Earth's Children Series

[cantienne]

So I haven't read these for years, and I come into this thread and find out that Ayla and Jondalar had a kid and named it Jonayla? REALLY?

Oh dear god, that's classic.

[dwanollah]

Onerous, ain't it? I was waiting for the infant to, like, shape-shift or something, too.

[Persephone]

Page 2, Dwanollah wrote:

I also love that All We Ever Knew About Sex We Learned From Jean Auel and VC Andrews. We are one fucked up generation, y'all.

Don't forget Wifey by Judy Blume.

So, there are 5 books now? I don't think I read PoP. The last one I remember is when J&A get back to his Clan and she tells him she's pregnant. Was that it? She took so long to write the other ones that I lost interest. I should go to the library and check out the others.

[Deleted]

The last book (fifth, I think) came out in 2002. Why do I remember this? Because it came out just before I left Portland. and the book signing was just a couple of days before I left. (And was sparsely attended, which surprised me.)

[dwanollah]

Is she supposed to do six or seven books? At this point, I can't imagine her finally coughing up the sixth, much less a seventh. I'm also starting to buy into the conspiracy theorists that she wrote the first one, but someone else is writing the rest.

[Deleted]

I believe the argument for the long gaps between books is "research" - and the series is supposed to be six books. I'm not holding my breath for the sixth (in reality, I'd written the series off before the fifth book was published.)

[tabby]

I heard from my librarian aunt that Auel has been very ill, and that was at least part of the reason for the long delay between Plains of Passage and Shelters of Stone. I haven't been able to confirm that, though.

And thank goodness there are more people who loathe Jondalar! Such a twit.

But here's an embarassing confession: I visited the Museum of Natural History in New York a few years ago, and got kind of excited when I saw the artifacts that Auel used in the stories. "Ooooh, there are the figures Ranec carved! There's a hut made of mammoth bones!" It's sad, really.

[dwanollah]

I think she had breast cancer.

[Deleted]

I was fascinated by Clan of the Cave Bear and was excited when I heard a second one was coming out. I was at a laundromat and saw a guy sitting there reading the second one. I said, "Hey! I'm planning to buy that! How is it?" he gave this disgusted sneer and said, "Don't bother. It's basically soft porn." I was kind of astonished to hear what seemed to be a red-blooded American male sneer about porn, but I guess he was just really disappointed. Anyhow, I went and bought it anyhow, and it turns out the guy was right. I generally skim over sex scenes because my feeling is, if I'm not the one having the sex then why should I care? I'm not sure I even finished the second one, let alone go on to the rest of them.

Ayla even invented oral hygiene!

[SGleason]

Yikes. I don't think Jean Auel can be criticized for this, but it's an interesting tidbit of news from her life:

Grandson Of Portland Author Sentenced

He's 19, the girl is 17, and it sounds like date rape; no details on his "assaulting two boys."