Rating: 
Summary: Where was her editor?????
Review: I was excited to get this book, but quickly became disappointed in it. I almost started counting how many times someone remarked on what a beautiful couple Ayla and Jondalar make. There is no focus. The point of view is so spread around I started expecting to see points of view from various animals who happened to see the couple. In her earlier books, she had that tight focus of one or two points of view, which made for more tension and drew the reader into the characters. Not in this one.And the constant repititions of observations and various processes for making things made up at least a third of the book. So I ask - where was her editor? Was Ms. Auel padding for word count? She dragged a simple story into a huge, boring tome. As much as I want to see what happens next, if her next book looks as large, I won't waste my money on the hardcover...
Rating: 
Summary: Jean Auel's 5th book: Worth waiting for
Review: I've been a fan of this series for many years. I don't really think the problems in this book are that bothersome. The repetition of certain things is kind of annoying, but the repetition has been done throughout the series. I believe that so much of it was allowed in this book because of the likelihood that people may have picked up book 5 without reading the others. I also don't think that Jean Auel tries to portray Ayla as a superwoman. All of Ayla's discoveries are due to her unusual upbringing and the necessity of figuring things out for the sake of her survival. Even her powers in the spirit world may be mostly due to the root experiance that she had. This book may have seemed to move at a slower pace because Ayla and Jondalar have finally reached the Zelandoni and are trying to get settled down. Ayla has to learn the intricate details of the beliefs and customs of this new society, since the 9th cave will be her home.
Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: I really enjoyed the other books. I too was looking forward to this one. But nothing ever happens. The descriptions are too long and the story is very redunant. I skippped over page after page until I finally decided to put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible book!!!
Review: I loved the first four books, but doesn't everyone agree that Auel has run out of ideas for the series? I mean, the first four books have a focus, but now it's like, "Okay...we travelled for a year...we're here...now what?".
I have just started this book and I feel disgusted already. How many times do we have to hear about how great Ayla is? She just basically shows off the same skills that she learned in the past few books, with nothing much happening so far, although I am already on page 269. Am I the only one {upset} about Ayla's perfection? She has absolutely no faults, which is insanely unrealistic. And the wolf...the wolf!
But my favourite part is how this book is just an advocation of feminism and political correctness---note how easily the ancient people accepted Ayla's background? How could the people be open-minded so quickly, especially since they are so closed off from the neanderthals? That's like as if someone these days would start saying that gorillas were really people. I mean, come on.
Rating: 
Summary: I enjoyed this book thoroughly.
Review: A few thoughts on some of the criticisms others have noted: 1) Repetitiousness. Yes, Shelters of Stone hearks back to the other books many times, and even repeats some events (introduction of Wolf, etc.) within this book. That doesn't really bother me. I like touches that make the events of the book minute-by-minute and realistic, including repetition. To me, the interest is in the small differences in what happens each time. 2) Ayla's apparent goddesslike status. I disagree. Auel emphasizes at many different places how most of Ayla's insights and inventions are due to her unusual "niche" as a solo Cro-Magnon brought up by Clan Neanderthals who must adapt to 1) Clan ways that were adapted for Neanderthal bodies and psyches, 2) Life alone, 3) Life among the Mamutoi and now, 4) Life among the Zelandonii. It isn't that Ayla has some inborn goddesslike quality; Auel even portrays her weird trips into the Spirit World as a result of that root she ate back in the Clan days. It isn't that other people are dumb - they just have generally not been in positions of such extreme necessity to adapt, and have the ways of their tribes to fall back on and their tribes' taboos to forbid thoughts that are too "outside the box." Ayla is lucky in that she's perceived as good-looking by the Cro-Magnon peoples-always a bonus, and because she seems to have an inner positive attitude that has helped her adapt to many difficulties. She has also had the luck of having good people around at critial moments, starting with Iza. Anyone remember Aratroa from Plains of Passage? Her twisted life is an example of how a person can come out very differently from Ayla when placed in a cruible without the luck of having loving people around when it counts. Ayla's own discomfort with people's awe of her at many points in the series stems from the fact that she knows she has the abilities she does mostly because of her circumstances. The irony that keeps visiting her is that although she'd love to just fit in, have Jondalar's kids and be happy, her life story has molded her into someone who, like it or not, brings change in her wake, that is, a person of power. Marthona and especially Zelandoni pick up on this and become concerned that Ayla's power be harnessed for the good of the people. 3) Lack of plot or character development. Again, I disagree, though there is something to the comments about this being "buildup" to the events of the next book. This book is where the events of the next book will have their seeds, I'm sure...and to me, that's plot enough. You have to have an eye for detail to appreciate it. Similarly, given the short amount of time covered in Shelters of Stone, it would be unrealistic to have momentous character shifts. Ayla's main move, aside from gradually becoming used to living with larger numbers of people, is to become more accepting of the disciplined specialness the Zelandonii are pushing on her.
Rating: 
Summary: Years Waiting to be Disappointed
Review: After years of waiting for Auel's 5th book in the Earth's Children series, and having read and re-read the four before this, I was so-o-o disappointed. There was no build up of anticipation for what would happen next, as with the other books. It all seemed too predictable, mundane, unimaginative, and unexciting. I learned intriguing new things about pre-history in the first 4 books, but there was nothing new in this one. I struggled to get through this book; not like the others that I couldn't put down.
My mind has wrapped itself around how I think this long series will end, with the meeting, in some way, of Ayla's children, and I hope the conclusion is reached with more adventure and imagination than The Shelters of Stone showed. I look forward to losing myself again in future books in the series as I did in books 1-4. But I won't re-read The Shelters of Stone while waiting.
Rating:
Summary: What happened?
Review: I eagerly awaited the coming of this book but after reading it I am sorry I wasted my time. There were so many chances for drama that were missed, so many segments that did nothing to advance the story. What little bit of action that did happen was so weak that is wasn't even action! It seemed to me this book was just a comercial for the next book. The first 4 books are well worth a second read, but this one should be forgotten.
Rating:
Summary: The Shelters of Stone
Review: I have waited for a very long time for this book and when I finally read it I was very disappointed. The book continues on and on about the scenery. I found myself just quickly glancing over many pages and was bored with alot of the book. I was really looking forward to the same type of book Jean had written in the past,I couldn't put those books down. I was very disappointed with this book. If it would of been the first of Jean's series I would never have read another one.
Rating:
Summary: Good practice for speed reading
Review: Not only does absolutely nothing happen in this book, but it is so poorly presented that you really don't want to spend too much time reading this. Skip the long paragraphs, skim through the vast majority of the dialogue, forget about the poem, and wait for book #6. Hopefully, the last book (#6 is supposedly the last) will buck the trend of the series going from good to bad as it progresses.
Rating:
Summary: this series is really getting stale now
Review: I absolutely adored book one, loved book three and quite liked two and four but I'm getting really bored now. The endless, endless repetitions of the stories of their journey, the constant reactions to the animals, the characters agonising over the same things again and again...... If you cut out about half of it, then it might be a good book, as it is.....don't waste your money
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