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fictionista3's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
hotsake's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Historical accuracy has pretty much gone out the window at this point. Aside from the horrendous, sex scenes and the 400+ pages of repeated, reused & repetitive sequences. This is more like a Tarzan savage teaching the “civilized” people of moral lessons tale, mixed together with Jane Austen style Hierarchical and social etiquette musings. This is also the book where they cement a lot as some sort of Christ, like savior/leader figure for the Clan and the Zelandonii & the other more advanced peoples.
katelyncooper's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
jenx91's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
kairosdreaming's review
3.0
This fifth book in the Earth's Children series lacks the wonderfulness of the first four. While Auel's bad is definitely better than some author's good, it may prove to be a disappointment to some readers, and I definitely recommend that anyone whose never read the series before start at the beginning with Clan of the Cave Bear. This book does not suit well as a stand-alone.
For those not familiar with the series (and a possible spoiler) Ayla was a little girl when she was adopted into a clan of Neanderthals. She was raised by them but eventually had to leave, and in doing so leave her son behind, to try to find others like herself. She didn't find them right away and instead spent time in a valley where she makes unlikely friends with a horse and lion. Eventually though, a handsome "other" named Jondalar ends up in her valley and they fall in love. The travel for awhile and stay with a tribe of people called the Mamutoi for a bit until finally making a perilous journey far to the west where Jondalar's people dwell.
This book starts when they first reach the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii, Jondalar's home. People are excited and anxious for awhile as Jondalar and Ayla have brought their two horses and wolf pup with them, which before now, had never been heard of. They meet several people and have to convince them of Ayla's worthiness to join the Zelandoni. Some people are taking far too much of an interest in her however, and the First of the Zelandoni (spiritual leaders, healers, etc.) wants her to become a Zelandoni herself as she is believed to be too dangerous left to her own devices. But all Ayla wants is to have her matrimonial with Jondalar and raise the baby that she is currently pregnant with.
The characters are not as well written in this book. Ayla and Jondalar are once again too perfect. All of Jondalar's immediate family is too perfect as well and it would have been nice to even see some average people that were close to him instead of exceptional ones. It would have made the story much more believable. Those that aren't the nicest of people are usually far away from his family. The Zelandoni kind of creep me out too and I'm sure Auel wanted to make them sound important, but to me they just sound like a cult wanting to bring people "into the fold."
The writing is very descriptive but it doesn't work well for Auel in this novel. It gets boring at parts and often times, I really didn't care what a certain cave that is only mentioned once in the entire novel looked like up and down and inside and out. I was also disappointed with how she chose to incorporate her research. There were new things she must have learned and wanted to add but made it seem awkward if you were familiar with the other books. For example, she goes to great lengths to describe an Elan (spirit of a person) and uses it quite heavily in this book, however, Jondalar never mentions it in any of the other books. Auel explains this by having Jondalar trying to keep it simple for Ayla, but one would think that something so important to his culture would be the first thing he share with her. I can understand wanting to include research, but sometimes it just hurts the book instead. Another thing people should note about the writing of this book is that it has a lot of sex scenes that are very descriptive.
I like the series and as said before Auel's bad is still pretty good. I look forward to reading the finale and seeing what resolutions are made for Jondalar and Ayla's adventures.
Book 1: The Clan of the Cave Bear
Book 2: The Valley of Horses
Book 3: The Mammoth Hunters
Book 4: The Plains of Passage
The Shelters of Stone
Copyright 2002
749 pages + Character Listing
Review by M. Reynard 2011
For those not familiar with the series (and a possible spoiler) Ayla was a little girl when she was adopted into a clan of Neanderthals. She was raised by them but eventually had to leave, and in doing so leave her son behind, to try to find others like herself. She didn't find them right away and instead spent time in a valley where she makes unlikely friends with a horse and lion. Eventually though, a handsome "other" named Jondalar ends up in her valley and they fall in love. The travel for awhile and stay with a tribe of people called the Mamutoi for a bit until finally making a perilous journey far to the west where Jondalar's people dwell.
