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turae 's review for:
The Land of Painted Caves
by Jean M. Auel
I swear the first two hundred pages were written by another writer. The dialogue was so clunky. And all those big college words just jolted me right out of the story every time. Then I got about 200 pages in, Ayla was out gathering plants with her baby, and suddenly there was Auel. Back in full voice. And back to her old story telling. So was it really a different writer, or did it take the long for Auel to hit her stride? I don't know, but a good editor would have handed the manuscript back and had Auel fix it.
Personally I am a Clan of the Cave Bear fan. It's a compelling story, and one almost completely without dialog. I personally think Auel has trouble with dialog and all her books after Clan share that flaw.
There were things that made me want to scream. The clasping of hands while the repeated all their titles really made me want to slap someone. I can not imagine any group of humans doing that. Of course maybe they had more time back then.
As others have pointed out Ayla and Jondalar are the coolest kids in high school. Stories are about conflict and if you make you main character perfect they aren't going to experience many conflicts. So there really isn't much story here.
There were things that deeply troubled me. Their child was in diapers and not even saying mama. A few weeks latter she is standing up to a group of hunters, blocking them from the horses and explaining these are special horses. That girl grew up fast.
I blame this on her editor. A good editor should have pointed out these flaws and helped Auel to fix them. This had the potential to be a great book and it just misses the mark.
As always Auel's research is spot on. The book does improve after the first 200 pages, but how many people are going to make that kind of commitment? And frankly I would not have read it if a close friend hadn't insisted. I liked the first book, but the others just got worse and worse.
Personally I am a Clan of the Cave Bear fan. It's a compelling story, and one almost completely without dialog. I personally think Auel has trouble with dialog and all her books after Clan share that flaw.
There were things that made me want to scream. The clasping of hands while the repeated all their titles really made me want to slap someone. I can not imagine any group of humans doing that. Of course maybe they had more time back then.
As others have pointed out Ayla and Jondalar are the coolest kids in high school. Stories are about conflict and if you make you main character perfect they aren't going to experience many conflicts. So there really isn't much story here.
There were things that deeply troubled me. Their child was in diapers and not even saying mama. A few weeks latter she is standing up to a group of hunters, blocking them from the horses and explaining these are special horses. That girl grew up fast.
I blame this on her editor. A good editor should have pointed out these flaws and helped Auel to fix them. This had the potential to be a great book and it just misses the mark.
As always Auel's research is spot on. The book does improve after the first 200 pages, but how many people are going to make that kind of commitment? And frankly I would not have read it if a close friend hadn't insisted. I liked the first book, but the others just got worse and worse.