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msjoanna 's review for:
The Land of Painted Caves
by Jean M. Auel
Ok, so I knew this book had gotten terrible reviews. But I've read the other five books in the series and didn't want to miss the final(?) book. I figured at least there would be some racy sex scenes to lighten up the book. Not really.
Auel seems to have visited a lot of caves with primitive cave paintings. But she doesn't seem to have much to say about them. I mean, probably 400 of the 750 pages of this book are Ayla trekking through sacred cave after sacred cave looking at more paintings. Look, a horse. And a lion. And, wow, is that a deer? But nothing profound is ever said about the paintings other than some drivel about how even in Ayla's time the paintings are really old and no one can remember who painted them or why or what the symbols were intended to mean.
There's very little character development and very little plot to carry the novel, and there's not even much sex. Instead, there's a lot of Ayla off doing boring zelandoni rituals and training, followed by a middle-school-angst style "He hates me"//"She hates me" back and forth between Ayla and Jondalar. Blech. By the end, I almost hated the both of them.
Ayla didn't even manage to take credit for inventing anything else, didn't domesticate any new animals, and ruined the Goddess-based society by telling everyone that it's sex rather than spirit-mixing that makes babies.
Ah well. I probably can't stop you from reading this if you're read the other five books in the series, but if you haven't read those, go read [b:The Clan of the Cave Bear|1295|The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children, #1)|Jean M. Auel|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1276624702s/1295.jpg|1584694] instead.
Auel seems to have visited a lot of caves with primitive cave paintings. But she doesn't seem to have much to say about them. I mean, probably 400 of the 750 pages of this book are Ayla trekking through sacred cave after sacred cave looking at more paintings. Look, a horse. And a lion. And, wow, is that a deer? But nothing profound is ever said about the paintings other than some drivel about how even in Ayla's time the paintings are really old and no one can remember who painted them or why or what the symbols were intended to mean.
There's very little character development and very little plot to carry the novel, and there's not even much sex. Instead, there's a lot of Ayla off doing boring zelandoni rituals and training, followed by a middle-school-angst style "He hates me"//"She hates me" back and forth between Ayla and Jondalar. Blech. By the end, I almost hated the both of them.
Ayla didn't even manage to take credit for inventing anything else, didn't domesticate any new animals, and ruined the Goddess-based society by telling everyone that it's sex rather than spirit-mixing that makes babies.
Ah well. I probably can't stop you from reading this if you're read the other five books in the series, but if you haven't read those, go read [b:The Clan of the Cave Bear|1295|The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children, #1)|Jean M. Auel|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1276624702s/1295.jpg|1584694] instead.