The Earth's Children Series 6-Book Bundle: The Clan of the Cave Bear, The Valley of Horses, The Mammoth Hunters, The Plains of Passage, The Shelters of Stone, The Land of Painted Caves

Earth's Children #1-6

by Jean M. Auel

A literary phenomenon, Jean M. Auel’s prehistoric odyssey is one of the best-loved sagas of our time. Employing meticulous research and the consummate artistry of a master storyteller, Auel paints a vivid panorama of the dawn of modern humans. Through Ayla, an orphaned girl who grows into a beautiful and courageous young woman, we are swept up in the harsh and beautiful Ice Age world, home to the Clan of the Cave Bear. Now, for the first time, all six novels in the Earth’s Children® series are available in one convenient eBook bundle:
 
THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR
THE VALLEY OF HORSES
THE MAMMOTH HUNTERS
THE PLAINS OF PASSAGE
THE SHELTERS OF STONE
THE LAND OF PAINTED CAVES
 
A natural disaster leaves a young girl wandering alone in an unfamiliar and dangerous land until she is found by a woman of the Clan, people very different from her own kind. To them, blond, blue-eyed Ayla looks peculiar and ugly—she is one of the Others, those who have moved into their ancient homeland; but Iza cannot leave the girl to die and takes her with them. Iza and Creb, the old Mog-ur, grow to love her, and as Ayla learns the ways of the Clan and Iza’s way of healing, most come to accept her. But the brutal and proud youth who is destined to become the Clan’s next leader sees Ayla’s differences as a threat to his authority. He develops a deep and abiding hatred for the strange girl of the Others who lives in their midst, and is determined to get his revenge.
 
Praise for the Earth’s Children® series
 
“Auel is a highly imaginative writer. She humanizes prehistory and gives it immediacy and clarity.”—The New York Times Book Review
 
“Storytelling in the grand tradition . . . From the violent panorama of spring on the steppes to musicians jamming on a mammoth-bone marimba, Auel’s books are a stunning example of world building. They join the short list of books, like James Clavell’s Shogun and Frank Herbert’s Dune, that depict exotic societies so vividly that readers almost regard them as ‘survival manuals.’ ”—Vogue
 
“Jean Auel has established herself as one of our premier storytellers. . . . Her narrative skill is supreme.”—Chicago Tribune
 
“Pure entertainment at its sublime, wholly exhilarating best.”—Los Angeles Times
 
“Readers who fell in love with little Ayla will no doubt revel in her prehistoric womanhood.”—People
 
“Lively and interesting, enhanced greatly by the vividly colored backdrop of early humanity . . . Auel is a prodigious researcher.”—The Washington Post Book World
 
“Among modern epic spinners, Auel has few peers. . . . She deftly creates a whole world, giving a sense of the origins of class, ethnic, and cultural differences that alternately divide and fascinate us today.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure, Historical, Audiobook, Thriller

4528 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Jean Marie Auel is an American writer who wrote the Earth's Children books, a series of novels set in prehistoric Europe that explores human activities during this time, and touches on the interactions of Cro-Magnon people with Neanderthals. Her books have sold more than 45 million copies worldwide.

Reviews

[lil · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is about Ayla, a little girl who wakes up after a tragedy among people that doesn’t quite look like her. Her parents are nowhere to be seen and Ayla finds this woman Iza taking care of her. Ayla adapts to the way of life Izas’ people have and even though she is ugly and grew to be taller than everyone else and different in so many ways, the clan adopts this orphan child.

Born with the curiosity that is unique for Aylas people, soon the life in the clan was to restricted. There were so many things that she couldn’t do, even though she as Izas daughter had the education of healing with certain exceptions none of the other women had.

One day Ayla had to leave the clan, the new leader hated her and had been planning in finding a way to get rid of her. With the death curse on her, she was dead to her loved ones and she had to leave to find other people, people like her from the far north.

On her journey to the north Ayla had no company till the day she saved the little filly, who became her first animal friends. Living through the winter in the little valley Ayla found Winney as she named the filly a great comfort and company.

