SOURCE: "Queen of the Ice Age Romance," in Time, Vol. 136, No. 17, October 22, 1990, p. 88.

In the following review, Hornblower comments favorably on the "Earth's Children" series, but finds some elements of the most recent novel, The Plains of Passage, to be implausible.

In the musty chill of the Dordogne, 30 ft. below ground, giant bulls, painted in red and black, gallop across undulating walls. Nearby, a cavalcade of horses, ibex, tiny deer and cave lions dances along the curves of rough limestone. Are these soaring images sacred or profane? A large bespectacled woman closes her eyes and sighs in wonder. She imagines a time, perhaps 20,000 years ago, when rituals were performed in this same hidden cave in the flickering light of animal-fat lamps. Slowly, tears stream down her cheeks. "It's like a church," she whispers. "You feel you can understand the people who painted this."

Few have tried harder than...