Rating: 
Summary: A bit disappointing
Review: I started reading the Earth'c Childrens series almost 20 years ago, and have eagerly waited each book as they were published. I would have to agree with the previous reviewers that this book was disappointing. Of the entire series, this one is the worst. Contrary to assertions that this book can be read as a stand alone book from the series, it cannot -- is is far to dry and complicated for anyone but an utmost Auel fan to get through. It had been speculated that this book would tie up loose ends and take the protagonist, Ayla, back to the home of her spouse. That homecoming was dreaded by both parties, as his people had little tolerance for the poeple whom Ayla called family. That said, after waiting for years for this book to come out, the experience was completely anticlimatic. Ayla & Jondalar travel across prehistoric europe to his home in France, and lo-and-behold, there is no traumatic reunion, there are no big conflicts, just a lot of writing about nothing, and dozens of little side stories on characters that do nothing to further the plot. I am prone to believe that Auel did not even write this book. There are several inconsistancies, including spellings of names and tribes. It appeared that the person who wrote this book, was not overly familiar with the other books in the series, as there is a definate break in the continuim of the story. I can only hope that the last book in the series comes out in a reasonable amount of time, and that it is written better than this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Much ado about nothing!
Review: Unlike the first books in this series, this book is tedious and repetitious. There is no real story or attention getting point in the whole 900+ pages . Without the long naming greetings and repeated explanations of "feelings", there is nothing of interest in the book. As an avid reader and also an anthropologist, I found the descriptive passages so trivial as to make me want to stop reading. I only finished it because I was caught on the weekend without anything new to read!
The period-- geographic-- descriptions were informative, but still could have ben covered in about ten(10) pages instead of nine hundred (900). I was expecting another great book, but was greatly disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth the Mammoth wait
Review: Anticipation grows like an ice-pack. After a few months you have a bleak winter. A few years of waiting produces a glacier.
After enduring the 12-year Ice Age of waiting...my anticipation for Jean Auel's 5th book had long ago been pressed and ground down into a small hard diamond of hope that what was eventually released would be well worth the wait.
When Shelters of Stone finally debued, I reserved a copy at the local bookstore, raced down there the day it was released, and as eagerly as a 12-year-old devours Harry Potter, started leafing through the pages.
I have not felt this let down by anything connected to Auel since that sad mockery Hollywood made of "Clan of the Cave Bear".
The fifth book did not begin to approach the brilliance of the first one - it couldn't hold a flame to the second or third, and I'm afraid it didn't even measure up to the fourth.
While Shelters of Stone does approach the high standard of anthropological research established by Auel in the Earth's Children Series - there is little else to distinguish this two-pound tome.
Ayla and Jondalar have become flawless and godlike - they continually astound the Zelandonii with their discoveries and innovations, but they lack the little character flaws that made them believable before.
Though the book is frought with the usual jealousy Ayla seems to arouse in those who are intimidated by her obvious superiority, drama is sparse in this book. There are few interesting subplots other than a humorous high-school stunt concocted by Jondalar's former lover.
The book is comprised largely of flashbacks to prior books and repetition, repetition, repetition ad infanitum. How many ways can Jondalar and Ayla make love? How many times can we endure Ayla's introduction? How many more friends and family members are we going to have to meet?
There are a few hints of what is to come - and I can only hope that some of Auel's singular brilliance and originality shine through again.
I don't think I can survive another Ice Age unless there's a fire at the end.
Rating:
Summary: How to be bored out of your skull.
Review: I fell asleep twice. This book should be used as a teaching aid on what NOT to write. There is absolute NOTHING happening. In my book, "Alien Ice," I have more action in one paragraph than there is in this whole 15 hours of listening. I quit listening after 4 tapes because I kept falling asleep. Shame on Brilliance for publishing this book on tape, especially since it is unabridged.
Rating:
Summary: Well, It Took Long Enough!
Review: "THE SHELTERS OF STONE" took long enough to come out. Okay, okay, Ms Auel, we understand you are both a mother and a grandmother, but loyal readers waiting for the end of the story are not carrying children or grandchildren. . . While we are more than happy for your personal life, readers are left hanging. . .and twenty years, you must admit is a long cliff-hanger. . .I do understand that personal things happen. But the Fifth book comes out at last. And it's mostly a review of the the previous four books. Ayla has her baby. Good on her. Jondalar is a father. Good on him. . .but the bulk of the book is what happened before Ms. Auel, you write well, but some of us readers remember. We KNOW where you left off. We're with you. . .Yes it's been twenty years, but we've been waiting all that time, at the same spot in the story. . . What WE'RE waiting for is the climax. We're waiting for the finish. For myself, I'm over fifty years old. Will I get the end of the story before I join Iza and Creb? I don't mean this over critically. I just want to know if this story will be like the construction of I-285 in Atlanta: Will this be completed in my lifetime?