This book starts when they first reach the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii, Jondalar's home. People are excited and anxious for awhile as Jondalar and Ayla have brought their two horses and wolf pup with them, which before now, had never been heard of. They meet several people and have to convince them of Ayla's worthiness to join the Zelandoni. Some people are taking far too much of an interest in her however, and the First of the Zelandoni (spiritual leaders, healers, etc.) wants her to become a Zelandoni herself as she is believed to be too dangerous left to her own devices. But all Ayla wants is to have her matrimonial with Jondalar and raise the baby that she is currently pregnant with.
The characters are not as well written in this book. Ayla and Jondalar are once again too perfect. All of Jondalar's immediate family is too perfect as well and it would have been nice to even see some average people that were close to him instead of exceptional ones. It would have made the story much more believable. Those that aren't the nicest of people are usually far away from his family. The Zelandoni kind of creep me out too and I'm sure Auel wanted to make them sound important, but to me they just sound like a cult wanting to bring people "into the fold."
The writing is very descriptive but it doesn't work well for Auel in this novel. It gets boring at parts and often times, I really didn't care what a certain cave that is only mentioned once in the entire novel looked like up and down and inside and out. I was also disappointed with how she chose to incorporate her research. There were new things she must have learned and wanted to add but made it seem awkward if you were familiar with the other books. For example, she goes to great lengths to describe an Elan (spirit of a person) and uses it quite heavily in this book, however, Jondalar never mentions it in any of the other books. Auel explains this by having Jondalar trying to keep it simple for Ayla, but one would think that something so important to his culture would be the first thing he share with her. I can understand wanting to include research, but sometimes it just hurts the book instead. Another thing people should note about the writing of this book is that it has a lot of sex scenes that are very descriptive.
I like the series and as said before Auel's bad is still pretty good. I look forward to reading the finale and seeing what resolutions are made for Jondalar and Ayla's adventures.
Book 1: The Clan of the Cave Bear
Book 2: The Valley of Horses
Book 3: The Mammoth Hunters
Book 4: The Plains of Passage
The Shelters of Stone
Copyright 2002
749 pages + Character Listing
Review by M. Reynard 2011
lenci's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
nell_reads's review
2.0
Alright I knew going into this book that I was not going to like Jondalar's people. If he was so dismissive of Ayla, then it was going to get worse in this book and it did in a sort of way. Right off the bat, the mean girls of the cave decide to play a practical joke on Ayla and he didn't even try to defend her but rather she had to defend herself. The other part is the author goes into detail on every little thing and most of it was kinda unnecessary as we already know how things work for ayla and her herbs. For the last two books the author has touched on Durc and his fate and she does explain what happens to him(because yeah we all know!) but why keep going on with it? why can't she just let Ayla know what happened to him? I feel like the author went one way with the story but towards the end realized that she probably would have been better giving Ayla, the ending she needed but it's to late by this point. I finished the book but not without reservations on how it was going. The side stories never fully get resolved and it will take another whole book before the mean girl of the book gets shut down. ugh.
ellenanne101's review
adventurous
emotional
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is my 2nd favorite of the series. It us a slow paced read but having read the others in the series it's easy to get involved with the main characters and their lives and root for them.
ikepauh's review
dnf at page 304.
Idk if I can walk to the very end for the Ayla loving seems too much.
Perhaps one day I shall revisit this again, as I have done in the past with other books such as Norwegian Wood.
A pity, for Ayla's encounters with Jondalar's people was something I was interested in reading.
The idea of it all. Nonetheless, Ayla has met people who look like her, they've accepted her and some, hated her. For that, I thank the Mammoth Hunters.
Idk if I can walk to the very end for the Ayla loving seems too much.
Perhaps one day I shall revisit this again, as I have done in the past with other books such as Norwegian Wood.
A pity, for Ayla's encounters with Jondalar's people was something I was interested in reading.
The idea of it all. Nonetheless, Ayla has met people who look like her, they've accepted her and some, hated her. For that, I thank the Mammoth Hunters.