The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel This wasn't a bad book so much as it was odd. The depiction of many members of the Clan was less than human, for lack of better words. Just because they were primitive did not make them any less human than Ayla.That being said, I did appreciate Ayla as a spunky person, but I did find her being the one to discover invention to be a bit off. The fact that she is human as opposed to Neanderthal does not mean by default that she alone should come up with these innovations.I really liked the idea of Ayla's son being a hybrid that, in the book, has potential to pass his traits on, thereby passing Neanderthal genes to modern humans. I have always been intrigued by the idea that many human traits are actually caused by ancient breeding with Neanderthals, so it was nice that this hypothesis was mentioned.Over all, it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't any masterpiece. Perhaps the later books will get better, but I'm not expecting any brilliance from this author.