The Clan of the Cave Bear, the Valley of Horses, the Mammoth Hunters, the Plains of Passage

Earth's Children #1-4

by Jean M. Auel

Matching set of the above mentioned three titles in mass-market paperback.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Historical, Thriller, Novels, Classics

2546 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1986

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

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is listed a little strangley, but The Clan of the Cave Bear, The Valley of Horses and The Mammoth Hunters are actually three seperate books in Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children series. I have read these first three which were wonderful and am currently on book 4 in the series, The Plains of Passage.

The series follows Ayla, a cro-magnon child who is orphaned by an earthquake and then rescued and taken in by The Clan (neaderthals)circa 10,000 B.C. The books are meticulously researched and she has received many accolades for how historically accurate her information is. I have to warn you the is A LOT of miuntia (details on the land, animals, plants that lived at that time), but once you get used to it you will be hooked and need to know what happens to the little blonde girl. Many themes in the book such as stereotypes and predjudice ring true with today's society as well.

[Leia Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love all historical fiction books, especially books about pre history. I have read all of these books and I can say that the first one is the best. The story is original with the two separate humanoids living at the same time. My biggest complain about the writing has always been the dialogs. And how the story is told twice, first in the narrative and then second in the dialogue. For example when the main character noticed that flint made sparks down by the river she ran back and told the exact same story we just read to her mate. I do not need to read a story twice. Too many times people are introduced over and over again by their blood relations. The reader would be told who a new character is, and then the characters are told who the new character is. I skip so much when I read these books. Often I miss entire paragraphs because I don't want to read the same thing again. If the writing could be edit down then the books would be much more enjoyable. I know that the author is very well researched on what the terrain would have been like and what type of plants would have grown and what their uses would have been used for. Because of all this knowledge it seems like she wants us to learn it all too. There are too many pages I skipped over because I was done with learning about goldenrod or lavender. The story dragged because of the lack of editing. Other than that I read the books because I enjoyed the storyline and the concept.

[midnightfaerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

*The Earth Children Series by Jean Auel are outstanding books. Along with Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, these are my favorite books. It’s a story of a girl named Ayla, who lived during the ice age in Europe. She gets seperated from her people by an earthquake and near death, gets found and rescued by the Clan of the Cave Bear people. A type of cave people that becoming extinct while Ayla’s race thrives. It tells of her story of fitting in, being raised by people so different, yet so similar, and her struggle to be like them without loosing herself. If they put as much money into them as they have Harry Potter, they would be as popular as Harry Potter. I often compare them to Harry Potter in that they are just all around good stories. Filled with love stories, action, and suspense, you get lost easily. And Auel’s supurb description of the time period makes you feel like you could be there, standing next to the glacier in all its beauty. Being such good stories, I’ve reread them many times. These are Auel’s life work and she has finally finished the last one of the series and it’s coming out in March of 2011. I can’t wait. As a side note, I have to mention the God-awful movie adaptation they made starring Darly Hannah years ago. Please don’t watch it. It is nothing like the book and goes so far as to do it a disservice by making people not want to read them. Auel’s research and detail in the history of the time period and landscape and her ability to tell the story in such rich detail makes this an instant and lasting classic. I can’t recommend these books enough.

ClassicsDefined.com

[Ashlen Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found Auel's writing style to be pretty annoying. She repeats herself to the point of ridiculous and the amount of descriptive language, particularly that describing the setting, can go on for pages. You'll have just finished eight pages detailing the tundra region and then up pops virtually the same environment a few pages on and she starts prattling on about low lying vegetation again. It was so hard to stop myself from skipping large chunks of these pretty sizeable novels.
Having said this, I've read the entire Earth's Children series and largely enjoyed it. These books are barely disguised soft porn (I've learnt some pretty creative names for a woman's vagina) but they are well researched. I found them to be a really interesting insight into some theories behind the fall of the neanderthal man and the subsequent rise of cro-magnon. So, I say persevere.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read all the books in this series and yes they were very good.. I loved the story line...it was great to see how Ayla was able to survive with the Clan by adapting, then later in each of the various clans or tribes that she met .. It's her personal growth as a woman..It's very much a study of social life...though very similar to today in a sense that not everyone is accepted in their social environment.... Overall I enjoyed the books very much....my big negative issue about all the books is that far too often the book is over descriptive...I get wanting to describe the environment but please....Ayla getting from point A to point B would take pages and pages and pages of geographic description not to mention the vegetation .. At times it was just too much...seem like authors like to publish BIG books and use a lot filler. I also enjoyed checking out the actual area online to see some of the real site that are well documented... Very interesting!!!!! I absolutely still enjoyed all the books and would recommend these books to anyone.

