Rating: 
Summary: Sadly disappointing Shelters of Stone
Review: This book was a great let down. If you have read the 2nd - 4th books in the series then there is no need to purchase this one. I don't know what happend but Ms. Auel just regurgitated those books through out most of this book. It was sad that the story line which was hinted at in the last book is not fully explored in this book. What a waste of money, check it out of the library before you decide to spend some cold hard cash.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth reading, even to a Jean Auel fan
Review: First I want to establish my "credentials." Of my favorite books in the world, Jean Auel's Earth's Children series make up the first four. I have been her ardent fan since I first read her books at ten years old and have devoured every word many times over. I have owned many copies of the series and they have all fallen apart from rereading. They were a major formative force in my life, leading me to study archaeology and ancient art in college. I waited eleven years for this book!
It is difficult to say anything that has not already been covered by other reviewers, but I will try. The good first ... it is an absolute joy to read about Ayla and Jondalar again :^)) It's like catching up with old friends, camping with them for a weekend. I also enjoyed the fact I am familiar with the area where all of this took place, along the Dordogne River of France. I guess I could say that if you had never read anything else by Jean Auel you could still read this book and follow the "plot."
But you see, that is the problem. Any attempt at a plot is submerged beneath the recaps of the material from the previous books, word for word, in italics. Nothing is left to the imagination nor the memory. The scenes tend to be repeated more than once, like the scene with Creb in the cave of the Mog-urs; that scene is repeated no less than four times. Repetition is the name of the game here, with Ayla's names and ties repeated each time she meets someone new. There are several hundred people for her to meet (all with names like pharmaceutical products) and her full name is repeated to each one. Also, each and every one is afraid of Wolf and the exact same procedure of hand sniffing and petting is demonstrated for EACH ONE. They accept the horses pretty easily, frankly. I have horses and I know a lot of people who are more afraid of horses than just about any one of the Zelandonii. Another gripe, the religion plays a huge part, but in a very dogmatic way. This, I must admit, may be a very very subtle foreshadowing for the next book, but if it is it is a way more subtle touch than JA usually uses, even at her best. (More a Robin Hobb subtlety.) The style seems stilted and awkward as well, telling rather than showing. If you read the book, the more shame on you, you will see what I mean.
I think that the person reading this review may feel that I am nitpicking and not including anything about the plot. Quite simply, there is no plot. There are some things that happen (Ayla mates Jondalar, they have a baby, so does Whinney) but not enough to constitute a story. The best part of the book is the last fifty pages, with the plot finally taking off ... in the last paragraph. No kidding. There is no story here, just a series of recaps of the first four books, although rather twisted and changed to fit THIS setting. Also, there is a lot of description of the area which she obviously knows well; in fact, she tries to give a guidebook to the area without giving exact names. Now honestly, none of us are likely to hike up the Dordogne, so the extensive travelogue is not helpful. One more substitute for plot is the really heavy "mother" religion, which revolves around a very long creation song that gets repeated at full length twice, and parts of it about ten times, as though it held some great truth.
The last big problem, and it is a huge one, is that the Zelandonii accept her flathead background with scarcely a ripple. Even when she tells them about her other child, they don't say a thing. This is my biggest problem because it was reinforced from the start of the Valley of Horses that the Zelandonii are racially intolerant to an extreme degree.
This book could have been better very easily. It could have been another 300-700 pages longer. It could have have a plot involving the flatheads. It could have had more "inventions," like the other four books. And last, but certainly not least, it could have had better sex. Each and every one was boring and just like the one before. Someone described them as "copy and paste" -- a very good summation of the feel of the love scenes. ...If you really want to know what happens, wait for the paperback. If you are looking for a really good read, try anything by Robin Hobb, in particular Fool's Errand, or Faith of the Fallen by Terry Goodkind. They evidence the subtlety and dynamism so sadly lacking in this woefully boring book. I gave it two stars for the sake of how much I still love the other four books in the Earth's Children series, otherwise it is a one star book.
Rating:
Summary: kinda let down
Review: I have waited a long time for this book. I loved her other EC books. This one is almost boring and repetative. When I am reading a page it feels like I just read the same page 10 pages ago. Or so much description is layed out for the scenery, the story seems lost. I think this book could have been written in half as many pages. I understand these places are real, but I almst feel like I am getting a geography lesson. I did enjoy knowing what happened to Ayla and Jondalar, but I did not not enjoy this book as much as the other EC books.
Rating:
Summary: There's really no plot
Review: I, like most of the posters here, really loved Jean Auel's earlier novels. Even the slower... ones like Valley of the Horses or the Mammoth Hunters had a regular plot and exciting passages, along side Auel's continous and constant pre-historic lore. (And I thought Plains of Passage was just downright thrilling) But the problem is that this book has almost no plot. Like many people noted the book is one big continous loop. Many of the conversations between the characters were better left up to the fan's imagination. (Such as the meeting between Ayla and Marona). Even Ayla, at some point in the novel notes a repetion from a previous novel ("Are we going to have to give him a firestore like Frebec?"). One would have liked to see more conflict. It didn't have to be this bland. There is one good thing about this novel is that it seems to be setting up (one would hope) a more exciting sequel, and Auel has promised that it will come out relatively soon.
