Sorry, it's been a while since my latest review! I'm just not looking very forward to reading the rest of Earth's Children again, seeing how my first experience with the series was less than stellar. Anyways, I praised the first book for it's in-depth writing and likable world building and characters. Is The Valley of Horses just as good? Spoilers ahead.
Now having been banished from the Clan of the Cave Bear, Ayla settles in a peaceful valley. Here, she has to figure out how to survive by herself and befriends some of the local wildlife. Meanwhile, two men called Thonolan and Jondalar go on a huge journey, and one of them is fated to meet up with Ayla at the end.
Let's be blunt: this book worked for two thirds, one third didn't. Approximately. First, the good: Most Ayla parts. She is still written strongly and, while bordering on Mary Sue over here, at least there aren't other characters around her to constantly praise her like in later books. Then there's the parts with the brothers. I personally didn't even mind Thonolan that much, but I from the start couldn't stand Jondalar. He's constantly being praised, his package is huge, all women want him yet he's never satisfied, etc.
For most of the book, I loved reading the Ayla chapters. I loved seeing how she developed a bond with this horse, how she figured out how to hunt for herself, how she raised a lion cub, how she lives by herself. The brother parts were boring at best and annoying at most. The sad news is also that Thonolan dies at the end, and Jondalar is the one that gets to live and may just be destined for Ayla.
Ayla and Jondalar meet about 75% into the book and, at first, it wasn't even so bad. I liked seeing Ayla meet one of the Others for the first time, and having to struggle with the language. But Jondalar was annoying and, moreover, the language barrier is soon broken through Magic Dream Powers. I'm not kidding. She just has a dream and suddenly remembers how to speak the language of the Others. This is Disney's Pocahontas levels of lazy writing.
After that Jondalar constantly starts thirsting after Ayla, but at least he holds off from having sex with her... for a while. He then proceeds to do so anyways. Which is... uncomfortable to say the least. Seeing how Ayla is seventeen and Jondalar is twenty-one. Yes, I know they're cavemen, they probably have different lifespans and their women are considered mature earlier, but damn, it felt uncomfortable. Oh, there's also a chapter where Ayla gets turned on by watching two horses do it. Yeah... wow.
While the old writing style for Auel still showed through in a lot of the Ayla chapters, this book felt overall lacking in comparison to the first. The chapters with the brothers were tedious, the story quickly felt stale after Jondalar and Ayla met, and we simply don't have the likable cast of characters we did in the first. It's such as shame, because I think that, if this book had just been Ayla alone and her running into one of the Others at the end and having to slowly pick up the language, it would've been much stronger.
No comments:
Post a Comment