YMMV / Earth's Children

Alternative Character Interpretation

Jondalar

• Is Jondalar really just someone that needed to find the "right" person to handle his "deep" emotions, as well as maybe maturing a little more than he did while flint-knapping with his father? Or is he a jealous, controlling, possessive, emotionally unstable man-child who could only find a lasting relationship with someone who has been programmed from childhood to subsume her own wants and needs to those of a man?
  • His most satisfying relationships have been: Zolena (the woman who taught him how to have sex), girls during their First Rites ceremonies (newly-pubescent girls who are culturally programmed to look at him as a special one-night-stand) and Ayla (who was taught that her own sexual needs were not important and that she should open her legs whenever a guy wants to screw her).
  • Whenever Ayla does anything that really asserts her independence, he goes positively ape-shit on her. It starts in Valley of the Horses when she stays out later than he thought she ought to be one night and just escalates to insane proportions during Mammoth Hunters. It doesn't really go away in Plains of Passage or Shelters of Stone, though it tones down a little because Ayla is more dependent upon him while they're traveling in areas she's unfamiliar with and once they arrive at his cave and she has to learn the ropes of Zelandonii life. But in Land of Painted Caves, Jondalar actually screws around with his former fiancée Marona because Ayla devotes more time to her Zelandonia training than she does to him. Somehow, though, his affair is less objectionable than Ayla being practically date-raped by Laramar.
  • Before Jondalar met her, Ayla traveled alone from Clan territory on the peninsula to a secluded valley on the steppes. She was emotionally devastated from the loss of her adoptive family and son, and yet she not only managed to successfully keep herself alive during that journey, but she also scouted a place to live, hunted and gathered and worked hard enough to create and store everything she would need to survive a winter, fended off predators, discovered a new way to make fire, raised a filly and a lion cub to fully grown healthy animals that responded to her commands, and then Saved. Jondalar's. Life. All on her own with no help from anyone, based on nothing more than the skills she learned from the Clan and her own wits. And yet, Jondalar treats her like she's an idiot child who can't do anything on her own or she'll get killed. Fear for her safety is a pretty paltry justification for ignoring her abilities to that extent, and he does it more than once.
  • The very idea that Ayla might want to have sex with someone other than him, let alone might want to have a relationship with someone who sees her for who she is and loves her because of it, not in spite of it as Jondalar seems to, sends him into a BSOD. At the point in Mammoth Hunters when Ayla and Ranec get engaged, Nezzie (the male camp leader's wife) actually wonders whether or not Jondalar's just going to go out and drown himself in the nearby river. Strangled by the Red String? Or just unable to accept the idea that Ayla might decide, upon discovering that he's not the only man in the world, that he's really not all that and a bag of chips?
  • To be fair, Jondalar is a teenager at the start of the series and one who has gone through a fair bit of emotional turmoil and upheaval not so long ago. He's stated to be around 18 when he starts out on his journey in The Valley of Horses, meaning he's around 20 when he first meets Ayla. Therefore, his emotional outbursts and occasional immaturity could be partly explained by hormones, a still-developing brain and coming to terms with various personal issues...in the first five books, anyway (given that by the second half of Painted Caves, Jondalar is close to 30 and has been in a happy, stable relationship with a child for several years).
• Is part of Jondalar's clinginess over Ayla, mood-swings and angsting in the third book caused by his ongoing grief over Thonolan's death? It hasn't really been all that long since it happened after all - we're talking months, tops. It also hasn't been that long since Jetamio died in childbirth and he recovered from a traumatic injury. He's also been away from his home and family for nearly four years at this point. If most people on vacation had experienced something that traumatic, the first thing they'd probably want to do is get home or have their family there with them...only due to fact walking is the only option in this time period, Jondalar's stuck with complete strangers who's customs are unfamiliar, on the other side of the continent. Though is does not excuse his Jerkass behaviour towards Ayla and he should really have just talked to her about it, is it really that surprising he's so frustrated and emotional throughout the third book?
• While his family clearly love him (and vice versa), Jondalar's situation growing up does sound slightly unstable. He was always aware that Dalanar is his biological father (or as close to that as his culture can understand), who divorced his mother when Jondalar was a toddler, and then moved far away and started a new family. Jondalar tells Ayla that until he had to go live with the Lanzadonii in his teens, he didn't really know his father because they rarely saw each other. Jondalar's mother did marry again when he was about three and his stepdad Willomar treats him well, but the couple also quickly had Jondalar's brother Thonolan, then his sister Folara a few years after that. Marthona was still leader at this time, which would've taken up a lot of her time and attention, while Willomar would likely be doing his own work (which involved travelling) or looking after his young kids. Jondalar's eldest brother Joharran was much older than him and being trained in leadership by Marthona, so he probably wouldn't have been spending much time with Jondalar either. Overall, it sounds as though Jondalar may have been somewhat neglected or left-out (albeit unintentionally), and this might've been the root cause of his future abandonment issues and fear of rejection. It may even explain why he developed such intense feelings for Zolena, because he had her undivided attention and affection (and thus why he reacted so badly when Madroman threatened to take that away).

