Rating: 
Summary: This book is REALLY bad!
Review: The author has really lost it with this book. It's 720 pages long but for its content it could be 80. Nothing happens. Auel repeats over and over and over again certain phrases that will drive a reader crazy. If I hear, "The one who is first among those who serve the mother", one more time, I'll go crazy!Apparently, Auel has intimidated all editors. This book clearly didn't have one. Not only is the book over-written for so little content, it is poorly written. People are constantly "smiling broadly" at each other. Jean - can't you think of another phrase? I feel used. In reality, Jean wrote one great book (the first) and three so-so books after that. Then, she sucks the life out of her readers for a few bucks with this latest effort. There is no way in the world that she doesn't know how bad this book is. If she were an unknown author trying to get this published she would be laughed out of the building. The kicker is the lame, lame, lame name that Jean chooses for a particular new character. It's just about the worst cop-out I've ever heard and it reeks of laziness, or it reeks of over-cuteness, choose your poison. What a dreadful end to a dreadful book.
Rating: 
Summary: Would have made a good short story
Review: As usual Ms Auel repeats herself constantly, telling you the same thing she went through a few chapters ago. Again we hear of his blue eyes and her accent on almost every page. Ayla's history is repeated over and over again. ... The average reader will not remember that this is 99% pure fantasy and 1% fact on the artifacts. Perhaps Ms Auel's next book should be Science Fiction where her mix of customs and language would not be so jarring. Put it on another planet and it might be more digestable.
Rating:
Summary: A Major Disappointment
Review: Like the other reviewers, I was profoundly disappointed
in this book. I was a loyal Auel reader for her first four, though
admittedly they descended into mostly tedious botanical
descriptions and repetitive sex scenes by the third and
fourth books. There was so much potential in _Shelters of Stone_--a
pregnancy, marriage, Other-Clan relations, intrigue.
But none of it is developed. I can't believe how much
time Auel spends on inane repetition of details from
the earlier books, and on incredibly annoying side
comments to the reader about scenery and reasons for
traditions. (A good author makes those clear from
the story.) Much of the book reads like a bad home movie, with
no editing--for instance, we read about how Ayla was
thinking of stopping to say hello to Folara, and then
how she does but Folara is a little bit busy right
now, so they decide to talk later when she gets a
chance. I mean, please. Who needs to read that?? My eyes started to glaze over at around page 200, when
really there had been no plot development whatsoever.
This book reminded me of the movie _The English Patient_
(though if possible, it's worse)--the darn thing goes
on about three times as long as it needs to. Really,
for the number of years Auel spent on this book, she has
produced a surprisingly poor result. I wish that a loyal Auel fan would condense/edit/revise
this book and add some punch to the plot. There are
a lot of people who would really like to read about what
happens to Ayla. But please, not another thousandth
identical breast->oralsex->intercourse scene.
Rating:
Summary: shelters of stone
Review: Like so many others, I was anxious to read Jean Auel's new book. How very disappointing. Where oh where was the editor? It wasn't just the repetitions from previous books; but repetitions from 3 pages back that were jarring. If you've enjoyed this series, skip this book and see if she can do any better on the next one.
Rating:
Summary: Please -- no more long names!
Review: I am a huge fan of Auel's earlier books. I enjoyed reading about the certain discoveries of Ayla and Jondalar, the descriptions of the landscape, etc. I looked forward to this book for many years, but it did not live up to my expectations. In a 1,000+ page book, the entire goal was to get to the Summer Meeting. It took 700 pages for Jondalar and Ayla to walk into camp, then finally make the journey to the Summer Meeting. What happened in those 700 pages? Not much. However, there were plenty of name recitals: "Ayla of the Zelandonii, daughter of the Cave Bear, wife off Jondalar the Traveller and Flint Napper, friend to Whinny and Racer, subject of boring book, creation of Jean Auel", etc. My guess is that if you took out all of the name recitals, you could knock 100 pages off the book. Sadly, a tedious and uninteresting book. Auel's done much, much better.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely worth the wait!!!!
Review: I just finished the Shelters of Stone today. I have read several of the reader reviews. I get the impression that some of the people who have been reading this series are not as loyal as they thought they were or they would have been able to see what Mrs. Auel was doing with this last book. In the Plains of Passage we spent a year traveling with Jondalar and Ayla "hearing" about Jondalar's home and people. Now they finally reach their destination. In my opinion Mrs. Auel is trying to give the reader the same sort of detail explaining Jondalar's people and home that she had, in the previous books in the series, with other people and locations. I for one was very interested in all of the detail. I wanted to know all about Jondalar's people and home. I am very impressed that she has done enough research and made the effort to include enough detail that a reader could sit down with a map of the earth as it was at the time the series is set and figure out where the journey started, the approximate route that was taken and where the journey ended. I thoroughly enjoy the fact that the detail would allow me to draw a detailed map of all the locations they stopped. I have been very impressed with this series and with Mrs. Auel's writing. I eagerly await the next book!! Thank you Mrs. Auel for writing this series!
Rating:
Summary: And to think I used to like Ayla
Review: Okay, there's very little I can add here. Please believe everyone who hated this book. What did they, glue all the previous books together? Really, the original content could maybe fill a page. The thing is, aside from the repetition and ridiculous amount of boring dialog, is that there just isn't a story here. I didn't think much of The Plains of Passage, but it least it had the man-hating tyrant and Ayla's rescue of Jondalar. There is nothing exciting in the book. Ayla's enemies sort of fade off into nothing. Like maybe something will happen in the 6th book, but really it won't be worth the paper it's printed on. Buy it (in paperback) and read it because you love Ayla (though she is less humble in this one). Just don't expect to see her do anything new. And for pete's sake, don't read the other four books for about 12 years before you pick this one up.
Rating:
Summary: Boring, Boring, Boring
Review: I too read all of Jean M. Auels' previous novels and while I LOVED, LOVED The Clan of the Cave Bear each successive book went downhill. However, I wasn't quite prepared for the lengthy, wordy, descriptive (ad nauseum) story in her latest effort. I agree her research is intense and obviously feels very strongly about it but I wanted to read this book for a fun summer read, not a lecture on prehistoric man/woman. I also agree with a previous review, the characters are very one dimensional - the good people are good and the bad people are bad. I am loathe to put a book down once I start it, however I was tempted many times with this one. Now that I have finally finished it, I have no plans to read any future installments.
Rating:
Summary: the shelters of stone
Review: I have read the first 4 books in this series. I thought the Valley of the Horses was the best one. I bought the unabridges version of the Sherters of stone in cassette form. Jean Auel, in my opinion, wrote a very long book of descriptions of Ayla's talents with healing, medicine and food. Al of which were explained in the other books.
THERE WAS VERY LITTLE ACTION EVENTS IN THE WHOLE BOOK. It dragged on and on. The next time I buy a tape version I will get the abridged version. Maybe that will cut out all the stufff Jean told us in the first 5 books. Based on the other books, especially the first three books, I was extremely disappointed in this last book. I can honestly say I would not reccomend this book for others to waste their time on reading it. Fred Davis
Rating:
Summary: boring and repetitive
Review: I'm 6 tapes in to the 28 tape set and it's still only the 4th or 5th day of the story -- I thought this would be a good book for a long car trip, but now I think I'll be stopping at the library for a different one. Like other reviewers have mentioned, it's just the same as the other books, repeated over and over again.... I wish someone would write an abridged version so readers who are interested in the story could have those details but not have to painfully suffer through the rest of the boring and unnecessary detail. It's a series, so why assume that the reader is unfamiliar with the other books?
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