Product Description

Leaving the valley of horses with Jondalar, the handsome man she has nursed back to health and come to love, Ayla embarks on a journey that will lead her to the Mamutoi; the Mammoth Hunters. But as she settles into this new life among a people at first strange and disturbingly different, Ayla finds herself irresistibly drawn to Ranec, their master-carver. Ultimately, she is compelled to make a fateful choice between the two men.



Jean Auel's imaginative reconstruction of pre-historic life, rich in detail of language, culture, myth and ritual, has become a set text in schools and colleges around the world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20623 in Books
• Published on: 2002-04-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 784 pages

Cosmopolitan
'Enjoy spending this holiday season falling back in time.'

Review
'The authenticity of background detail, the lilting prose rhythms and the appealing conceptual audacity continue to work their spell.' (Publishers Weekly )

'Enjoy spending this holiday season falling back in time.' (Cosmopolitan )

'Clearly falls into the "unputdownable" category . . . once again Jean Auel presents a compelling, vivid and authentic picture of man's existence at the dawn of history, an epic tale the fluency of which is a tribute to the depth of her research.' (Citizen, Gloucester )

Synopsis
Leaving the valley of horses with Jondalar, the handsome man she has nursed back to health and come to love, Ayla embarks on a journey that will lead her to the Mamutoi; the Mammoth Hunters. But as she settles into this new life among a people at first strange and disturbingly different, Ayla finds herself irresistibly drawn to Ranec, their master-carver. Ultimately, she is compelled to make a fateful choice between the two men. Jean Auel's imaginative reconstruction of pre-historic life, rich in detail of language, culture, myth and ritual, has become a set text in schools and colleges around the world.

Customer Reviews

Another journey Ayla's own humanity
Auel's third book in the 'Earth's Children' series follows Ayla along her journey from being raised by a Neanderthal Clan to her on-going discovery of her own humanity.

She, along with the man she loves, Jondalar, leave the confines of her valley and set out to explore the surrounding area. The couple chance upon the Lion Camp of the Mamutoi and Ayla is once again to embark upon a journey she could never have imagined.

Auel does not disappoint fans, as she broadens and deepens the reader's relationship with both Ayla and Jondalar; delving into their relationship with themselves, each other and Ayla's newly-adopted family, the Lion Camp. A must read for all who have enjoyed the first two in the series

Excellent read
I read this book aver 15 years ago and thought it was amazing. It follows on from 'the clan of the cave bear' and 'the valley of horses' both of which were top notch.

I would strongly recommend reading the other books first, and i guess if you have you won't need a recommendation to read this one since you wil know how good they are.

I would add that the passages book (number 4) and the shelters book (number 5) are not as good as the first 3. Particularly the 5th book has been criticised by many.

However please don't let that put you off reading the first 3 as they are excellent escapism. This book is one of only a handful of books that have made me cry - and i've been reading for 20+ years

Highly recommended

A good book mired in bad romance
You know, books are funny things. Much like people, they often start out creative, imaginative and adventurous, but inevitably they stray down safer and more predictable paths as they get older. Such is the case with The Mammoth Hunters, the third entry in the Earth's Children series. It still manages to drive the narrative forward, but it chooses to use the tired cliché of a love triangle as the core of its story.

Now, let me clear something up before we continue - I'm not dead against romance novels. Admittedly, the genre has been used and abused more than George Bush's executive authority over the years, but it can still be used to good effect, provided it's not allowed to overshadow everything else. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happens here, and an otherwise good book suffers as a result - a bit like an Olympic sprinter trying to win a race with a dead manatee on his back.

Following on directly from The Valley of Horses, The Mammoth Hunters kicks off with Ayla's reintroduction to the world of the Others. Welcomed into a tribe called the Mamutoi, she soon sets about impressing people, making friends (and enemies), saving lives and generally proving how awesome she is at every opportunity. After all, it is Ayla. However, all is not well. Her fragile new relationship with Jondalar is showing the strain, and when she drunkenly gives in to the advances of an amorous artist, a severe bout of jealousy sets in and he promptly dumps her. This chain of events is likely to hit particularly close to home for anyone who spent a couple of years at university.

It's a shame really that the rather tedious love triangle overshadows what is otherwise quite an engaging and interesting book. Watching Ayla gradually adapt to human society after growing up with the Clan and spending years in isolation is a fascinating experience, and is almost enough to support the book in its own right. But not quite.

The problem with the romance angle is that previous objections aside, it's not particularly well handled. The whole love triangle feels forced and contrived, and everyone involved behaves in such an immature and oblivious fashion that I actually didn't care who Ayla ended up with. Neither Jondalar or Ranec distinguished themselves, while the normally perceptive Ayla seemed to be wearing her stupid hat for most of the story. Likewise, supporting characters who could potentially have resolved the whole thing with a simple explanation are inexplicably silent throughout the entire debacle. Normally I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to author intrusion, but when the plot manipulation is this thick it becomes kind of hard to ignore. It's a bit like coming home to find a walrus in your living room, but you're the only one that can see it.

As far as supporting characters go, they're all pretty much cut from standard templates. There's the elderly mentor type, the sickly child with wisdom beyond his years, the stern but well-meaning leader, the caring motherly character, the insecure girl on the verge of womanhood (insert your own `Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman' reference here), and the troublemaker who comes good in the end. No great surprises. Still, they're mostly quite well executed, and the book's unusual setting injects a bit of freshness into the otherwise tired archetypes. The plot even summons up a few surprisingly poignant moments toward the end, reminiscent of Clan of the Cave Bear's triumphant climax.

The Mammoth Hunters has received a lot of deserved stick over the years for the aforementioned love triangle, but overall I'd rate its story as one of the best, mainly because this is the last book in the series that's genuinely fun while retaining the raw, unforgiving edge of its predecessors. In a sense, it's the high water mark for the series before it began its descent into mediocrity and tedium. Also, it marks the end of Ayla's transition into a fully developed member of human society, so in a sense it ties up most of the major plot arcs from the end of the first book.

For this reason, I reluctantly give it four stars out of five. I was really tempted to give it three, because the love triangle drags it down so badly, but I feel that the rest of the book more or less makes up for these shortcomings.