[Eh?Eh! · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mom sure didn't know what this book contained back when she saw it on the Costco table and suggested it to me, resulting in an early unintentional softcore exposure. These books were favorites of mine for the terrific, pages long enumerations of gathering food, describing food, preparing food, serving food, and eating food. What does mammoth taste like? After reading these books you'll feel like you know. Also, you will be versed in mammoth anatomy, migration, and mating behavior. Deeply researched. The following books in the series don't read as well.

[Robin Cox]

so far so good. I read the rest of the series and find it fasicnating. You can almost believe that this was the way people lived back in the early days of humankind. I especially love the strong female characters. These books also bring me closer to my Mom who passed in 1999, they were a favorite of hers also.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome books! I've been reading these authors books for yrs!

[Kurt Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book series many years ago and immensely enjoyed it.

[Kelsey McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this series a few years back. It is something I would like to re-read (I think) to my children.

[Micky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read all of Jean M. Auel’s Earth’s Children’s saga (including The Shelters of Stone and The Land of Painted Caves) in a flurry of hyperfixation, over the course of about a month and a half. Mostly one right after the other. I have ADHD, if it wasn’t glaringly obvious, and I have an enormous interest in anything pertaining to paleontology/paleoanthropology. I’m the kind of nerd that has to be updated on the latest paleo news, and new information on the biology and behavior of extinct homonids being one of my favorite points of interest. So I’m kind of an asshole when it comes to consuming scientifically-accurate prehistoric fiction, and the Earth’s Children saga came up multiple times in other very credible, engaging, non-fiction paleoanthropology books I read (I think Kindred by Rebecca Wragg Sykes and Being A Human by Charles Foster, maybe Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harris as well but my memory is absolute shit thanks to the previously mentioned ADHD lol). So of course I had to check it out.

In my opinion, the series is a well-thought-out, thoroughly studied depiction of Paleolithic life in Europe. Auel puts so much detail into the environment, the techniques used to make tools and survive, and the realistic challenges that come with living in a Paleolithic settlement, that at times it almost seems engorged. We could spend literal pages agonizing over the details of knapping flint tools, or the creation of hide clothing, or just riding for ages across barren steppes. Though it feels like it drags at times, for me, it really gave me a sense of the time it took to do ANYTHING in that time. It made me appreciate how laborious each essential task was.

That being said, this series WILL drag, and you WILL spend ages reading about menial caveman bullshit, and if you’re not as deeply fascinated by paleoanthropology as I am, that might bore the hell out of you. Also, if you like main characters who communicate well, keep looking lmao.

Also, my main other main gripe about the series, as a paleoanthropology nut, is how Auel writes her Neanderthal characters. The depiction of Neanderthals in this series is glaringly outdated, but that’s to be expected. The first book was released in 1980, and a trove of new information about Neanderthals has come to light in that time, so it’s only natural that the bow-legged, overly hairy Neanderthals in Clan of the Cave Bear seem cartoonishly inaccurate. But once I put aside my personal bias and accepted that this series is a product of its time, I could at least appreciate Auel’s Neanderthals for the fictional, speculative characters that they were. I just wish we saw more Neanderthals throughout the series, frankly, and I wish they were depicted in a more realistic light as someone living in 2024.

