The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children, #1) in The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

May 30, 2010 Kirby rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, historical-fiction

This is one of my favorite books of all time. I've read it so many times that I have the first paragraph committed to memory. I can remember the first time I read it, I was maybe 12 or so, and I could not put it down. I remember feeling shock, awe, fear, sadness, and warmth throughout the book, and I was inconsolable at the end. Ever since, I have wanted to name my daughter (assuming that I have one) Ayla, after the main character. I just really love the premise of this book, the meeting of Nean ...more

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Nov 09, 2010 Matt rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: own, historical-fiction, audiobook-library-loan, 2014

1.5 stars

I really, really, really wanted to like this book more than I did.

First, the bad. The story was extremely slow, giving us pages upon pages of nothing at all happening and then finally some action. The characters were so two dimensional that they were practically one dimensional. I know they are supposed to be Neanderthals but seriously, they don't have to be so poorly written. The sexuality of the characters in this book was, to be honest, very disturbing. I understand that the way Aue ...more

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Feb 24, 2011 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: novels, historical-fiction, favorites, fiction, ultimate-reading-list, popular-fiction, ebooks

This first in the "Earth's Children" series is definitely my favorite. I liked The Valley of Horses but by The Mammoth Hunters felt the series was becoming too much of a stone age soap opera.

But I loved this first volume about Ayla, a human girl who at five-years-old is taken in by a band of Neanderthal cave dwellers. That volume is rich in so many aspects. The speculations about the differences between our homo sapiens species and our close siblings, the Neanderthals, particularly drastically ...more

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Mar 24, 2010 Joel Judge rated it really liked it

Book 1 in the Earth's Children series, Clan of the Cave Bear was an engrossing tale of survival, courage, "girl power", perseverance and triumph over adversity.

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Dec 11, 2010 Allan Fisher rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: bbc-the-big-read-top-100-books

It took a while to get into but once I did I loved this tale. Completely different to a lot of novels and I even began to enjoy the omniscient POV.
I am looking forward to Ayla's further adventures.... ...more

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