Others

• The nature of Ranec and Ayla's relationship, specifically in regards to Ranec. He is far more accepting of Ayla initially, but is that because he just overlooks or ignores her flaws? He repeatedly refers to her as "perfect", compares her to his people's goddess and believes she can do no wrong. He's known Ayla for even less time than Jondalar and immediately decides he's in love with her. He never seems to notice how unhappy and reluctant Ayla is about the whole situation, even though everyone else finds it obvious. Thus, begging the question: is Ranec actually in love with Ayla, or is he more in love with the idea of her and overlooks the flaws in their relationship so as not to lose her? There's also some issues surrounding consent in their relationship. Whilst it didn't seem to be Ranec's intention to take advantage of her, Ayla seems to think (due to her Clan training) the first time that Ranec propositions her that she has to go with. Whilst she may find Ranec attractive, she does seem to feel obligated to sleep with him anyway at his request, with Mamut even reminding her at one point that she can actually say no if she wants to.
• Ayla can be interpreted as not just being modest to a fault but having "imposter syndrome" stemming from her upbringing. Amongst the Clan she was often subject to criticism and had to work hard just to be considered 'normal'; as a result she often sets herself ridiculously high standards, is afraid of coming off as incompetent, brushes off praise, and either downplays her skills or attributes them to something other than her own hard work because she genuinely believes she's undeserving. All of this is reminiscent of forms of imposter syndrome; interestingly, when the term was first coined in the 1970s, research was primarily focused upon high-achieving women who doubted their abilities, before the term was eventually applied more broadly.

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A to F

• Angst Dissonance: A few readers get rather tired of Jondalar's frequent angsting over his relationship with Ayla, among various other things, (especially in The Mammoth Hunters where it's demonstrated in the end that he could've resolved many of these issues by simply talking it out with her), with some of them feeling he takes it to the point of Wangst. See also Unintentionally Unsympathetic.
• Anvilicious:
  • Some of the themes or morals of the series are not all that subtle, especially as they tend to be running themes throughout all the books. Of course, given that many of the themes revolve around prejudice and sexism, this may be justified. Prejudice based around race, ethnicity or appearance is presented as being both harmful to individuals and detrimental to society as a whole, and characters who actually take the time to be open-minded and learn about other cultures tend to be better off for it. The same applies to sexism, with emphasis on how both sexes should be treated equally and with respect, and both are important to humanity. That goes for women and men, with the S'Armunai subplot in the fourth book really hammering home the point that sexism and abuse towards men is just as wrong.
  • One example that is very prevalent throughout the series from the second book onwards is aversion of Sex Is Evil. With the numerous explicit sex scenes, various mentions of sex, Sex as Rite-of-Passage moments and the link between sex and conception becoming a major plot point eventually, the author really wants to make sure we all know that sex is wonderful and sacred, provided it's Safe, Sane, and Consensual, and nothing to be ashamed of. Heck, most Cro Magnon societies in the series are depicted as believing their goddess gave them sex as a gift simply because sex is awesome! ^note That said, while it may come off as excessive to modern readers, it's a bit more understandable when one considers Auel began writing the books in the late 1970s (the first one was published in 1980, with the next three books being published over the decade), at which point things such as sex outside marriage and women actually enjoying sex had only recently gained mainstream acceptance in the West.
  • As far as the author seems to be concerned, rape (of women and men) is one of the worst crimes there is. Auel also vocally condemns those who try to blame or look down upon victims of sexual violence; Defiled Forever is strongly averted and/or deconstructed with rape victims in this series.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Jondalar. It's telling that he has the most entries under Alternative Character Interpretation. Is he a Jerkass Manchild who is undeserving of Ayla, or a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who genuinely loves Ayla and tries to become a better person for her in spite of his flaws? Readers who interpret Jondalar as having some kind of mental disorder (such as bipolar or borderline personality disorder) tend to view him with more sympathy, as he comes off as a good person struggling with mental health in a time period with an extremely limited understanding of psychology.
  • Ayla herself can be this for some people, more so in the later books. Is she a boring and overly idealized character, or a well-developed, strong female character?
