AUEL, Jean M(arie)

(1936-)

   US writer who is known solely for her enormously successful Earth's Children sequence of prehistoric-sf novels (ANTHROPOLOGY; ORIGIN OF MAN): The Clan of the Cave Bear (1980), The Valley of Horses (1982), both assembled as The Clan of the Cave Bear/The Valley of Horses (omni 1994 UK), The Mammoth Hunters (1985) and The Plains of Passage (1990). It could not be suggested that the sequence is very effective as sf, or that, indeed, it is intended to be read as sf; but most of the events recounted - as the young Cro-Magnon protagonist grows up in the Neanderthal community which has adopted her, and begins to effect transformations in her world - are legitimate anthropological extrapolations pastwards. The greatest displacement from what might fairly be called romantic realism - the plots themselves have novelettish moments - lies in the growing capacity of the main characters to commune with animals. In any case, generic definitions aside, JMA's control over masses of detail, and her compulsive storytelling style, put the Earth's Children books on a level far above most of their very numerous predecessors.

   See also: WOMEN SF WRITERS.