Same here. I read the first one in, I think, 5th grade and liked it. Borrowed the second one from my grandmother while visiting her in the summer. Was so disappointed I never picked up the rest of the series. The first three thousand pages or so were so boring before the actual story started that I almost put it down. I also thought the sex scenes were described stupidly (from what I remember of them, I still agree). Sad, because I really did enjoy the first one. Probably won’t ever read anything else by that author again, though.
I just had to cheer for the Tull reference. I’ll cheer for just about any Tull reference, mind you…
I really liked Clan of the Cave Bear, and couldn’t get through any of the others. I wasn’t sure if the quality of the writing really was that different, or if I just became more sophisticated in my taste as I grew older, so I went back and re-read Clan. I think, after doing so, that the quality of the series really went down hill, because I think that first one still holds up.
Yup. I absolutely ate them up as a 13/14 year old. Although count me in the Shelters-of-Stone-sucked camp as well as the it’s-creepy-once-mom-knows-what’s-in-them camp: my mom randomly opened one of them up to a page and shrieked: “His MEMBER?”
I read them in high school and college for fun, remembered them fondly, bought the most recent one and was horrified at how awful it was. I don’t even remember the details of the book and I know I read it.
My Mother once remarked that there was “too much oral sex” in one of her romance books. I could not ask her what was the right amount. 
I have the whole series sitting on my shelf in hardback. I read them and loved them…well, more or less. I loved the first three, and thought the last two dragged. Ms. Auel does tend to repeat herself.
I actually don’t have any problem with the concept of Ayla and Jondalar bringing back all kinds of new “inventions.” I figure that’s pretty much what happened anyway–the adventurous risk takers when out, travelled, shared stuff with others and brought back new ideas to their clans. I also don’t have that much trouble with Ayla inventing so many things herself…both my husband and my mom are that way and are always coming up with interesting solutions to problems. However, I could do without the flowery soft porn.
I haven’t re-read them since Shelters of Stone came out, but I’ll probably buy and read the last book(s) for completeness, should they ever appear.
That’s right Style Police, come and get me. I like Friends, have almost every Stephen King book (and much Dean Koontz as well), and I read and still have the Earth Children Series. In addition, I have almost all Robert B. Parker’s Spenser books, collect Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct and Mathew Hope stories, and I love both Anne MCCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey. Maybe I can cut a deal with my Zelazny and Heinlein collections.
That would be a good bet. I saw it when it was playing in the theaters-- over 20 years ago. It gets 7.3 on IMDB. That ain’t too shabby.
What I remembered liking was more the *feel *of the film, rather then any particular detail. The way the interaction between the various tribes were handled seemed quite plausible even if the whole thing about not being to make fire was a bit hokey. I’ll give it another viewing and see what I think now.
“Too much oral sex”??
The words are in English, but my mind can’t make sense of this phrase.
experiencing too much oral sex? Maybe or maybe not possible. Watching or reading about it can easily go on far too long, though. One of my complaints about porn is that they tend to go on and on and on and on and on with the oral. I usually end up fast forwarding after a minute or two.
Ditto. Finally, an earworm that doesn’t make me want to commit homicide.
Time to put the 20 Years of Tull set back in rotation…
Nope. Never read or even seen any of these.
Like most everyone here, I enjoyed them to a point. I was older when I read them and fascinated by stories from pre-history. I stuck with the whole series, but was pretty bored with the repetition.
The good news is that, from a discussion here, I belived, the series led me to more authoritative sources about how our ancestors lived. The Seven Daughters of Eve provides some descriptions of the lives of the prehistoric women from whom most of the western world is descended (it is believed). (Google Oxford Ancestors for more info.)
Someone else mentioned “Dance of the Tiger: A Novel of the Ice Age” by Björn Kurtén, which I also read after wanting to learn more; apparently Kurtén is an anthropologist and the details are historically accurate. The book’s not bad, but not high literature. I can’t remember the name of the sequel, either, and I don’t see it listed on Amazon.
