Tag: Prehistory

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Book Review: Uruk: A Novel of the First City by James Zwerneman

Uruk: A Novel of the First City by James Zwerneman is an epic historical fiction novel set in prehistoric Mesopotamia.

Synopsis 

From across Mesopotamia, six wanderers are alone in the desert. Ki has escaped from the vicious tribe called Magog. Ta was cast out of his tribe for stealing food. Aya and Ut left their tribe with baby Shulgi because they didn’t like the way their chief led. Rogg is on a mission to avenge his family after Magog killed them. 

One by one, they meet each other and form a tribe of their own. Along with struggling for survival, they are being chased by Jakka, prince of Magog, who wants Ki back. They eventually reach the Euphrates river, but are dismayed to find the banks already completely settled. 

After a narrow escape from Jakka in Babylon, they come up with an idea to reroute a section of river to give themselves a safe place to settle. To help build and populate their city, they recruit several smaller tribes from the marshes. Initially, some of these tribes don’t get along with each other, but eventually, they come together to fight off an attack by Magog. 

Review

Uruk took me a while to get into. I didn’t particularly enjoy jumping from one set of characters to another, even though it was done well. I did appreciate that the author didn’t introduce all the characters this way and used other methods to tell us their backstories. 

It can be easy for writers to make their heroes too perfect, and their villains too evil. This is not the case in Uruk. Ki is incredibly smart, but also doubts herself a lot and holds back useful information. Ut starts out encouraging, then becomes power hungry and acts selfishly, before eventually finding his place in the group. Even Jakka’s evil acts are fueled primarily by stupidity, pigheadedness, and a desire to one-up his brother. 

I loved Ta’s character development. At the beginning, he is very much the thief. He eventually becomes a better person, but even once he’s decided to be better, it takes him a while. He has to remind himself of his resolve to be better several times and lets everyone down once or twice. It’s very realistic. 

Sidenote: I wonder what name Ta’s parents gave him, the name he had before he lost his hand and became Ta. 

One thing that felt weird to me was the use of the names of actual historical places and people groups. Uruk is supposedly set around 12,000 BC, thousands of years before the real Akkadians, Elamites, etc. existed. I think this use of real places and people is intended to make the story feel more realistic, but it did the opposite for me. Perhaps it would work better on someone who knows nothing about the prehistoric period.

Apparently there is a sequel being worked on, and I am so keen to read it. Uruk ended on a bit of a minor cliffhanger with one storyline left unresolved. I’m keen to see it resolved. 

Conclusion

Have you read Uruk? What did you think? Do you agree with what I’ve said about it? Let me know in the comments.

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Review: The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel

Book review of The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel, the third novel in the Earth’s Children series set in prehistoric Europe.

Cover of The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel
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Synopsis

Ayla and Jondalar meet the Lion Camp of the Mamutoi. They are invited to stay for the winter, and Ayla is adopted as one of them. 

The Lion Camp includes Rydag, a half-clan boy that reminds Ayla of her son Durc, and Ranec, a carver with dark skin who falls immediately in love with Ayla.

When Jondalar acts sharp and mopey, Ayla believes that he doesn’t love her anymore and spends more time with Ranec. This makes Jondalar feel worse. Despite Ayla’s hopes that Jondalar will come back to her, she ends up promised to Ranec and prepares to officially join with him at the summer meeting.

Review

I wrote in my review of The Valley of Horses about how Jondalar is too perfect and how this brings him problems. These problems are much more evident in The Mammoth Hunters as he struggles with jealousy and more-or-less reverts to childhood.

I know that the misunderstanding between Ayla and Jondalar drives the main conflict and most of the plot, but it is so stupid. Why do they not communicate?!?!? I wanted to bang their heads together. The Mamutoi are supposedly open and blunt, but not one of them says anything to help resolve the obvious problems going on.

The ending felt sudden. Throughout the book, Jondalar and Ayla have all these massive problems that are constantly worsening and compounding. Then right at the end, both of them have something like an epiphany and decide none of their problems matter. The whole resolution is just too quick to feel realistic. 

The number of innovations that Ayla comes up with increases: she invents the sewing needle and adopts a baby wolf. While the circumstances surrounding each innovation remain realistic, she has already discovered how to make fire with stones, domesticated horses, and helped Jondalar develop the spear-thrower. This was one of the issues I had with The Valley of Horses, and it doesn’t get any better in The Mammoth Hunters.

I loved all the details, particularly around how the people live and hunt. However, The Mammoth Hunters doesn’t add much to the series. It is quite the detour from the overall plot and could easily have been much shorter.

Conclusion

Have you read The Mammoth Hunters? What did you think? Do you agree with what I’ve said about it? Let me know in the comments.