One day Ayla hears voices she never heard before. It was the voice of a man, of the people like herself! But the man is badly hurt, Ayla has to try out new ways of healing trying to save the man. Luckily he does.

Before long Jondalar realizes that this beautiful woman doesn’t understand him and more than once he mistakes her signals for nonsense. He tries to teach her his language and slowly they learn to communicate and fall in love. Jondalar never thought he would be able to love again and couldn’t believe he literally had to travel half the world to find her.

They live happily in the valley for a while but Jondalar longs for company from other people and persuades Ayla to follow him home to his people and mate with him there. It is a long journey and they meet lots of people and problems, not to mention the problems a young couple often has. But they also bring the people they meet new techniques and ideas. How about treating horses as friends and not just food? And the wolf as a friend, who loves Ayla so dearly he does whatever she wants him to?

This series I actually started about ten years ago to read and I remember I was fascinated by the healing medicine and the mysterious world we call ancient history. How did people start to use needles for sewing? How did people start taming animals? And how did people get to understand where babies come from? This is the authors take on the happenings and even though I wouldn’t call it facts I like the way it is explained to me. Overall a really good series even though some of the books where a little slow paced, like when they were travelling alone but hey…then they were totally alone, so what could one expect.

[Jerel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The rating is misleading because I put this in as a set for the first book Clan of the Cave Bear is 100% my overall favorite book of all time! Ayla is the most incredible character I've had the pleasure of getting to know and my idol in many ways from the moment I read the book in 6th grade when it was released. My love of her persona carried me easily through the remaining books that were good but steadily decreased in quality until the last one that I wish had never been released as it was the most awful book I've ever forced myself to finish. I kept waiting for something, anything interesting to happen but it really just about the painted caves. If that's all you want to read about it might be good. When something interesting does finally happen within the last 5 pages of the overlarge book, it's cliche and lacks any real imagination. The good news is that the first book can be read as a stand alone and I unequivocalably recommend it, if you find Ayla interesting then read the others....but pretend the last one doesn't exist.

[Angela Catri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have loved this series for a long time, but I find as the series progresses, it becomes more repetitive and predictable. The last book, The Land Of the Painted Caves, is by FAR the worst book in the series. It seems to me the author just kind of gave up, wrote a few paragraphs, and copied and pasted them over and over. And over. Take out the repetition (and all the descriptions of plants and caves) and you'll be left with about twenty pages of actual storyline, which is mediocre at best. There were SO many things Jean Auel could have done with this last book, and I'm terribly disappointed that she took the route she did. That being said, the first four books are still my favorites (Plains of Passage was a bit monotonous to me as well) and are books I will continue to keep in my library, as well as encourage my kids to read.

[Yeshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely a woman series. Ayla, an orphan Child (of the others)is raised by the "Clan of the Cave bear" and becomes the "woman who hunts".

Forced to leave, (in the series) she discovers her destiny with "The Mother" of all.

The Plains of Passage describes the journey of Ayla and Jondalar west along the Great Mother River (the Danube), from the home of The Mammoth Hunters (roughly modern Ukraine) to Jondalar's homeland (close to Les Eyzies,Dordogne, France). During this journey, Ayla meets the various peoples who live along their line of march.

The Shelters of Stone:

Central to this book is the tension created by Ayla's healing art, her pregnancy, and the acceptance of her by Jondalar's people, the Zelandonii. Ayla was raised by Clan Neanderthals, known as "flatheads" to the Zelandonii and viewed as no better than animals. For the Zelandonii to accept Ayla they must first overcome their prejudice against the Neanderthals. Luckily for Ayla and Jondalar, some of the higher-ranking Zelandonii already have doubts of this misjudgment.

Two of their number, Echozar and Brukeval, are of partial Neanderthal ancestry and are ashamed of it. Echozar at least is pacified by Ayla's own story and by his (Echozar's) own marriage to Joplaya, Jondalar's close-cousin (half-sister). Brukeval, on the other hand, rejects his heritage utterly and refuses to listen to reason.

In "Land of Painted Caves", Ayla begins her training as an acolyte.
Discovers an act of deception and is betrayed by her husband.

The rules of procreation are redefind.