Rating: 
Summary: Terrific!
Review: I began reading the Earth Children Series when I was just 11 years old, I am nearly 28 now. I am in love with Alya and her wonderful saga. I couldn't wait for Auel to write the newest one. I really enjoy the fine detail and careful attention to each chapter in Alya's life. While some parts of Shelters of the Stone were a bit redundant to someone like me who has read the first 4 books a million times; I think to a first time reader it is necessary.
I want to give praise to Auel for all her research and knowledge on the Ice Age people and especially to her acknowledgment to our Great Earth Mother. Love and Light.
Rating:
Summary: Like a Seinfeld Episode....
Review: ...this is a book about nothing. Ms. Auel really phoned this one in, and I couldn't be more disappointed. My advice, if you haven't started the series, is to read the first three, skip four and five, and hope six lives up to the first half of the series. Unless you want a slightly less boring version of a research paper on the topography of Europe 30,000 years ago, stay away. I think it took her twelve years because she kept dozing off.... I NEVER have written a comment on a book before. The only reason I felt compelled to do so now is, after all the anticipation, I feel cheated and let down. Of course, who cares, because of course I'll buy the sixth one too, just to see if things look up. Still, I think I'll wait till it gets to the 2nd-hand store next time.
Rating:
Summary: WHERE WAS THE EDITOR?
Review: I plodded through this excessively repetitive tome, reading over and over about the same things, and wondered how the editor(s)and publisher of this book could have let the author get away with such undisciplined text. Or was it the long-awaited windfall profits from anticipated sales to fans that motivated them. Of course, the author is primarily responsible for this endlessly pedantic prehistory, which does not even do justice to the cave paintings or their artists. This is a sad way to reintroduce oneself after 12 years, practically a generation having passed in the meanwhile. If another twelve years pass before the final book is available, I doubt if anyone will stick around to read it. I read some fan literature that extrapolated this book's plot and found it much more entertaining and was sad to find that the author-fans stopped in mid story. I think they could have written the whole book and it would have been grand. If these authors are still around, I would encourage them to post the rest of their work. We can all enjoy their creation, in the same way that other fans have rewritten Star Wars Episode One to edit out the drivel Lucas put in. Maybe it will also give Auel some inspiration, which she sorely must need to have taken so long to produce so little. Remember, Jean: Bigger is not necessarily better.
Rating:
Summary: Utterly Disappointing
Review: Please don't get me wrong: I am a big fan of the Earth's Children series and was looking forward to reading the latest novel - especially after having waited 12 YEARS!
But this one really was an insult especially to the fan but also to any other reader.
This is the most audacious attempt at using your devoted audience as a cash-cow ... that I've ever come across.
The argument, that the book had to be released to a completely different audience is not true!! I mean, if something is even trade-marked as "Earth Childrens series" ... I don't know a different definition of a "series" but that every sequel is a follow up and that a little bit of pre-knowledge is simply expected!! In that case you can't fill 3/4 of a sequel with neverending repetiton!
It's too bad the marketing department of her publisher had the biggest influence on this book:
- ideas that would have been just right for a gripping sequel to the other 4 books obviously had to be spread out in order to allow for a 6th (which is surely) to follow up ...
- thus there appeared to be no major plot developed in this book
- the repition just drives one crazy!
- of the 870 some pages approximately 1/3 to 1/4 is worth ones while the rest is absoutely boring and in stark contrast to the previous novels Well, I hope we won't have to wait too long for the 6th book and I also hope that as a compensation it'll live up to the 4 other books!
Rating:
Summary: Did anyone else notice these few things?
Review: Why didn't Ayla react to the revelation that Jondalar's Elan(clan?) is the tail of an ermine and that he has always liked the white tails with the little black tips? It just happens to be the very same thing that she used to decorate the white tunic she made for him. Remember when she was floored that she was going to be adopted into the Lion Hearth of the Lion Camp? Also that Jondalar has also been choosen by the Cave Lion, and has scars like her too?
Speaking of the Cave Lion, Ayla appears to have forgotten him in this book, she hardly ever "prays" to it anymore.
And why does Jondalar now get very upset around a dead body?
He wasen't so neverous around Rydag or the two Sungaea children or Jetamio or Attaroa.
Mabey Jean was so busy re-re-re-writing the Mother's Song that she didn't notice there few laps of the plot.
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