Rating: 
Summary: Predictable
Review: We waited 12 years for this? It's not "plodding" like Plains of Passage, but with a few exceptions, not exciting at all - totally predictable. I had high hopes early in the book, especially when Marona pulled her little trick, but after that, things just settled back down again and never seemed to pick up - I didn't even get worked up when Ayla had the baby. In my opinion, 12 years without a major novel has dulled Jean Auels' edge - that's the only explanation I can come up with (but her research is still meticulous). There were plently of opportunities to get our blood pumping, but nothing developed from those opportunities. I could give an outline of the whole story in one page - and any devoted "Clan" fan could fill in the blanks. Sorry Jean - I love the series, but am disappointed with this book, especially after waiting so long. Sure hope you're planning some fireworks for #6!
Rating: 
Summary: Jean Auel has done it again!
Review: I received my copy of this book last week, starting reading it three days ago, and have not wanted to put it down. It is as wonderful as the four previous books. Since I have always loved history, it is wonderful to learn about parts of the world, old and new, through wonderful stories like this. While I know the characters are fiction, I know she has written wonderful descriptions about how the world must have been in that time period. Thank you, Jean, I can hardly wait for the next one. Please don't make us wait as long as we have for this one.
I can only say, read the book, you will love it.
Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected
Review: I have waited for so long for this book to come out and I was disappointed in it. Don't get me wrong the story was good but the author repeats sections over and over again. I like the detail of the backgrounds and the land but I highly doubt that prehistoric women were giving oral sex the way Jean portrays it. Seems like soft porn to me. ...
Rating:
Summary: Disapointment
Review: ...The writing style in Plains of Passage and, now, in The Shelters of Stone, has become repetitive and tedious. Ms. Auel's first three books were great reading--good storylines that kept the reader's attention. The last two books have taken on a decidedly different writing tone. Plains of Passage and Shelters of the Stone could have been condensed into one good book instead of two mediocre ones.
Rating:
Summary: Shades of Meaning within Shades of Meaning
Review: No joy compared to mine when I saw that this book was coming out at the end of April 2002. I've been waiting over 11 years for this book! In preparation, I reread the first four before reading Shelters of Stone. Very bad idea; you'll notice right away that the pace of this book is quite different and there is a superficial depth to the characters. It seemed to read at a lower level and had the feel of a cheap romance novel, in a sense "dumbed down" or simplified. If you've read The Clan of the Cave Bear or The Valley of Horses, I hope you'll agree there wasn't a simple, cheap feel to them. I've read many series and this problem appears to happen a lot in the later books. Even the last few chapters of the Plains of Passage seem rushed, especially Ayla's meeting of Dalanar and the Lazandonii. I am disappointed that there wasn't more tension regarding Ayla being raised by the Clan. Jondalar's disgust and revulsion were so complete in the Valley of the Horses that it surprised me that his close kin discussed it so calmly and took the news so well in this book. But, of course, Jondalar has overreacted to a lot of things considering his society and traditions. The storyline regarding Ayla's acceptance by Earth's Children she is surrounded by (whether it be the Mamutoi, Zelandonii or Clan) is basically the same and, I agree, repetitive: Will they accept her? How can she prove she's acceptable? Will they let her stay or even belong? It's always Ayla's sure sense of self, pride, confidence, and her exceptional Gifts that allow her to stay, along with the support of the ones who love her most. Still, this time there was no open hostility or tension and Ayla's acceptance speech was moving. I think that I'm surprised most in Ayla's change of character. It's a subtle irony. She is still strong, capable, intelligent, quick to grasp meanings, a healer, a caretaker, etc, but she seems to exhibit a lot of the qualities she doesn't approve of in others. For example, she's quick to judge people "bad" before she knows them, is sometimes way too honest, and gets angry quickly and defensive even quicker. Of course, this is explained through her sense of righteousness and her strong will to help those in need showing through. The search for Thonolon's spirit was quite possibly the most interesting part of the book, especially considering it was a 'burden' to Jondalar's spirit since the second book. And I'm glad that Whinney and Ayla finally had their babies. I am looking forward to the next and last book of this series. I had a thought that maybe we're supposed to just meet and greet the new characters to the story in this novel. Get used to their names, their basic qualities and the lay of the land. Plus, tie up the loose ends of the previous books. It appears that the next book will deal more with the spiritual aspects I've enjoyed most in this series. I felt that this was missing in Shelters of Stone. In the previous books, I enjoyed the serendipity that allowed Ayla to discover the things that made her Ice Age life easier, especially since there was no people to tell her something could not be done just because no one had done it before. It's still the best lesson in Jean M. Auel's books.
Rating: 
Summary: Hoping for a great ending
Review: I absolutely agree with the other reviewers - this book was too repetitious and did not have the rich plot development I had hoped to find. I don't know about the other readers, but I sure did not need a full recap of the other books. She even italicized up to a page at a time with copy/paste passages from previous books. There were also repeated passages from THIS book throughout the book. I think I can remember what happened 20 pages ago! The introductions were getting very annoying. I was disappointed with the attention she paid to all these things and just skimmed over Thonolan's spirit search, Ayla's adoption ceremony into the Zelandonii, the matrimonial ceremony, the birth of hers and Winney's babies. I would have liked to see more attention paid to these things rather than having to re-read the Mother's song for the umpteenth time! I'm really hoping for a better book (6) to end the series.
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