Earth's Children series by Jean M Auel

[Moriath]

Originally Posted by ComicBookWorm

I like the third book a whole lot too. I could see Auel maturing as an author in it. The good characterizations were part of that. The series should have ended there. It declined in the next two books. And yes Ayla and Jondalar should have stayed there. His people and family are a big let down.

Absolutely. I did not see the point of travelling all this way to live with the most boring people they met on their journey. They are so one-dimensional it hurts. I forced myself through the book because of Ayla and Jondalar - I am emotionally attached to them. The child's name was the last straw though.

[ComicBookWorm]

That's why I thought she had gotten lazy in the last book. It was trite and dull.

[Voldemorts8thHorcrux]

Originally Posted by ComicBookWorm

It has graphic sex in it.

ok, im never reading it then, unless i can pinpoint where it is and avoid those sections.....

[ComicBookWorm]

Get a little older and then it would be ok. There's way too much sex for you to avoid it, although you can skip those parts if you wanted. I thought the books read a little like soft porn.

[Moriath]

Hem hem. Family friendly discussion and all, so let's not discuss this in more detail. I think we made it clear now that the series is not for kids.

[ComicBookWorm]

Oops, sorry.

[Faile Aybara]

I think it is an amazing series if you keep in mind that it is fiction. But even though there are many untrue facts in the novels, I think they are a great way to understand a little about life during the ice age.

My one problem is that Ayla is a bit too mary sue ish... she seems to have everything going for her. Despite this, she is still one of my favourite characters and the series is one of my fav too!

[Moriath]

Originally Posted by Faile Aybara

I think it is an amazing series if you keep in mind that it is fiction. But even though there are many untrue facts in the novels, I think they are a great way to understand a little about life during the ice age.

Definitely true. If you had to survive in the past, having the books with you would be of great help. Auel is very good at describing vegetation and work processes.

[Moriath]

I'm rereading the series at the moment. And for me the series ends with The Plains of Passage because the penultimate instalment bored me to death and I only heard horrible things about the final part. Has anyone on CoS read the latest book?

[Quickquill]

Originally Posted by SusanBones

I bought this book but it has sat on the shelf, unread. It has been so long since I read one of these, I was afraid I would be lost. Now I wonder if I should bother with it at all.

As has been pointed out already, she reviews the previous books at the beginning of each novel so that you can pick up the series at any point and understand what's going on.

I enjoyed the entire series immensely, although I take issue with the assessment of Neanderthals as not using spoken language. I'm not sure that assumption is at all accurate. I think that it is more likely that they did speak, and that vocal speech is probably a distinguishing characteristic of genus homo in general.

I like the way she writes, and the characters are well developed and believable as individuals. Somewhere in one of the first three books Auel wrote a disclaimer about the character Ayla being used to represent the spread of knowledge from region to region in the ancient world. That having been said, inventive individuals can come up with quite a variety of devices in response to percieved needs. Look at the number of patents taken out by Thomas Alva Edison, Buckminster Fuller, or Steve Jobs.