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Review: The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

Book review of The Clan of the Cave Bear, the first book in Jean M. Auel’s epic Earth’s Children series set in prehistoric Europe.

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Synopsis

Set in prehistoric Europe, this is the first book in the Earth’s Children series. Ayla is a young cro-magnon human taken in by a group of Neanderthals after her people are killed in an earthquake.

‘The Clan,’ as they call themselves, come to love Ayla, despite her strange actions and ugly (they think) appearance. The medicine woman, Iza, adopts her as her daughter as teaches her about herbs and healing. However, the son of the leader’s mate, Broud, hates her and does everything he can to make Ayla’s life miserable.

Review

I loved The Clan of the Cave Bear. It was a gripping story about people and their relationships, many of which appear unchanged for thousands of years. I could really sympathise with Ayla’s struggles to fit in; so much of the book felt familiar and relatable to modern experiences.

My favourite thing about this book is looking at the differences and similarities between humans and Neanderthals. I don’t know how much of it was true (especially the cultural stuff), but it was realistic.

Creb was thunderstruck. How had the girl been able to grasp the idea so quickly? She hadn’t even asked what slash marks had to do with fingers, or what either had to do with years. It had taken many repetitions before Goov had understood. Creb made three more slash marks, and put three fingers over them. With only one hand, it had been especially difficult for him when he was learning. Ayla looked at her other hand, and immediately held up three fingers, folding down her thumb and forefinger.

“When I am this many?” she asked, holding out her eight fingers again. Creb nodded affirmatively. Her next action caught him completely by surprise, it was a concept he had spent years mastering himself. She put down the first hand and held up only three fingers.

“I will be old enough to have a baby in this many years,” she gestured with assurance, positive of her deduction. The old magician was rocked to his core. It was unthinkable that a child, a girl child at that, could reason her way to that conclusion so easily.

I thought that Broud was an unconvincing villain. His evildoing felt cartoonish and grotesque. He was like a spoiled child. I think the problem was his motivation; he didn’t like Ayla because she was different and because people paid attention to her but not him.

The Clan of the Cave Bear intelligently explored some serious issues that are still present in society today. The Clan have strict gender roles and are incredibly resistant to change. It made me wonder how modern society would treat Neanderthals if they were still alive today.

Conclusion

Have you read The Clan of the Cave Bear? What did you think? Do you agree with what I’ve said about it? Let me know in the comments.

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Review: Song of the Earth by John R. Dann

Book review of Song of the Earth by John R. Dann, an historical fiction novel set in prehistoric Africa and Europe.

Song of the Earth by John R. Dann (cover)
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Synopsis

Grae and the seven daughters of River Woman are the only people to survive the volcanic eruption that destroys their home. Together they find a place to settle and form a tribe. When the surrounding area is no longer sufficient to support them, the tribe separates and migrates away.

Grae leads a group north, settling in different places for a couple of years before moving on in their search for a long-term home. This group eventually ends up in what now is Europe and, when Grae dies, is led by his son, Eagle, and Grandson, Young Grae. Along the way they repeatedly come up against Neanderthals (known as wide men), hostile tribes, and evil magic.

Review

This book is decidedly odd. There is very little story arc – rather a series of loosely related events and people going about their strange lives. When trying to describe Song of the Earth, the word that springs most readily to mind is lackluster.

I found the characters difficult to keep track of. There were so many of them and a lot had very similar names to each other. It even appears that the author had trouble with this; a couple of times I thought that the character who just did something had left the tribe earlier, and when I looked back, they had.

The people invent many different things in a ridiculously fast pace, especially words. This makes it seem unrealistic, particularly when they meet other groups that they’ve never met before who already have the same technologies and use the same words.

Eagle said, “You will be chieftain someday. Perhaps you should spend more time learning how to throw your spear than thinking up new words.”

“It is not so much just thinking up new words,” Young Grae replied. “It is trying to understand strange things. If we name them better we can think about them better. We have the words ‘Sunset’ and ‘Sunrise,’ which might help us understand better why the sun disappears in the west every night and appears in the east every morning.”

Eagle said, “You are right. It is hard to even talk about things if they don’t have names. To understand strange things without names is even harder.”

I liked how the tribe had multiple enemies to contend with throughout the book. To begin with, they have to split-up and move because their environment doesn’t produce enough food for them anymore. Then, they battle against other groups of people, and at the end, there is a major showdown with Lilith and her friends.

Conclusion

Have you read Song of the Earth? What did you think? Do you agree with what I’ve said about it? Let me know in the comments.

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Review: People of the Lightning

Review of People of the Lightning, historical fiction set in prehistoric Florida by Kathleen O’Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear

Cover for People of the Lightning by Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear
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Synopsis

In prehistoric Florida, Cottonmouth has been attacking every village he can since Musselwhite left him 26 years ago. As her clan gets smaller and her husband (Diver) is captured during an attack, Musselwhite must form an alliance with Heartwood Clan. In order to cement the alliance, she must marry Podwader. Pondwader is a lightning boy, so called because of his unusually pale skin, white hair, and pink eyes.

