![]() I DO mind it when the whole story's emphasis is on a man we've only just met and have no real reason to like. (Hey, I don't know if I've mentioned it.did you know that Broud's organ created Durk? The Clan believed it was a battle between totems, but Ayla is pretty sure it's a man's organ that creates babies.) Because once Jondalar walks onto the set, the story ceases to be about Ayla and instead becomes about Jondalar. THAT is what makes this book, which could have been interesting, absolutely dreadful. Jondalar is freakin' God incarnate.Īnd THAT is the beginning of what kills the story. HE LOVE SO MUCH AND SO HARD THAT NO ONE CAN ENDURE IT. He is the BEST toolmaker EVER (and NO, I do NOT mean that kind of tool!). His blue eyes are enough to make the cave panties wet. He is MINDBLOWING in the sack (but WATCH OUT! Most women can't take it ALL *eyebrow wiggle* if you know what I mean!). Jondalar is the most attractive, strong, intelligent, sexy, wonderful, skilled, muscular, thoughtful, generous, kind man you will EVER meet. Who is Jondalar? Let me introduce you to him: Yes, Ayla is getting close to Mary Sue territory, but this is her story. The calendar thing is also hinted at back in the first book, when Ayla peppers Creb with questions about days and counting. She loves animals and has been tending them since she was a child, so it isn't unexpected for her to continue this into her adulthood. She is by herself, she must invent or die. Sure, she has started accumulating a rather eye-brow raising list of inventions (the calendar, horseback riding, animal domestication, flint, reproduction-did you know it was Broud's organ that created her son, Durk?), but you know what? Even that I could buy. Ayla journeys across the steppes, Ayla must try to fend for herself, to find food and clothing and shelter. The Ayla sections of the first half are excellent, exactly what we've come to expect and love from The Clan of the Cave Bear. Sure, you might need a electron microscope in order to find them, but they are still there. Now, that's not to say there aren't good parts. Characters bounce all over the place, problems that were hinted at in the first book appear here 10X worse, and generally the story stops being about the person I became invested in: it stopped being about Ayla. The amount of WTF in this book is near critical levels. The Valley of the Horses should be the sixth book in the series by that reckoning. Baum of the Oz series would agree with me if he were alive.) At this point, I figure the author is thinking, "Looks like I can't write anything but another teenaged emosparklyvampire series, might as well milk this one as best as I can before I hit the unemployment line". ![]() ![]() I've seen series suffer burnout, the author tossing up his or her hands and saying "I just don't give a damn anymore", but usually this occurs, oh, say, six books in the series after he or she has drug the main characters all over the universe to death and back again. I don't think I've ever seen a series shoot itself in the foot so early on. While she is there, she befriends a horse and ekes out a living. Eventually, she settles in a valley populated with horses. The Valley of the Horses takes place immediately after, as Ayla begins to wander the steppes in pursuit of her people. When we last saw Ayla in The Clan of the Cave Bear, she had been banished, sentenced to death by the clan leader, Broud, who hated her. I've never seen a series take such a downturn so fast!
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