The Plains of Passage

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: I am please to read all the "Earth Children" collection and waiting for the fith book. I am quite frustrated that Ayla's saga has no end and the continuation of the story is taking so long to be published. I hope that J. Auel's research and inspiration will soon provide the story that I and so many other readers are waiting for. Her knolledge of history, geography, botany and her genius way to make us travel into the past are genuine and fascinating. She made many of us eager to learn more about it. Two yeras ago, in my vacation trip to Greece, I met a french lady that saw me reading "The valley of horses" (for the second time) and told me that she was also waiting for the fith book, but also started a course of medicinal herbs and so am I. I believe that the subjects of her books are of current interest too. Please let me know when the next book will be available! Thank you. /Marina Guasti-Fagerberg

Rating:
Summary: This book is an excellent way to get in touch with our past.
Review: "Plains of Passage" I feel is a book worthy of high rating. It has everything a book needs: romance, adventure, suspense, drama, and even education. Imagine being able to cross the plains of ancient Eurasia, relying only upon yourselves for survival. You are breaking traditions, and learning new ways. You are taken back to when man relied solely upon the earth and his own knowledge. If man could not adapt, he would die. I would recommend this book whenever asked...keeping in mind that some content is explicit, and may be unsuitable for younger readers. In all, a very good book, wherever your interest may lie

Rating:
Summary: A fictionalized account of early man.
Review: Jean Auel has done extensive research on Cro-Magnon Man and it shows in the latest Clan of the Cave Bear Novel. She spends a great deal of energy describing the everyday life of the Cro-Magnon. Taken seriously, the novel can become hard to believe, but taken as a metaphor, Ayla and Jondalar's domestication of the horse and dog (wolf), their invention of the spear thrower and the sewing needle is a little easier to believe. I do recommend starting from the beginning (Clan of the Cave Bear) if you want to follow Jondalar and Ayla's lives from the beginning. Auel writes a very captivating tale

Rating:
Summary: Great, interesting book
Review: I have read this book and previus three books which belong to this serie (in finnish). I loved them. The people in the book feel real and the prehistorical environments, inventions and manners are really fascinating. All the books are worth reading. And I'm waiting for the next book!

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, exciting, spell binding, informative.
Review: I first saw "Clan of the Cave Bear" as a t.v. movie, liked it so much that I bought the book. As usual with movies and books of the same story the book was even better. I was hooked and the rest of the series followed. Ms Auel has a way of making the reader feel that he/she is right in the story looking on and having the same thoughts and feelings as the characters and learning from their experiences.. Once I start one of these books I'm spell bound and can hardly put it down to do other things such as daily business. I've spent many an all nighter with these books. I've read each book several times and have not been bored at all, just kept learning and loving each one more.I've passed these books along to my family and friends and they feel the same. I have the series in my library now and will certainly be adding to it.. I am anxiously looking forward for more! more! more! from Ms. Auel

Rating:
Summary: Overblown and silly
Review: This is one long, lousy novel. The sex scenes amount to little more than caveman porn; modesty forbids quotation, but trust me it's fairly laughable, as these characters step out of their caves and remove their animal skins for a bit of explicit fun. I suppose if you're desperate for a romance this could count as a trashy beach read, though it is an unnecessarily hefty and tiresome one, burdened as it is by a labirynthine plot full of holes, stock characters, and bad writing.

Rating:
Summary: Becoming too redundant...
Review: Yaawwnn...

Unlike the previous three books, this one was far too easy for me to put down and I all but had to force myself to read it at times. The story of the seemingly endless travelling was a boring as the actual trip may have been, and I found myself too often thinking those terrible words, "Are we there yet?" The relentless descriptions of terrain and wildlife equates to the dryest technical manual, and even the enumerable sexual encounters seemed redundant and boring.

The incessant boredom was, fortunately, punctuated by brief, interesting periods of character interaction in which the rich complexities of human relationships managed to offer at least some salvation. Unfortunately they also contributed to an increasing lack of realism. The characters seem less and less like remarkable people who lived in the harshest of times, and more like fantastical gods of enviable beauty. Ayla, the perfect woman of perfect beauty and character, could obviously only be had by Jondaler, the perfect man. Nobody could ever live up to their caliber, and everyone else in the world is woefully inadequate by comparison.

The author also become rather preachy in this novel - advising the reader of the consequences of our abuse of the great mother earth. This is supposed to be an epic work of fiction, not a training manual for Greenpeace.

Overall this book was redundant, boring, and horribly lacking in structure. If about half of the material had been cut it might have been a good story.

Rating:
Summary: It is definately a MUST READ!!!
Review: I just finished reading it and I thought it was one of the best books I've ever read. I love her writing style the way she uses alot of descriptions with the scenary. It's almost like you're traveling with them on their journey. That was the first book by her that I've read. I thought it might be boring and a let down but I couldn't have been more wrong. I thought it was AWESOME!! I usually read romance novels but was getting bored with them so I switched. When I bought it I didn't expect any romance at all because of the title and the summary on the back. I was pleasantly surprised that it had a love story as part of the storyline. It wasn't too much romance to be over-powering but just enough so you won't want to put it down. I just did order more of her books. I hope they are just as good. But they would have to be. She is truely gifted. :D I also liked that her novels are a lot longer than the average novel because I can read an average sized one in about a week. I've had this one for almost a month or more before I finished it. Buy it I think you'll be surprised like I was.

Rating:
Summary: Looking for a book to help you sleep? This is it!
Review: It's amazing that this fourth book in the series can be more boring than the third book. It's almost as amazing that I could force myself to read the whole book -- I guess the first two books instilled some serious loyalty in me. My review for the third book holds for this book too, only it's worse than that:

This whole book seems like filler that Jean M. Auel inflicted on us just because she decided this series should have six books in it before she started the series. The book is overflowing with boring sex scenes -- if I wanted this much sex in a book, I think I know where to look for something like that, but it wouldn't ever be anything by Jean M. Auel.

Rating:
Summary: Almost too boring for words
Review: The Plains of Passage was nothing short of amazing. All of Auel's books have left me with wanting for the next one. This one even though had more than enough details and descriptions was still good. I agree that I think this one had a little too much scenary but considering the trek across Europe emphasizing the geological differences was important and just proved that once again her research was taken not lightly. (But I still think there was just a little more than needed) Also the tribe of man-hating women seemed a lttle farfetched. After a little more thought I could see it happening possibly. Even though it is hard to believe people then had the same emotions as we do now, they are still people and I would think there emotions were similar. My daughter was spawned from an abusive relationship that ended through a more aggressive assult on me sexually. I know I hated men and would see them all dead for all I cared. A year later and I still have a problem trusting men, and from what the headwoman's history was it is a more believable story. Plus, considering the type of mad men we have loose on our streets today how could it be so hard to believe that it wasn't the same then. But then I though how could all the other women of the tribe not stand up to their chief and then I thought of Hitler. So overall this book was just another one of Auel's masterpeices.