Following the wedding celebrations, Musselwhite receives word that Diver is alive and sets off alone to rescue him. Pondwader follows and Musselwhite tries to send him back, believing that he will be nothing but a hinderance. However, Pondwader has a baby lightning bird inside him and is determined to be there when Musselwhite confronts Cottonmouth.

Review

In the tradition of many oral cultures, People of the Lightning is told by an elder. He narrates the prologue, the final chapter, and interrupts the story at several points throughout the book. I found it amusing how he keeps losing his train of thought and the unnamed child he’s talking to has to bring him back on track.

I loved how there was a lot of detail about the culture, even if there is a bit much about their burial rites (after all, that is most of what we know about these people). People of the Lightning is set in a really obscure time period that no one knows about. It was nice to read something with a setting so different to what I usually read.

The climax of the story was a little underwhelming. Throughout the book we get all these hints of a large confrontation coming up, but when it arrived, it rather fell flat for me. While the events described would have been impressive and frightening in real life, the way the author described it made it seem relatively tame.

I was slightly disturbed by the fact that a 42-year-old woman was married to a 15-year-old boy. I completely understand that it probably fits the historical context, but for some reason I just couldn’t get past it for. Musselwhite is almost three times Pondwader’s age, she has children older than him, and his sister flirts with her son.

Conclusion

Have you read People of the Lightning? What did you think? Do you agree with what I’ve said about it? Let me know in the comments.

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Review: The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel

Review of The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel, final book of the epic Earth’s Children series of historical fiction set in prehistoric Europe.

The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel cover - review by Travelling Book Nerd.

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Synopsis

Ayla has become Zelandoni’s acolyte. Along with Jondalar, Jonayla (Ayla’s daughter), and the animals, they travel around looking at sacred sites and painted caves. Along the way they meet many people, have adventures, and save some lives.

By the time Jonayla is six, the demands on Ayla are putting a strain on the family. This worsens after Ayla receives her ‘calling’ to be Zelandoni. Both Jondalar and Ayla become withdrawn and miserable until a near-death experience forces them back together.

Review

The Land of Painted Caves is the most boring book in this series. For most of the book, people travel around looking a cave-paintings and nothing happens to advance the story. There are a lot of descriptions of caves, painting, and scenery.

A couple of times, the plot jumped several years for no apparent reason. The first time, right before the time-jump, there was an earthquake that made no sense. Previously, earthquakes have preceded change but this one doesn’t. Then it jumps forward four years and it takes several pages before the jump becomes apparent.

I found it hard to believe that they still only had three horses at the end of the book. Whinney was about three years old when she gave birth to Racer, and she had Grey a couple of years later. By the end of the book Grey is six years old but there is no indication that she has ever mated, had a foal, or even come into heat.

I was disappointed to see Ayla and Jondalar regress to where they were during The Mammoth Hunters. They act as if they don’t love each other anymore and stop communicating, making the other jealous. This again lands them in a vicious cycle of misunderstanding and hurtful behaviour. I thought they had moved beyond such behaviour and did not enjoy seeing it again.

Many of the characters had no apparent personality. Apart from the major characters who featured in previous books, they all seem the same. They aren’t really in the book enough for any differences between them to be obvious; there’s a lot of them that come and go without really doing anything.

I did like finding out what happened with the Mamutoi after Ayla and Jondalar had left, especially Ranec. I had wondered what happened to him. How long did it take for Ranec to get over Ayla? Did he mate with Tricie?

Saying that, the ending gives no closure. There could quite easily be another book after this one (there isn’t, but it feels like there could be). Ayla and Jondalar talk about having another child, Zelandoni is guilty about pushing Ayla, and Danug is still visiting. The story doesn’t end.

Conclusion

Have you read The Land of Painted Caves? What did you think? Do you agree with what I’ve said about it? Let me know in the comments.

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Review: The Valley of Horses by Jean M. Auel

Review of The Valley of Horses, the second book in the epic Earth’s Children series by Jean M. Auel of historical fiction set in prehistoric Europe.

The Valley of Horses by Jean M. Auel cover
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Synopsis

After leaving the group of Neanderthals that raised her, Ayla is unable to find other humans, and settles in a protected valley. She initially plans to stay for the winter but ends up remaining there for three years. During that time, she adopts a foal and raises a baby cave lion.

While Ayla’s in the valley, two brothers journey eastward along the river later called the Danube. They meet many people during their travels, and spend some time living with a group called the Sharamudoi. After the death of the woman he loves, the younger brother, Thonolan, loses his will to live.