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

That sure didn't feel like the no-really-this-is-final ending to a giant, sweeping series; there were too many ends left untied, and it feels like Jondalar taking responsibility for the drunk's family was the setup for the conflict for the next book.

I assume the infidelity thing was added to strengthen Ayla and Jondalar's relationship or some such, but it just felt contrived and trite. I wasn't too impressed with the "Jondalar's always had very strong emotions so he just couldn't help himself so it's okay" undertone, either.

I had kind of assumed that with all this traveling maybe Ayla was going to find the tribe she was born to, but instead she spent the book pretty much just turning Zelandonii society inside out. The Gift of Knowledge feels like a pretty transparent equivalent of the biblical apple.

I don't think it was bad enough to be one star, but not more than two.

[Dominique · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series with one caveat: Caveman porn, lots of it. These books are so long. I have to skip over those sections.

[Chichi Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best series ever read

[Bonnie Feldman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gripping reading

Amazing novel based on the beginnings of time. Although I'm not an evolutionist I do find this book very hard to put down. It is a great work of historical fiction.

[George Hipp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Update: I have completed the final three books in this series, "The Plains of Passage", The Shelters of Stone", and "The Land of the Painted Caves" and they all blend seamlessly into the each other and the first three books of the series. The details around plants, knapping, religion, and relationships continue and the environment still feels real. The final book does put a finish the complete arc, with plenty of hints of how it will end and paying off in a complete way. It is amazing how the pace speeds up very little, with every event and season taking time to describe and settle.

At over 4,500 pages, this series is an epic journey with so much detail it can be overwhelming! My original review is still accurate. If you have a chunk of time and want an interesting, overall positive story, check it out.

I purchased the 6-Book bundle, this review is of the first three books; "The Clan of the Cave Bear", "The Valley of Horses" and "The Mammoth Hunters" by Jean M. Auel.

These books are large, 1,997 pages for the first three books, and they run right into each other with no pause or skipped time. This means it feels like a single massive story, with exhilarating or excruciating detail; depending on your enjoyment of deep dives into knapping, foraging, cooking, hunting, skinning, basket weaving, social interactions, language, and all other activities considered apart of early human existence.

The story unfolds slowly, almost in a daily or weekly pace, with the mundane taking considerable importance in life. This does bring to mind how abstracted modern life is to the actually details needed for our existence and how things we consider routine, such as getting food or finding a place to sleep, were life and death decisions for the small groups of early humans. All aspects of life seem to be considered, this include procreation and complex relationships. Parts of these books could be from steamy romance novels, immediately transitioning to how to haul loads behind a horse.

Personally, I enjoyed the story, but all six books at once are a bit much. They are fun and relatively easy to read. I feel like I might be able to make a stone knife, if needed, and have another interesting perspective on how things like race, religion, and communication may have evolved over time. I am going to take a break for a while and may come back to it in the future.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the whole series across a 2-3week period and while there's some controversy over the scientific accuracy, I enjoyed it and think it's a story full of valuable messages and every young person should read.

The Earth's children does instill a touch of disbelief at the fast pace of innovation, not just by the main character but people they visit on their travels. Ranged weaponry, pottery, weaving, domestication of animals etc, but the pattern of social adaptation, the dynamics between the different cultures, conflicts and resolutions are what is the real takeaway here. There are complaints about the main character being too good at everything, but it takes remarkable people to change history and the MC still has flaws, many of them, works hard to get results, and still has enemies.

JA casually explains in her interviews that the evidence of early man's lives inspired her to write a story about people who were different, and how they interacted. The professionals she consulted and worked with provided material that let her fill in the blanks and make her own interpretation of events in human pre-history.

This series was written over the course of several decades, so much of that raw science has been debunked, but the essence of human nature, the relevance of the characters and how they can translate to modern interactions - I empathised with it and almost wish I had read the series earlier in my life, because it provokes thought and perspectives that I personally took many years before even coming close.

It's a book that touches on the majesty of early cave art and evidence of life, and even inspires a sense of belonging.

