Customer Reviews

The Mammoth Hunters (Complete novel Parts 1 and 2) (Earth's Childrenıı)

5 star:		(75)
4 star:		(49)
3 star:		(25)
2 star:		(23)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

I have recently finished the main four books of the "Earth's Children" series, and I have decided to review "The Mammoth Hunters" because I thought that this third book is where the series started to lose some of it's charm. That doesn't mean that it isn't worth reading, though. I just have a few qualifications. "Spoilers"

In the first two books, "The Clan of the Cave Bear" and "The Valley of Horses", the huge amount of detail about the climates, landscapes, and plantlife never really bothered me too much, but in this book (and the last book, "Plains of Passage") I found it dwelt on the most trivial little things for ages! Most of the new characters are fairly likable, though none of them truly stand out, except maybe Rydag. Sometimes the author Ms. Auel seems more interested in Ayla's animal friends than in the people. A very large portion of this book is dedicated to the "love triangle" between Ayla, Jondalar, and Ranec, and this is frustrating for a number of reasons. First, it isn't really a love triangle at all; it is a "misunderstanding" between Ayla and Jondalar which causes Ranec to think that Ayla is available. Second, Ranec is an annoying and slightly creepy character, so I was never really interested in what the heck happened to him. Third, it takes over three hundred pages to resolve this issue!! Literally, three hundred pages of Ayla and Jondalar staring longingly at each other when the other one isn't looking, saying awkward things to each other, getting angry with each other, and so on. That doesn't mean that all three hundred pages are monotonous or boring. There are some very sad and touching scenes that will stay with you: Jondalar crying and clutching the wolf puppy at night while Ayla is sleeping with Ranec; Ayla sobbing to Mamut (the old MogUr-like character), asking him why Jondalar doesn't love her anymore; Jondalar losing control of himself when he's alone with Ayla and taking her by force (though she allows it); Ayla panicking and confessing her feelings when Jondalar leaves without her. These, and a few other scenes, are very endearing, though you may want to scream at Jondalar once in a while for not seeing what's so plainly obvious to everyone else. It never really leaves the reader's mind that all this drama and heartache could have been resolved in about two minutes if the two people just spoke to each other.

On a side note, there seems to be a lot of people taking issue with the sex scenes in this series and I find it very odd. There is also violence, death, and (in the first book) a brutal rape scene, but no-one seems too concerned about these things. I'd call that a serious misplacement of values. Ayla and Jondalar are both adults and in love, so what's the problem? If you're squeamish about the sex scenes, then just skip them! The explicit descriptions are pretty entertaining, if you ask me! Ms. Auel uses hilarious adjectives for the sex scenes (eg. "Jondalar's large throbbing manhood", "Ayla's pink place of pleasure", ect.) that had me laughing out loud at some points!! In the fourth book, Ayla and Jondalar even "invent" the 69 position!

In conclusion, I'll say that this book (and the fourth) is worth reading if you have already read the first two and really enjoyed them. As a stand-alone novel, it doesn't quite work. It's entertaining at times, but nowhere near as brilliant as the first, or as fun as the second.

Let's start with the positives...the Mammoth Hunters as a tribe were interesting, and the details of how their survival was linked to the many versatile uses of the wolly mammoth were engaging. The Mamutoi social systems, customs, and interpersonal relationships kept me reading to the end.

The real problem with the book concerned the personalities of the central characters, Ayla, Ranec, and Jondalar. Jondalar comes off as incredibly whiny and insecure...nothing he does or says is particularly interesting and he spends most of the book annoying the reader by moping around the camp worrying about his "pleasures" as if he's a bit player on "Sex and the City". He did the same thing throughout the Valley of Horses, too.

Ranec plays the cocky rival for Ayla's affections, but the minute he gets her in the furs he too is reduced to a whimpering mass of desperate neediness, and begins following Ayla around all day nipping at her heels.

The real tragedy here is that these are the first men of her species Ayla encounters, and she feels compelled to entertain their childish behavior and return their affections whenever they manage to get their act together and stop feeling sorry for themselves for 5 minutes (a character flaw developed by years of flathead oppression). By the end, I was rooting for her to let Jondalar split, take the horse and the wolf and go back to the cave in the valley and wait for a REAL caveman to show up.

If Ayla was really as smart as she's supposed to be, she wouldn't be appearing in any more sequels.

The love triangle is straight out of daytime TV: "he acts one way, but for some reason I'll just assume he feels completely the opposite". Ayla's accent is continuously described as too small to notice...but everyone does the instant she opens her mouth. Everyone in the book is just great, except for the token one-dimensional bad-guy who turns good in the end.

