Rating: 
Summary: Dissapointing...
Review: I suppose after twelve years of waiting for the next installment of my favorite series, my expectations grew to where I was bound to be dissapointed, I just didn't think I would end "Shelters of Stone" so disatisfied. I felt like Auel spent 750 pages setting up for the 6th book. There wasn't anything in "Shelters" to keep the reader engrossed. The last 4 books I couldn't put down, there was plot, conflict, interesting characters, etc. In "Shelters," where was the central plot? Auel gives us the setup for some intersting things to happen (Marona, Laramar, Brukevel, Madroman, Ayla's training to become Zelandonni, trading and/or conflict with the Clan, etc.), but she never delivers the action, only hints at possibilities that we can only hope will be revealed in the 6th book. All I can say is that there better be a 7th book or the 6th book better be really long, because I don't see how she can cover and conclude everything in any other way. I love Auel, and I loved seeing my old friends again, I just miss that Earth's Children's feeling...
Rating: 
Summary: I kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting for "the good stuff
Review: When I was a quarter of the way through the book,I kept expecting some excitement, such as I found in my favorite, "Valley of the Horses". And now I'm almost half finished, and Auel is explaining how there always seems to be a cup at the spring for people to drink from....duhhh I sure hope the next book gives us some of the ole' Auel.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of filler
Review: Extremely disappointed after so long a wait! This book was overly long with much repetition not only from previous books, which I understand, but within the same story. Enough with "The Mother's Song"! I found the writing poor and not engaging, character development lacking and far too much time spent on describing, very confusingly, the "cave" environment and surrounding landscape. Here's a thought...illustrations!! The "map" inside the covers did not help! This seems to be such an interesting time in human history but Auel fails to really address this fully. The descriptions of how things were done (i.e. cooking, tanning hides, etc.) were great but...as an Art History student I was hoping that she might take the cave art aspect and its possible meanings a bit farther. She starts to but then seems to have forgotten that particular plot line and it just peters out. Too bad. Can't say as I'm eagerly awaiting the next one.
Rating:
Summary: Had to put it down
Review: I imagine it is not fair of me to review a book I had no desire to continue with... And it is so rare for me NOT to labor on with a book searching for whatever is redeeming within its bindings...but in this case, I agree completely with the reviewer missingtexas. The writing style is monotonous, I could care less about the characters, and the larger themes and "issues" e.g. racial discrimination of "flatheads" as reflection of our current societies ills was so contrived. Insultingly simple, irretrievably dull!
Rating:
Summary: Worst Book I have Ever Read!
Review: Jean Auel should return any and all monies she received from the sale of this book to all the tortured readers who had to endure it!
Rating:
Summary: Why did I wait 12 years again?
Review: I remember reading the Plains of Passage on the bus during a school field trip we had in high school. I was so excited when the Plains of Passage came out, because I had waited a whole 2 YEARS for it to come out. I started reading the books when I was in junior high school and completely loved them. After I read that book (skipping a lot of the exposition about grass) I remember feeling slightly disappointed, but also thinking that the next book would be really great. There would be a lot of conflict with the Zelandonii considering the reaction Jondalar had to Ayla when he first found out she was raised by the Clan. Also, maybe we would see the first couple of years of life of her child. Maybe the whole Clan/Human conflict would come to a head. Heck, we could even see the return of Derc. I was satisfied that we would get the answers. .. Well, I've been out of high school for 11 years now and finally the next book of the series came out. What. A. Waste. Of. Time. That was the biggest snoozefest I have ever read. I suffer from insomnia, and reading a couple of pages of that book was a sure-fire way for me to catch some zzz's. How did her editor get away with allowing Auel to turn in that garbage? I think Auel has the mistaken dillusion that she's an arthopologist and not a writer. Fine, write an anthropology book. But the next time you want to disguise it as a novel, count me out.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointment in a wonderful series
Review: I too eagerly awaited Shelters of the Stone, as I had so enjoyed the first books in the series. I too am very let down by the lack of spirit and repetitious passages of this book. I was recently disappointed by Diana Gabaldon's latest novel The Fiery Cross, after rating her series one of my all time favorites. Maybe I expected too much of these last novels since they were so long in coming, but I am not waiting with eager anticipation for any follow up books. However, I will probably read them only because of my long-time loyalty to the series.
Rating:
Summary: A junior high student could do better
Review: I don't think that Jean Auel wrote this book. It was stunted and sounded like the person writing it had no idea how to use descriptive sentences and it repeated itself many times. Really, I got tired of hearing how Ayla was already noticing that she needed to 'make water' more frequently. And how often did we need to have the fact that Ayla spoke with a 'strange accent' shoved down our throats? How about all the Ayla looked to her right and and saw ______? Then she looked left and saw _____? She sipped her tea and looked at X and noticed _______? Ridiculously amateurish. I didn't mind having bits of the earlier books repeated a bit as it has been a while since reading them. I did get tired of the too long sex scenes, but that was something I disliked about the first books as well. I found myself skipping and skimming over whole pages in this book. Really, this was not the same author who wrote the other books, this had to be a ghost writer on their first book. I'm so glad I waited to check it out of the library instead of buying it. Thumbs down.
Rating:
Summary: A little too "modern"
Review: It seems that the characters were just a bit too modern. When I began this series, I had to wait a year for the 3rd book. It was worth the wait. These books delve into a world I had never even considered. Each was a refreshing insight into strange people. The historical 'truth' in it only made it that much more exciting... Yet with this book, the characters seemed more like modern day people, living in a cave! Her other books were so refreshingly unique I found this one to be nothing more than a common novel, with little plot. Her extensive descriptions of caves and utensils carry your interest somewhat as they are most probably based on quite a bit of fact. But the extensive descriptions of human behavior would seem to be only creations of her own mind, and are a bit too "modern" to be able to match the 'revelations' in previous books. Over-all I found it disappointing. Maybe it is a necessary build-up to the final book? Although it may have lacked plot, her writing, as always, is exceptional.
Rating:
Summary: Completely Overwritten; Read Only If You're A Fan
Review: For me, this series began phenomenally (Clan) and has slowly but steadily gotten worse. Auel seems to have run low on ideas and resorts instead to recycling material from the previous books. This 5th book is particularly bad about repeating what happened in the previous 4; I got sick of Ayla re-telling some facet of her life's story to every new person she meets. Even if Auel wants to remind us of some of the other books' details, she could have done so much more succintly. Also, she is more repetitive of story ideas than ever -- Ayla heals someone to prove she's a great medicine woman, Ayla goes on a hunt, Ayla proves the value of the horses to everyone, Ayla is ostracized by some people for her Clan background, Ayla forms a special bond with someone who is crippled, blah blah... I understand a lot wasn't going on in the Stone Age, but if you have to repeat some elements of previous stories or some ideas, they certainly don't warrant the same elaboration as in previous books. It says a lot, to me, that I could read the first sentence of every paragraph and occasionally a smidge more and not feel lost in the slightest as to what was going on. Over 700 pages? Please! Less is more, Jean. With that said, I couldn't stop skimming the story. As much as I hated having to filter through this vastly over-long book (even the sex scenes were overwritten, as someone else pointed out, and how many more ridiculous euphesism can we take, really?), I became so interested in Ayla's life in the first three books that I forced myself through this 5th one as I did through the slow parts of 4 and will through 6, and I think fans will find it fun to play in the Stone Age again even if ultimately not much happens. As literature goes -- a really terribly book; as quick reads go, not the worst you could pick.
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