I have a love-hate relationship with this series, to be blunt, at least the last time I read it. I recall enjoying book one and two, but loathing everything after The Mammoth Hunters. So, now that I finally obtained all books in the series, let's revisit Earth's Children. Spoilers ahead. Also, trigger warnings for possibly racist coding and rape mentions.
The story follows a young Cro-Magnon child named Ayla about 35000 years ago. After losing her Cro-Magnon "Others" parents, she is taken in by a group of Neanderthals calling themselves the "Clan of the Cave Bear". While growing up under the care of Iza and Creb and the strict rules of the clan, Ayla often finds herself being held back by them. She has trouble fitting in, too, and Broud, to to-be leader of the group, vehemently hates her. Will she succeed in fitting in?
This book I mostly really enjoy. Yes, it has some points that definitely need to be addressed, but the rest is just so damn good.
Auel definitely knows her stuff. We are shown the intricate details of how certain medicines are applied or prepared, and it makes the world feel all the more real. I could just listen to this woman describe how these people treat their sick and wounded forever. Yes, the exposition gets a bit much sometimes, but it never once bothered me. I love the world-building and exposition in this. I also know that some of the knowledge portrayed in her books has aged, but for the time, it definitely was intricate and well-researched.
I really liked most of the characters, too. My favorites were definitely Iza, Ooba and Creb, Ayla's adopted Neanderthal family. They treated her so well and it was great and touching to see their relationships with this girl that is so unlike them. Heck, even Brun, though he's very strict, still makes for a likable and strong leader. One of the only characters I really couldn't stand in this was Broud, who was a bit of a one-dimensional villain. He makes his vendetta against Ayla a priority, which eventually leads to her banishment in the end of the book. I do wish he was given more depth to him, but he's still an effective villain. Ayla herself is a bit of a generic main character, but she makes for a good POV-character, at least in this book. She embodies more our modern values and norms, while still also giving us a look at the culture of the Clan. She unfortunately becomes a downright Mary Sue (I hate using that term, but it really applies here) in later books from what I recall, but in this book she's definitely an enjoyable character.
Now, for the negatives that need to be addressed. First of all, the rape scenes. Ayla is appointed the rank of "woman" as she grows up (though by our modern standards she's still an early teen. This somewhat is contrasted by the shorter lifespan of early man, but it still feels really yikes) and then Broud, in order to assert his power over her, decides to frequently rape her, eventually impregnating her with a half-Neanderthal child (later named Durc). This just felt unnecessary to me. He already hits Ayla plenty of times, was there really no other way to make it clear that he loathes her? I get that this is a book for adults, but damn, it still makes me really uncomfortable reading it each time.
Then there's the coding. The entire Clan is pretty much coded as "less developed". They're all described with dark skin and literally being impossible to think of the future, only being able to stick what they know and no further. Then there's Ayla, fair-skinned, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Ayla who keeps breaking Clan boundary after Clan boundary and is seen as our progressive "modern" stand-in. Something about this just feels wrong to me. I'm white, so I cannot say how offensive this is exactly, but having her (and by extension most of the Others) be white and well-developed in contrast to the dark-skinned, often abusive and "less developed" Clan, it just feels like some (possibly unintentional) coding to me.
There's also of course the whole Clan system and, while I personally found Clan culture fascinating, the whole sexism thing just felt unnecessary. Women can't touch or make weapons, women can't hunt, women can't look at a man, men can make "the signal" (you know the one) at any woman. It definitely feels dated, and I guess part of that was the intention, but, damn, by our modern standards, it just doesn't feel very neat to see my sex being treated like shit for an entire book.
While this book definitely has its flaws, for my personal enjoyment and how much it meant to me growing up, I'll be giving this one five stars. The world-building, character relationships and exposition is just so good. But if I were to rate this more critically, it'd probably be at the 3-3.5 range.
Rating:
5/5 (personal score)
3/5 (critical score)
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