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

I loved this book. It took me over a month to read because I was so engrossed in every single word. I loved the story, I loved the characters and I definitely love that it's a series. I can't wait to see the movie even though I have heard it is not so spectacular. It was nearly perfect but it took me a long time to begin to comprehend who the names were referring to, which was slightly distracting. ( )

Clan of the Cave Bear is the story of Ayla, a 5 year old Homo Sapien who is stranded in the wild after an earthquake killed her family. She is adopted by the Clan (i assume, considering the time period, that this is Homo Erectus. i don't believe it's mentioned in the book) who take her in and teach her their ways.i was a bit put off when first opening this book. Ms Auel uses very clinical language in her narratorial descriptions, which i found distracting. once i realized that this was on purpose however, i got used to the language and actually found it extremely interesting.Auel goes into incredible depth regarding everything from landscape & character descriptions to the flora & fauna characteristic of the time period. some of the most interesting tidbits i thought were her explanations of the Clan-folk themselves; her reasoning behind the extended occipital lobes, memory and extrapolation, the differences between the minds of H. Sapiens and H. Erectus. as (not even) a layman of human evolution, i found it very compelling.the story itself is a bit dry at times, riveting at others; i found myself struggling in the middle of chapters, waiting for a good place to break and go to bed, only to be sucked back in by the end and continuing right on into the next. while i'm not sure i would rave about it, Clan of the Cave Bear is quite good, and i look forward to continuing the series. ( )

Basically the book was very slow, but I do love historical fiction and I found the slowness in describing every detail (on occasion) very fascinating. Although it did seem that at the time when she should have branched out and gone into detail she left it alone and went a different, more boring route. It's basically a text book.
However, Ms. Auel's style of writing is very wonderful and magical, and perhaps just for that reason I will pursue the series.

i have read this book several times after first seeing it as a movie. i love it. ( )