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Jan 31, 2012

Corey rated it:

The thing that strikes me most about her work is that every time there's a new discovery about how paleolithic people lived, it goes along with her stories. Things they said were silly back when she wrote it (Neanderthals with instruments, Neanderthals living with homo sapiens sapiens, and the like) keep proving true.

She presents interesting ideas of cognition, culture and how societies develop. The first two books are her best I think. The rest remains interesting if you can de More...

4 comments like (37 people liked it)

Jan 08, 2012

Renee rated it:

This book and the series that follows is endearing, troublesome, and whole-heartedly compassionate. This is the book my grandmother read to me as a little girl during the middle of a tornado, while we waited out the storm by candlelight. This is the book that started me reading... really reading.
I learned that I can love my quiet time, and apparently I love stories on the ancient human race... our beginnings. The ways of survival, ways of development, natural medicine, culture and anthrop More...

3 comments like (18 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Holmes! rated it:

I *really* wanted to dig this book. I have a burgeoning obsession with prehistory, evolution, and the antecedents of man, and a tale of Cro Magnons and Neanderthals is exactly what I'd love to read.

Sadly, this book does not contain that tale.

Instead, it's a goopy mess of inane metaphysics, prurience for prurience's sake, and a none-too-subtle dollop of racism, as the blonde-haired and light-skinned heroine shows the more primitive (and darker-skinned) Neanderthals how to More...

13 comments like (21 people liked it)

Jul 23, 2007

Doc Opp rated it:

This was a fantastic book. I read it in 7th grade, and was absolutely obsessed with it (which is nothing less than stunning, because at that age most books that lacked dragons weren't worth my time...). In a way its perfect for around that age, because its all about struggling for acceptance and trying to learn the social norms of a society. But really, everybody has dealt with those issues, and will be able to empathize with the characters. And the setting is so unique, the writing so vibra More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jun 07, 2008

Abby rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

10 comments like (7 people liked it)

Apr 18, 2009

Werner rated it:

Auel's Earth's Children series (this opening volume was followed by, so far, four sequels) garners mixed --and mostly negative-- reviews here on Goodreads. Though none of them have reviewed it, a dozen of my Goodreads friends have given it ratings, ranging from one star to five. Obviously, my own reaction falls at the favorable end of the spectrum.

Ayla, of course, is a Cro-Magnon (i.e., an anatomically modern human; you and I are "Cro-Magnons" too, in that anthropological More...

2 comments like (22 people liked it)

Jun 18, 2011

Isis rated it:

Frankly, Auel gets points simply for tackling this period, as I have not found any other books set around this era. Very little is known about human culture in this period apart from a basic overview, let alone Neanderthal culture. Particularly aspirations, values, and spiritual belief systems are the hardest to deduce from the material archaeological record. Auel avoids the problem of getting into the complex details of culture by making the novel more about character relationships than an exot More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2012

Kayleigh rated it:

A disappointment. The concept is interesting, especially in light of recent archaeological evidence suggesting that Neandertals and Cro-Magnons (anatomically modern humans) may have interbred. However, the execution is extremely poor. The pacing is uneven, the prose is so flowery it hurts, and the characters are flat. Some other things that bothered me:
--The author has the tendency to "info-dump", frequently disrupting the flow of the story to deliver lengthy descriptions of More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 02, 2008

Sarah rated it:

I'll never forget the first time I read this book. I was in the 5th grade. It was sitting around my house - my mom is an English teacher, so we always had plenty of books lying around in various stages of reading completion - and the synopsis on the back cover caught my attention. Some pretty advanced themes for a 5th grader, as my teacher Mr. Konezney mentioned to my mother upon seeing me read this book in school - but it was my very first emotional connection to fictional characters. Ayla, More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Aug 30, 2008

Allison rated it:

The Clan of the Cave Bear is the first in Jean Auel’s Earth’s Children series, and it’s an exciting way to begin. The book is a coming-of-age story for a young girl, Ayla, living during the Ice Age who is orphaned during an Earthquake. Ayla is adopted by The Clan of the Cave Bear, although she clearly is not “Clan,” as she looks, acts, and communicates very differently. The story is clearly a work of fantasy, as there are obvious factual inaccuracies; however, the quality of Auel’s writing ma More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 13, 2007

Lisa rated it:

This is a great novel; it’s a real masterpiece. I love the whole series but I think this is by far the best book in it, and it stands on its own although I became completely hooked and I’ve eagerly awaited every new book in the series, and I really hope Auel finishes this series! I really admire these epic books. I appreciate stories that are historical fiction or fantasy where a complex society and intricate details about the lives of the inhabitants are described. I feel that I learned so much More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 03, 2008

Scarlet rated it:

The Earths Children series that this book begins tells the story of Ayla, a young orphan thrown into a primevil world of Neanderthals and primitive humans. Auel describes her journey with an incredibly detailed richness that can only be gained through lifelong study of the ice-age universe. While her depictions can sometimes be a tad off (I think her interpretation of Neanderthal society is a bit crooked and some of the technologies she has the humans using were way ahead of their time) it's e More...