[James C. Athanas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating Journey

I have taken this journey three times now. It is a look into the beginnings of civilization. I have watched Ayla grow to an amazing woman who was wise beyond her years. I have trouble putting her books down once I begin reading them. I read the individual books first and I just finished the six book series. The book I found at times a little, was the Plains of Passage. In places, the descriptions of all the grasses they encounter, page after page of grasses, just got to be a bit much. Although it seemed forever, it was only a short period until we got out of the grasses. I would recommend this series to anyone. It is intriguing as you walk along with Jondular, Ayla, Whinny, Baby, Racer and Wolf, her immediate family. I give the entire series a rating of 5 on a scale of 1 (worst) and 5 best.

[Yvette Verwer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly epic!
A great read and a pretty unique story.
If you read it all in one streak, like I did with this all six books in one version, it is a bit repetitive at times, but still enjoyable.
I think that if you read them separately and with some time in between, this same aspect will result in the joy of remembering.
I gave it 4 stars overall, but to split it up in parts, for me part one and six would be 5 stars, two and three 3 stars and four and five 4 stars, so the start was absolutely great, then it all started to go down a bit, but from part four onward it was building up again to a great climax.

[Sandi Potterton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Years in the Making

Years in the Making

I have read and re-read this series since its inception in 1980. Each time I have become immersed in Ayla's world and found it hard to put the books down and return to the modern world. The detail is incredible, the characters memorable and the story fascinating. The Kindle bundle is even more amazing, simply because it is so much easier to take along versus the 6 huge books!

[Amber Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are some of my all time favorites!

[Beverly Elkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

Second time I’ve read these books and love them. It just shows how human nature really hasn’t changed and very interesting read.

[Larysa · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, so, I LOVED the story - Disliked the telling of it.

I loved the story and was invested enough in it to read all the books, but, I admit, after about book three, I started skimming through parts.

It is extremely evident Mrs. Auel knows her history. She's been there, visited that. She's visited all the regions discussed in the books, and visited all the painted caves in the later books. At times, the caves were described in minute detail. Like - MINUTE - detail. So much that it detracted from the story.

There were two things that caused me to simply skim through all the encyclopaedic information about periglacial regions etc. I mean, at times pages and pages of information about what the glacier was doing, what the weather patterns were doing, what the ground was doing etc...
The second was the sex. OMG the sex.

The first book had sex discussed in a perfunctory manner. Second book had almost no sex in it either.
Starting from the third book, it's as if these turned into a 'how-to' manual for sex. Honestly, I could have simply done with 'they fucked', or 'they made love'. I can imagine the rest. Promise ;)
I did NOT need a blow-by-blow description of where hands and tongues and 'male members' were being put and how that felt, etc. Seriously. I could just get a porn novel and be done with it. People read books like these for the STORY.

I have no idea who edited these books, but, whomever it was should have done their jobs properly and the books could have been cut down by about a third.

Finally, the one thing that absolutely drove me nuts was the utterly missed opportunity of bringing Ayla full circle with the Clan. When she got to Jondalar's people and they heard her description of people they had previously thought of as 'animals' they started to become concerned that the clan would want their caves back. WHY OH WHY did the author not take the opportunity of having Ayla, along with the leaders from the Zeladonii people, meet with the local clans and have a 'discussion', such that they could all go forward living in peace and knowing that each other is not a threat. I mean, perhaps they could have even hunted together? (maybe that's a step too far... dunno).

Anyway, I was anticipating Ayla meeting up with the Clan again and seeing what happened. That's the main reason I read the last book. I just wanted to see her story go full circle - BUT IT NEVER DID. **smh**

Anyway, the books are OK. Not brilliant, but, as I said, it's a good story, poorly edited. I think it would immeasurably enhance the books if a new editor was brought in and the books were drastically cut down. Perhaps Mrs Auel could then compile a companion tome from all the descriptions of geography, geology, meteorology and history. Take these out as they don't add to the story at all and create a good companion for anyone who's interested in such. Also, kill about 90% of the sex descriptions, it's not necessary (and, I'm definitely not a prude. I have no issue whatsoever with sex or anyone having sex, I just don't believe that five pages of describing in meticulous detail what's going where advances the story at all).