Ayla finds the two young men after they have been mauled by her lion. Thonolan is dead, but she takes the other brother, Jondalar, back to her cave and saves his life. From Jondalar, Ayla learns about her own kind of people and the two of them form a relationship.

Review

I liked The Valley of Horses at the beginning, and it got better at the end. I’ve read and re-read the good parts over and over again.

In the first part of the book, I preferred the Ayla parts of the story to the Jondalar parts, but the Jondalar parts are necessary for the pace of the story and for action. Also, without the Jondalar parts, I wouldn’t have had the background that I needed to appreciate the rest of the story.

I loved seeing Ayla develop into her own person after being held back trying to fit in with the Clan. When she was living with the clan, a lot of her personality showed that she was different from everyone else. She had to suppress her smiles and laughter in order to fit in and survive. Living on her own, she could be curious, express her creativity, and follow her own inclinations as much as she liked.

‘She was thinking about naming the horse. I’ve never named anything before, she smiled to herself. Wouldn’t they think I was strange, naming a horse? Not any stranger than living with one. She watched the young animal racing and frisking playfully. I’m so glad she lives with me, Ayla thought, feeling a lump in her throat. It’s not so lonely with her around. I don’t know what I would do if I lost her now.‘

I found the number of innovations that Ayla came up with unrealistic for one person. She domesticates horses, makes fire with stones, and invents the travois to help her carry the animals she hunts. Individually, the circumstances surrounding each invention and discovery are reasonable, however put all together it is just too much for one person to have done.

Jondalar is too perfect; he’s tall, handsome, sensitive, intelligent, and everyone loves him. I usually don’t like characters like that, preferring characters to have a flaw or two and be more relatable. However, Jondalar’s perfection is recognised and we are shown some of the problems that it brings him. This made him much more likeable.

Conclusion

Have you read The Valley of Horses? What did you think? Do you agree with what I’ve said about it? Let me know in the comments.

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Review: Earth’s Children series by Jean M. Auel

A Prehistoric Epic by Jean M. Auel

Earth's Children by Jean M. Auel
Earth’s Children by Jean M. Auel

Books

Synopsis

An historical epic set in upper paleolithic Europe. This series follows Ayla, an anatomically modern human girl. She is orphaned at a young age, and adopted and raised by a clan of Neanderthals. As hard as she tries to become one of them, she cannot and eventually has to leave.

She spends three years alone, unable to find any other humans and worried by what they will think of her and the animals she’s adopted. Then she meets Jondalar. After falling madly in love with her, Jondalar decides to stay with Ayla or take her with him; either way, they decide to spend their lives together. However, Jondalar almost loses her to another man before they realise the extent of their feelings for each other.

Jondalar takes Ayla and her animals with him to his home. His family quickly accept Ayla, and they are officially mated and have a daughter. Together, they create a great life, complicated only by Ayla’s training in the Zelandonia.

Review

The Earth’s Children series started great but gradually worsened. The first book was great. The last books were drawn out and repeated a lot of stuff that had been said earlier; the story wouldn’t have lost anything if the last bits were condensed into fewer books. I only read right to the end because I wanted to see what happened to the characters.

The characters are very well written. It is difficult not to care for the good characters. Major characters are very gripping; I was well drawn into their stories. The few characters who are not good (Broud, Marona, etc.) are well developed and I found that I understood them, but didn’t like them.

The world that the author creates is very plausible. It easily matches what is known about Europe at this time. I loved learning about the prehistoric world, not just from the books themselves but also from the additional reading that they encouraged me to do. As I learnt more, I saw just how well researched all the little details were.

A major theme in these books is the similarities and differences between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. These are shown in the first book with Iza and Creb trying to teach Ayla, and their speculations about ‘the Others’ while they’re at it. Through the rest of the books this is mostly shown with Ayla telling others about the clan and comparing them to the people she meets.

I was struck by the parallel between the attitudes people in these books had towards Neanderthal and racism in the modern world. The people in the books saw the Clan people as hated animals, just as people of colour were seen as sub-human up until about 50 years ago. Similar to how we have come to treat coloured people more equally, the Zelandonii and others learn that the Clan are people too and start to treat them better.

I was disappointed to not find out what happens to Durc and the Clan after Ayla leaves. Reading ‘Clan of the Cave Bear’ I became really invested in the lives of Uba, Ona, and the rest of the Clan. I want to see what happens to them. While it wasn’t possible for Ayla to return to the clan, a spin-off book about Durc might do the trick.

Conclusion

Have you read the Earth’s Children series? What did you think? Do you agree with what I’ve said about it? Let me know in the comments. Please also check out my reviews for individual books in the series: The Valley of Horses, The Mammoth Hunters and The Land of Painted Caves.