Rating: 
Summary: From the Anthropologists wife
Review: OK, I TOO had been waiting 12 years, so I'm also a bit let down, but calling it "boring drivel" might be a bit harsh. Yes it is repetitive, and the poem is slightly obnoxious, but this is still worth reading if you've read the rest of the series. Valley of Horses is still my favorite, and Clan Of the Cave Bear will be what Ms. Auel is remembered for... but if you just gotta know what happened to Ayla and Jondalar, you won't be that sorry. If there's one thing I would have added, it would have been more conflict... this book doesn't bring tears to your eyes nearly like the others have...but if you've got enough stress in your life already, you won't mind. It probably is a good idea to wait for the paperback though. My husband and I have discussions about what really happened to the Neanderthals, him being an anthropologist and all, and he agrees with Ms Auel that the Cro-Magnons did interbreed with the Neanderthals, so that makes it feel real to me. I liked the book well enough, can't wait for the last one.
Rating: 
Summary: The Retelling of the first 4 book....over and over and over
Review: I too waited for this book to come out. I bought the book and made myself comfortable to become submersed in the book as I had with the others. Unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed. The book was 600+ pages of retelling of the first 4 books with another 150+ pages of death/funeral rituals thrown in for good measure. I was looking for a good story with great desciptions of the characters and location - in short I was looking to excape reality of life for awhile. Instead I found myself hard pressed to become engaged by it. I will be waiting for the next one - hoping that Ms Auel can get back in the swing of things......
Rating: 
Summary: So glad to look into Auel's historical world again!
Review: I read the book with pleasure! After all, this is JEAN AUEL's Earth's Children Series the way she wants to tell it. I like the anthropological approach Auel uses to educate her readers. I liked it in the first book of the series, and I like it still. With the great amount of preparatory research Auel does she clearly is interested in the historical aspects of her story. And so are many of her readers. [The 'drivel' reviewer I'm sure wouldn't understand that. After all, her comment,"The *best* thing about the former books was the intensely erotic love scenes" suggests her lack of intellectual depth. There are plenty of steamy novels you should go to, and, please, do not buy or read Book 6 so you won't darken these reviews again.]
I was glad to reacquaint with Ayla and Jondalar. I didn't need the reminders as much, but clearly, *because* of so many years since the last novel, Auel thought she needed to acquaint new readers, or forgetful ones, with Ayla's story. That's fine with me. I suggest a few negative reader's stop the whining. This is Auel's story which we have enjoyed over the years, and have even learned something about the history of man, early Europe, and the fauna and flora of a marvelous period in history in a charming way. Thanks Jean Auel.
Rating:
Summary: Glacial pace
Review: As a big fan of the previous four books, Shelters of Stone was a major disappointment for me. The plot was almost devoid of what makes most novels enjoyable, namely conflict. The book seems to be laying the ground work for conflicts that never occur. Once I start a book, I always finish it. This habit was the only reason I stuck it out through all 741 pages. I was glad to finally turn the last page.
Rating:
Summary: Good enough to get us to the next book ---
Review: Well, I have to agree there was a lot of repetition of the stories and explanations. Of course, if you already know those parts, you can skip them. Some readers need the reminders. However, it wasn't all that bad since we have been putting on the pressure for the next book to hit the shelf. I was satisfied with how the storyline continued though. The love scenes were a bit long and not really needed. They seemed to make the book seem "fluffy" in some parts. I feel like Auel has built up so much credibility that the extended love scenes undermine her talent. However, I am excited about the next book. Once again, her other books were better. But, this was good enough to get us to the next book. Thanks, Jean, for another good read.
Rating:
Summary: 21st Century Caveland
Review: WOW, over 700 pages of tea drinking, 5 minute formal introductions for every personal encounter, 21st century medicine and anatomy lessons, social welfare reform, and Giorgio fashion statements. Also noteworthy to mention are the condo living arrangements, wine and Tupperware parties, oral hygiene practices, and western Christian ceremonies for deaths and weddings. I loved the parts that told the spirits to "go to the light" or they "tied the knot" and were mated. All of this knowledge of humanity, medicine, art, and civilization and they still can't figure our how babies are made. Go figure! I only finished this book because I waited 12 years for the continued saga. What a waste of time. I skimmed over pages of pure bunk including ceremonial songs and chants. Ayla is of course WONDERFUL. Without her, I guess we would still be swinging from the trees. Wait for the paperback to show up at Goodwill for a dime, then it might be a bargain.