• Best Known for the Fanservice: Besides being very long and extensively researched, the Earth's Children series is also known for having lots and lots and lots of sex. The unabashed and often explicit sexual content has also resulted in the books being banned in a few places over the years. Some readers who only knew the books from this are surprised to find that while there is abundant sexual content, there's also a great deal more to the story. A few readers can especially get a nasty surprise if they read the first book expecting erotica, only to discover the only prominent sexual content in this one is a harrowing rape scene.
• Broken Base:
  • Fans tend to be divided over the later books, particularly books five and six. Some completely ignore everything after book four due to Seasonal Rot, whilst others still enjoy them even if the quality has dipped in comparison to earlier entries.
  • The way Durc's story is handled. Some fans hated that his story was never properly concluded, seeing as he was set up as a kind of Chosen One for the Clan. Others actually think this was appropriate, as the series follows Ayla's story, not her son's, and it's made explicitly clear that Ayla and Durc's paths diverged forever when she was banished.
  • The 1986 Clan of the Cave Bear film was a huge flop and trashed by fans of the books at the time for its alterations to the story, plus aspects of the books just plain not working as well on screen (see Hard-to-Adapt Work below). However, in more recent years it's picked up some fans for its Scenery Porn and performances, plus the serious Catharsis Factor of getting to see Ayla seriously kick Broud's ass like she never gets to do in the book.
• Contested Sequel: The Mammoth Hunters (book three). Some readers regard it as one of the weaker entries in the series, due to focusing mostly on a love triangle that largely stems from a lack of communication between the leads; Jondalar's behaviour in this book also made him quite the Base-Breaking Character. Other readers like the romantic drama and/or enjoy the detailed look at Mamutoi culture; some also argue that Jondalar actually does develop as a character and becomes a better person by the end.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Readers speculate that Jondalar may have Borderline Personality Disorder, due to certain behaviours and thought patterns matching some traits of BPD. He has frequent mood swings and a tendency to feel things (both positive and negative) very intensely to the point of inappropriateness (his anger had led to violent outbursts in the past and he feels out-of-control), a history of unstable, short-lived intimate relationships (his partners often find him either too intense or emotionally unavailable; he has difficulty connecting to them on a deeper emotional level because he thinks he’ll scare them off), a persistent fear of abandonment and rejection (which fuels his Crazy Jealous Guy behaviour around Ayla and his tendency to be reserved around anyone who isn’t Ayla or Thonolan), impulsive and reckless behaviour (such as beating up Madroman for ruining his relationship with Zolena, abruptly abandoning his life at the Ninth Cave to go on a long, potentially dangerous journey and suddenly proposing to Serenio without any prior discussion after his sister-in-law and nephew die), distorted self-image, and frequent feelings of worthlessness and loss of purpose.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Durc, Ayla's hybrid son, only physically appears in the first book, but he's a pretty popular character amongst fans. Many readers are curious about what became of him after Ayla left and he's frequently the subject of fanfictions exploring this subject(especially due to the implications he would be responsible for the clan's future someday, as Creb predicted, which would probably put him at odds with Broud, who unbeknownst to them both, is actually his biological father).
  • In the first book, supporting character Goov, for many readers. He's well-liked because of his loyalty to his mentor Creb (to the point that when Broud became leader and ordered Goov, who at that point was the new mog-ur, to move into Creb's hearth and force the former mog-ur to live in an undesirable place in the cave, Goov refused to do it. He was also very level-headed and often supportive of Ayla, and he was a kind and caring partner to his mate Ovra even though she was unable to bear him any living children.
• Escapist Character: Ayla can come across as this, especially in later books – she's an intelligent, beautiful and badass cavewoman who comes up with all kinds of cool inventions and innovations, tames wild animals, is an expert healer, a total Dude Magnet and has amazing sex with a hunky caveman who adores her. Although the parts where she grew up being viewed as a bit of a social pariah who struggles to be accepted, got abused and raped as a child, lost her entire family (including her son) either through death or banishment and gets crap from people for being raised by the Clan do put a bit of a damper on things.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: Of a sort. It is actually acknowledged or hinted at within the series itself that Ayla's revelation about men's role in conception will make big changes to society - not all of them good. But realising that a few thousand years down the track, the Zelandonii and other societies with their positive attitudes towards sex, and women who are respected and equal to men, will be replaced by societies were women are oppressed and deemed inferior, whilst people can be shunned or even killed for engaging in certain sexual practices, even if they're not inherently harmful, is pretty depressing when you think about it. Not to mention the exploitation of natural resources and all the fun stuff like pollution that comes with it... but the sexism and misogyny we know is coming is made all the worse due to the implication that Ayla herself had a hand in it... whilst being completely unaware of it. And all she wanted to do was help people...
