You know, books are funny things. Much like people, they often start out creative, imaginative and adventurous, but inevitably they stray down safer and more predictable paths as they get older. Such is the case with The Mammoth Hunters, the third entry in the Earth's Children series. It still manages to drive the narrative forward, but it chooses to use the tired cliché of a love triangle as the core of its story.
Now, let me clear something up before we continue - I'm not dead against romance novels. Admittedly, the genre has been used and abused more than George Bush's executive authority over the years, but it can still be used to good effect, provided it's not allowed to overshadow everything else. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happens here, and an otherwise good book suffers as a result - a bit like an Olympic sprinter trying to win a race with a dead manatee on his back.
Following on directly from The Valley of Horses, The Mammoth Hunters kicks off with Ayla's reintroduction to the world of the Others. Welcomed into a tribe called the Mamutoi, she soon sets about impressing people, making friends (and enemies), saving lives and generally proving how awesome she is at every opportunity. After all, it is Ayla. However, all is not well. Her fragile new relationship with Jondalar is showing the strain, and when she drunkenly gives in to the advances of an amorous artist, a severe bout of jealousy sets in and he promptly dumps her. This chain of events is likely to hit particularly close to home for anyone who spent a couple of years at university.
It's a shame really that the rather tedious love triangle overshadows what is otherwise quite an engaging and interesting book. Watching Ayla gradually adapt to human society after growing up with the Clan and spending years in isolation is a fascinating experience, and is almost enough to support the book in its own right. But not quite.
The problem with the romance angle is that previous objections aside, it's not particularly well handled. The whole love triangle feels forced and contrived, and everyone involved behaves in such an immature and oblivious fashion that I actually didn't care who Ayla ended up with. Neither Jondalar or Ranec distinguished themselves, while the normally perceptive Ayla seemed to be wearing her stupid hat for most of the story. Likewise, supporting characters who could potentially have resolved the whole thing with a simple explanation are inexplicably silent throughout the entire debacle. Normally I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to author intrusion, but when the plot manipulation is this thick it becomes kind of hard to ignore. It's a bit like coming home to find a walrus in your living room, but you're the only one that can see it.
As far as supporting characters go, they're all pretty much cut from standard templates. There's the elderly mentor type, the sickly child with wisdom beyond his years, the stern but well-meaning leader, the caring motherly character, the insecure girl on the verge of womanhood (insert your own `Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman' reference here), and the troublemaker who comes good in the end. No great surprises. Still, they're mostly quite well executed, and the book's unusual setting injects a bit of freshness into the otherwise tired archetypes. The plot even summons up a few surprisingly poignant moments toward the end, reminiscent of Clan of the Cave Bear's triumphant climax.
The Mammoth Hunters has received a lot of deserved stick over the years for the aforementioned love triangle, but overall I'd rate its story as one of the best, mainly because this is the last book in the series that's genuinely fun while retaining the raw, unforgiving edge of its predecessors. In a sense, it's the high water mark for the series before it began its descent into mediocrity and tedium. Also, it marks the end of Ayla's transition into a fully developed member of human society, so in a sense it ties up most of the major plot arcs from the end of the first book.
For this reason, I reluctantly give it four stars out of five. I was really tempted to give it three, because the love triangle drags it down so badly, but I feel that the rest of the book more or less makes up for these shortcomings.
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