Clan of the Cave Bear

Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel

I'm calling time on this one; I'm not finishing. I read it before... at least a couple of times... but that was 20 years ago, and it did not age well. The brief summary: Ayla, a Cro-magnon girl, is orphaned in an earthquake, found by Neandertals, and raised among them, until her differences, and the enmity of the heir-apparent of the chief, forces her into exile.

One part is somewhat forgivable, and some fun world-building. Auel's Clan (Neandertals) cannot speak well, so they have an elaborate sign language. This is the forgivable part, because a Neandertal hyoid bone (the only bone in the body not connected to another bone, so easily lost when dealing with skeletal remains) had not been found, so the consensus when she started writing was that Neandertals could not speak with the same fluency of of modern humans... the hyoid is part of what lets us make such a wide variety of sounds.

The rest, though? That gets a bit less forgivable. Neandertal society, as presented, is absolutely sex-differentiated, which is what makes Ayla, who does not have the biological sex-differentiated memories a near outcast. Clan women would not consider touching weapons, because the culture of the Clan is ingrained into every member... but, Ayla, being Cro-Magnon, does not have that, so she learns to hunt. Several times, pedophilia is presented as being normalized in the society ("beguiled by some young coquette" was the phrase used), and a major story thread is her repeated rape by the story's antagonist (which is culturally supported, naturally, since Clan women are naturally subservient to men in all things). This is compounded by the fact that Neandertals are described as pretty uniformly brown, with brown eyes, extensive body hair, and bushy hair on their head, while Ayla is blue-eyed and blonde-haired, leaving to a reading where the precocious and clever beautiful white girl is raised by these benighted, barbaric brown people with their backwards ways.

I liked it well enough when I was younger. But this story starts at the deficit of being based on old archaeology, and runs downhill from there, through racism, sexism, and rape.

The Empty Throne

Sorry I've been a bit absent; I decided to embark upon reading A Song of Ice and Fire, and somehow conceived the idea that I should read them all before commenting. However, I'd put this book on hold, and so when it came in, I put aside Storm of Swords and started in on this one.

I do love the Uthred series. Uthred is a somewhat heartless bastard to his enemies; cunning, unrepentantly pagan (even when getting publicly baptized as part of a plot), but who fiercely defends his friends and loved ones. Cornwell writes amusingly and well; the cover blurb from George R.R. Martin says he writes the best battle scenes, and I don't argue too hard with it. The recent books, however, had fallen into a bit of a pattern. Uthred loses everything. He goes viking. He comes back and wins a victory, usually through cunning, ruthlessness, and sword skill. Somewhere along the way, he gets laid.

While this book followed that broad pattern, it felt different; it felt like less of the same, partially because it started in his low point, and let him slowly climb out of it, rather than beginning with him comfortable. His political wranglings had me literally laughing out loud... drawing odd looks in Boston Market and everything. It also helps that the book is a fairly quick read; 320 pages, with the occasional lingual gymnastics of Welsh or Norse names.

One bit that interests me about the Saxon Tales is that, though they're not strictly fantasy, they embrace the level of superstition that would be common at the time. Uthred isn't just injured with an infection; he's cursed, and he firmly believes that the curse will only be healed through a specific means. Earlier, he's dealt with faux necromancers, the false summoning of goddesses, and himself falsified miracles that were then wholly embraced by the people around him. They feel fantasy, not just by being set in the same technological era, but by partaking of the superstitions of the era. (Maybe that's why I always want to read more Ars Magica books when I'm reading the Saxon Tales)

I've enjoyed all of the Saxon Tales, but I'll admit to being a sucker for a well-told viking story. Uthred is the kind of lovable irascability that, as Aethelflaed comments in this book, "At his best when he's being disobedient." They're genuinely fun to read, and I've looked forward to the installments as they come out. I'm glad Empty Throne rescued it from the rather sameness that the previous few had suffered through. It's got my medieval war porn, and gives me a bit of fun as I devour it and its preceding books.