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • What happened to Durc and the rest of the clan after the first book is a pretty popular topic, seeing as we have no idea what went on after Ayla left.
  • Another common topic is what would've happened if Ayla chose to stay with Ranec and the Lion Camp in the third book, rather than travelling to the Zelandonii with Jondalar.
  • The loose ends left hanging at the end of the series and the large cast provides a lot of Canon Fodder for fanfic writers. Continuing the series after the sixth book (or straight up re-writing the fifth and/or sixth books) is fairly common.
• Fan Nickname: Jondalar is frequently called "Dongjalar" or some variation thereof, due to his impressive endowment.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Many readers prefer to think the series ended with The Plains of Passage, book four. While it doesn't tie up every plot point, it does feature a happy conclusion to one of the main storylines of the first four books, ending with Ayla and Jondalar arriving safely at the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii, intending to get married and Ayla having learned she's pregnant with Jondalar's child. The fact that it took twelve years for the fifth book to be published and that Sequelitis kicked in pretty hard with that installment certainly contributes.
• First Installment Wins: Even hardcore fans of the whole series agree on this; it's the most critically acclaimed entry, is less divisive amongst readers compared to the sequels, and lacks some of the writing flaws of the later entries such as excessive padding and narrative bloat. Chances are you'll be more familiar with the title The Clan of the Cave Bear than Earth's Children (the title of the whole series); one of the alternate titles for this series's TV Tropes entry is Clan of the Cave Bear.
• Franchise Original Sin:
  • Even as far back as the first book, there were several paragraphs or even entire pages dedicated to describing geography, Stone Age-tech and other aspects of the setting. This was more readable early in the series, because the books were shorter and also included interesting plotlines and character interactions, so the parts delving into the author's research came off as story-enriching world-building. However, by the time The Shelters of Stone came out, the books had gotten substantially longer while the plots were a lot more thinly-stretched (The Shelters of Stone in particular barely has any plot advancement at all, yet is the second-longest book at 753 pages). Consequently, it can start to feel less like reading a story where the research is used to enhance or provide context to the plot and setting, and more like a drawn-out non-fiction book with the occasional narrative interlude.
  • The series became somewhat notorious for the sheer amount of sex scenes interrupting the plot. The Valley of Horses was the first book to start this trend, but it wasn't so bad here because the majority of the sex scenes had some relevance to the plot and/or helped develop the characters (e.g. the sex scene between Jondalar and Noria helps explain how First Rites work, and gives us more insight into Jondalar's character and how he functions in intimate relationships, while Jondalar and Ayla's sex scenes are the first time Ayla has ever experienced consensual and pleasurable sex, and brings them closer emotionally). However, increasingly the sex scenes have less relevance to the plot and characters, and thus far less justification for taking up page space (e.g. in The Plains of Passage only about two sex scenes serve any purpose beyond fanservice).
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Fans of the Outlander series often get along with fans of this series, as they're both lengthy, Genre-Busting epics that blend Historical Fiction and Speculative Fiction among other similarities (Outlander features a woman doctor from the 1940s who time-travels to 18th century Scotland, falls in love with a hunky highlander and shakes up the status quo), with plenty of drama, romance, steamy sex scenes and examples of Shown Their Work. It helps that there was some overlap with their original release dates (the first Outlander book came out in 1991, just a year after The Plains of Passage).
  • The series shares some fans with Anita Diamant's The Red Tent, due them both being historical epics (The Red Tent is set in the Middle East/Northern Africa in the Bronze Age and is a retelling of several stories from the Book of Genesis) with feminist themes.

H to P

• Hard-to-Adapt Work: As the critical and financial failure of the 1986 film adaptation and the passed-over TV series pilot attest, Earth's Children is tricky to adapt to another medium. The books are all doorstoppers with huge casts and they're rather exposition-heavy, going into intricate detail about prehistoric life, geography and wilderness survival amongst other things, and the plots themselves tend to be slow-paced and introspective (including heavy use of the Inner Monologue at times), which can be difficult to translate to a purely visual medium without coming off as dull or confusing (especially as you'd have to cut out a lot of details for a more reasonable run-time). Then there's the fact it's set in the Ice Age and so you'd have to factor in a decent special effects budget to create extinct creatures like cave lions, mammoths, woolly rhinos etc. (and most of them are covered in fur which is more difficult and costly to animate).
• Harsher in Hindsight: In The Valley of Horses, all Thonolan's jokes about how he thinks he's died and gone to the spirit world when he wakes and first lays eyes on Jetamio are heartbreaking in hindsight. She ends up dying in childbirth (along with their baby) and Thonolan is completely devastated, even wishing he was dead along with her. And then he does die.
