The Valley of Horses

Когато излиза, тази поредица е хвалена като уникален поглед в битието на предците ни и даже получава няколко награди. Защо, не мога да кажа.

Въпреки сносните си литературни качества като (главно) младежко четиво, описанията на живота и бита на хората от палеолита влизат в разрез с практически всеки научен факт, който знаем за тях. Като се започне от храната, която ядат, през предметите, които ползват, до show more общуването и племенния живот, авторката представя една идеализирана, романтична представа, очевидно повлияна от поколения натрупани в съзнанието й митове за "благородния дивак".

Фактите от археологията и антропологията обаче сочат, че хората от палеолита нито са се хранили със зърнени храни, нито са имали голямо разнообразие от методи за приготвяне на храна, нито са изработвали и притежавали много и сложни сечива и предмети на изкуството, нито са опитомявали животни. Не са и имали широка междуплеменна социална мрежа, а напротив - били са войнствени и канибали, със смъртност на мъжете от насилие стигаща до 40%. Като цяло, авторката им приписва сложност и изкусност на бита, каквито човешкият вид придобива едва стотици хилядолетия по-късно, на съвсем различен цивилизационен етап.

Описанието на неандерталците като примитивни полумаймуни може да се преглътне, защото книгата е писана преди потвърждаването на хипотезата, че са били всъщност по-интелигентни от Homo Sapiens. show less

I loved this book. It is just mesmerizing watching Ayla learn and discover all of these tools and skills just from the natural world around her. Her relationship with the animals, her ways of communicating, and her knowledge of plants feels so remarkable in todays context.

I am utterly impressed with the way The author created this prehistoric egalitarian society. there were some gendered norms but they were not strict and they were not valued any less. The spirituality piece was beautiful - how it centered Motherhood and also celebrated sex and Pleasure - and even more beautiful when Jondalar’s spirituality was combined with Ayla’s Clan/Cave Bear spirituality

The tension and othering around the Clan people and the new human people show more was also fascinating. show less

Spoilers only if you haven't read publisher summary/back of the book.

This honestly sits between two and four stars for me, and I had a similar ambivalence toward The Clan of the Cave Bear. As with the first book, there are many, many, many passages that are chockfull of anthropological detail and that is either a blessing or a curse, depending on the reader's mindset. What is positive is that Ayla gets a lot more character definition here simply by spending a few years by herself--we learn of her survival and adaptation and in so doing, get to know here more as a character, rather than a symbol of human development. But there are places where it starts to feel like a field guide to surviving alone in a cave, and this can be tedious if show more making fire with flint and dehydrating meat aren't your favorite pastimes.

The first 300 pages (or so) feature two storylines, and if you read the back cover blurb, you know that they will at some point join each other. This expectation marred the book for me somewhat as 300 pages was too long to wait, but not long enough for me to care enough about the characters other than Ayla. This isn't necessarily a fault of the book, but I wish I hadn't read the blurb. What's more, when the two storylines do...merge....there is, well... A LOT of sex. All of a sudden Call of the Wild turns into a Harlequin Romance. Seemingly, when not hunting, copulation is the no. 1 choice of activity. I'm not bothered by the vivid descriptions as much as it becomes the substantial narrative of the book and distracts from the far more interesting struggle of Ayla's sense of cultural identity. This struggle, through conversation with Jondalar, was for me, the most interesting part of the book, and the commentary on racism and bigotry, although rather obvious, is important for our historical and present consciousness.

The book could be shorter to be sure...trying to maintain the narrative of a journey in one storyline, and a survival epic in another, is a challenge. There are multiple tribes of folks to keep track of, and Auel describes everything with assiduous detail. Just as you get hooked on the secondary storyline, however, she whisks you back to "meanwhile...back at the ranch..", ok....cave. If you really enjoyed Clan of the Cave Bear, this is a worthwhile sequel. Ultimately, however, it tries to be a lot of different things, and not always successfully. I'm intrigued enough to read The Mammoth Hunters in the hope that it gets more into the anthropological differences and socialization aspects promised by the preview. But ultimately, not every book has to be a "saga" and I feel the self-conscious attempts by the author to be "epic" diminish a lot of what is valuable in these books. show less

Valley of the Horses by Jean Auel introduces two main characters, each surviving adversity in the wild, while weaving in an on-again, off-again romance. Like Clan of the Cave Bear, the detailed passages on hunting, gathering, and early technologies will fascinate readers interested in prehistoric life, while those drawn to romance may find this book even more engaging than the first. What stayed with me most was the introduction of new prehistoric cultures and technologies — a sense of progression into more advanced civilizations. Auel continues her strong themes of loneliness, cultural intersections, and her remarkable depth of research into prehistoric life. Where it faltered for me was in the frequent and in-depth sex scenes, which show more I didn’t enjoy and tended to skim. Overall, I would recommend it to fans of historical fiction, archaeology, and cross-cultural storytelling — and now also to readers who enjoy romance. show less

After her expulsion from the Neanderthal clan that raised her, Ayla heads off to find her own people. Instead, she finds herself living alone in a protected valley, where she bonds with the animals for company and spends her time making tools, baskets, furs, etc. Meanwhile, we meet Jondalar and his brother Thonolan, heading east--toward Ayla--on a great journey that takes them to strange places and introduces them to strange people.

There's a more overtly anthropological feel to this sequel. While The Clan of the Cave Bear was certainly well-researched, it was also character-driven as the Neanderthals struggled to accept (or not) the stranger in their midst. Frankly, Jondalar is not as interesting a character as any of the Neanderthals, show more and one wonders why the novel dwells so much on the impressiveness of his "manhood." As a sequel, this novel is not unsatisfying and most people who enjoyed the original will find worth their time; it is not worth reading on its own. show less

What a lonely existence, luckily we've got a historical Dr Dolittle on our hands. A lot of history and description with fantastical elements -- It's entertaining enough, and I get that humans are pretty adaptable and constantly come up with ideas, but wow. Ayla and Jondalar are apparently some kind of mythical beings.

3.25 stars

A continuation of “The Clan of the Cave Bear”, I won’t say too much about how it happened, but in this book, Ayla is on her own, trying to survive, and looking for what the Clan call “the Others” – that is, people of her kind. She finds a nice spot to settle and manages to tame a horse, and raise a lion cub! Meanwhile (and I missed the circumstances around it), two brothers, Jondalar and Thonalan are travelling. Thonalan becomes injured, so they find a group of people to stay with while he improves.

I listened to the audio, so I did miss some things. Overall, I liked the story (I preferred Ayla’s chapters), but (and I will use terminology I found in other reviews), I didn’t think the “caveman porn” was show more necessary (though there was less of it than I expected, based on reviews). I could have done without the majority of it, though. I do hear it gets worse as the series goes on, but I think (for now), the story is interesting enough for me to continue to the next book. I also thought, for a prehistoric man, Jondalar was maybe a bit too contemporary in his attitudes toward women. Not everything was contemporary, but certainly more than I expected, although I guess we don’t really know what prehistoric culture was like. I did enjoy learning about the making of fire, tools, and the survival strategies and I loved Ayla’s animal companions. ¼ star was taken off for the caveman porn aspect. show less