Rating: 
Summary: Very Disappointing
Review: I always like the Earth's Children series and I eagerly awaited the release of the 5th book. I was greatly disappointed with it. I found it very dragging, repetitive and had no definite plot going on. It was very long but it had no actual substance. It's suppose to be the 2nd to the last of the series...it left me bored to tears. I do hope the 6th and final book would have an exciting conclusion.
Rating: 
Summary: Almost as good as Clan of the Cave Bear
Review: I truly enjoyed reading this book, as I have enjoyed the previous book of this series. It is not as good as the first on but better written than book 2,3,and 4.
Rating:
Summary: Waste of money! If you must, check it out of the library.
Review: Mrs. Auel did a brilliant job with her first book, Clan of the Cavebear. Having read everything after, it is painfully obvious she was lucky. All the books after bear out the fact that she should have stayed a housewife, and not pretend to be a professional writer. Someone has taught her how to pad a book with repetitive musings by the main character about events from the first book, ad nauseum. With this latest installment, she has perfected the craft of telling very little story while piling on the number of pages to justify the hardback cover price. I think Mrs. Auel ought to be ashamed of herself for putting out such trash. However, I imagine her aim is to pad her bank account better than she has padded her books.
Rating: 
Summary: From storyteller to school teacher
Review: Maybe it's just me, but I was really disappointed by this book. I've read all of the previous books, and this one seemed to be relatively boring. It seemed to drag, and too much time was spent describing the landscape, the animals, the people and the way they lived, over and over again. The story itself was good, but not fulfilling, and left a lot hanging. I realize there's probably another one in the works, hopefully it will be better written.
Rating:
Summary: this took 12 years?
Review: Length, anybody can do. Research is nice, but laundry lists of extant flora and fauna left me skimming. Remedial writing is insulting. Sample: They can go many ways from the top of the path. They can go up. They can go down. The plot? Jondalar and Aylar ended their journey and were mated. Whinney and Ayla had baby girls. I distinctly remember enjoying books one and two. Books three and four began to slide, but I was still with the series. I still cared what was happening and wanted to know more. I hardly ever skimmed. Call me unreasonable, but if it takes somebody a decade to write a book, I expect more. And do I want to wait 12 more years to find out that Ayla becomes the next One Who Comes First of the 9th cave, leaving Jondalar to tend the kids and the hearth? NO. I knew that.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrible
Review: A bad book made worse by the fact it took twelve years to write. I really cannot add anything else that has not already been said. Ayla is the source of all technology, she discovers/invents every tool that ever existed. She is perfect in every way, shape and form. Far from making mistakes as she did in Clan of the Cave Bear, she executes every form of etiquette perfectly, no matter how new or strange it is to her. The book is poorly written, with cardboard characters that have no believablity. It's poorly edited, with massive amounts of repetition and run-on sentences. Entire sections of the book can be skipped with no loss to the story. Auel never seemed to catch on to the idea that a book can be short, and still be good. I won't go on any longer, because everything that needs to be said has been said in the spotlight reviews.
Rating:
Summary: Get it from the library for FREE
Review: So glad I didn't waste money in buying this book when the library had it for free. But still, I felt myself bored in reading it and wishing something, ANYthing interesting would happen. It was built up to look as if Marona or Brukeval would cause discord in Ayla's perfect world, but alas, nothing ever came of that. And each time Ayla met someone new I would just cringe knowing that ALL the titles were going to be repeated yet AGAIN. How tiresome did THAT become?! At least it wasn't AS repetitive as The Mammoth Hunters, but I still could have done without reading about all of Ayla's past in detail, over and over and over. And in this book, just as in the other books since Clan of the Cave Bear I was hoping Ayla would go back to the Clan to see Durc and to truly bring Broud down a notch or two, but didn't happen in this book either. This book was a big Y-A-W-N.
Rating:
Summary: Did they forget to edit this book?
Review: I loved the other two books in this series and was truly looking forward to this book - I couldnt be more disappointed. I'm an advid reader - and this book was painful at times to read. Normally I would of just stopped - but out of curosity and loyality I finished it. This story could of been told in half the pages. Some background and info is nice - but the detail was long winded and more often that not - repetitive. I swear I read the same descriptive paragraphs more than once. I got the description of the cave the first time - didnt need it over and over again. My greatest urge while reading this book was to get out a red marker and start crossing out passages. So if you dont mind scanning through the extra verbage to get to the meat of the story this is okay and minus a couple hundred pages it would of been great - oh well. Cant recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous, I don't know what the other people are thinking!
Review: Like most Ayla fans I was eagerly waiting the arrival of this book. When I saw it in the bookstore I purchased it right away and finished it 2 days later.
As with her other books, Jean Auel captivates from the very first paragraph. The book brings to a close the tesion that has been built in the prior books regarding the nervousness in Ayla over meeting Jondalar's kin. Also the nervousness in Jondalar about introducing Ayla to his kin who have very different ideas about the Clan than he or Ayla do.
Auel, beautifully describes the scenery, it is not long or drawn-out but serves to draw the reader back to the place of the book. While there is some repetition, after 12 years of no new books, it is needed both for those who have never read the earlier books, and for those who haven't re-read the earlier books. To not include repetion in the dialogue as Ayla meets new people, would result in wondering if the people she is meeting truly realise the person that they are meeting.
I would recommend this to anyone who wishes to be taken back to these ancient times and be lost in the surroundings and stresses of everyday life encountered by these people.
Rating:
Summary: This book could have been so much better...
Review: The problem with this book, is that there was no way that Ayla could have met all those people at one time. So we are forced to live through the formal introductions and stating of family ties and titles ad nauseum. We are forced to read and re-read the same scenes each and every time someone meets Wolf or the horses. If that weren't problem enough, we are also forced to suffer through the telling and re-telling (to many different people) of the death of Thonolan and various other events that took place in other books. ... I was so disapointed with this book. However, I am still glad I bought it and have a complete collection of the series. Let us keep a positive hope that the final book of the series will return us to the Auel writing style that we all love. I agree with everyone else about that "mother" song. Oh my gosh..... get rid of it!
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