I was hooked into this series by the first book, "Clan of the Cave Bear", a fun, well-written novel with excellent character relationships. I instantly read the sequel, "The Valley of Horses", but found myself a bit dubious, as there were a couple of issues this time around with the characterisations and it dragged in places. Nevertheless, I persisted, convinced that "The Valley of Horses" had just been a brief dip before the series got back to the good standard of the first book. I was wrong, and I was oh so disappointed that this should be the case, but "The Mammoth Hunters" wasn't even on a par with "The Valley of Horses". Even after "The Mammoth Hunters", I persisted with this series, truly wishing for things to get better... but it was all downhill, and sadly this is the first in the series in that trend.But there are some good things to be said. Undoubtedly one of Auel's greatest strengths as a writer are her descriptions, which we're hit with right at the beginning of the book and take on a whole new level from even her previous works so far in this series. The description of the Lion Camp's longhouse, constructed out of mammoth bones, was truly atmospheric - the darkness inside, the flickering hearths giving off smoky smells, the gathered people murmuring in hushed tones and turning to look at Ayla. For perhaps the first time in Auel's series, I felt completely and very believably transported back to an environment thousands of years ago. The description of the musical instruments and their use was another descriptive highlight, as were the interesting titbits on food sources and preparation.It's obvious that Auel has put a great deal of research into this book, and it comes across in her detailed descriptions of period specific items and activities. I appreciate it, however, Auel takes her research too far in this novel. There are points in the text when Auel breaks off from naturally describing something as part of the story, to engaging in her own voice in a lengthy discussion that could've been lifted whole from an article in a university archaeological and anthropological journal! There are genuinely moments when it's written; "people wouldn't know it until millennia later, but..." This was so horribly jarring, to suddenly and inexplicably be dragged from a historical fiction narrative, into a modern day dry, factual, Palaeolithic site report, that this alone was a major detriment to the book!The romance scenes were another big thumbs down. It's not that there are too many of them, or that they are too graphic. It's that they're badly written. Very badly written. You'd be forgiven for thinking the printers accidentally stuck some loose pages from a trashy Harlequin romance or cheesy bodice-ripper in the middle of "The Mammoth Hunters". Feast your eyes on such literary incredulities as; "Jondalar's large throbbing manhood", "Ayla's pink place of pleasure" and her "petal-like folds". The word "pleasure" is written with a capital P, and not only is the language used completely fatuous, and their activities are insipidly and repetitively formulaic.All this brings me to the supposed "love triangle" which apparently forms the main plot of this book. The love triangle plot fires into action when Ranec, who has so far only watched Ayla from afar, makes known to Ayla his desire for her at her adoption ceremony into the tribe. Ayla, having been brought up like a good Neanderthal woman and apparently incapable of telling the guy "I'm just not that into you", knows that when a man makes a signal that he wants her, a woman should instantly submit. I have to say, for someone who's meant to be so brilliant, Ayla was pretty stupid about the whole love triangle thing. Since when has Ayla conformed to the Neanderthal codes? She broke them over and over in the first book, unable to resist her Cro-Magnon nature! And what about Jondalar teaching her all about Cro-Magnon relationships in the previous book? So, despite these baffling contradictions, Ayla hops into bed with Ranec whilst she's still Jondalar's girl. Jondalar is hacked off. Ayla doesn't get why he's mad, despite all the above experiences she's had and having had ample chance to observe from the Mammoth Hunters how relationships work. NO ONE from the cast of supporting characters explains to Ayla just what she has inadvertently done wrong. Because Ayla acts confused and like she has done nothing wrong, Jondalar convinces himself that she doesn't want him anymore and has chosen Ranec over him, and so pulls back from her, deciding to let her be free to make her own choice. Because Jondalar pulls back from her, Ayla thinks he doesn't love her anymore, and decides she'd better stick with Ranec even though she doesn't truly love him, because then at least she'll have someone who cares for her.And this "misunderstanding" rambles on for over 300 pages. I swear, I was THIS close to throwing the book down in disgust. The big "love triangle" plot could've been resolved in two minutes if Ayla and Jondalar would only SPEAK to each other. And the others in the camp, who, we are given hints, can see what's really