History Literature / QuestForFire

Was [[AdaptationDisplacement famously]] [[TheFilmOfTheBook adapted into a film of the same name in 1981]]. [[Film/QuestForFire The film]] is not a faithful adaptation but is considered [[AdaptationDistillation a classic in its own right]].

* StockDinosaurs: Not true dinosaurs but most of the stock ice age mammals make appearances: woolly mammoths, woolly rhinos, cave bears, cave lions, aurochs, ''Megaloceros'' and saber-toothed cats. Even ''Gigantopithecus'' joins the party decades before its fossils were discovered!

''Quest For Fire'' (French: ''La Guerre du feu'', literally ''The War for Fire'') is a 1911 Belgian HistoricalFiction novel by "J.-H. Rosny", a pseudonym of two brothers.

* OneMillionBC: 100,000 actually. It has aged better than most other examples as many of the author's [[ArtisticLicensePaleontology speculations]] have turned out to be accurate (See the trivia section).

* AllCavemenWereNeanderthals: An early aversion of this trope. The protagonists are neanderthals but the various tribes they encounter clearly represent separate species. The afterword of the 2020 English edition identifies the Kzamm, Wah, Red Dwarves, Blue-haired men and Men of the trees as ''Homo antecessor'', ''Homo sapiens'', ''Homo luzonensis'', ''Gorilla''/''Gigantopithecus'' and ''[[AnachronisticAnimal Pierolapithecus catalaunicus]]'' respectively.

* EveryoneHasStandards: The Oulhamr may be a violent horde of neanderthal raiders but they draw the line at cannibalism.

* FrazettaMan: Played with. The man-eating Kzamms are hairy and bestial with ape-like limb proportions but have somewhat more sophisticated fire-keeping methods than the Oulhamr. The Blue-haired men are even more ape-like but much less bloodthirsty. Aghoo and his brothers are the straightest examples, being brutish and hairy neanderthals, but they are merely three individuals who are despised and feared by the rest of their tribe.

* {{Xenofiction}}: A mild example as they are technically human but the point of view characters are neanderthals who see anatomically modern humans as strange and alien.

* EndangeredSpecies: ''Panthera spelaea'' and more surprisingly ''Homo sapiens'' are both portrayed as such.

* RougeAnglesOfSatin: The deer ''Megaloceros'' is referred to as ''Megaceros'' which is actually a kind of fungus.

* TheDiscoveryOfFire: A variation: The Oulhamr have a basic understanding of how to control fire but their inability to actually start a fire condemns them once the fire they keep burning at all times is extinguished. The Wahs who have fully domesticated fire teach them the final step: how to start a new fire from scratch.

* ClashOfEvolutionaryLevels: Averted hard. There are many hominid species clashing but none of them are portrayed as inherently superior and the classic neanderthals vs cro-magnons conflict is completely absent.

* HerbivoresAreFriendly: Played straight with the cave bear and giant apes but averted hard with the aurochs who are just plain nasty. The mammoths are portrayed more complexly: They are easily befriended by the human protagonists because they have no fear of predation but they can be downright lethal if provoked.

* {{Xenofiction}}: A mild example as they are technically human but the point of view characters are neanderthals who see anatomically modern humans as strange and alien.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/quest.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Cover of the 2020 English translation]]

* BearsAreBadNews: The protagonists have two harrowing encounters with bears: one grey bear (Ursus arctos) and later two cave bears. It is noted that the cave bear is usually the less dangerous of the two, being a herbivore, but it becomes terrifying when provoked starvation or sheer anger.

* CallASmeerpARabbit: The 2020 English edition has an odd case where a tiger is illustrated as a saber-toothed cat. Calling machairodonts tigers is pretty common but it's odd considering the text itself averts this trope. Fauohum clearly differentiates tigers from "saber-toothed beasts" when he lists the various dangers the Oulhamr are vulnerable to without their fire. [[RuleOfCool It's a cool picture though]].

* AllCavemenWereNeanderthals: An early aversion of this trope. The protagonists are neanderthals but the various tribes they encounter clearly represent separate species. The afterward of the 2020 English edition identifies the Kzamm, Wah, Red Dwarves, Blue-haired men and Men of the trees as ''Homo antecessor'', ''Homo sapiens'', ''Homo luzonensis'', ''Gorilla''/''Gigantopithecus'' and ''[[AnachronisticAnimal Pierolapithecus catalaunicus]]'' respectively.

[[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield Somewhere in Eurasia]][[AmbiguousTimePeriod around 100,000 years ago]], the Oulhamr horde have lost their precious fire in a raid. Not knowing the secret of fire-starting, they send three warriors (Naoh, Nam and Gaw) on the titular quest. Along the way, they encounter fierce beasts and fiercer men.

[[WhereTheHellsSpringfield Somewhere in Eurasia]][[AmbiguousTimePeriod around 100,000 years ago]], the Oulhamr horde have lost their precious fire in a raid. Not knowing the secret of fire-starting, they send three warriors (Naoh, Nam and Gaw) on the titular quest. Along the way, they encounter fierce beasts and fiercer men.

Somewhere in Eurasia 100,000 years ago, the Oulhamr horde have lost their precious fire in a raid. Not knowing the secret of fire-starting, they send three warriors (Naoh, Nam and Gaw) on the titular quest. Along the way, they encounter fierce beasts and fiercer men.