Book #30 of 2024 Clan of the Cave Bear | DNF: Tidemagic
[That is the most recent of the Clan of the Cave Bear covers. Either the version I read isn't on Google or I don't remember what it looked like exactly. This one is pretty though!]
The Clan of the Cave Bear: Earth's Children, Book One by Jean M. Auel.
Quick synopsis: Set in the dawn of modern humans, when Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons co-existed, a young girl is found and raised by the "Clan" (the Neanderthals).
Brief opinion: For a 44 year old book, this story holds up really really well. I had a couple issues early on, but soon enough the story grabbed me and never let me go.
Plot: [Does anyone not know the book's plot already?] Alya, a blond haired, blue eyed five year old modern human is separated from her family during an earthquake. She wanders alone, starving, naked, and defenseless. Attacked by a cave lion, she wedges herself into a fissure in a stone wall, and days later drags herself out. Near death, she's found by the Clan -- a tribe of Neanderthals.
The medicine woman of the Clan finds her and nurses her back to life, eventually adopting her. Unfortunately things in the Clan are very different than what modern humans are used to. Women are literally owned. They have no rights, including to their own bodies. But the reason for that is the way the Neanderthal brain has developed -- they have "Memories", memories of all of the individuals before them. So people of the Clan are locked in one tradition, literally unable to change. They can't even invent new things.
Alya, as a modern human, has a hard time fitting in. In the beginning she endlessly butts heads with Broud, the son of the current leader and the man who will be the next leader. Broud has some huge ego issues (and maybe some other mental issues as well). Even though Alya is a powerless woman, he fights with her through their entire lives.
The Broud/Alya conflict comes to a head at the end of the book... [Spoiler]when Broud, now the leader of the Clan, has her cursed with death. She "dies" (in the Clan's eyes), but yet she still wins.
Writing/editing: For a book that must have been a scan of a physical book, the editing was really good! There were a few incorrect uses of semicolons, but that's it. There were no "scanned book" issues at all, it seemed like it was published today.
I love a book where I have to "look up" (tap the word for the definition, I love that Kindle feature) a lot of words. A great story + new words = BIG YAY. I really liked her writing in this first book.
What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: Early on in the story, I had some pretty big issues. The idea that the Clan could have the memories of every single individual before them... every creature before them... that they can remember anything that has ever happened to any living creature as far back as the creatures having brains. That was a stretch for me to buy into.
They could recall their own racial memory, their own evolution. And when they reached back far enough, they could merge that memory that was identical for all and join their minds, telepathically.
And:
From the depths of their minds they found the undeveloped brains of creatures of the sea floating in their warm, saline environment. They survived the pain of their first breaths of air and became amphibians sharing both elements.
And yet:
Memories in the clan were sex differentiated.
So they can remember back to being fish, but men can't access the memories of women and women can't those of men.
But anyway, that was a pretty minor issue once the story got going, and eventually I just accepted it and stopped having an issue with it.
Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5 stars! I loved this book back when I read it in the 80s, I was really worried I'd dislike it now and ruin my good memories of it. But I'm happy to say I loved it! I stayed up late multiple nights reading and gave myself eye strain for three or four days straight.
I wasn't intending to read book 2 (each book is less good than the one before it), but I'm going to and will just DNF it if needed.
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DNF #18: Tidemagic: The Many Faces of Ista Flit by Clare Harlow. The book's magic system was great (basically everyone is born with a bit of magic in them, and the strength of magic is tied to the tides), but I couldn't connect with any of the characters. The book is meant for young MG readers, so that could have been the issue.