc, the book concludes in a very satisfactory way without unnecessary drama. If you hated book six, book seven will definitely cure what ails ya!