Rating:
Summary: Never in my entire life has it taken so long to read a book!
Review: I would read 5 pages and fall asleep because this book was sooooo slow. I would then pick up another book to read or my People magazine--anything to not read "Shelters". Even when I went on my vacation--I brought 2 smaller books as I knew I didn't want to carry a 10 lb. book on the plane. Plus, I would not have been able to concentrate. Since "Clan of the Cave Bear" is one of my favorite books and because I simply adore the entire series, I made a commitment to finish "Shelters of Stone". It did get better, hence the 3 stars. When I read the other books in the series I was always hoping that Ayla would end her journeys and live happily ever after. Essentially, this is what has happened and probably the reason why the book was so boring. Having said that, I am glad I read "Shelters of Stone" and will definitely read the next book.
Rating: 
Summary: I waited all those years for this?!
Review: Just to reiterate what others have written. This book is a big disappointment when you a big fan of the series and have waited so long for it to come. Don't get me wrong, if you ARE a fan, I would still buy it. If you can wait for paperback though, you won't feel like you wasted so much money though. The repetition is bad, yes. But more, I was frustrated how things we have been anticipating and waiting for never happened, or were just so different than we had been led to expect. For instance, all the times we've been told how the Zelandonii hate the Clan and when the time of confrontation comes, there's nothing to it!! I felt so cheated. I don't want to give too much away, but suffice to say that this story leaves too much undone. I suppose this is a lead-in for book 6, but it should have been more self-contained. I kept waiting for issues to be resolved, and they just fizzled out at the end. I wouldn't say this is the worst book I have read, but it certainly is not what I've come to expect from Ms. Auel.
Rating:
Summary: one too many
Review: Having read all previous Auel books, mostly with great enjoyment, I looked forward to this latest. It feels like Auel's heart was not in this one, and frankly I could not even finish it, abandoning it half-way through.
The interest in a book about ice-age people would be in the author's insight into a different way of life, different social patterns, even different thought patterns. Enlivened by Auel's curiosity and research, earlier episodes were both believable and interesting, most especially the first "Clan of the Cave Bear," a gripping, realistic portrait of how the world may have appeared to Neanderthal man.
Granted that Ayla is now with people who are recognizably human, nonetheless, shouldn't there social and thought patterns by different from ours. Is it inevitable that Cro-Magnon man arrayed himself into little family units, with parents and children living together like families in suburban houses. Is it believable that ice-age humans had liberal sensibilities like ours. And even if so, is this an interesting book?
There are too many anomalies here. The people depicted clearly had no sense of agriculture, no crops, no livestock. They lived off of what food they could kill or gather each day. Surely they were frequenly near starvation, and must have had to move about frequently. While we would like to believe that our ancestors lived harmonious social lives, it is too much for me to believe that this was not a world of great and irrational violence. Auel's people never seem to suffer from disease, just the occasional accident. They seem to value cleanliness in exactly the same way we do, and this also seems quite far-fetched. If nothing else, wouldn't they have continual toothaches, not to mention numerous other diseases related to a seasonally deprived diet. Surely communities in this age were always on the brink of extinction, but you get no sense of that in this book.
What is nice is Auel's depiction of their appreciation of handicraft and fine art.
She peppers the book with detailed, but largely irrelevant sex scenes. And there are numerous very silly episodes.
Rating:
Summary: Storeyline never developed
Review: It has been twelve years since we were offered, Plains of Passage, by Jean M. Auel. and I awaited anxiously for, The Shelters of Stone. I have read the other four books that she has written and enjoyed each one. If Shelters of Stone was her first book, I would have never read the other four. In this book, Ms. Auel had several storylines that she could have developed but never did. I kept waiting for something catastrophic to happen to either Ayla, Jondalar, Wolf or the horses. Nothing ever did. Ms. Auel's discriptions of most scenes, mountains, rivers, etc. were overdone and drawnout which became time wasting and boring....page fillers. By purchasing this book, I felt I was just making my monetary offering to Ms. Auel to support her next efforts of the trials and tribulations of Ayla and friends. Ms. Auel, please make your next book have some depth and with pitfalls that we are all challenged with from day to day, not some fairyland that you have presented for Ayla. After I read the final page, I thought this book reminded me of a favorite song of mine sung by Peggy Lee. "Is That All There Is."
|
