A literary phenomenon, Jean M. Auel’s prehistoric odyssey is one of the best-loved sagas of our time. Employing meticulous research and the consummate artistry of a master storyteller, Auel paints a vivid panorama of the dawn of modern humans. Through Ayla, an orphaned girl who grows into a beautiful and courageous young woman, we are swept up in the harsh and beautiful Ice Age world, home to the Clan of the Cave Bear. Now, for the first time, all six novels in the Earth’s Children® series are available in one convenient eBook bundle: THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR THE VALLEY OF HORSES THE MAMMOTH HUNTERS THE PLAINS OF PASSAGE THE SHELTERS OF STONE THE LAND OF PAINTED CAVES A natural disaster leaves a young girl wandering alone in an unfamiliar and dangerous land until she is found by a woman of the Clan, people very different from her own kind. To them, blond, blue-eyed Ayla looks peculiar and ugly—she is one of the Others, those who have moved into their ancient homeland; but Iza cannot leave the girl to die and takes her with them. Iza and Creb, the old Mog-ur, grow to love her, and as Ayla learns the ways of the Clan and Iza’s way of healing, most come to accept her. But the brutal and proud youth who is destined to become the Clan’s next leader sees Ayla’s differences as a threat to his authority. He develops a deep and abiding hatred for the strange girl of the Others who lives in their midst, and is determined to get his revenge. Praise for the Earth’s Children® series “Auel is a highly imaginative writer. She humanizes prehistory and gives it immediacy and clarity.”—The New York Times Book Review “Storytelling in the grand tradition . . . From the violent panorama of spring on the steppes to musicians jamming on a mammoth-bone marimba, Auel’s books are a stunning example of world building. They join the short list of books, like James Clavell’s Shogun and Frank Herbert’s Dune, that depict exotic societies so vividly that readers almost regard them as ‘survival manuals.’ ”—Vogue “Jean Auel has established herself as one of our premier storytellers. . . . Her narrative skill is supreme.”—Chicago Tribune “Pure entertainment at its sublime, wholly exhilarating best.”—Los Angeles Times “Readers who fell in love with little Ayla will no doubt revel in her prehistoric womanhood.”—People “Lively and interesting, enhanced greatly by the vividly colored backdrop of early humanity . . . Auel is a prodigious researcher.”—The Washington Post Book World “Among modern epic spinners, Auel has few peers. . . . She deftly creates a whole world, giving a sense of the origins of class, ethnic, and cultural differences that alternately divide and fascinate us today.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Unique examples of Paleolithic art and an extremely rich collection of stone and bone implements make the site of Avdeevo one of the most interesting and important of the Upper Paleolithic on the Russian plain. These assemblages point to clear connections with sites such as Willendorf and Dolni Vestonice in central Europe as well as with the similar Russian site at Kostenki. The worked bone and art objects include bone awls and decorated points, burnishers, diadems, trinkets and beads. There are fragments of bone with engraved ornament; there are utilitarian objects with anthropomorphic and zoomorphic decoration; there are figurines of mammoth and horse; and there are fourteen female figures with distinctive artistic characteristics that distinguish them from similar material from other sites. The descriptions and illustrations of all these objects have been prepared by Mariana Gvozdover who began excavating at Avdeevo in 1972; they are here edited for publication by Paul Bahn.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this, the extraordinary conclusion of the ice-age epic series, Earth’s Children®, Ayla, Jondalar, and their infant daughter, Jonayla, are living with the Zelandonii in the Ninth Cave. Ayla has been chosen as an acolyte to a spiritual leader and begins arduous training tasks. Whatever obstacles she faces, Ayla finds inventive ways to lessen the difficulties of daily life, searching for wild edibles to make meals and experimenting with techniques to ease the long journeys the Zelandonii must take while honing her skills as a healer and a leader. And there are the Sacred Caves that Ayla’s mentor takes her to see. They are filled with remarkable paintings of mammoths, lions, and bears, and their mystical aura at times overwhelms Ayla. But all the time Ayla has spent in training rituals has caused Jondalar to drift away from her. The rituals themselves bring her close to death, but through them Ayla gains A Gift of Knowledge so important that it will change her world. BONUS: This edition contains a reading guide and an interview with Jean M. Auel. Sixth in the acclaimed Earth’s Children® series.

