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What’s your opinion of the amount of research needed for a prehistory fiction novel?


Mwm

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Such as Clan of the Cave Bear. I’m not sure how much research went into that series, but I’m wondering what amount is needed for credibility in an era that’s not documented except in archeology.

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27 minutes ago, Mwm said:

Such as Clan of the Cave Bear. I’m not sure how much research went into that series, but I’m wondering what amount is needed for credibility in an era that’s not documented except in archeology.

According to what I read, she did quite extensive research.

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It seems like you would want well-informed context like diet, lifestyle, health, dwellings, social structure (group size, gender roles, hierarchies, etc), tools/technology, seasonal variations, population density (for plausible interactions outside main tribe) and a specific knowledge of fauna and flora in that era. 

Less specific but still important, you would want archeological support to infer mindset, attitudes, taboos, culture, beliefs, mode of thinking (level of superstition bs rationalism; unreal overlaid on real, etc).

i guess it all depends on your commitment to world-building and accurate portrayal. 

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I read that Auel did a lot of research for her novels - to the point where the later sequels lacked in plot and character-building and the books consisted mainly of descriptions of cave paintings, climate, and geography.

One thing that seems off in my admittedly not well-informed opinion about these novels is the structure of the population though. I would expect that groups like that would have way more children compared to the number of adults and a higher childhood mortality rate than described in there.

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5 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

More than Iggulden did into the emperor books would be a starting point.

I mainly meant about periods where there is no documentation of what the actual era was like. Since there are actual records one could read from the time of Romans, says something different about Iggulden research habits.

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Prehistory as a subject is just like studying the human brain as a subject. Every 20 years or so everything you thought was fact turns out to be not so much a fact anymore. 

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I think any historical novel requires a reasonable amount of historical research to ground you in the moment. The more you go back, the less we know so the more the writer has the freedom to invent. David Gemmell, for example, did a fine job with his Troy Trilogy by combining the archaeological evidence, the legends and the historical data we have of Greek civilisation at the time.

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