Clan of the Cave Bear

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 04 Dec 2001, and now archived in the Forum Library.

raeanne	04 Dec 2001
After reading ferrous's message about dancing naked around a fire like the women in Clan of the Cave Bear, I was wondering how many of you have read the Earth's Children books by Jean Auel. Book 5 is scheduled to be released in the spring of 2002. It took 12 years to write this book. Finally, we will learn if Ayla will be accepted by Jondalar’s cave. For those of you who have not read Book 1, Clan of the Cave Bear, I would highly recommend it. Book 2, Valley of the Horses, was pretty good, too. Book 3, The Mammoth Hunters was a typical love triangle. Book 4, Plains of Passage, was, in my opinion, fairly boring but the author had to get the two main characters to hike from north of the Black Sea to western Europe. I am anxious for this new book since there are many unanswered questions. Anyone have any comments about the series or speculations about what's to come?

EveAnna	04 Dec 2001
Hi raeanne I read 'Clan of the Cave Bear' and Valley of the Horses' a couple of years back, really enjoyed them but didn't realise that there were more books in the series - I'll have to try and get the others :)

slinky_jo	04 Dec 2001
i loved "clan of the cave bear", but also found the other books not as good. also the film with darryl hannah was also very good. i think the author was planning to write eight of these books??

catlin	05 Dec 2001
I read all of the books and liked the "Clan of the Cave bears" and "The Mammoth hunters" best. Guess I think Ayla will have some trouble with being accepted because she was raised by "flatheads" but in the end she will live happily with Jolandar and his clan. I wonder if she will ever see her son again.

purplelady	06 Dec 2001
Years and years ago I read the first 3 books, Clan of the cave bear, Valley of Horses , and The mammoth hunters. My memory of them isn't too fresh but I know I liked them enough to read all 3 Large books! I guess I never felt compelled to read the 4 th one. Come to think of it , that would probubly be a good place to start Now, as I'm sure I'd recall the past 3 books when I read the 4 th one. I Do remember it was either the 2 nd or 3 rd book was enough to rival one of those gothic romance book in the uh..........romance dept. between Ayla and Jondolar! ;) .

ferrous	07 Dec 2001
it's been difficult, but i've managed to get a copy of the second book, 'the valley of horses' from the library. around here, & probably many other places, it's very difficult to find copies of the previous books on the shelves. everyone's buying them up in anticipation of number five. so that i can have my own copy, i've ordered 'the valley of horses' & 'the mammoth hunters' at the book shop. they reckoned it would take two weeks to come in. i'm already almost halfway through 'the valley of horses' so i might be waiting a week or so for the books to come in before i can start on the third book. bummer. i hate waiting!

Ophelia	08 Dec 2001
I hadnt heard anything about these books in a long time, i almost had forgotten about them, thanx for the reminder. I read all four, and i knew i was waiting for something... lol. My mom actually got me interested in them a long time ago, she was always reading one of them, over and over again. I wasnt really interested at first, but she kept reading them, and telling me some about the stories. We got the movie when it first came to video, i think i watched it a ton of times. I got really interested in finding out what happened to Aayla, so finally i borrowed the first book. It wasnt too long after that i was as hooked as she was. Auel can really write, i really enjoyed all four books. And now that you have reminded me, i think i'll read them all over again. I am anxiously awaiting the fith book too. Thanx again for the reminder, and Ferrous, good luck finding the books. Ophelia

moon	09 Dec 2001
I had to read Clan of the Cave Bear in 12th grade and I absolutely LOVED it. I thought it was amazing. Valley of the Horses was boring as all hell in my mind...Mammoth Hunters was entertaining...but in that soap opera kind of way. I have not yet read Plains of Passage, but it's on my list. I heard about the 5th book...but I don't know...it just seems that Auel has been unable to recapture the magic of the first book. blessings, jess

arizonagirl	10 Dec 2001
It's been so very, very long since I read these books, that I'll have to get started re-reading them before the next book comes out so I can remember what's going on.

Rhiannon	14 Dec 2001
Haven't read the books you're talking about but I did enjoy the movie. If you like those then you might try Piers Anthony's series: 3 books so far. Isle of Woman, Shame of Man and Hope of Earth. Love these books! Sherri S. Tepper's books also deal with people destroying their worlds and how they come to the realization that they must preserve their ecology. One of my favorites by her is called Plague of Angels. Just wanted to share. Rhiannon :)

lunalafey	13 May 2002
Floating around, rather than the routine, I came across this thread posted during my winter in the woods(no computer for 6 months) I had begun to wonder if the world would ever know what happened to Ayla. I love these books(forgot to put Auel on the list back at your fav.) Thank you rae for the exciting news! and rhi, the movie does not do the story justice, sorry, but I'm really picky about movies from books. I'm not saying the movie was not entertaining, you just HAVE to read the book, so much better, deeper.

Bings	13 May 2002
I was in a book store last week and they had the 5th book in the series for sale. So it is out there on the shelves!!! I love "Clan of the Cave Bear". The second book was kinda boring. The third picked it up some but wasn't as good as the first. The 4th book was sooooooo boring!!!! I will read the 5th book... I just hope that after 12 years of writing it is better than the 4th..... Dianne

cricket	13 May 2002
...and this last one was a letdown. Couldn't wait for the paperbacks to get out, so spent two weeks worth of saving on the hardback copy. Read it within a week, and was thoroughly unimpressed. Unusual.

Morgeinne	13 May 2002
Mom said I used to love the Clan of the Cave Bear movie when I was little. I don't remember it at all. She has read all of the books, and she just bought the new one. It's huge! It's like twice as big as "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." Or bigger. *shudder*

Mermaid	14 May 2002
Yeah, I totally enjoyed the Clan of the Cave bear too. It really is a great work of imagination, she makes the neanderthals and cro-magnons seem like 'normal' people and you can really get a sense of what it would have been like to live so long ago. The other three books are to be really different from the first one though - they're still enjoyable, but they all seem to be populated by beautiful aryan people having mindblowing sex! :D Just my opinion, as always! And of course, I'm still waiting impatiently till I can get my sticky paws on the new one (the Shelters of Stone I think it's called)! Blessings -

crystalmoon	25 May 2002
Hi. I have read all 5 books. I waited 12 years for the 5th to come out so I had to read it. It has a little too much info on describing the surroundings and what not but all in all it wasn't bad but now of course, like the rest, we must wait again for another book to see what happens next. I enjoyed the previous books more but still love to read about Ayla.

HOLMES	01 Jun 2002
I really like the mammoth hunters as for it spiritual content especially the part where ayla could go futher into the void then the old .. mamut was his name ? and only jolondor love bought her back. i especially like how they talk about cooking with herbs, and spices and with stones. i don't remember much and plains of passage was disappointing to me. but THE INCARNATIONS OF FATE BY OLD PIERS i really loved that series and every book is a spiritual lesson. :O) there is 7 book in the series for love of evil is an especially good read and the green mother, and acually they are all good reads which they all boil down to the 7 book, you will not disappointed.

Geenius at Wrok	02 Jun 2002
Ehhhh . . . my recollection of that series is that (a) the books got more and more inconsistent as it went on, and (b) the ones with male protagonists (Death, War, Evil and, to a lesser extent, Time) were head and shoulders better than the ones with female protagonists (Nature, Fate, Good). Piers Anthony is an overgrown adolescent with a badly underdeveloped understanding of the opposite sex. But hey, so was Robert A. Heinlein, and he made bank.

The Clan of the Cave Bear thread was originally posted on 04 Dec 2001 in the Spirituality board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Spirituality, or read more archived threads.