Awful! Lady "McGiver" meets John Holms. Does she split the atom in the next one? How many more earth shattering orgasms are in order? How about deflowerings? Jeez! ( )

An interesting take on how some things could have come about. As this series went on it became less interesting and more soft porn. ( )

This is the third book of the series of Ayla and her Journey. I was trying to decide which book I have liked so far and I have decided they are all different but connected. This is more of making decisions on personal feelings by the characters. I think Ayla has stronger feelings for her Clan family even though she has found people of the Others, who are like her. This one was a little more emotional. ( )

Leaving the valley of horses with Jondalar, the handsome man she has nursed back to health and come to love, Ayla embarks on a journey that will lead her to the Mamutoi; the Mammoth Hunters. But as she settles into this new life among a people at first strange and disturbingly different, Ayla finds herself irresistibly drawn to Ranec, their master-carver. Ultimately, she is compelled to make a fateful choice between the two men.

Jean Auel's imaginative reconstruction of pre-historic life, rich in detail of language, culture, myth and ritual, has become a set text in schools and colleges around the world.

In this third and long-awaited novel in the acclaimed Earth's Children 'TM' series, Ayla, the independent heroine of The Clan of the Cave Bear and The Valley of Horses, sets out from the valley on Whinney, the horse she tamed. With her is Jondalar, the tall, handsome, yellow-haired man she nursed back to health and came to love. Together they meet the Mamutoi -- the Mammoth Hunters -- people like Ayla. But to Ayla, who was raised by the Clan of the Cave Bear, they are 'the Others.' She approaches them with mixed feelings of fear and curiosity.

Talut, a powerful bear of a man with bright red hair, a booming laugh, and a gentle heart, and his tall, dark-haired sister, Tulie, are the leaders of the Lion Camp of the Mamutoi. It is here that Ayla finds her first women friends, but some among the Mamutoi dislike Ayla because she was raised by 'flatheads,' their name for the people of the Clan. Ayla is haunted by her memories of the Clan because Rydag, a child of mixed parentage living with the Mamutoi, bears so strong a resemblance to her own son, Durc.

It is the Mamutoi master carver of ivory dark-skinned Ranec, flirtatious, artistic, magnetic -- who fascinates Ayla. She finds herself drawn to him. Because of her uncanny control over animals, her healing skills, and the magic firestone she discovered, Ayla is adopted into the Mammoth Hearth by Mamut, the ancient shaman of the Great Earth Mother.

Ayla finds herself torn between her strong feelings for Ranec and her powerful love for the wildly jealous and unsure Jondalar. It is not until after the great mammoth hunt, when Ayla's life is threatened, that a fateful decision ismade.

Set in the challenging terrain of Ice Age Europe that millions of Jean M. Auel readers have come to treasure, The Mammoth Hunters is an epic novel of love, knowledge, jealousy, and hard choices -- a novel certain to garner Jean M. Auel even greater acclaim as a master storyteller of the dawn of humanity. ( )