Anyway, that's my $0.02c.
I'd be interested to know what anyone else thinks of my opinion on this series.

[Danna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm purging my bookshelves and am setting all of these free with Bookcrossinglabels in hopes someone picks them up and tags them there. This breaks with my Goodreads tradition of not recording books read prior to joining Goodreads, so while I'll never re-read them, I felt compelled to note how much I enjoyed this series. Such rich, detailed storytelling, and such an accomplishment spanning 31 years of painstaking research and writing!

I discovered The Clan of the Cave Bear my freshman year of high school and proceeded to read the entire series as they were published. I'll always remember a thoroughly embarrassing moment reading Cave Bear before algebra class started. After the bell rang, my very formal and highly respected teacher, Mr. Niles, caught my eye and said: "Time to put Ayla away, Ms. Lay. (He always referred to us by our last names.) And I'm not certain that this is an appropriate book for young ladies to be reading. (Raised eyebrow. Never said another word.)" I was horrified and so embarrassed that he knew the book had sex scenes and that I was reading them! I was also a bit indignant, as I checked the book out from the school library and what business is it of his anyway what I read? (Not that I would ever have dared to talk back to him.) Funny what gets burned into your memory. After all these years, I can still see his expression.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I agree with most of the previous reviews. I LOVED the first book but felt they went gradually downhill from there. The last book was very unsatisfying for me. Maybe because some of it struck a little too close to home or maybe because it did not address things I was expecting to be revealed.
Did anyone else expect to learn about the correlation between the red and black circles in all the sacred caves and the ones in Creb’s ceremony (Ayla’s body painting) with the “root drink”??

Did it seem to anyone else that the revelation to Ayla in her “calling” about the truth of conception (and the resulting effects on the caves) was a parallel to Adam and Eve and the discovery that, after eating the forbidden fruit, they were naked and that was a bad thing??

And did it seem to anyone else that as the books progressed, Ayla was just a little too good to be true?

I did not get the part about Ayla’s fear about her sons fighting each other (in her drug induced “trips”) and Creb assuring her it would be alright. Can someone explain that for me?

Having said all of that, I still rated the series as a whole as 4 stars and am glad I read it!

[Susan Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this entire series. I have read the first two books three times, and books three and four, twice. Ayla is just a magnificent, inventive, intelligent wonder-woman. I was incredibly impressed by the amount of research Jean Auel must have done for this Earth's Children's series. I did feel that the first four books of the series: The Clan of the Cave Bear, The Valley of the Horses, The Mammoth Hunters, and The Plains of Passage, were the best of the six. The Shelters of Stone, if rated individually, I'd give 4 stars. It just wasn't quite as gripping or interesting as the first four. Then after waiting for years for the sixth and final book, The Land of Painted Caves, I was very disappointed in it. In fact, I had a hard time finishing it, it was such a let down. I'm rating the entire series as 5 stars, though, because I really think they should all be read and the first 5 were simply magnificent.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very long book series, which I love. Set in the Paleolithic era the series follows Ayla a five yo little girl that grows to be an exceptional healer and living with Neanderthals in the first book to finding Jondalar, a modern man and traveling across the continent with him. They meet people along the way, some nice and some not so nice. They cross a dangerous glacier to Jondalar's people. Ayla is accepted by his people but not without reservation. She becomes a very powerful spiritual healer. And this is their journey. This book series is loaded with homeopathic medicines and encounters with prehistoric animals. The first horse used by humans. Wolves used by humans. She even befriended a Cave Lion. There are mysteries, wonder, invention, strife, love, lust, religions of sorts. This is a fantastic book series. Heard she was writing a last book in this series...it takes her 7 - 10 years of research to write them so it should come soon...I hope.

[Alice Greczyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't want this series to end! Jean M. Auel, please please please publish another book soon!!

From the first book to the last, I was utterly riveted by Ayla's story. People have been telling me to read The Clan of the Cave Bear for years. I'm so happy I finally did. Prehistoric earth came alive for me in this series, making me wonder for the first time what life must have been like when multiple human species shared the planet. Richly imaginative and captivating. I continue to feel inspired by this series I finished years ago, as it opened my curiosity the fields of paleoanthropology and prehistoric art. A canoe trip in the south of France to see the famously preserved caves thousands of years old is now on my bucket list!

