Back to...
or...
Synopsis:
Ayla, a young cro-magnon child, is adopted by a group of Neanderthal after her family is killed in an earthquake. The book follows her story from the time of her adoption through her childhood and into early adulthood.
The main focus of the story is Ayla's struggle to fit into the society of another species - and a species that greatly resists any change. And she does manage to conform to Neanderthal norms in some cases, she learns to be completely submissive and obedient towards the men, her foster mother teaches her how to gather plants for food and for medicine and, by taking care of her foster-sister, she learns how to look after babies. However she also, after accidentally watching the men, teaches herself how to hunt using a sling. Because her arms are better built for throwing, she soon becomes better than the men - although, being female, she could never be allowed to hunt for the tribe...
Review:
The book's quite good. It races along, so you don't get bored, and deals very well with your basic emotional issues - for example, the death of Ayla's mother, and her ongoing rivalry with Broud, the son of the chief. It also paints a very broad image of Neanderthal society. At first glance (or skim-read, as the case may be) it seems to be your standard stereotyped brave hunters slaughter wild and dangerous animals and bring the meat back to the weak, defenseless womenfolk who serve as cooks, babyminders and a convenient harem (which I understand is being disproved by the currently favoured archeological theories. Never mind, they'll change their minds again soon, I'm sure) kinda thing, but the really interesting parts are the ways the Clan differ from humans as we think of them. It is suggested that they all have access to racial memories, going back as far as the very beginnings of life (As in tiny little things swimming around in the ocean, and eventually crawling out of the ocean, although some of them did crawl back in again...). The memories need to be triggered before they can be realised, but they are dormant in everyone. Also, the story takes place just as the Neanderthals are beginning to die out, and it is speculated that their rigid unbending rules to prevent anything in their lives from changing is an attempt to save the species - if their brains develop any further, they're really going to have trouble successfully giving birth. The Clan's Mog-Ur (the guy who talks to the spirits) is deformed because his brain was too big for his mum. That's why he's such a powerful mog-ur, and is able to count and perform other such intellectual feats that are far beyond his tribesmen. Ayla catches on to the counting very quickly, and he has to discourage her before anyone else notices.
The subject matter being what it is, there are parts of the book that are fairly brutal - the tribe hunting, the tribe being hunted, ritual scarring, and general accidents and perils of life. Which is all in keeping with the time (I assume, not knowing anything about early versions of humans myself). In fact, they seem to have it surprisingly easy, compared with how I'd imagine life in the ice age to be. Take birth for example. There's one case of siamese twins, born dead, and one woman mentioned who kept miscarrying, but besides that, it all seemed pretty standard. I'd have expected it to be a much more dangerous business, especially in a species where the babies' heads are outgrowing the females' pelvises (pelvae? Pelvii? I should get a dictionary...). Speaking of babies, they feature rather heavily. In fact, they seem to be the females' (especially, but the guys like them too) reason for living. Which I suppose is accurate from an evolutionary standpoint...
Conclusion - It was quite enjoyable, and I'm going to read the next one in the series as soon as Bert's finished it. So far, he says there's lots of sex in it, so it shouldn't be too bad.
or...