going on in the whole big mess of this misunderstanding and know that Jondalar and Ayla still love each other, inexplicably, do NOTHING! Not a single word of advice to point the unhappy couple in the right direction or to fix the relationship. Worst of all, Ayla and Jondalar ALREADY went through the big misunderstanding plot line, where he thinks she doesn't love him, she thinks he doesn't love her, in the immediately previous book! Why oh why is the EXACT same plot being used again?!And that brings me to without a doubt the most annoying facet of the entire book. The wonderfulness of Ayla. Ayla's only flaw in this book is how she misunderstands the love triangle situation. But apart from this her achievements are endless! In the course of the series so far, Ayla has invented the double-shot technique using the sling, tamed a horse for the first time ever, tamed a lion for the first time ever, tames the very birds out of the trees, is the first person ever to discover how to make fire with flint, learns the Zelandonii language to fluency within a few months and the same for the Mamutoi language, tames a wolf for the first time ever thus creating the first ever domesticated dog, invents the needle, and saves a prematurely born baby using her medical skills. In addition to all this, the Mamutoi shaman tells Ayla that she has the whole kit and caboodle of shamanic powers! I wouldn't be surprised if she invents the wheel and achieves world peace in the next book! She is completely unrealistic in her talents, skills, achievements, and attractiveness. I understand what her fans are saying, that someone's got to make all these prehistoric discoveries, and I'd go along with it if it was just one thing she invents, but no single individual invented all those things. It's archaeological and historical fact, these items and features appeared at different periods, millennia apart, it's simply not possible. The annoying thing about Ayla in this book is that she's flat as a character, she has no deeper levels, she has no dark side, she's always honest, helpful, and naive, and she ultimately comes off as both boring and irritatingly over-powered. It doesn't exactly inspire interest or confidence when the two leads of this series have become so riddled with problems. I don't care what happens to Ayla or Jondalar, and I wouldn't have been upset if Jondalar had ridden off alone, or even if the other camps of the Mamutoi banded together witch-hunt style and chased off Ayla due to her Neanderthal connections. All the other characters are complete cardboard stereotypesFinally, as far as I can see, this book was just a completely unnecessary detour from the main plot of Jondalar and Ayla travelling back to his homeland. At the start of the book they intend only to stay with the Mamutoi a few days and then continue on their way... and by the end of the book, not much has happened at all and Ayla and Jondalar continue on their way.
WARNING: This book has caused me a lot of heartache, and as I review it, I may end up in a ball of mush, blathering unintelligibly.When we last left Ayla and Jondalar, they were returning to Jondalar's family, standing smiling as they met one of the Mamutoi. Now, Ayla is quivering in fear, afraid that this Other is going to see her and immediately know, somehow, that she lived with the Clan and hate her (this is only 1 of the many continuity conflicts in this story). Jondalar, being the perfect perfectness of perfect maleness (You do know, after all that Jondalar is "The Mother's Gift to Women"), assures her that the Mamutoi are good people, and the two hang out with the Mamutoi.Before I start my ranting, I need to say the good things about this book or I will completely forget them and start censoring profanities. Firstly, Auel opens up her world and introduces us to the Mamutoi and their ways; describing different cultures, digging into the past and revealing it to the audience is Auel's strong suit, and it's nice to have her back in her element. At points, I was almost transported back to The Clan of the Cave Bear: learning how the Mamutoi hunt, make clothes, and go about their day-to-day lives; getting a peak into their religion; learning their social structure.The plotline with Rydag was actually not that bad. It gave Ayla a way to see what her child might have been like, to explore the motherliness of her character. And finally, there are a lot more developed characters this time around--and characters that I actually liked (I don't think I cared for ANY of the characters in The Valley of Horses). My favorite was Ranec; he was such a jolly guy, so friendly, outgoing, clever, witty, and smart. It would have been interesting to see *tries to breath slowly* what would have happened if he had ended up with Ayla. I liked Deejee; Ayla hasn't had a chance to interact with many females, so it was great that she had a strong female friend. And many of the other clan were pretty well done.Now that I've done my duty and said all the good things about this book, I can focus on the 75% of the crap that bugged the hell out of me and nearly broke me.This