[Alissa Lapinsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still as good as I remember it!

I read Clan of the Cave Bear when I was young, about 26 years ago. I was looking for something to read and realized there was now a 6 book series of books. Instead of only buying one, I figured why not just get the series and man am I glad I did! I have read all six books in a little under 6 weeks. I haven't been able to stop myself and am sad there aren't any others left! Ayla's story is interesting, and captivating, and emotionally full, yet not sappy. It is a great series for anyone to read who is interested in character driven fiction, as you get sucked into her life instantly. Still holds up 26 years later, and the rest of the books make it even better!

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series started great but gradually worsened. The first book was great. The last books were drawn out and repeated a lot of stuff that had been said earlier; the story wouldn’t have lost anything if the last bits were condensed into fewer books. I only read right to the end because I wanted to see what happened to the characters.

I was disappointed to not find out what happens to Durc and the Clan after Ayla leaves. Reading ‘Clan of the Cave Bear’ I became really invested in the lives of Uba, Ona, and the rest of the Clan. I want to see what happens to them. It wasn’t possible for Ayla to return to the clan, but a spin-off book about Durc might do the trick.

Read the full review at www.travellingbooknerd.com/earths-chi...

[Susan E · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book a lot. It was a lot of information at times and reading was slow, but as it got into the story line, it was very interesting. Ayla was a young child who experienced an earthquake and lost her family. A beautiful white girl found almost dead. A clan who looked nothing like her, found her and one of the Clan, a Medicine Woman wanted to keep her, and save her from death. They looked entirely different than her and thought she was homely.
This book gives you quite an insight into the beginnings of people on earth.
I would recommend this book.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the first book and gave up during the second. I wasn’t interested in the detailed anthropology of prehistoric everything - tools, clothes, plant medicine, hunting techniques, etc. - and I was creeped out by the Neanderthal shaman ceremonies. I can see how this was a ground-breaking, ambitious epic when it was published in the eighties, but I often found myself skimming, skimming, skimming from boredom. Do not recommend unless you want to immerse yourself in detailed descriptions of Neanderthal and Cro Magnon living.

[Alicia C. Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the way she writes!!!

I just don't want the story to end. I want to see what happens next and know the impact. The things we take for granted were discovered by someone somewhere somehow. Talking was done by a first person who decided to do more than grunt. Making a tool was done first by someone. These inventors of speech and inventors of innovation..... Amazing firsts that we can enjoy in so many ways. We are blessed to such a degree that we don't even realize it until reading about it.

[Yonggxd · Rating 4 out of 5]

had to come back to this 12 years later to finish it since I stumbled onto it in primary sch. First book was really good and riveting but it gradually got rather boring especially after the third installation. Still rated it 4 as it was 1. my childhood and 2. the details of the natural landscape deserve all the stars; it's incredible effort and mind-blowingly accurate for a fiction series. as an ecologist (probably inspired by this book as a kid) the phenomenal knowledge this book provided me back then was akin to a bible

[Jb]

Interesting reading about a heroine who did everything. The description of the geography, the animals, the lifestyle of the human communities, and the problems of daily living were vivid and believable. I was aware from the beginning there would be a lot of conjecture and was pleasantly surprised by the level of detail woven into the stories. In many ways this is an action adventure story painted on a rich landscape of details we might otherwise ignore.

[Kathleen Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

A long time in coming but I finally got to finish it.

I began reading the Earth' s Children Series years ago and fell in love with the story. The only book missing at the time was the last. When it was finally released I was working and taking care of my kids. I bought the 6- book series so I could re-read the first 5 books. I was not disappointed in doing so. I was able to become reacquainted with the characters before reading the 6th book, Land of Painted Caves.

[Janie Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found most of it interesting and imagine that it is a good guess as to what lives might have been like for humans during this time of history. Auel did a good job in explaining the daily lives and adventures of the time but by the end of the 6th book I was ready for it to end. So much repeating of information from the prior books. It was a good choice for 2020-2021 though as I had more time to read.