The Valley of Horses: Earth's Children, Book 2

Jean M. Auel does an excellent job with all the books in this series. It is so well written. I would recommend this series to anyone who likes to read. Also Thank you Amazon, I recieved the books very quickly. Your Awesome.

My neighbor's name is Ayla. Her father's favorite story was the clan of the cave bear. So I couldn't imagine a better gift.

I read the first book, clan of the cave bear I think, at least a couple decades ago. Don’t know why it took me so long to read this one. But it’s a beautiful story

I liked this book the best of the series. How Ayla learned and progressed in her knowledge of the world around her. I especially liked the animal companions and how she raised them.

I love this book. I wish there was more details about each person though. I liked the hunting descriptions of the animals.

I enjoyed Clan of the Cave Bear and though it is not perfect, I gave it 4 stars and it has remained a favorite novel of mine through many years. The sequel, Valley of Horses is overall not bad, but does not capture the novelty or the charm of the first novel. The descriptions of things are repetitious to the point of actually being lifted word-for-word from the first novel. For example, the existence of Loess Steppes and how to knap flint into tools. Auel obviously enjoys writing about these aspects of the ice-age, and they can be interesting, but it interrupts the flow of the story too much and is too repetitive. Every time Ayla saw two Ptarmigan flying around, I groaned inwardly, knowing the inevitable description of the firepit, the grains used to stuff the birds, the eggs, and the leaf wrapping were going to show up again!Valley of the Horses has two stories that start separately and merge together at the end. The Ayla chapters are fairly interesting though she is alone a lot of the time. She is a character we have seen grow up, and is now making a difficult journey to find her own people. She makes the believable decision to live on her own for awhile to have shelter and food in the winter, and then to nurse various adopted animals. We see her internal conflict in that she loves her newfound independence after the strict upbringing of the clan, yet she clearly also longs for society but is afraid of what she will find.The Jondalar/Thonolan chapters are unfortunately not so great. They are our introduction to the society of "Others" and unfortunately they are not nearly as engaging as Auel's Neanderthal Clan society. The Others are more advanced and innovative, but the characters created are not compelling and are sort of one-dimensional. Auel is not a great character-writer, and the flatness of personality worked better with the society she created with the Clan. Jondalar is the hero of the tale. Amazingly handsome and talented, yet moody and distant. Thonolan is his brother who is supposed to be more lighthearted and charming, but he is honestly kind of an annoying character who is always doing stupid things and getting hurt. We meet many different societies of Others as Jondalar and Thonolan continue on a journey through ice-age Europe. The societies are somewhat different from each other but all worship the "Great Earth Mother." The Others share one big thing with the clan - they have the ridiculous belief that babies are created by swallowing spirits, not via sexual intercourse (Super-Ayla is the only person in this whole world who apparently has put two and two together on this one.) The Others have a very developed sexual society where women and men are trained to be amazing and indiscriminate lovers as soon as they reach puberty. Apparently STD's and incest were not of great worry in these small, cavemen societies. Of course, Jondalar is the most amazing lover of all, but he just hasn't found a woman he can fall in love with. Unfortunately, the many, many sex scenes are repetitive and not overly compelling either.The two stories merge when the two men wander into Ayla's valley of solitude. This is where we start to see the Super-Ayla that is unfortunately present in the rest of the series' novels. She is a paradoxical, idiotic superwoman. Her healing power, way with animals, and hunting prowess, and incredible beauty always startle and impress everyone. This is the first time we see a person's reaction to her, so it is not at least stale in this novel. I used the word idiotic because we know Ayla is clever yet she seems unable to realize simple things in interactions with Jondalar. It takes her forever to realize he does not know clan symbols, and then still keeps trying to use them to talk or communicate with him. Why doesn't he talk with his hands? Why isn't he giving me a signal? Some of the writing in this section is incredibly tortured. But to be fair, a lot if it is enjoyable too and it is interesting to see these two learn to communicate.Overall, the book is worth reading if you liked the first novel, but the series as a whole never gets as good as the first book again, and goes downhill with each book. The Mammoth Hunters (book 3) is also OK (or 3 stars per Amazon's rating system), but the latter three books are one or two star at best.

After being declared “dead” by Broud, the leader of the small band of Neanderthals who raised Ayla, the young women is forced to leave behind her son and the family who raised her. She must find her own people, humans like herself. But being along is a dangerous thing in the ice age. Ayla will need all her skills to survive.On the other side of Europe, Jondolar and his brother Thonolan have just crossed a glacier. The two are on a Journey to reach the end of the Great Mother River (The Danube). It will be a long journey, one Jondolar isn't sure about. But he's aimless, without purpose. He's searching for something without ever knowing what it is.In a valley in the middle of a glacial tundra, Ayla and Jondolar's destinies will change.Auel dives back into her Earth's Children story, building on the events of the first book while greatly expanding the scope. We get to see how neolithic humans lived during the last ice age. The various cultures and the differences between us and the neanderthals. From the greater sophistication of tools to the cultural explosion of art that came with modern man. It's a fascinating read on how hunter-gathers lived and survived in various cultures from the river-dwelling Sharamadoi to the mammoth-hunting Mamutoi.The level of information can almost be overwhelming but just shows the level of intelligence and skill are ancestors had. It's easy to think of primitive humans as stupid when, in fact, they just weren't as educated. They possessed brains just as smart as ours, and they used them to come up with novel ways to survive in the harshest of climates.The story has a sense of inevitability, a collusion that you can't wait to happen. It carries you through the story with a breathtaking pace. Auel continues to endear you to her characters while planting the setup for plot points that won't matter for a few novels.If you're a fan of historical fiction, if you're interested in learning about primitive man, or if you enjoy an engrossing story, then you have to read Auel's Earth Children story.

Reading

Este es uno de mis “libros puente” Lo he releído muchas veces, ahora incluso en inglés, hasta q encuentro el siguiente q quiero leer. Me encanta como la protagonista interactúa con los animales, como sin ser consciente, los convierte en amigos.

It was alright

This series deserve all the stars. I can't tell how much I love it. Never thought a storie could be so informative and fun altogether.

Sto collezionando tutta la serie, questo è il secondo libro. E arrivato nei tempi previsti ed è in perfetto stato.

Part of Earth Series.One of the good ones in the six series.