Prehistoric fiction

Lore & Background

Prehistoric fiction encompasses a wide range of print works, including novels such as The Eyes of the Leopard (2022) by Brian D. Hayden, The Last Neanderthal (2017) by Claire Cameron, and the Earth's Children series (1980–2011) by Jean M. Auel. Early examples include The Story of Ab (1897) by Stanley Waterloo and A Story of the Stone Age (1897) by H. G. Wells. The genre also includes short story collections like The Scorpion God (1971) by William Golding, graphic novels and comics such as the Sláine series (1983 onwards) and Prehistoric Peeps (1893), and numerous film and television series, including One Million B.C. (1940), The Flintstones (1960–1966), Quest for Fire (1981), and 65 (2023).

Reader's Guide

Prehistoric fiction serves as a bridge between speculative storytelling and scientific inquiry, often drawing on paleontological, archaeological, and anthropological evidence to create plausible narratives about early human and animal life. The genre's scope extends from accurate, evidence-based works to more fantastical tales that mix humans with dinosaurs or introduce anachronistic technology (stonepunk). Its enduring popularity is reflected in a vast array of media, including tabletop games like Stone Age (2008) and video games such as Far Cry Primal (2016). The term 'paleofiction,' coined by Björn Kurtén, highlights the genre's potential for scientific grounding, while the inclusion of works like The Inheritors (1955) by William Golding and Raptor Red (1995) by Robert T. Bakker demonstrates its literary and scientific range. Prehistoric fiction continues to evolve, with recent entries like Circle of Days (2025) by Ken Follett and Stone Warriors: A Stone Age Adventure Book 2 (2026) by Elizabeth Barber.

Did You Know?

• Björn Kurtén coined the term 'paleofiction' to define his works.
• The genre 'stonepunk' features anachronistic high technology in prehistoric times.
• Prehistoric fiction can be accurate and based on hard paleontological, archaeological, and anthropological evidence.
• The film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is listed as a prehistoric fiction film.

Defining the Genre and Its Temporal Canvas

Prehistoric fiction occupies a unique intersection in the literary landscape, functioning simultaneously as a subgenre of historical fiction and science fiction. Its narrative territory stretches across the vast expanse of human and even animal prehistory, encompassing the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods, and extending through the Copper Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age in Western Eurasia and North Africa. In North America, the genre reaches back to the Lithic Stage and the Archaic Stage. What makes this category distinctive is its acknowledged kinship with speculative fiction; in certain narratives, the boundaries blur to the point where humans and dinosaurs coexist on the same page. This dual identity—rooted in real deep time yet open to imaginative speculation—gives the genre a flexibility that purely historical or purely scientific storytelling cannot match. It invites writers to reconstruct vanished worlds while still granting themselves license to explore what might have been, making it a genre that lives at the crossroads of evidence and invention.

Naming the Genre: From Paleofiction to Stonepunk

The vocabulary surrounding prehistoric fiction reveals the genre's internal diversity. Paleontologist and novelist Björn Kurtén deliberately coined the term "paleofiction" to label his own body of work, signaling a desire to distinguish scientifically informed storytelling from more fantastical treatments. At the opposite end of the spectrum sits the contemporary subgenre known as "stonepunk," which deliberately injects anachronistic high technology into prehistoric settings, creating a deliberately jarring contrast between ancient environments and modern or futuristic tools. Between these poles, however, lies a broad middle ground where writers ground their narratives in hard paleontological, archaeological, and anthropological evidence, striving for accuracy in depicting the material lives of prehistoric peoples. This range—from Kurtén's evidence-based animal narratives to the speculative tech of stonepunk—demonstrates that prehistoric fiction is not a single approach but a spectrum of creative philosophies, each using the deep past as a canvas for different kinds of inquiry and imagination.

A Vast and Multiform Canon

The body of prehistoric fiction is remarkably broad, spanning more than a century and a half of published works across multiple media. In print, the genre stretches from Pierre Boitard's Paris Before Man in 1861 to Ken Follett's Circle of Days in 2025, encompassing landmark novels such as Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children series, Rosemary Sutcliff's Sun Horse, Moon Horse, Edgar Rice Burroughs's Time Forgot trilogy, William Golding's The Inheritors, and Kim Stanley Robinson's Shaman. Short story contributions include works by H. G. Wells and Robert E. Howard. The genre has also thrived in graphic novels and comics, with long-running series like Sláine, Rahan, and Tor, alongside titles such as Devil Dinosaur. On screen, the tradition runs from the 1940 film One Million B.C. through 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Clan of the Cave Bear, and 10,000 BC, reaching as far as the 2023 film 65. In interactive media, titles like NetHack, Far Cry Primal, and Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey extend the genre into gaming.

Global Voices and Enduring Relevance

Prehistoric fiction is far from a single national tradition; it draws on authors and creators from across the globe. French writers such as J.-H. Rosny and Adrien Arcelin contributed early novels, while Brazilian author Stella Carr Ribeiro wrote Sambaqui: A Novel of Pre-History. The genre has attracted major literary figures—William Golding, Stephen Baxter, and Jean M. Auel—alongside genre specialists like W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear, whose North America's Forgotten Past series ran from 1990 to 2022. The genre's persistence is underscored by scholarly attention, including Nicholas Ruddick's 2009 study tracing the tradition from Charles Darwin through Auel. Its appeal also extends into tabletop gaming, with titles like GURPS Ice Age, Stone Age, and Würm, and into video games spanning from NetHack in 1987 to Roots of Pacha in 2023. This cross-media, cross-cultural, and cross-decade presence confirms that the deep past remains a fertile and endlessly renewable source of narrative energy.