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
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