• Heartwarming Moments: Has its own page.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In The Plains of Passage, Ayla is referred to as S'Ayla by the S'Armunai camp she helps out as a sign of respect. Over 20 years later, Far Cry Primal was released, which features a cavewoman protagonist named Sayla; plus, the main character of that game is, like Ayla, The Beast Master who rides around on a big cat. They also both take on a tyrannical tribe run by a deranged woman with a superiority complex who murdered their child when they rebelled.
• Iron Woobie:
  • Marthona. The woman has been through a whole heap of crap, but you wouldn't know it just by looking. Her best friend, whom she loved like a sister, turned on her and left without a word due to the man they both loved picking Marthona instead. She never heard from her again, even wondering if she'd died out in the wilderness. Her first husband unexpectedly died of illness only a few years into their marriage, leaving her to take up leadership of the Ninth Cave and raise their baby by herself. Her second marriage ended in divorce, with she and her mate unable to reconcile their differences despite loving each other. She then finds out her youngest son died horribly halfway across the continent, she can't bring his body back for a proper funeral and she finds out that before his death, he'd been depressed due to his mate and baby dying. And in spite of grieving for Thonolan, she still manages to be happy for Jondalar and his fiancee and even helps plan their wedding.
  • Ayla (see The Woobie for details). Her early years were practically a non-stop Trauma Conga Line, but she still holds her head high through it all.
• It Was His Sled:
  • The Clan of the Cave Bear has two notable examples of this.
    • Broud raping Ayla and her giving birth at the age of just eleven is a plot twist that occurs midway through the book. It's one of the things that's most known about the first book, partly because it's a Late-Arrival Spoiler for the later books and partly because it's such a shocking and disturbing plotline it really stands out.
    • The book ending with Ayla being permanently cursed with death and leaving the Clan to search for her own kind is extremely well-known, especially because it sets up the plot for the rest of the series.
  • It's well-known that The Mammoth Hunters ends with Ayla choosing Jondalar over Ranec and leaving the Mamutoi with him, largely because the next three books revolve around them travelling to and settling with the Zelandonii (it's also not too hard to figure out in hindsight given how unhappy Ayla is when they break up and Jondalar's arc revolving around learning to appreciate Ayla more). That, and all the discussions amongst readers as to whether she made the right choice.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Brukeval just about epitomizes this trope. The reason he's a Jerkass is largely because of how awful is life has been. And this is going back more than one generation. His grandmother was taken in by the Clan after getting lost on a hunting trip and lived with them for several months. When she returned, clearly something bad had happened; she was deeply traumatised and developed a terror of 'flat heads'. It's strongly implied that the poor woman was sexually assaulted during her time with the Clan, due to the cultural barrier - Clan women will have sex with any man who chooses her, Cro Magnon women...not so much. Clan men don't really understand the concept of consent as we do though, so if one tried to 'relieve his needs' with Brukeval's grandmother, expecting her to react like a Clan woman...you get the picture. Anyway, she later died giving birth to a daughter - Brukeval's mother - who was strongly implied to be of mixed spirits. For that, she was otracized as a freak of nature; she also suffered poor health and died when Brukeval was young. So then the poor kid got saddled with his relative, Marona's mother, who was very neglectful. He was bullied by other kids growing up because of his appearance, had no father figure and the shadow of what happened to his grandmother hanging over his head all his life. It's not surprising he grew up to be at least a little jaded about it all. And then at the end of the series, he finds out that the theory that he himself is part Clan - which he has always vehemently denied - is probably true given the revelation about conception. His last on-page appearance is him running off, screaming hysterically that it isn't true and that's he's "not an animal". Ayla herself feels bad for him, criticising the Zelandonii's prejudice towards the Clan for turning "little boys into Brouds".
  • Marona, though it's more her backstory that makes you feel sorry for her than anything else. Her mother (the same woman who raised Brukeval, so you how this probably turned out) was a lazy, irresponsible parent, letting her daughter do whatever she wanted. The neglect and lack of affection she received probably has a lot to do with her bitchy, attention-seeking behaviour now. Most of her relationships are shortlived and emotionally unfulfilling and she's never had children (it's even suggested she might be barren). Finally, the only positive traits she's seen as having are her beauty and sexuality. That's pretty sad. Not to mention, it's outright stated that her beauty will probably fade in time and that unless she changes her ways, she's going to end up very lonely.