So, TLDR: if you’re a paleoanthropology nut, you’ll be interested in this series. But honestly? I’d have trouble getting through this entire series if I wasn’t as obsessed with everything paleo as I am.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really wish jean would come back and do a spin off series about Durc and what happened to him after ayla was banished. like was he bullied like she was? did he become a leader ? did he search for his mother ? i want to know if she has thought abt it bc theres a huge opportunity to fill in some gaps or to expand on the world building with different characters and new perspectives. i always kind of wished that by the end of the last book they wouldve found eachother but sadly she had travelled too far away for him to ever know where to look. and the last book kinda was lacking a lot sadly. the series was so huge to me growing up and i always have wanted to know what became of durc. i really do hope one day jean writes another book about him. i dont think ill ever know peace, true peace, until i hear his full story. i want to know how alike he is to his mum or if he ever stands up to broud and overtakes him as new leader.

[Pat Sh · Rating 4 out of 5]

These books left me with opposing feelings on many occasions. On the one hand, I was thrilled with how thoroughly researched they were and with the way in which all that new to me information was presnted; on the other hand, I sometimes felt like scanning ahead by many, many pages because it was information overload. I felt that way about the charcters, too. Sometometimes realistically drawn, sometimes over-drawn. The first two books were the best for me; the others seemed to be milking good ideas to stretch the storyline. Still, worth the investment of time.

[Jane · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's been a while since I read "Clan" but I definitely wasn't impressed. From my perspective it could have been titled, "Prehistoric female explores sexual rampage" and then I would have been forewarned not to pick it up. There is some redemption in the research and detail of the narrative, but I pretty much end it there. Sorry folks - not my cup of tea.

[Asursomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historical fiction that comes to mind continually as archeology and science report on a newly discovered aspect of the previous Homo Sapien condition.
I'd read that Jean had embarked on extensive research, especially in the Urals. Sometimes.seems more historical fact than fiction.
How differently the Flatheads and Others developed and survived is fascinating reading, to be sure.

[Kristi Strelow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great if you're interested in anthropology, human ecology, culture, societies. Entertaining.

[Merrie Muss]

I really enjoyed this series, there are actually 6 but I couldn't find the listing of all the series.
I liked almost everything, I read some as books and listened on audible to others while I worked (artist). Extensively researched the science content is excellent; discussion of illness, anatomy, healing, food, domestic arrangements, travelling issues, and buildings etc are brilliant. It is a vast relief to read a historical/science fiction series (it really is a combination of the genres) which does not ignore, or presumably actually completely forget about, the extensive issues of day to day survival, food, clothing, shelter, heat, cooling, health, sex, pregnancy, birth, death, art, storytelling, education. So often historical and science fiction works (which I still love and read constantly) tell the story of power and conflict.
Now for the negative side:
A. The first few books really do labour the sex scenes a tad. Then again it simply forces you to remember how central sex is to our real lives. I had to take some of my own advice and focus on what is real in human life not on the usual content of stories. Then I really enjoyed the lengthy sex scenes. After all isn't so much of our adult life with our partners really about sex? Let's stop being precious and be more like the characters in this story.
B. There is quite a lot of repetition, ok there is an awful lot. This is really the biggest fault of the books. I know that there is a convention of sorts that information in earlier novels is inserted into following novels in a series, but it can be done more subtly, and once only. I didn't bother counting but I'm certain that some information was re-inserted multiple times into the one novel. This becomes more pronounced in the last two books, and really quite astoundingly so in the last one: The Land of the Painted Caves. I actually stopped the book (listening at the time) and considered not going on at one point, but reminding myself that I really love so much else about the books, and wanted to hear where Auel took Ayla. I am aware that Auel was actually quite elderly by the time she wrote the last one, and this may explain the repetition: it is a mammoth book (oh yes I did) and the work would have been extensive. I did wonder often however how the blatant repetition of "info dumps" was not picked up by an editor. Is it as I suspect that as an author's series becomes highly successful the editors put less and less time into revision? I have seen that to be the case with Rowlings, and GRR Martin. Oh well they're all cracking reads, and none of us is perfect!