Ayla, the heroine first introduced in The Clan of the Cave Bear, is known and loved by millions of readers. Now, in The Plains of Passage, Ayla’s story continues. Ayla and Jondalar set out on horseback across the windswept grasslands of Ice Age Europe. To the hunter-gatherers of their world--who have never seen tame animals--Ayla and Jondalar appear enigmatic and frightening. The mystery surrounding the woman, who speaks with a strange accent and talks to animals with their own sounds, is heightened by her uncanny control of a large, powerful wolf. The tall, yellow-haired man who rides by her side is also held in awe, not only for the magnificent stallion he commands, but also for his skill as a crafter of stone tools, and for the new weapon he devises, the spear-thrower. In the course of their cross-continental odyssey, Ayla and Jondalar encounter both savage enemies and brave friends. Together they learn that the vast and unknown world can be difficult and treacherous, but breathtakingly beautiful and enlightening as well. All the pain and pleasure bring them closer to their ultimate destination, for the orphaned Ayla and the wandering Jondalar must reach that place on earth they can call home. As sweeping and spectacular as the land she creates, Jean M. Auel’s The Plains of Passage is an astonishing novel of discovery, danger, and love, a triumph for one of the world’s most original and popular authors. This eBook includes the full text of the novel plus the following additional content: • An Earth’s Children® series sampler including free chapters from the other books in Jean M. Auel’s bestselling series • A Q&A with the author about the Earth’s Children® series

This unforgettable odyssey into the distant past carries us back to the awesome mysteries of the exotic, primeval world of The Clan of the Cave Bear, and to Ayla, now grown into a beautiful and courageous young woman. Cruelly cast out by the new leader of the ancient Clan that adopted her as a child, Ayla leaves those she loves behind and travels alone through a stark, open land filled with dangerous animals but few people, searching for the Others, tall and fair like herself. The short summer gives her little time to look, and when she finds a sheltered valley with a herd of hardy steppe horses, she decides to stay and prepare for the long glacial winter ahead. Living with the Clan has taught Ayla many skills but not real hunting. She finally knows she can survive when she traps a horse, which gives her meat and a warm pelt for the winter, but fate has bestowed a greater gift, an orphaned foal with whom she develops a unique kinship. One winter extends to more; she discovers a way to make fire more quickly and a wounded cave lion cub joins her unusual family, but her beloved animals don’t fulfill her restless need for human companionship. Then she hears the sound of a man screaming in pain. She saves tall, handsome Jondalar, who brings her a language to speak and an awakening of love and desire, but Ayla is torn between her fear of leaving her valley and her hope of living with her own kind.

'Father, tell me a story?' asks Isaiah, moments before a strange craft falls from the sky and smashes into the jungle near his isolated West African community. Inside the ruined vessel the villagers find the shattered body of a man. His name is Samara and he is a man unlike any the villagers have seen before - a man who is perhaps something more than human. With his city home of Achenia hiding in the rubble left by a devastating war, Samara has fallen 35,000 km to earth in order to escape the automated hell of an orbiting prison called Tartarus. As he struggles to heal himself, he helps transform the lives of those who rescued him but in so doing attracts the attention of the brutal warlord who rules over this benighted, ravaged post-21st century land. He is not a man to be crossed, and now he threatens the very existence of the villagers themselves and the one, slim chance Samara has of finding his way home and to the woman - and the world - he loves. And all the while - in the darkness above - waits the simmering fury that lies at the heart of Tartarus . . .

This enhanced eBook includes: • Eight never-before-seen video interviews with Jean M. Auel where she discusses The Clan of the Cave Bear and the Earth’s Children® series: “You Must Be Able to Change in Order to Survive,” “Jondalar and Ayla,” “On Language," “Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals: The Crossbreeding Question,” “On Research (and Glaciers),” “The Domestication of Horses and Wolves,” “The Painted Caves,” and “What Is It Like Finishing a Series?” • An excerpt from The Land of Painted Caves • An Earth’s Children® series sampler • A text Q&A with Jean M. Auel • The full text of the novel This novel of awesome beauty and power is a moving saga about people, relationships, and the boundaries of love. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Through Jean M. Auel’s magnificent storytelling we are taken back to the dawn of modern humans, and with a girl named Ayla we are swept up in the harsh and beautiful Ice Age world they shared with the ones who called themselves The Clan of the Cave Bear. A natural disaster leaves the young girl wandering alone in an unfamiliar and dangerous land until she is found by a woman of the Clan, people very different from her own kind. To them, blond, blue-eyed Ayla looks peculiar and ugly—she is one of the Others, those who have moved into their ancient homeland; but Iza cannot leave the girl to die and takes her with them. Iza and Creb, the old Mog-ur, grow to love her, and as Ayla learns the ways of the Clan and Iza’s way of healing, most come to accept her. But the brutal and proud youth who is destined to become their next leader sees her differences as a threat to his authority. He develops a deep and abiding hatred for the strange girl of the Others who lives in their midst, and is determined to get his revenge.