Novels about prehistoric humans

[kev67]

Are there many good books on this subject? I have often thought it was a genre that had some scope. There was lots of unspoilt scenery to explore, and lots of wild animals and other tribesmen to fling your spear at. Even if you were only a homo habilis and had the consciousness of a eight-year-old that would still be plenty to wonder about the world with.

[Ecurb]

My home region of the Pacific Northwest is home to Ursula LeGuin (whom you mentioned in your other thread) and Jean Auel (who wrote the popular, if melodramatic series "Clan of the Cave Bear"). I stopped by a book store in Seattle once when LeGuin just happened to be doing a reading and book signing. She might be five feet all, if she stretches.

Auel's books (I've read only the first two) are about the interaction between Neanderthals and Cro Magnons, and based on Julian Jaynes theories about the "bicameral minds" of early humans. Jaynes wrote a quasi-scientific book in which he posited that early man's consciousness was very different from our own. The two hemispheres of the brain (if I'm remembering right) were more separate, and communicated through oral hallucinations, similar to those of schizophrenics. Among other things, this explains all the direct communications with various Gods, demons, etc. In Auel's books, the Neanderthals are bicameral, and rely on religious rituals inducing hallucinations to plan for the future.

It is also important to read these books because the heroine's name (Ayla) is a common answer to a clue in crossword puzzles.

[Calidore]

This looks like a good resource: http://www.webwinds.com/thalassa/prehistoric.htm

I will join them in enthusiastically recommending W. Michael & Kathleen Gear's First North Americans series. These are highly entertaining, fast-moving novels written by two professional anthropologists specializing in Native American peoples and cultures, which means great authenticity in the details. Each novel is completely stand-alone (though the first few, each set millennia apart, form a loose chronology) and follows a different tribe in a different geographical setting and time period. Native spiritualism and magic can also work in these books, so calling them fantasy wouldn't be a stretch.

My personal favorite (and apparently that of many people) is the sixth book, People of the Lakes. This is a straight-up action movie about a young woman's quest to destroy a cursed totemic mask that has brought disaster to her tribe, while being pursued by angry tribesmen who want it back and her dead. Among her companions are the terrific double-act of Green Spider, a very wise and highly eccentric prophet/philosopher, and Black Skull, a huge warrior who has no patience at all for Green Spider's nonsense.

[Dark Muse]

I am enjoying North America's Forgotten Past series by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear.

The books are about Pre-Historic people of North America. Each book can be read as stand alone novel for each book focuses on a different tribe of people so every book has a differnt set of characters and different story though there are some refences to things that happened in previous books they are not crucial to understanding and following the story.

[Dark Muse]

You beat me to it Calidore

[Calidore]

You beat me to it Calidore

http://bunkstrutts.wordpress.com/files/2009/03/headbanger2.gif

[kev67]

I noticed William Golding wrote a book about Neanderthal tribe's first contacts with Cro-Magnons called The Inheritors. I remember enjoying the Little Nose children's stories being read on television when I was a boy. Little Nose was a Neanderthal child who had a pet mammoth called Two Eyes. Apart from those and the Clan of the Cave Bear, I had not heard of any others.

I wonder if this genre is closer to science fiction that historical fiction.