[Hikewriterepeat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've finished the first 4 books, ready to start the 5th. So it's time for a review. The story is good. The research is impressive. The writing, not so great.

The good parts: It's fascinating to watch the development of early humans. Much of the story seems to be based on research and plausible guesses. The curiosity of some groups, but not others, the inventions, the language capabilities - all interesting. All interesting enough to keep me reading, despite the flaws listed below.

The not so good parts:
Many paragraphs have so many pronouns that it is difficult or impossible to tell to whom they refer. Let's try some proper names or clear antecedents some time soon.

The descriptions of plants and landscape are highly detailed, and interesting in the first book. But then they go on and on and on. I skipped several pages at a time, many times, in each book.

The sex among the "Others" seems unbelievable to me, with their high levels of care towards women, oral sex, levels of cleanliness, etc. The Clan's methods sound more realistic. Regardless, it's unnecessary after the first 3 times. I don't need 15 3-page descriptions of sex in each book.

[Judy Bloomberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this series. It is a great combination of a good story and an opportunity to learn more about prehistoric times. Obviously, some of the things are made up by the author (who obviously did not live in pre-historic times), but I was interested enough to do a little research afterwards, and much of what is in the book corresponds to what archeologists and scientists believe. It was interesting to learn, for example, that Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons really did live at the same time and may actually have interacted with each other.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series will always mean more to me than any other just because it was so dear to me as a middle schooler.

If the descriptions of nature in The Plains of Passage bore you then I've got beef-- it is impressively researched immersive world building. If it becomes tedious, then think of it as a device to parallel the characters' experience on their incomprehensibly long journey. What else are you going to do when walking the entire length of paleolithic Europe besides observe nature?

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5! I read this 4 books some time ago and loved every minute of it! My best friend and I eagerly awaited each book and dove right in when copies were available. Jean Auel did a wonderful job of placing us in the right frame of mind, starting a beautiful and tragic timeline through hard times, good and bad times, and everything in between. Quite an imaginative storyteller, and a set I will never forget!

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the series of 3 books in the '80's and liked them alot. I'm all into descriptions and Auel does a ton of articulating the environment - which in 10,000 BC was understandably a major part of the books. Not for younger readers with a lot of physical and sexual activities that wouldn't be appropriate. As with most books I read- the books are SOOOOO much better than the movie. I think that of the whole series, my favorite part is the relationship between the lead and the horse.

[Chloe Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely love this series and reread it every year or so! The FMC is a strong independent woman and I loved seeing her character growth. The historical notes are interesting and encourages deeper exploration. The series is pretty long with in depth landscape details but it helped craft a clear picture. The second book and fourth books are my favorites because the second one really hooked me into the series

[Sarah King · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first 3 books were very good the first two being the best of the series. I couldn’t put them down but after that they started to get way too repetitious and I never finished Plaines of Passage. I got bored and lost interest which drives me crazy because I hate not finishing a series. I might come back to it later.

[Natasha Monmo · Rating 3 out of 5]

These aren't bad, but I didn't love them either. I found the stories to be quick-paced; I think I read them all when I was 16 ish on summer vacation at some point - they make a good summer day read. I wasn't crazy about the graphic parts (both the somewhat strange sex content and the violence), but the books were interesting and fast-paced otherwise.

[Vero · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed those books.
They gave an incredible insight into live thousands of years ago without being dry or boring at all.
They were vivid like any good novel.

I have to say, I liked the first one best.

[Anne (w/ an E) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read these books many years ago, starting when I was in my teens. I remember how much I enjoyed them. Now, I appreciate all the research that went into the writing of these amazing, memorable books.

[Dena Gregoire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great series. Engaging page turners each and every one of them!

[Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

EXCELLENT SERIES HOWEVER BEGAN TO GET REPETITIVE.

[Stephanie Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

If there were a 10th star, I'd mark it. It's such a great series and even better after reading it the second time around. The only downside is the exhaustive description of the landscape and botany.