The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel

The first of the five volumes long Earth`s Children book series, this was something of a novelty in the fiction series.

The setting is the neolithic era, not the most common of era`s after all.

Plot:

Ayla, a Homo Sapiens, is 5 years old when she is swept away in a stream when a sudden earthquake occurs.  She is found and raised by a clan of Neanderthal, the clan of the Cave Bear, who adopt her as one of their own.

While she proves to be an adept member and a great medicine woman, and rises in prestige within the clan by mostly her other way of thinking.  However, this leads to envy of the man who would become the next leader of the clan, and who tries everything to have her expelled.

Opinion:

This 600 page book was actually a good read, as it is something completely different from regular fiction series.
The way of thinking between how the Neanderthal and how the Homo Sapiens went about is nicely described, and the struggle of a total outsider and how to integrate might be more actual then when this book was originally written in the early 80s.

I enjoyed it, though I won`t say I`ll immediatly devour the next instalment (I have all 5 volumes), but none-the-less it was a welcome intermezzo from the regular sort of books I`ve been reading.

Rating: 6 / 10