  • Crozie from The Mammoth Hunters is a bitter, sharp-tongued old harridan, who fights constantly with her son-in-law while browbeating her sickly daughter into taking her side. However, when you find out about her backstory, it's hard not to feel sorry for her and it's understandable why she ended up this way. She was once a proud and beautiful leader of her own camp, who tragically lost her home and all her children save for Fralie when a fire broke out at their lodge. Crozie was forced to live on the charity of Fralie's mate's camp, and after he died they were all but kicked out and shunned as being bad luck. Crozie then had to suffer further humiliation by lowering her daughter's bride price to find her another mate, as few men were interested. It's clear that much of Crozie's cantankerous behavior stems from grief and a desperate attempt to cling to her pride, as she doesn't have much else left.
• Moment of Awesome: Has its own page.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • If he hadn't already crossed it, Broud does in the middle of The Clan of the Cave Bear when he rapes Ayla.
  • Charoli and his gang are viewed in-universe as having crossed it by gang-raping Madenia (especially as she had never even had sex before that), although considering that he'd previously targeted Clan women too, he'd probably already crossed it.
  • Attaroa probably crossed after murdering a group of her own people who were trying to escape her tyranny - including her own child - and only allowing Cavoa to live because of her pregnancy, whilst threatening to kill both her and her baby if the child is a boy.
• Narm:
  • "HE'S MAKING MY BABY" sent the scene from disturbing to hysterical. For context, the scene occurs near the end of the sixth book and involves a drunken Jondalar screaming the aforementioned line whilst beating the snot out of Laramar after he catches him having sex with Ayla. He believes Laramar will 'start a baby' with Ayla, which partly fuels his jealous rage, but his way of wording it is rather... odd and indeed comes across as funny to some readers, breaking the tension of the scene.
  • In The Plains of Passage, there's a scene where Ayla and Jondalar see a pair of mammoths mating and then get inspired by it to roleplay as mammoths themselves when they 'share Pleasures'.
  • Some of the sex scenes in general are this, due to some of them going on for several pages and having rather flowery, over-the-top verbs and adjectives.
• Nausea Fuel:
  • Ayla's gruesome Screaming Birth in the first book, combined with Nightmare Fuel, as Ayla is only eleven at the time and her mother is justifiably afraid she will die. Ayla labors for hours in agony and she suffers vaginal tearing.
  • The graphic description of Jondalar's injuries from the cave lion attack, including Ayla trying to keep his leg muscle from sliding out of place. Ayla herself isn't too bothered by the gore because she's an experienced healer, but even she's concerned about how she will treat the wound without risking Jondalar's leg. Jondalar is unconscious fortunately, but when he wakes up and gets a good look at his wounds, he feels nauseated as it hits him just how badly he was hurt.
  • Mamut's description of how he broke his arm in his youth, with his re-telling making it clear just how serious it was. He accidentally fell down a cliff and snapped the bone in his arm, causing the broken bone to rip through the muscle and skin of his arm. Mamut says it was so mangled, it looked more like meat, and the wound ended up packed with dirt. He's extremely lucky to have encountered a skilled Clan medicine woman, or he would probably have died of a nasty infection.
• Nightmare Fuel: Has its own page of horrors.
• Padding:
  • Around a third of every novel - though particularly the last three books - is dedicated to lengthy, detailed descriptions of the landscape, wildlife, buildings, clothes, technology and so on. This is actually a case where it might not be considered a bad thing, as it really shows the author’s done her research and helps establish or broaden the setting, though some readers find it a bit much.
  • One of the things criticised about The Shelters of Stone is that it has lots of random, mostly plot-irrelevant conversations between characters, often involving Ayla and Jondalar relaying their adventures to people. Seeing as the readers already know what happened because they read about it in the first four books, it gets rather tiresome reading about the same thing over and over.
• Periphery Demographic: The novels are primarily aimed at adults given the density of the books and mature content, although lots of teenage girls have mentioned enjoying them too, partly because Ayla is mostly in the same age bracket and so she's easier to relate to, and partly because of the smutty scenes; a lot of adult women readers have noted that Earth's Children was their introduction to erotic fiction as teens, especially because their parents didn't necessarily realize the books contained those sorts of scenes based on the covers and synopses. Some teens also felt compelled to read the books due to pearl-clutching reactions from Moral Guardians.
• Protection from Editors: Many readers have noted that the fifth and sixth books seem to have had less editing compared to the first four, with far more examples of padding, repetitiveness, overuse of commas, and some minor continuity errors. Readers have speculated that the massive gaps between releases may have contributed to this. A few readers have even opined that with more editing, the last two books could've been combined into one volume, and would possibly have been better for it.

