Rating: 
Summary: Nice pillow.
Review: I've read all the series and never felt compelled to review until I finished Shelters of Stone. Well, I sort of finished. Between skipping a few passages and forgetting others two seconds after reading, I question what I got from this particular book in the series. I found myself waking up several times with my head face-down in this book. Not good.
My understanding is that these books are a modern political and social commentary on caveman lifestyles.
In the Mammoth Hunters, we learn that Ranec is black - not that there's anything wrong with that and Ayla is down for whatever whenever with whomever - not that there's anything wrong with that.
In the Plains of Passage, we meet femi-nazis who don't appreciate Jondalar and Ayla's beauty and power - there's definitely something wrong with that.
In Shelters of Stone, we learn that people with deformities are "special" - not that there's anything wrong with that. We also learn about contraception and abortion - I'm not even going to comment.
But let's stick with Shelters of Stone. The book appears very formulaic. Lots of repetition seemingly at specified intervals.
1. "Ayla has an accent" noted 80 times
2. "Whinny, Racer, and Wolf are wondrous. People are frightened and then tentatively stroke them on the head." noted 60 times.
3. "Ayla is blonde and beautiful and so is Jondalar" noted 50 times.
4. "Remember the time when Iza taught me to wash" noted 20 times.
5. "Remember the time when Thonolon and I were attacked by a cave lion" noted 15 times.
6. "Remember the time when Ayla drank the LSD (or whatever) and went on a long trip" noted 15 times.
7. "Zelandonia looks at Ayla with new respect for her powers" noted 15 times.
8. By the way, "Ayla has an accent and was raised by the Clan Remix" noted 8 more times.
9. "Guess what new modern invention me and Ayla have to show you idiots" noted 40 times.
10. "I'm gonna pick ____ plant because it _____ and Iza taught me how to know what to do with ____ plant because she was a medicine woman of the Clan and raised me as her own" noted 35 times.
11. All remaining pages filled with twenty verses of the Mother Song and entire passages lifted from previous novels.
Clan of the Cave Bear remains the strongest book in the series.
Rating: 
Summary: These reviews are better than the book!
Review: I've spent the past week reading nearly 700 Amazon reviews of this book. The reviews are more entertaining than the novel! Most are hysterically funny, witty and sarcastic. They are also hard-hitting and get right to the point. I wonder if Jean Auel has read them?
Incidently, I just saw an online photo of Jean supposedly taken in 2002 and she looks NOTHING like she does on the back cover flap of "Shelters of Stone." No resemblance whatsoever.
The biggest problem with Ayla is--she's too perfect. And Jondular has turned into a dumb hunk with nothing to say. I laughed at Ayla's intuitive understanding of alcoholism--I almost expected her to start a 12-step AA program for her white trash neighbor!
But then again, Ayla is a super-woman who knows everything.
If "The Shelters of Stone" is made into a movie, Britney Spears should play Ayla! Daryl Hannah is too old now. This book definitely marks the "dumbing down" of the Earth's Children series.
Reviewers have ridiculed Ayla for inventing modern civilization, but hey....someone had to create herbal tea, birth control, mouthwash and tampons!
Jean Auel is no longer pretending to be a serious novelist. Ayla has become a gorgeous New Age prehistoric goddess.
Regarding the sex scenes--we already knew that Jondular has a big...umm..."manhood." Mrs. Auel describes their sexual antics in gynecological terms and that's a turn-off. Actually, their sex life has become boring and routine.
And Marthona--Jondular's perfect mother--keeps her dishes and herbs on SHELVES in her stone-age kitchen. Imagine that! Her "condo" is as well-decorated and luxurious as any modern townhouse. And Jondular's sister is a cool teenager who likes cute guys and beautiful clothes.
The book is escapist entertainment---but that's okay.
Rating: 
Summary: The Shelters of Stone
Review: This book is quite possibly the best of the series. Ayla finally meets the ALnzadonii, Jondalar's kin, but can they accept this stragne woman and her even stranger animal friends? What will she do to their structured and traditional society? Will they finally be able to get this Matrimonial sorted out? A beautiful book, full of contrasting and realistic characters and settings.
Rating: 
Summary: Quite good but not like the others.
Review: This is the fifth book in the "Earth's Children" series of books by Jean Auel with the first two of these being the best by far i.e "Clan of the Cave Bear" and "Valley of Horses". It continues the story as Jondalar and Ayla decide to journey back to his home a good year's trip away. Considering that it's a trip from what is now Russia to France its a considerable distance. Ayla is concerned his people will not take kindly to her but she quickly wins over some especially Jondalar's sister, mother and the zelandonii who sees something special in her (no surprise there). The book is quite slow to get going and doesn't have the pace or fascination of the first two or the emotional depth of the "The Mammoth Hunters" or "Plains of Passage". It isn't bad however and the author does not appear to have run out of ideas like some do when it comes to a waning of the initial creative impulse so often seen in other series, e.g. Diana Gabaldon. The book does lack a bit of drive and joy though, some scenes are repetitive and without real passion and the people can sometimes seem one dimensional which they weren't in the earlier books. Nonetheless quite good.
Rating:
Summary: Reading Auel in context
Review: While I certainly agree that Jean Auel's writing is repetitious and badly in need of a good editor, and don't understand how her publishers failed her so badly, reviewers who see only that aspect miss the point of the series, as do those who complain about Ayla's mythic status. This *is* a myth, carefully developed through the series starting with "Clan of the Cave Bear" to show how circumstances, time, and distance combine to evolve a mythic figure out of a talented but still very human person.
The great, and enduring value of the series is (1) its portrayal of the 35, 000 year-old world when Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal overlapped, the great art of the cave painting and ivory carvings was created, and human ingenuity was starting to make itself felt, and (2) the psychological and cultural interactions of very different mind-sets. Auel condenses the historic record of human invention into one short period for good reason: it helps to convey the difficulties and importance of such creative and flexible approaches in a world where humans were few and weak.
To read these works as you would a realistic novel about today's world is to deprive yourself of a rich - and enriching - imaginative experience. If you need realism/naturalism then don't real Auel. Perhaps it is best to classify her work as historic fantasy, or magical realism, or even surrealism.
Rating:
Summary: Ayla is Tina Turner?
Review: Wow, may I just say this: This series has been hard enough to get through (I got the audiobooks free from a friend), but now it's intolerable. Remember how in the early 90's Tina Turner all of a sudden had this weird brit/european accent? For no apparent reason? Well, the same reader has done books 2-5, and now- in book 5, Ayla has this weird accent. She rolls her r sounds and has this broken language deal going on. Whatever. Like the storylines aren't lame enough, now it sounds awful, too.
I'm so tired of their sex life by now, Ayla certainly must be, too. Of course, she is the queen of the instant orgasm, so maybe not. Lucky girl, I guess. Anyway, that's my review- no need to review the story because it's the same as all the others. But to change the entire speech and cadence of the main character's voice is just ridiculous. What crap.
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