Mrs. Auel is craftsman enough to weave her facts into the fabric of her book ["The Valley of Horses"], providing texture as well as information. When Ayla sutures a wound, her patient is no anonymous charity case whose injured leg is just a limb on which the author hangs her research. The wounded man is significant. His appearance marks the end of Ayla's horrible loneliness; he is the first human being she has seen in years.

His name is Jondalar, and he is one of the Others, the first Cro-Magnon Ayla can remember seeing. When he lies unconscious on the floor of her cave, her concern, curiosity and enchantment are both understandable and appropriate….

[Jondalar is] 6 feet 6, with charismatic blue eyes and enough sexual finesse to make Masters and Johnson shout hosannas. And that is the main problem with the novel. While the background seems authentic, the characters...