R to W

• Romantic Plot Tumor: One thing criticized about The Mammoth Hunters is the overemphasis on Ayla and Jondalar's relationship troubles and the Jondalar-Ayla-Ranec Love Triangle. While there is definitely more to the plot, some readers find it frustrating that the romantic drama lasts almost the entire 600+ page novel, especially as a lot of it comes off as a case of Poor Communication Kills, and find the other plot threads more engaging.
• Salvaged Story: Originally, all the Neanderthals were dark-haired and brown-eyed, while Ayla was blonde and blue-eyed, which was seen as unusual, and many other Cro-Magnons had fair hair and light eyes. This was criticized as a case of Humans Are White and put at further odds when genetic evidence showed that some Neanderthals were fair haired. In later books, Ayla meets some fair-haired Neanderthals, implying that the ones she grew around just happened to be dark-haired. Ayla also meets Cro-Magnon who are explicitly non-white, such as Ranec, who is of mixed race and takes after his African mother in appearance, and Jerika and Hochaman, who are heavily implied to be from East Asia; Jerika's daughter Joplaya is also of mixed race.
• Sequelitis: The first book, The Clan of the Cave Bear, is highly acclaimed. While the first three sequels, The Valley of Horses, The Mammoth Hunters and The Plains of Passage, are still widely enjoyed by fans, it is noted that they increasingly suffer from excessive Padding and slow pacing (especially in the middle sections), which can get tedious considering the books get substantially longer with each installment (e.g. book one has just under 500 pages, by book three the page count is over 600 and counting). Comparatively, The Clan of the Cave Bear is shorter with a more even spread of impactful events. Some readers also don’t enjoy the increased focus on things like relationship drama and familial conflict, feeling it comes off as 'soap-opera-y' compared to the earlier emphasis on conflicts like survival, trauma and the search for belonging. Sequelitis didn’t fully set in until the last two books; while some readers do like parts of them, it’s generally agreed they’re weakest entries in the series (to the point some fans prefer to treat The Plains of Passage as the final book). Specifically:
  • The Shelters of Stone took over a decade to be released and was consequently seen as a letdown by several readers due to its plot largely consisting of Ayla settling into Zelandonii life and getting involved in a few domestic disputes with the tribe - which provides the only real conflict in the story - and not a lot else. It then rather abruptly ends on a Cliffhanger with Ayla having just given birth to her and Jondalar’s daughter and accepted Zelandoni’s offer to train her as a shaman. For readers, this was especially dull when compared to the previous book, The Plains of Passage, which is a great deal more action-packed and had more genuinely threatening villains and conflicts. Some of the editing in the book raised eyebrows too, namely the Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma.
  • The first half of The Land of Painted Caves (which also took an unusually long time to come out) follows a similar formula to The Shelters of Stone, with the central conflict of Ayla's Family Versus Career dilemma and her Character Development as a burgeoning spiritual leader only really picking up in the second half; this quickly gets monotonous for some readers, especially seeing as both novels equal close to 800 pages. The sixth book also left several loose ends hanging which some readers had been waiting for around three decades to be resolved, especially regarding relations between Cro-Magnon and the Clan (this was originally a central theme in the books, but ends up all but forgotten about by Painted Caves).
• Ships That Pass in the Night: There are some fans who ship Thonolan and Ayla together, probably because Thonolan is a cheerful, open-minded Nice Guy who has also known great sorrow and loss, and so they would probably get along well. The two never actually meet: the first and only time Ayla even lays eyes on Thonolan is finding and burying his body after he’s mauled by her cave lion.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Ayla/Ranec vs Ayla/Jondalar in the third book.
  • There are some fans who wish Ayla had stayed with Ranec instead of going back to Jondalar, citing the fact that Jondalar spends much of the third book being a petulant Jerkass before his Character Development and that Ranec is far more kind and charming towards Ayla, and unconditionally accepts her past with the Clan (whilst half of Jondalar’s problem in the third book is feeling ashamed about Ayla’s past and learning to get over himself).
  • Jondalar shippers argue that while he is a jerk to Ayla, he makes an effort (a slow, painful one) to become a better person and sincerely apologizes to her; some of this may also stem from the trauma he experienced in The Valley of Horses. When he thinks he's lost Ayla forever, he's devastated but never tries to dissuade her from being with Ranec, as he believes it's what she wants and that she deserves someone who will make her happy. It's also noted that Ayla clearly isn't all that into Ranec and is just with him because she thinks Jondalar no longer loves her; Ranec is oblivious to her unhappiness and it can be argued he tends to put her on a pedestal.
  • A few shippers Take a Third Option by suggesting Ayla could've mated both men (which was actually a suggested solution in-universe as well, though neither Jondalar or Ranec seemed keen).
