The Wild Blog in the West

Though Jean Auel's fourth installment of the Earth's Children  series is widely regarded as the weakest of the first four, it is looked upon more favorably in comparison to the final two installments. The Plains of Passage is   still "early Auel," part of a remarkable 10-year bout of productivity that produced four giant, detailed novels.  Whatever its faults, it still maintains the tone and characterization of previous novels, and it still seems to harbor some ambitions for its characters. That said, I found The Plains of Passage  to be a grind after The Mammoth Hunters .  Unlike the latter book which -- whatever its faults -- had one tense plot line throughout, the plot of The Plains of Passage is "Ayla and Jondalar travel to Jondalar's home."  That means a lot of lengthy travel sequences of variable interest, intercut with sometimes interesting interaction with other tribes. I would have found The Plains of Passage  to be a lot fresher if we h

We now come to what is widely regarded as the "last good" Jean Auel novel.  Whether The Mammoth Hunters  even qualifies as good in the objective sense is a matter of debate, but I will say that I found it much more readable than The Valley of Horses . Ayla finally meets a whole group of Others like herself.  A group that just happens to be called the Lion Camp.  And happens to house a shaman who once lived with Ayla's clan, as well as a Clan-Others "mixture" like Durc.  Could it be that Ayla was meant to live with this specific group?  * pregnant pause * The Lion Camp also features the Earth's Children series first Other of Color, named Ranec.  It is with Ranec that we first get a taste of that dreaded convention: the love triangle. Happiness makes for dull reading, so it is not surprising that there is no smooth sailing once Ayla and Jondalar reach the Lion Camp.  However, what many fans object to is the extent to which the Love Triangle From Hell

As I mentioned last time , after sucking down The Clan of the Cave Bear  in just a few days, 14-year old me grabbed ahold of its sequel.  I was so excited.  The ending of  Clan  was so powerful and emotional -- what could Auel possibly have in store for us next?  Would Ayla be reunited with her family?  Would we see how Durc was treated once Ayla was gone?  At this point, anything was possible. I tore open the novel and read the first chapter. "She was dead.  What did it matter if icy needles of freezing rain flayed her skin raw."  Yes, yes!  I read as Ayla forged ahead alone, haunted by her final moments with the Clan, until she ended up in "cool, green, sheltered valley" where horses were grazing.  Then... Wait -- who were Jondalar and Thonolan?  I skimmed ahead through their chapter, looking for some connection to Ayla, but there was none.  Next chapter, Ayla was still in the valley.  Next chapter, Jondalar and Thonolan and their not-very-interesting adventur

I was just the right age when I received my induction into the world of Jean Auel: 14 years old.  My mother handed me a second-hand copy of The Clan of the Cave Bear , telling me that a friend of hers recommended it, but not telling me what it was about.  At 14, I was reading "grown up" novels, but not novels that had explicit sex and violence.  I was also still young enough to identify with Ayla, the novel's protagonist.  So I sucked Clan down in just a few days, and quickly grabbed its sequel, The Valley of Horses .  I was fortunate that the first four Earth's Children novels had already been published. As I mentioned last time , The Clan of the Cave Bear premiered with a splash in 1980* and is still regarded as Jean Auel's best novel.  Unlike its widely panned film version , Clan was regarded as a serious work of fiction, using research available at the time to reconstruct a world that was practically forgotten.  That the author herself was not a professio

Replica of a painting in the Chauvet Cave in France. The original is thought to be 31,000 years old. I said in my last update that at some point I would tackle a book critique.  I've decided to think big and do six... Jean Auel's six, that is. For those who are unfamiliar, Jean Auel's Earth's Children series began in 1980 with The Clan of the Cave Bear , about a Cro-Magnon girl losing her family in the prehistoric era and being raised by a clan of Neanderthals.   Clan became a runaway best seller and quickly established Auel as an author to watch.  Notably,  Clan  was not only the first novel of the series, but also Auel's first novel ever.  In fact, I think it was the first piece of  fiction  that she had ever written.  Let that sink in for a moment.   Within 10 years, The Clan of the Cave Bear  was followed by three other door-stopper best sellers:  The Valley of Horses (1982),  The Mammoth Hunters  (1985), and The Plains of Passage  (1990).  Then pr