I was absolutely addicted to these books when I was 10 or 11, and they stayed a cherished source of guilty-pleasure-smut-romance-adventure-trying-to-pretend-to-be-anthropologically-valid.
Ayla and Jondolar taught me helluva lot about sex.
Dopers, it is time to join me in fessing up.
Okay. I admit it. I haven’t read them in a long time - maybe it’s time to re-visit my favourite chronically hard-done-by prehistoric heroine.
Aha! Caught ya.
Does anyone read them for the first time anymore? I’d be curious to think what a youngster of today would think of them.
Well, I was born in 1983, so I’m not old, but I don’t know if you’d consider me a youngster. I haven’t read them, but we have copies of at least the first couple in my house. If I read them anytime soon I’ll post in here or just send you a private message (depending on how old this thread is).
Of course, I just got the Children of Hurin so that might not happen all that soon 
Long time lurker here…I had to comment on this thread. I read Clan of the Cave Bear for the first time as an adult and loved it. I found the rest of the series in a second hand shop and have read all of them back to back several times in a row. Love them.
If you like these books you’ll probably like the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. A completely different storyline but just as fun to read IMHO.
Really liked the first one. They went down hill really fast after that IMHO.
Nope, I read and loathed the first one, and that’s it.
Yeah. I was about eleven or twelve, I think. I haven’t read them since, I don’t know if they would hold the same appeal now.
I was in college when the first came out. I thought it was okay. The adolescent book for my era was The Thorn Birds, which could have taught me about sex had I not already read Harlan Ellison’s Dangerous Visions anthologies and Naked Lunch.
I can’t admit it - I never read the series. I kinda remember when it was big, but it wasn’t something I was interested in.
I read the first one in high school and thought it was okay, but never quite got around to the rest of them. Though, by that point, I’d read rather a lot more books with rather a lot more sex in them, so perhaps that was part of the problem.
I think the first one is a pretty good book. Not too soap-operaish, very little sex, lots of nifty prehistoric stuff. Maybe not factual, but at least serious enough for me to have read it a few times.
After that, they all go downhill. Days of our Restless Prehistoric Lives.
I read them as a teenager and recall really enjoying them. A few years ago she finally wrote another after a long hiatus. It was the only one I’d attempted as an adult, but had to abandon it as it seemed uber-cheesy.
I’ve heard that Auel is supposed to be working on the sixth and final book. I hate to admit it, but I’ll be reading it if and when she finally gets it out.
Add another person who thought the first one was a mildly entertaining quick read, but when the main character met Long Dong Jondalar and they proceeded to screw across prehistory - well, if I just wanted to read soft porn I could find better.
I think I may have started the 3d book, but would be surprised if I finished it.
What’s to “admit”? I read them and loved them. Perfectly decent books, well researched, bestsellers…what, are the books on some black list by the Style Police?
I’ll read the last one, too. Book 5, Shelters of Stone, absolutely sucked though, after waiting 12 years (?!) for Ayla to have her baby!
I adored the series up until that point, and reread them to tatters. My favorite was Valley of he Horses, where Ayla was alone and invented stuff, and tamed her horse. What was her name? The baby’s name was Racer…
But I will read book 6, if Auel ever finishes it.
The mare was named Whinney. I had an ex who loved those books and chose Jondalar as his sexual idol. Honest to Og. He told me as much before we started dating.
Whinney, of course!
Yeah, I admit I read them (in the present tense - I’m a rereader, and they get trotted out once a year or so) and I like them. After a dozen reads, I skim parts - usually the exhausting descriptions of the landscape, and the porn bits. Much like I read Tolkein, except without the porn.
My favorite is Mammoth Hunters. While it’s the most overwroughtly dramatic with the misunderstanding and love triangle between Jondalar, Ayle and Ranec, I really love the other characters in the Mamutoi, and they’re the folks I’d like to run off and live with, of all the people she visits. And it has the care and raising of Wolf, who is my favorite of her animal friends.
Of course, they took on a whole new meaning for me when I started studying herbs. There’s mostly correct info, with a few exceptions that make me want to scream.
Stupid five-minute edit limit. Book 5 was lame, but I only paid $5 for a hardcover copy of it, so I don’t feel too bad. Book 6 better have something about Durc in it. I want to know what he’s up to.