These savages are so elegant, we expect to see a pre-historic Martha Stewart behind the next mammoth hide. Ayla is already Amelia Earhardt, Joan of Arc and Mother Teresa rolled into one. Read it if it's the only book in the house (this includes the dictionary and the phonebook).

What a terrible book. I thought I had read some bad books before, but this takes the cake.

Auel tried to create a love triangle with Ayla, Jon and Ranec. And it was so stupid. If the characters just had the sense to talk to each other, it would have been over in a couple of seconds. But noooo, Auel has to save that moment for the very end as her "climax". She draws out the story forEVER and repeats herself so many times that I was mentally beating myself up for reading such an "abomination" of a book. (pardon my pun)

Ayla becomes God in this novel. Sorry, but its true. Everyone else in the clan all but prays to her might and you get a sense of deja-vu when she adopts yet another animal after killing its mother. She invents all this stuff and the Spiritual Dude of the Mammoth Hunters tells her she has every Gift in the book. It's just too unrealistic.

A waste of three good hours (I skim-read all the boring parts). If I hadnt borrowed it from the library, I would have asked for my money back. A sad thing to happen to what was otherwise a good series. Skip this book and go on is my humble advice.

This is a great, intense book. The problems between Ayla and Jondalar are very frustrating and painful to read because we all know how much they love each other deep down. This book has more elements of a soap opera drama than the others, but it is still highly enjoyable and full of rich detail. Sex occurs frequently in this book, but it is described in a beautiful fashion. I think our modern day men may have a thing or two to learn about our ancestors!

Ayla and Jondalar, those prehistoric Edisons, invent the sewing needle, domesticate a wolf and make passionate love in their new temporary home. Of course, in true soap-opera fashion, Ayla falls for another man, thereby making Jondalar wild with jealousy, so much so that in one particular scene he all but rapes her (what a mature response). Naturally, this convinces her that he loves her and at the end of the novel, she walks out on the man she is supposed to marry (leaves him at the prehistoric version of the altar) and runs after her one and only love. Although I didn't like the plot, I did like Ayla as a character and this book pretty much ruined her. Of course, the book takes after 'The Valley of Horses' in its copious sex scenes, which make you wonder if these are necessary for the book to sell. They probably are

What we have here is modem day men who are compassionate and understanding of women's thoughts, feelings and pleasures.. add in some 1950's soap or toothbrush commercial type conversation and finally set it in a caveman period. We have obviously gone backwards since in this book, all men think about is ensuring that their women feel pleasure. The pain and guilt that men feel if they do not bring her to orgasm is too much to bear and I am surprised they do not go running and screaming into the night to immediately committee suicide when they fail. Seriously, every woman in this series experiences intense orgasms, every time.

Examples of breath taking writing :

"Do you also have a ceremony initiation into womanhood with understanding and gentleness. First rights? Yes, of course. How could anyone not care about how a young woman is opened the first time."

&

"This time he hesitated, he had also felt a terrible guilt afterwards for using the deeply secrete ceremony to satisfy his own needs for the deeper feelings it invokes."

The repetitiveness of stuff in previous chapters or books is extremely annoying. Hearing people discuss new techniques and discoveries every paragraph would have put us at a rate to invent the airplane by 2000BC instead of 1904AD .. I really find it difficult to say anything good about Jean Auel's books since the excellent `Clan of the Cave Bear'. Had she taken the story in this book and condensed it into 300 pages, it might have been half decent.

The Mammoth Hunters is one of my favorites in this series - not really for the main plot, but because this is where Ayla finally gets to really meet "the Others" and learns to understand their society (sort of).

I love the series, but I have to say I do skip the sex scenes... after you've read one of Auel's sex scenes, you've pretty much read them all. It's not that I object to them being there... it's that they're boring.

In The Mammoth Hunters, Ayla meets and interacts with a group of people of her kind. She introduces a few more new "discoveries" and domesticates another wild animal. Her "pets" and "discoveries" impress the Mammoth Hunters, and she is warmly accepted into their group.

A love triangle develops between Ayla, Jondalar and one of the Mammoth Hunters. This part of the story is a bit frustrating since it is a misunderstanding that drags on and on until the very end.

However, I liked this book, even better than the first two books. The characters are basically good, kind people, however there is strong prejudice against the "clan" people that must be overcome. This seems to be a strong message throughout the series.

The breeze you feel is me opening the draw marked "Should Have Stopped While Ahead" and throwing this book in it. Please, don't consider another in the series, Ms. Auel. You've made me ashamed to admit I liked "Clan of the Cavebear" in literary circles. That hurts!