Rating: 
Summary: 12 years is too long to wait, but worth it.
Review: Ms. Auel has exceeded her previous efforts. I have been entranced by her concept and the depth of her research. She is a story teller without equal. Each of the Earth's Children series has been exceptional. Shelters of Stone follows the earlier tales and ends leaving the reader eagerly anticipating the next installment. Heaven forbid it takes another 12 years. I particularly enjoyed the speed with which the story moved and without sacrificing the vivid descriptions of the climate, resources and struggle to survive in this era. Ms. Auel skillfully blends research and inspired imagination to project a believeable environment and life style. Her concept of the spirituality of her people is a delicious blend of fact seasoned liberally with enlightened conjecture, producing a well thought out religious structure. Ms. Auel again blends education with a lively story, simultaneously teaching and entertaining. I eagerly await the next installment of my favorite story and characters, told and drawn by my favorite storyteller. May it come soon!
Rating: 
Summary: Nice, realistically depicted, too many repetitions
Review: Being an avid Auel fan for years, I was anticipating this book eagerly. I must say that initially, I was puzzled by the repetitiveness of many paragraphs in this chapter, and although contributing to the story-line, they might have been fatiguing at times. I assume that the (often) repetitions are there only to introduce the new reader to the previous chapters of this saga, and to entice him to read them fully. The most impressive achievement of this book is the professional manner in which the surroundings of the characters is described- putting the story in a very exact social, geographical and pre-historical context deserves the appreciation of any realistic-fiction lover. Auel brings to life a long-gone era, when humans like us, apparently roamed the earth, and formed the 'avant-guard' of human development. Furthermore, the social intricacies and interactions are very complex and coherent. I was happy to go through more than 750 pages of Ayla's new-adventures, with hope for a continuation with more adventures, landscapes and anthropological insights, and less repetitions from previous books. 4 stars, then, to this remarkable achievement.Uh, P.S - Ms. Auel, loose the poem... please...
Rating:
Summary: 12 years a long time to wait, better than the soreheads say
Review: Like so many readers I've waited the last dozen years wondering what happened to the rest of the series. When ... announced that it was time to preorder I sent in my order and waited to see what I'd be getting. My first thought was that The Shelters of Stone is the biggest book yet in the series so I got out my copy of The Plains of Passage and was surprised to see that it was actually 7 pages longer. All of the books in the Earth's Children Series are long, long winded,Shelters isn't really any different. Here we get to the long awaited end of Jondalar and Ayla's long journey and like the other books for your money you get page after page of detail about all sorts of things from cooking and religion to geology, biology, and even primitive architecture. Definitely not a book for the impatient or those with a short attention span. I found this latest book to be very much like Ms. Auel's earlier efforts with only a few minor exceptions, I think Jondalar grew a couple of inches and got a year younger and Ayla's Clan accent has become either stronger or better described (it is that at least). There are still some sex scenes in this novel but they are toned down in nature from earlier stories. Some of the other reviewers seem to hate everything about this book, I see it as being remarkably consistent with the rest of the series. I do think that the new reader should start out with The Clan of The Cave Bear and work their way up to this book, you might wonder just what's going on if you just jump in the middle. I do wonder how the series can reasonably end in just one more novel(that was the original plan at least)we're left with threads for two or more it appears to me. It is a very long book but it's got something for most every one, a good book to buy.
Rating: 
Summary: O......M......G.........at least I'm not the only one
Review: good GRIEF! and WHEW! I thought it was just me, but this book and Plains of Passage are horrid. Even the reader for Plains of Passage on the Books on Tape version was barely tolerable. What happened to the story telling...this is fiction, not Prehistoric History of Europe 101 overandoverandoverandOVER. Some detail, good...as much detail as these books have (and it's the same in BOTH books again and again and again...we get it, you did a LOT of research), not necessary. And the animals have no personality any more. BLECH! Maybe Jean Auel burned out after Mammoth Hunters, produced a mediocre Plains of Passage and just needed a break. Well, take another before finishing off the series or don't finish at all. I won't buy another one of these.
Rating: 
Summary: OK, it wasn't great, but still a good story . . .
Review: No, this is not the incredibly awesome, "gee would I love to go back in time to be there & see all this happen" of the first 4 books in the series, but I was glad to see what happened to Ayla and Jondalar, AT LAST. Yes, it was a lot about people thinking Ayla was strange and then loving her, but that's pretty much what all the books have been about really. I too was disappointed in the way the birth of the long-awaited Ayla & Jondalar's baby was treated, almost as an afterthought, but I am still glad I read it. My only complaint is about her erotica--I REALLY don't need all of that in these books! I read romance for that, not bopoks that I also learn something about our earliest ancestors in. My 13 year old wants to read them, but beyond Clan, I don't think they are appropriate for that but now I find them hidden under her mattress, because she too wants to see what happens to Ayla. Can't blame her--Ayla is a fascinating woman! Like other reviewers have said, if you read the other four, and have been waiting to see what happened, this is a good read. If you are looking for earthshaking literature, you won't find it here.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the others
Review: This was a disappointing book. I loved all the others and couldn't wait for this one. This book was more like "a day in the life of Ayla, et al", with no real story or plot and not much adverture. In an effort to be accepted by Jondalar's family, she has subdued her strong personality and is not as determined and outspoken as before. A lot of the book was a rehash of the other books and most readers would have read them and already know the background. Also so much was repeated over and over in great detail. It almost feels like it was ghost written by someone else with a different style of writing. There are many grammatical mistakes, too. The first 500 pages covered about a month or two and that last 100 pages covered about 10 months all at once. We never really got to know how Ayla spent the winter. This was a book I read thoroughly, but was glad when I finished it, almost like the task was finally done. That feeling came from the lack of a plot, the rehash of the other books and the repeating of so many activities. Auel should have made it into two books with the first half coming out earlier and thus have two shorter books rather than one so long.
Rating:
Summary: read it again and again
Review: This book is awesome. If you are reading a story to be taken to another world, to be entertained, to be entranced, then you will love this book. If you're going to nit-pick about every little thing that YOU would have done if you had written it, then you will not be happy. If you love the rest of the series, you will love this. I was not disappointed at all--Auel is still at her best. I eagerly await the next one...........
Rating:
Summary: The Sheltors of Stone
Review: There is nothing new in this book. Its like the author
compressed her previous books in this new one. It reads
like a soap opera
Rating:
Summary: Ayla is like a prehistoric McGyver
Review: This book is tiresome!!! Took real effort to read it all the way to the end. I was very much looking forward to this book which turned out to be a real snore. By the end of the first hundred pages I felt like Ayla was a prehistoric McGyver. Good grief, the needle, bow and arrow, etc., I wondering how it was she didn't invent electricity (wait, no, that was Ben Franklin). The effort to get to the end of definitely not worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Ayla is like a prehistoric McGyver
Review: This book is tiresome! Took real effort to read it all the way to the end. I was very much looking forward to this book which turned out to be a real snore. By the end of the first hundred pages I felt like Ayla was a prehistoric McGyver. Good grief, the needle, bow and arrow, etc., I wondering how it was she didn't invent electricity (wait, no, that was Ben Franklin). The effort to get to the end of definitely not worth it.
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