The Valley of Horses

Earth's Children, Book 2

By: Jean M. Auel

Narrated by: Sandra Burr

Length: 21 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

A timeless epic of the dawn of civilization.

In The Valley of Horses, Ayla, the unforgettable heroine of The Clan of the Cave Bear, sets out on her own odyssey of discovery away from the nurturing adoptive family and friends of the Clan. She is in search of others like herself and in search of love.

Sharing a hidden valley with a herd of steppe horses, Ayla finds a unique friendship with animals as vulnerable as herself and ingeniously discovers the complex skills needed to survive - skills no Clan member was ever able to master.

But none of her experiences prepares her for the emotional turmoil she feels when she rescues a young man - the first of the Others she has seen - from almost certain death.

Torn between her desire for human companionship and her fear of the unknown Others, she struggles against her deep attraction to the handsome Jondalar. It is Jondalar who teaches her the meaning of true friendship and love.

Listen to more in the Earth's Children series.

©2004 Jean M. Auel (P)2004 Brilliance Audio

awesome series

love this story, loved it since I saw the movie Clan of the cave bear.

A joy.

This book took me back to the time, many years ago, when I first read these books greedily. Then I had to wait anxiously for the next volume. Now I only have to tap Download and the next volume will appear, magically. The reading is effortless too. No balancing a heavy volume on my lap or chest. No fumbling for a tissue to mark my place. I am once again reminded of why I love audible.

Reading speed

I saw quite a few reviews saying that the speed of the reader was too fast. I felt the same way so I just went into my settings and reduced the speed at that point it sounded just like clan of the Cave bear.

Amazing story I’ve been reading this series for over 30 years

love ayla

I fast forward only listening to the ayla part I have read the whole series.
didn't like it just ayla's story hate jondalar and his people.
would have been better with just ayla and maybe just her finding jondalar and him leaving her with a child.

Addicted!

Book 2 down, on to 3! I read this series when I was in my 20's! I am so glad I found it on Audible!

Slow down!

This was the first audiobook in more than a dozen years that I had to alter the narration speed. Not even just one setting down but two settings lower than the normal setting, heard at 0.8, the narrator sounds normal. They also did something to memory quotes by other people that was annoying to me, just read the quote, don’t do that strange mechanized thing! Hopefully the next book in the series has a different narrator.

Great Storyline

Great storyline. Love the animals, culture, cooking tool making etc. Too much sex in it though. Have to fast forward. :)

Excellent!

I have read this book every year since I was 12 years old. Hearing it was much different. I'm not very fond of the narrator. She doesn't have a gift for making different voices, but she's not horrible and hearing it read made it new for me. This series is my all time favorite.

Earth’s Children

This is my favorite book of the series. It’s about a young woman living during the Ice Age and her struggles to survive after she’s ejected from her adoptive family.
Ayla’s struggle is monumental but we can identify to the extent that she’s resourceful and persistent, qualities that are necessary in our time, too. She’s drawn to babies and the helpless and that leads her into situations that others living at the time would never have considered.
Ayla follows her heart, and that’s what saves her.
The narration is okay, but narrators of both sexes would have greatly enhanced the story.
I recommend starting the series with Book1, Clan of the Cave Bear, then this one, followed by The Mammoth Hunters, another excellent read. The Plains of Passage has some exciting incidents but the last two books in the series aren’t worth the credits.

great

loved this. 2nd in the series. I read these a long time ago and they were just as enjoyable to listen too