Rating: 
Summary: Jean Auel's ultra-liberal world view has gone crazy!!
Review: I loved Auel's first 4 books. But this new book has gone over the top with politics and ultra radical liberalism. Lets be honest, Ayla now represents radical feminism taken to insane levels. I can't stretch my imagination far enough to possibly believe that life could have ever been so perfect back then. It doesn't matter that its 10,000 years ago, Ayla has mastered birth control, gets drunk, sleeps around, is a strong leader, hunts, fishs, is a medical guru and completes every other masculine task known to man. She also teachs the entire tribe to accept severe racial differences. I'm surprised Auel didn't have Ayla somehow attending college in Berekely! Lets be real, do you really think this could have happenend in such a harsh enviroment where survival was at stake every second of the day? I just don't buy it and I think Jean Auel is trying to shove her politics down our throat. Read at you own risk.
Rating: 
Summary: next one needs to be much better
Review: This is not the worst book that I have ever read, but it takes a close second. The dialog is dry and uninteresting, the settings don't change, and there aren't enough descriptions of the area. The sense of looking for something is missing, which is what made the first four books so good. But the worst part of the entire book are the long, drawn-out love scenes. I was one of the many people who were waiting at the door of the book store for our reserved copies. If you havn't bought it yet, wait for the paperback.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't want it to end
Review: I was fortunate to start the whole serious back in February, and by the time I finshed Plains of Passage, Shelter's of Stone was out the next week. I am facinated with the entire serious, and this one was just as great as the last. I am a huge history buff, facinated with pre-historic times and anthropology, and this entire serious had taught me so much. Ayla is such a beautiful character, and Jondalar is a man that the reader falls in love with right along with Ayla. The book inspires so much in the imagination, thinking about what life looked like back then, the people, the landscape, the wildlife. Its facinating, the research that must have gone into a project like this series. I'm not one for really giving a review on english standards, I just know that I loved this book for the creativeness of the characters, the imagination it inspires, and the research of history that went into the book(s). I eagerly look forward to the sixth and final book, but I don't think I can stand to wait another few years for it to come out. And once it does, I don't think that I'll want it to be the end.
Rating: 
Summary: Okay - so the dramati tension is somewhat lacking---
Review: I would have to agree that there is less tension in "The Shelters of Stone" than in the first four books- and there is a certain amount of repetition of plot in order to catch up non-series readers - and you can definitely "smell" a lot of "setting up" for the next book... I was so grateful to have the next book in the series that none of this mattered. My biggest disappointment was that it seemed to end too soon - kind of wrapped up an awful lot of plot in a very small percentage of the book. However, I would probably have been disappointed if the book had been twice as long - I just didn't want it to end.I have read it three times, bought two CD copies and one audiotape copy for myself, a copy for my sister, and two of my daughters. I guess you would have to say that I am more than fond of the characters. I think Auel has set herself quite a task for the next book because she has set up so many scenarios which will need resolution. I hope that she had the next book planned when she released this one - otherwise I'm not sure I'll live long enough to read it. My thanks to Auel for many, many hours of entertainment, and for fostering an interest in the world of the Neanderthals and Cromagnons. Prehistory has become an avocation for me since I read the first of the series in 1990.
Rating:
Summary: The Shelters of Stone
Review: I have readed this book over and over. Where is the story? Where is the plot? Did I miss something, or was it just not there? Did Jean realy write this book? Boy I hope not, because if she did after 10 years she has lost it. On the book cover it said " Jean Auel is at her very best in this superbly textured creation of prehistoric society." Sorry Ms Auel but you miss it by a mile. Better luck next time. Please take your time and go back and read your first book and try to get the magic back before you write #6.
Rating:
Summary: I expected too much?
Review: Just as many other readers, I had almost given up on this series after the last book, but considering Ms. Auel spent so many years on this one, I thought she might offer her readers a fresh and intriguing sequel in The Shelters of Stone. NOT SO. ...reading 800 pages of bland jibberish is what makes me disappointed. She didn't even have a plot to the story! I appreciated her descriptions of the land and the crafts of the people in the other books as it was a part of the story. This time around, the scenery WAS the story. Did Ms. Auel write this book right after Plains of Passage and simply decide to publish it several years later to build a craving for this release? I thought Plains of passage was weak. I could have written a better sequel. Bottom line: The book was boring...
Rating:
Summary: Shelters of Stone
Review: I have read all of Jean Auel's books and this was the most poorly written one of them all. I felt I was plowing through words trying to find the story. That is not how one feels when reading a well written book. Most of the book was taken up with telling Jondalars people all the things they knew. Not very interesting. I feel her writing style has changed very much from her other books.
Rating:
Summary: don't waste your money
Review: 750 pages, and NOTHING happened!
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyed the Book
Review: I almost did not buy the book after the negative reviews that were posted, but I did eventually purchase it and enjoyed it very much. This is the one I have been waiting for, where Ayla gets to settle in and really work on her identity - instead of the other books (which I also enjoyed) where there was change and high drama every few chapters. The conflicts were subtle but continuous and I felt that Ayla and Jondular became more "real," encountering people and problems that we can relate to. As for the detail, while there is quite a bit, I also enjoyed it and even went out on a successful hunt in the local woods and found / used soapwort as well as a few other things as described in the book.
Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: I too had been anxiously awaiting the next in the series of "Earth's Children". Reviewing earlier plots was fine with me because I had forgotten a lot since the last book. But the book was basically boring. I was anxious for it to end. The worst segment was the complete details about the burial of the man who was crushed by a bison. It just went on and on and on. I wouldn't want to know that much about the burial of any person. And she kept repeating that poem about mother earth. I kept waiting for some conflict with the persons that didn't like Ayla but it never happened. The characters just sounded too modern for the era it represented.
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