• Squick:
  • Ayla gets pregnant while unmated, which is considered bad luck, so the clan discuss a potential mate for her. Some of them ask Creb if he would consider mating her. Creb is considered an old man while Ayla is barely an adult by Clan standards and definitely still a child by our standards (she's eleven), plus Creb is the closest thing to a father she has and raised her since she was five. Creb himself is repulsed by the idea and immediately shoots it down.
  • Some of the sex scenes have this effect on some of the readers, due to their explicit nature. Thanks to Deliberate Values Dissonance, things that come off as weird or inappropriate to readers sometimes occur alongside the sex scenes too, such as older women watching teenage girls being deflowered behind screens (it's explained that this is done to make sure the girl isn't hurt or mistreated, so the reasoning is benevolent, but some readers still understandably find it disconcerting).
  • Ayla pulling Jondalar's stitches out by hand can cause some squeamishness; Ayla came up with the idea of using stitches on the fly, so the method and materials are quite crude compared to modern techniques. She tries to be gentle though Jondalar (and potentially the reader) is still left wincing.
• Stoic Woobie: Brun by the end of The Clan of the Cave Bear. He entrusts his son with leadership of the clan, only to immediately realize this was a horrible mistake as Broud tosses aside the lessons Brun painstakingly taught him over the years and begins abusing his power. The clan are going to be in real trouble under Broud’s rule, but there is nothing Brun can do about it. To make matters worse, in prompt order, Brun’s home is destroyed (again) in an earthquake, his brother – who is his only living sibling left at this point – is killed and Broud then curses the innocent Ayla with death. Brun realizes far too late that he has come to love and respect Ayla like a daughter, whilst being utterly disappointed in his son and ashamed of his own failure. He risks bad luck to subtly acknowledge Ayla and promise he’ll care for her son to atone, which causes his own son to threaten him. Brun is so disgusted with Broud at this point, he nearly publically disowns him and wishes he had been more appreciative of Ayla. He never really openly angsts about any of this and doesn’t even flinch when his son tries to threaten and humiliate him.
• Tearjerker: Has it's own page.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The subplot introduced in the fourth novel, where after meeting and rescuing Guban and Yorga, Ayla and Jondalar raise the possibility of trading with their clan. Jondalar actually brings it up with Willomar in the next book and he seems interested in the idea, which could’ve lead to some very interesting interactions between the Clan, the Zelandonii and Ayla. But as of the sixth book, nothing seems to have come of it and Yorga and Guban are barely mentioned, even though several years have passed. It would arguably have added another exciting plot branch other than Ayla training to become a zelandoni and relationship drama, and it would’ve been nice to focus on the Clan again, as they haven’t been prominently featured since the first book, also bringing Ayla’s story 'full circle', in a manner of speaking.
  • One of the biggest mysteries of the series - where Ayla originally came from before the earthquake – is never actually resolved by the end of the series. Whilst this was likely intentional, as the story focuses on who Ayla becomes, not who she was before, some readers still wished we’d found out more and the subject is ripe for speculation and new plotlines.
  • What happened to the Clan that raised Ayla after she left, and her hybrid son Durc, in particular? We never get the chance of following them, even though they are set up for some obvious turbulence under the role of the unfit, unpopular Broud.
• Too Cool to Live: Creb, the Genius Cripple / Cool Old Guy shaman and Ayla's unofficial dad. Even though he's killed off in the first book, he's so cool he keeps popping up in dreams and such in subsequent books.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Jondalar can slip into this at times for some readers. He's intended to be a conflicted, highly emotional and misunderstood man, but to some he comes across as a whiny, immature Jerkass who causes most of his problems himself. Readers will debate endlessly on how sympathetic Jondalar is and whether or not his numerous issues justify his actions in any way.
• Values Resonance: The Valley of Horses (published in 1982) and The Plains of Passage (published in 1990) both contain scenes where a man, namely Jondalar, is sexually harassed by women, and rather than it being Played for Laughs, downplayed or portrayed as a 'seduction', it's Played for Drama and condemned. Jondalar being surrounded and groped by a group of women despite his protests greatly upsets him and culminates in him pushing one woman to the ground; he regrets hurting her but she is also told to apologize to him for her unwanted overtures. Shamud points out that no one ever wants sex to be forced on them and that there's a huge difference between encouraging someone and forcing them. Later, when Jondalar finds out Attaroa has been known to offer captive men freedom in exchange for having sex with her, he's repulsed and calls Attaroa out, saying it's a perversion of "the Mother's Gift".
• The Woobie: Has enough of them to warrant its own page.

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