Rating: 
Summary: A Good Read... For the Most Part
Review: Being a fan of action and dialogue, whenever Ayla and Jondalar interacted with various peoples, I was intrigued. However, while I did enjoy reading this book, I found the countless descriptions of landscapes, vegetation, and the like tiresome. I'm also not wild about the book's length, but overall, this is a good read which'll keep you entertained and interested in Ayla and her adventures.
Rating: 
Summary: Disgusting and pornographic
Review: Besides the dreary repetition of information there is too much pornographic material. Sex scenes are expected but pages and pages of detailed, explicit, sex actions is ridiculous. If I had wanted to read porn I would have gone to the local adult bookstore. Readers beware of this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Well written, but boring
Review: The Plains of Passage has a good storyline, but it is extremely annoying when she goes into page after page of descriptions of wildlife and plants that Ayla is going through. The first three books were full of drama, and kept me wondering what was going to happen, while this one keeps me wondering when is Something going to happen. The only highlights of this book are when she meets people (rarely). Another problem i found with this book is the sex scenes. They are repetitive and happen often. While i do like my book to have a little bit of sex in it, i don't like the repetive scenes that appear constantly throughout the book. I'm hoping that the next book will have more action in it and less description.
Rating:
Summary: This series of books gets worse and worse...
Review: The First book, "clan of the Cave Bear" was intriguing. By the time you get to the fourth, "Plains of Passage", you are wondering, when this book will pass to an end. It is the same material, repeated over and over, and over and over, and over and over. I skipped several pages at a time, and didn't miss a step. The sex scenes (and there is one every few pages) seems like the same, not even reheated. It's almost as if Ms. Auel knew that people would be skipping over this material, and felt that if she repeated the same thing over again, not many would notice. If you feel like I have made my point several times in this short review, then, well, you get a flavour for the book!
I hope "Shelters of Stone" is better.
Rating:
Summary: The Plains of Passage
Review: In her continuing fascinating - and sometimes brilliant - exposition of Man's development, Jean Auel does not disappoint.
The frontispiece map is helpful, but needs to be supplemented with a topographic map of Europe for a full appreciation of the massive geographical and geological research that went into this book. Those interested in Ice Age zoology and/or healing plant lore will also find much here. The author's effort to make each book of the "Earth's Children" series stand alone leads to some neccessary flashbacks and rehashing, but she does it well. On the down side, there are too many overly-explicit and repetitive sex scenes - enough already! That said, this is a worthwhile and very readable addition to the series.
Rating:
Summary: Worth a read
Review: Although difficult to compose a story such as this, Auel didn't do too bad, although there are some pretty far out characters along the way, a bit unbelievable. Some bits dragged while they hiked over endless plains and glaciers. Worth reading once, and then again just before you pick up Shelters of Stone (if you do) so you can remember where they left off.
Rating: 
Summary: 4th book in a glorious prehistoric saga
Review: Plains of Passage is not only an adventure story, but also a fascinating journey. Not only so for the characters who are on a great trek across Ice Age Europe, but also for the reader. We have followed Ayla, the main character, through three previous books. It seems impossible that Auel can add any more detail to the plethora of research she has done for her previous books, but again we are introduced to so much more about pre-historic Europe in this chapter of Ayla's life. There are many more tribes of people that we meet, and many more discoveries are made. I loved this book and recommend it and the whole series to any interested readers. This is an outstanding read from a truly gifted author.
Rating:
Summary: The best series I ever read?
Review: I've read Auel's first four books twice now, and I have her fifth one, but I don't have time to read it.
Anyway, I love these books so much, I used to stay up till one in the morning unable to put the book down. I know so much more about plants and animals now, and I would like to live in the wild someday. I would always wish that I could be Ayla, and I want to learn how to use a sling, but that's pretty impossible now.
This book is very repeptative at times, but it doesn't deter from it too much. It's for those who have a good imagination, and want to seperate themselves from the lameness of this world. If you haven't read these books yet, don't read them if your a major realist. It's just someone's imagination of what it could have been like a long time ago, in a fictional sense.
Rating:
Summary: I'm hoping no. 5 is better!
Review: Well.... I picked up the first book in the series and should have put it down right away. I found Auel's narration very repetitive, even in the first few chapters, but I stuck with it, intrugued at what would happen to little Ayla. At the end of the book, I scurried to read the second, then the third and finally this one.I have to say, this fourth book bored me stupid. I am not one to pass a sex scene by, but puh-lease! After the first one (a repeat performance of all the ones in "The Mammoth Hunters") I could stand no more. Between boring sex scenes, endless descriptions of pleistocene plant life (thanks Jean, we know you did some research, but enough already!) and a male lead I couldn't stand (Jondular), I probably skipped half the book in Fast Forward mode! Am I the only person who just despised this guy Ayla was with? Who wanted her to tell him where to shove his moods and protectiveness, and run back to the place where she was happy (The Lion Camp)? Auel tried very hard to make you like this guy, but he was a whiner and wasn't going to be happy unless Ayla was bound up in a tent, unable to move and "get into danger." I really did try to like him, but couldn't see past his actions to actually doing so! The highlight of the book for me is when he gets caught by the tribe of women. As you can probably guess, Ayla goes bounding in to save him - and quite honestly, I don't think she should have bothered! He goes straight back to whining the second she hauls him out of there (he's desperate to get home and stops her from having any fun all the way through - except when he fancies a bit of nookie!) In the unlikely event Ms Auel reads this, I am still intrigued to know how Ayla does in her new home, but please - no more repetitions!! We read it and understood what you wrote the first time. And the second, third, fourth, fifth... If you have to write sex secenes every 3 pages, can you make them shorter and less boring? We also don't need pages and pages about the individual leaves on a plant! The story arc is great - please get on with it! By the way - does Ayla invent the wheel in book no. 5? She's invented practically everthing else so far!
Rating:
Summary: A handbook for men.
Review: This book is what I consider a "Handbook" for men on how to treat a woman. Although written from the pre-historic period, there are somethings that are timeless. This book and it's portrayal of a relationship between people in love is dead-on. Especially in light of the female being as strong as Ayla is in this series. With today being what it is in terms of our society and the role(s) of women - basically men could learn alot from this book, in my opinion.
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