book has all the stuff we saw in Valley of the Horses. We are treated to at least six really bad sex scenes (the wording in each is almost identical, the sex is uncomfortable and not sexy at all, the times people have sex is really odd). Auel steps away from the story to go into Textbook Mode, describing concepts these people would have no knowledge of (permafrost, homogeneous crystalline silica or flint, asides into what would happen thousands of years later, etc.). Ayla invents the needle, domesticates a Wolf cub, possesses shamanic powers that the Mamut (spiritual leader of the Mamutoi) encourages her to use to "see visions", and generally grows to be an even bigger Mary Sue than even the first two books made her out to be (and that is a feat, lemme tell you).But none of those elements really compare to the most horrible thing that nearly destroyed all the good things this book had going for it. What did the most destruction to the goodness of this book was one of the absolute stupidest, most inane, childish, disgusting, vapid, retarded Big Misunderstandings in the world of Big Misunderstandings.I can live with the info-dumping (even if it is terribly boring, distracting to the "plot", and way above the knowledge of the characters). I can even enjoy the really bad sex scenes in a MST3K way (if you enjoy reading about Jondalar's "manhood" and Ayla's "petals", this is your book). But when an author resorts to having her characters act like lobotomized chimpanzees in order to drive a plot that should have been wrapped up in no more than a chapter and probably more like a paragraph...I draw the line!After Ayla and Jondalar meet up with the Mamutoi, almost immediately, Ranec wants the Perfect, Majestic, Mother-Incarnate Ayla. He eyeballs her, makes constant jokes about bedding her, and makes it so that generally everyone knows what he wants.Well, everyone EXCEPT AYLA.Eventually, the Mamutoi agree to adopt Ayla. At her adoption ceremony, Ranec kisses her and tells her he wants to bed her. Ayla, being raised as a Clan member to drop and spread 'em at a man's whim, agrees. Meanwhile, Jondalar stands in a corner and pouts and complains and whines, "How could she be going with another man when he was waiting for her? No woman had ever chosen someone else when he wanted her." Uh, Jondalar, don't you remember Ayla talking about how THAT IS HOW SHE'S BEEN TRAINED? Oh, right, it was just after having sex; you were asleep.Normal human beings would approach each other after the incident and have it out. But nooooooooooooooooooooooo! Instead, Ayla and Jondalar begin a painful, stupid, nonsensical "falling out". They avoid each other, thinking the other doesn't care for them anymore. They stop having really bad sex (and talking about the origin of babies, which was a great disappointment to me, as I enjoyed counting the times in the last book that that topic appeared). They sleep on opposite sides of the bed. At one point, they fight over Ayla's adoption of a Wolf cub (cleverly named "Wolf"), and he moves out. All the while, they both have googly eyes for each other, lust after each other, dance around talking to each other...but never actually have the conversation that would fix this problem.You know what's even worse? (Yes, I did say "worse".) I *MAYBE* could understand this happening if they were in a vacuum. But there is a whole TRIBE of people around them. And you know what?THEY DON'T FRAKKIN' BOTHER TO SAY ANYTHING TO THIS COUPLE!!All these supposedly "open" and "blunt" Mamutoi in the previous book (and even earlier in this book) SUDDENLY really respect private thoughts and REFUSE TO CLARIFY A SITUATION THAT WOULD TAKE TWO SECONDS TO CLEAR UP!!*Hyperventilates*This goes on...and on...and on...for the REST OF THE BOOK.And do you want know how it is resolved?(view spoiler)[After a bajillion times of saying he is going to leave, Jondalar finally does. Ayla is like, "OMGWTFBBQJONDALARISGONE?!?!!" to Nezzie and Nezzie is like, "Well, like, jah, he, like, totally loved you." And Ayla is like, "OMGWTFBBQJONDALARISGONE?!?!" And Nezzie is like, "Jah, he, like, thought you, like, didn't, like, love him." And Ayla is like, "BUT I LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURVE JONDALAR!?!" And she runs off to him. And she does her Clan kneeling before him. And she FINALLY FRAKKIN' TELLS HIM SHE LOVES HIM. AND HE FINALLY FRAKKIN' TELLS HER HE LOVES HER.And you know what else? (YES THAT IS NOT ALL!!!) THAT'S IT!!! They f#$% (it's the same generic, cute and paste, graphic sex that we've seen the other bajillion times in this series), and it's over. There is no yelling, no "HOW DARE YOU HAVE SEX WITH RANEC", no "HOW DARE YOU WHORE YOURSELF OUT", no "BUT I THOUGHT I RAPED YOU ON THE HILLS AND YOU WERE CRYING BECAUSE I HURT YOU", it's just OVER!!!If THAT is how you are going to end this plot...WHY did you make me go through HALF THE BOOK, drag this plotline out WAY past its point of believability, and suffer through the AGONIZING, REPETITIOUS "DOES HE/SHE LUUUUUURVE ME?!?!>!!!?!" (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about The Mammoth Hunters (2002)?