1 comment like

Jul 20, 2007

Mandy rated it:

I love these books and have read some in the Earth's Children series many times because I love the detailed descriptions of their way of life. I actually started reading them in the 4th or 5th grade. I loved reading about how they hunted, gathered and stored their food, made clothing and jewelry, and the contrasts between the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon in those aspects. I also loved that Ayla was an innovative and strong woman, and I enjoyed learning about botany and medicinal uses for plants More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 16, 2007

Claire rated it:

Ayla is an outsider among the clan. Found and adopted by the medicine woman of the clan during their migration, Ayla finds herself the target of an ambitious man hoping to become leader, training to be a medicine woman in her own right in hopes of earning some status within the caste, and challenging the set gender roles of her adopted culture.

I was impressed by Auel's research on flora and fauna. The first time I read this I was in seventh grade and stuck home convalescing from an More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 28, 2011

Christina rated it:

This story was great! As I was reading I totally lost my self in the story. The descriptions and well researched information took me back in time and I could almost hear the grunts, the crackle of the fire and smell the meat roasting! Sometimes though, details were a little much and I felt anxious to get on with the story when the author was explaining the tedious steps involved in making a weapon or such things like that. After finishing the book I have a yearning for simplicity. I set out More...

5 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2007

Klasko rated it:

I got the unabridged version of this book out of the library on tape to listen to while I was painting several rooms in my house one summer. I loved it. I thought it was a unique look at the author's idea of what life could have been like for neanderthal and cro-magnon man. Jean Auel obviously did a lot of reasearch for this book and it comes out in her descriptions of flora and fauna and what certain herbs were used for and how things might have been cooked, etc. A truly fascinating story a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 07, 2008

DD_Michael rated it:

I read and could see and understand, the world of people more than 35,000 years ago; civilization is such a thin veneer. I couldn't put the book down because the Author brought this world to life for me.

Take away everything we rely on and fail to appreciate and you will still find the same heart of what we are, good and bad.

Five year old Ayla is left "really" alone when her parents are crushed to death when their cave collapses during an earthquake.

More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 24, 2007

Rebecca rated it:

I read this series in high school. It was one of my mom's favorites and I just picked Clan of the Cave Bear off her pile one day and never looked back. There is no other series of books that I've read that could compare to these. You fall right into the prehistoric era, and you truly feel like you are there. Since I was reading this in junior high and high school, the sex scenes were also a plus. I'm sure if I re-read these books now I'd find the sexual parts a little to over the top for me More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 05, 2008

GoldenjoyBazyll rated it:

In a time long, long ago there once was one named Ayla.... brave- different- corageous. This little blonde haired girl who was able to have tears in her eyes was found by another race of people after an earth quake and being attacked by a cave lion. I read this book in what now seems like another life time- I was camping in Maine and became addicted to the ongoing story of this woman's life.

When you finish it you will definately want to read Mamoth Hunters/ Plains of Passage/ Val More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 21, 2008

Blast rated it:

This book was recommended to me as a good resource for learning primative skills. I'd have to strongly disagree with that. There were a few medicinal plants mentioned but you have to slog through hundreds of pages of lame story-telling to find them. The book gave a very idealized veiw of the lives of cavemen. Everything was milk and honey and wonderful rather than brutish, ugly and short.

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 16, 2008

Linda rated it:

The Earth's Children by Jean Auel starting with the Clan of the Cave Bear is a good start to her series starting in prehistoric times with dinosaurs and moving into a story of a girl from one tribe trying to fit in with another tribe, the flatheads, and all she encounters and how they survive. I was interesting and I read the rest of the series too many years ago.

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 15, 2009

Justy rated it:

In the first book of the Earth Children series we meet Ayla. Ayla looses her family in an earthquake and is left alone in a indifferent world. She is rescued by people so different from her that she screams the first time she sees them. [return][return]I love that by reading this book I can escape to a completely different world. A world which make me think about and question the one I live in. Jean M Auel has done an incredible amount of research to make everything in her books as accurate as p More...

0 comments like

Aug 17, 2011

Leisa rated it:

I loved this book when I was a teen. Indirectly, it lead to my pursuit of a BA in Anthropology. Perhaps it is that Anthropology degree that has rendered the book unreadable for me 25 years later.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 02, 2008

Luis rated it:

Jean Auel did a great job researching for this book. It made you feel as though you were there living amongst the clan during prehistoric times. You really get to know all the characters well.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

May 23, 2008

Linda rated it:

I found this book to be a very interesting fictional story about the "first" human. It was very entertaining and I look forward to continue reading the series.

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

D rated it:

TRUE STORY: reading Clan of the Cave Bear to augment one's understanding of the Upper Paleolithic era is like reading Playboy for the articles. . . .

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Feb 18, 2009

Alana rated it:

I loved this series....

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 31, 2008

Karla rated it:

A enjoyable adventure. The story pulled me in and kept me interested.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 01, 2011

Jess rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

2 comments like (9 people liked it)

Apr 17, 2009

Jen rated it:

This is the first of a series of four books based in Europe during the Ice Age that follows the journey of Ayla, a woman of apparently many talents and abilities.

While I was mesmerized by the story, I was bothered by some reviews (not just on Goodreads) that claim it is a racist series. Sometimes reviews ruin reading... The fact that I was aware enough to spend time looking for racist overtones distracted me.

Upon reading, here is what I decided. If I can read the boo More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)