The Valley of Horses (Earth's Children, #2)
Jean M. Auel
1 ratings • 1 reviews
The Valley of Horses (Earth's Children, #2)
Jean M. Auel
1 ratings • 1 reviews
Librarian note: See an alternate cover edition here. This unforgettable odyssey into the distant past carries us back to the awesome mysteries of the exotic, primeval world of The Clan of the Cave Bear, and to Ayla, now grown into a beautiful and courageous young woman. Cruelly cast out by the new leader of the ancient Clan that adopted her as a child, Ayla leaves those she loves behind and travels alone through a stark, open land filled with dangerous animals but few people, searching for the Others, tall and fair like herself. The short summer gives her little time to look, and when she finds a sheltered valley with a herd of hardy steppe horses, she decides to stay and prepare for the long glacial winter ahead. Living with the Clan has taught Ayla many skills but not real hunting. She finally knows she can survive when she traps a horse, which gives her meat and a warm pelt for the winter, but fate has bestowed a greater gift, an orphaned foal with whom she develops a unique kinship. One winter extends to more; she discovers a way to make fire more quickly and a wounded cave lion cub joins her unusual family, but her beloved animals don't fulfill her restless need for human companionship. Then she hears the sound of a man screaming in pain. She saves tall, handsome Jondalar, who brings her a language to speak and an awakening of love and desire, but Ayla is torn between her fear of leaving her valley and her hope of living with her own kind.
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I liked this book overall, and understood why Auel wanted to really flush out the character Jondalar: so that he would be liked and considered the perfect match for Ayla. HowEVER, I had a few problems with this story, some of which are just mine and probably wouldn't have made the story any better:
1) Jondalar was sometimes came off as an arrogant prick, especially when he was all like 'every woman wants me and I've never been turned down and I'm good at everything.' (And what was the point of mating with many random women along the way, other than to emphasize his man-lyness?)
2) Thonolan sounded cool and I liked his character and was pissed that Auel just killed his mate and child off BOOM and not 20 minutes later he was dead too.
3) IT TOOK 13.5 DISCS TO GET TO THE POINT WHERE THE STORIES FINALLY CONVERGED!!!
4) I know Ayla is a great character, but she was perhaps overly great: she constantly has fabulous luck with discoveries/inventions/tames wild creatures and seems to never run into serious problems, she is ridiculously beautiful and perfect to Jondalar, and she picks up 3(?) languages in the space of a summer, magically speaking Jondalar's language after having a DREAM.
(To me, it would have been really cool to have the teaching of Zelandonii last a lot longer and it would have been nice to see how some of the abstract concepts/words were explained, but Ayla's brain is sooo freaking honed that she just picks up the language(s) in no time at all!)
Though this sounds negative, I liked the book and plan on continuing the series~ I just wanted to put down the few things I was frustrated about!
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