This has been my least favorite out of the Earths Children series, although I find it hard to dislike any of the books.The love story in this one starts out strong, and by the time you get half way through, you are so sick of the misunderstandings and hurt feelings that you feel no one could be that stupid about love.For some reason, both of the main characters bothered me to some degree in this book. Aside from the love story being obnoxious, you half expect that Jondolar has reverted back to a child that has no idea how to verbalize emotions and handle stress and that Ayla is going to invent nuclear fusion any day now.I still enjoyed reading about how these people might have lived and survived in that time, but the long diatribes of the vegitation and land formations almost put me to sleep a few times and I found myself skimming over whole pages just to get past it.Although you know that in the end Ayla and Jondolar are going to end up back together again, you don't really expect it to be the VERY end, and when it finally happens, it seems so rushed that it overlooks many of the "problems" the author laid out before them. Or maybe love really does just conquer all.
—Kelly Dubs
Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com READ IN DUTCHI'd once started this book back in 2007, but at a point I was just so annoyed with it, I quit. Now, it was time to give it another try.And it was not as bad as I remembered, some parts were nice to read (even though the amount of sex in it makes that you almost think you're reading 50 shades or something similar), and I was planning to give this book an extra star after reading it completely, but then the End happened. It w
—Marjolein
Right. The Mammoth Hunters picks up right where The Valley of Horses left off. Jondalar and Ayla were out riding their horses and are hailed by a big dude with a smile on his face. Ayla’s first impression of him is how huge he is, because he’s even bigger than Jondalar (who is 6’6″ and looks like a young Ron Perlman, remember?) So, the giant invites them back home with him (cos everyone is super friendly in the stone age, dur) and they meet the Mamutoi of the Lion Camp.I could go into all of the names and hearths and stuff, but it was pretty boring and I kind of zoned out while I was reading it (I did find this awesome 360 view of what one of the Mamutoi Lodges looked like, though). Important people: Nezzie, the mate of the headman of the Lion Camp. Ranec, a half-African man whose father is Mamutoi, but his mother died on the trip back from Africa when he was small. Mamut, the ancient mystic shaman. Frebec, asshole. Rydag, boy of mixed spirits that Nezzie adopted (he’s got a bad heart and has been frail since birth).There are a bunch of long-winded introductions (which sets the tone for even longer-winded introductions in later books), but they’re not as long as they could be because Ayla introduces herself as “Ayla of No People.” She has an interest in the boy that Nezzie adopted because he kind of reminds her of Durc – the son she was forced to leave behind. Rydag is unable to speak because he inherited his neanderthal mother’s underdeveloped vocal cords, so Ayla teaches him the Clan sign language and the rest of the camp starts using it as a way to communicate with him, but also just to mess around.Ranec decides pretty much the minute they show up that Ayla is The Love of his Life, and is determined to convince her to share his hearth with him. This pisses Jondalar off, but he’s too busy being a passive aggressive jerk to actually tell Ayla how he feels about it...Rest of review can be found here.
—sj