“Long Dong Jondolar.” Heh.
Ha! I’ll see your Lackey and raise you Jennifer Roberson. I’ll even throw in a few Robin McKinley and MZB for real damnation.
Will my Asimov, Heinlein, Morgan Llewellyn, Charles DeLint, Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett save me? (What if I admit I don’t *really *like Prachett without Gaiman?)
However, I haven’t read a McCaffrey or a McIntyre since adolescence, so their continued existence on my bookshelf should not be counted for or against, I don’t think.
For someone who enjoyed the first book, and skimmed through half of the schnoorer of a second, can someone tell me :
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Does Broud get what’s coming to him?
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Does Ayla ever even come into contact with Brun and the Neanderthals again?
Joe
I can answer 2: Ayla doesn’t ever encounter the Neanderthals that raised her ever again, but throughout her Journeys Across Prehistoric Yurp she is the self-appointed Human-Neanderthal Ambassador, (trying to) spread peace and understanding across the peninsula.
I loved the books. The Mamutoi rock, but I like Valley of the Horses the most. I read them when I was 15 or 16. The last one was horrible, though. I skipped another one too because it was so terrible - something about a tribe of Amazons or something that cage Jondalar up. Sure, Ayla’s invention of just about everything gets awfully tiring and ridiculous, but they’re damn good novels to waste a Sunday afternoon with.
toadbriar, I almost choked on my coffee. That was hysterical!
Count your blessings. I forced my way through it, and never want to see another. I kept computing the number of bits for the Neandertals to store their racial memory, tried to figure out how they fit that into their DNA (Neandertal sex not appearing to involve the exchange of floppy disks) and decided Auel was an idiot. She didn’t manage to suspend my disbelief.
Yes, in the first book, but it’s subtle, as is fitting in the Clan.
When he orders the death curse on Ayla, she speaks to Brun, and begs him to help raise Durc. He sees her, which he shouldn’t, and responds that he will. As she walks away, he tells her to “walk with Ursus”. We also learn that Brun knows he made a mistake. He sees that Broud will be a terrible leader, and that his clan is destined to have a hard life and perhaps die out as a result of his choosing Broud as leader. In the end, Brun has respect and love for Ayla and for her son, and none for his son. That’s always been Broud’s fear, and he knows at the end that she has won. She has control over her emotions, and he does not, just like Brun told him that day at the sling range. She is more of a “man” and a leader than he’ll ever be, and he knows it, and his clan knows it.
There’s no Jack Bauer fisticuffs, but like everything else in the clan, it’s subtle. It’s about status and relationships, and Broud definitely loses.
I picked up “The Mammoth Hunters” on a discount rack many years ago, it sat on my bookshelf for about 5 years before I got around to reading it. (I was either going to read it, or toss it to make more room.) I thought it was fantastic, but somehow missed that it was part of a series…
Fast forward a couple more years, and I was traveling M-F for business, and while wandering through a book store in DC, I noticed a copy on the shelf… next to 3 other titles! I immediately bought them, and started the series straight through (books 1-4, in order). I waited, and watched the fan-forums, reading fanfic to keep me interested. When book 5 came out, I had it the day of release.
I introduced my wife to the books, and she’s as big a fan as I am. I’ve also gotten my hunting buddy to read them, and though he’s not into the books as much as we are, he enjoyed them (I think. ) His wife, though, knew of the series, and called it “caveman porn,” while giving him abuse about reading the series.
I’ll certainly buy the next one, and hopefully it’ll come out in less than the 12 years that many had to wait. (I waited about 6 years between reading POP [book 4] and the release of SOS [book 5]).
I’ve had to replace a couple of my softcover (loaner copies), and two of my hardcovers (personal/family copies).
While some of it is “too much,” it’s still better than a lot of the fiction that comes out. I think Auel has researched much of the work, and does the best she can based on the current archeological research available while writing. Keep in mind while reading the first book that it was release almost 20 years ago, and lots of new information has been learned in the intervening years.