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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
I couldn't finish this. It was boring, and the excessive sex scenes were uninterestingly explicit and irrelevant to the plot. Auel loves to document the details, but there was little about the passion that was passionate. The plot wasn't doing much and the characters weren't particularly interesting, so I gave up about a quarter of the way in.
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
sad
tense
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
An awful, C- soap opera with some of the worst written sex I’ve ever seen in my life (excuse, Pleasures (capital P)) - this book is agonizing at times, and yet strangely compelling. It’s very much a disaster that I can’t look away from.
Ayla and Jondalar are the worst idiots I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading about. I’ve seen middle schoolers with more emotional maturity than these two twits.
Poor Ranec. He shouldn’t have had to suffer through both Ayla and the author’s racist narrative. How many times do I see Auel describe Ranec’s blush as ‘hidden’? Does she not know that Black people blush?
Ayla and Jondalar are the worst idiots I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading about. I’ve seen middle schoolers with more emotional maturity than these two twits.
Poor Ranec. He shouldn’t have had to suffer through both Ayla and the author’s racist narrative. How many times do I see Auel describe Ranec’s blush as ‘hidden’? Does she not know that Black people blush?
He de reconocer que el libro me ha enganchado a pesar de que lo comencé pensando en el anterior de la saga que tan lento y tedioso me había resultado en muchos momentos, pero éste es mucho más rápido. Si bien, es verdad, que la tensión entre Ayla y Jondalar te absorbe, se estira demasiado y resulta un poco reiterativo. Merece la pena su lectura. A ver el cuarto libro de la saga...
Ok so thinking back, this might have been the book that traumatized me the most? In retrospect, I should have realized so many things by what annoyed me the most. The whole standing between two men and hurting both of them was so confusing to me and I could not relate at all to how Ayla wouldn't even communicate about how she liked both of them but in different ways?? like so many parts of the jealousy and possessiveness just made me so uncomfortable and I kept thinking "man if only she could just EXPLAIN her freaking emotions and how fundamentally different they were for each of them there wouldn't even be a problem" so yeah, holy mess. Still, I kept reading after this, because the plot overall was so well made and this world so convincingly constructed that I couldn't help but want to know more about it.
adventurous
emotional
The miscommunication is so fucking painful, as is the slight dub con between Ayla and Renac in the beginning before Ayla knew she could say no. Weakest of the three, but I did love the additional characters introduced and the continued exploraton of early human civilization and culture.
adventurous
emotional
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
I'll start by saying that I liked this book a little less than the first two. The pace is really slow, almost dragging, for the first half of the book. It's interesting to get to know all the new characters but so little happens in the first half of the book that I found it hard to stay interested. I think I managed to get past the first half just because I was already too invested in Ayla and Jondalar and wanted to know how their story would develop. The conflict/misunderstanding between Ayla and Jondalar seemed forced too, especially since the main focus of the conflict seems to be Jondalar's jealousy of Ayla's relationship with Ranec, while his inability to accept her background seems almost an afterthought for most of the book, even tho towards the end the conflict is resolved cause Jondalar learns to accept her fully. I would have liked a deeper exploration of Jondalar's inner conflict and his struggle with his bias toward the Clan. It's also really hard to believe this conflict played out as it did considering Jondalar and Ayla are portrayed as really smart and then proceed to act this stupid for most part of the book. That said I really liked most of the side characters, like Talut and Nezzie, and really appreciated Frebec's character development. I also liked Ayla's relationship with Rydag, the parallels with her son and her struggle to let him go. Rydag's death and his funeral were also really emotional, tho maybe a bit rushed considering how long some descriptions of mundane activities are in the first half of the book. I'm happy that Jondalar and Ayla are back together, tho it was obvious it would end this way I really liked the ending too. I cringed when Jondalar got down on one knee to propose, there was really no need for that, it was meaningless for him to do so even tho the author tried to make it seem some sort of adaptation of Ayla's Clan ways. And I'm so done with the sex scenes, I skimmed through almost all of them, they're corny and add very little to the plot. I really liked the very thorough descriptions of the Mamutoi's society and customs tho, they really added depth to the story without being overwhelming. All in all I liked this book and will for sure read the fourth book of the series.