No comments about Valley of Horses, The - on Playaway.

5 comments about The Mammoth Hunters (Earth's Children®).

1. 
   This is another amazing book in the Earth Children's Series by Jean Auel. Very Compelling and very hard to put it down. I love all of the books in this series.



2. At a solid 4.5/5 stars, this book serves as a satisfying sequel to 'Valley of Horses' Here, Ayla is once more a part of a community, though this time it is her own kind that she is now with, and it's clear how much she benefits from being part of her own kind, rather than have to deal with the stifling environment she had to live in as part of the Clan of the Cave Bear, however kind some of its members were. It's fun to see her trade with the members of the Mammoth Hunter tribe, and it was also interesting to see the rivalry develop between Jondalar and Ranec. Overall a great read.



3. I really enjoyed this series! I think that the first one was the best, but they usually are..



4. This series is great. I don't know why it took me so long to find it!



5. From the beginning of Clan of the Cave Bear, the arc of Ayla's character has been 'Will she find the Others and be accepted?' From the beginning of Valley of the Horses, the arc of Jondular's character has been 'Will he find someone to love?'. By the middle of The Mammoth Hunters, both questions have been answered and the story up to the that point is very enjoyable. After that, Auel has to struggle to give the book (and the series) a narrative structure and never really quite succeeds.

5 comments about The Plains of Passage (Earth's Children®).

1. If you want to read a book about how female anatomy looks like pink/silkly/flowerly petals for 400 pages (along with how the Auel thinks the word "node" is apparently an attractive way to reference the [...]) please do buy this book.
   
   You get a bonus 800 pages describing mammoth sex, plants and dirt formations.
   
   The remaining thousand pages of this hideously long failure all deal with superwoman Ayla's ability to do everything perfectly. [...].
   
   I only got through this book by skimming past entire chapters, which, I rarely do.



2. The Plains of Passage is the fourth novel in the Earth's Children series and continues the story of Ayla and Jondalar.
   
   They are leaving the Mamutoi whom they have spent the winter with, and along with their horses and wolf, they are starting the long journey back to the Zelandonii...and the journey is long...about 850 pages long.
   
   They cross many, many rivers, think of many, many ways to carry items on horseback, and have lots and lots of repetitive sex.
   
   I enjoyed the description of the animals, scenery, and plants throughout the book but found it just too drawn out and repetitive. Each group they meet has the same reaction to the horses, wolf, thread puller, spear thrower, etc. and some of this could definitely have been shortened. I also didn't much care if they made it across the rivers after the third or fourth one.
   
   Despite these things, this is still a wonderful novel and series. These were among the first adult novels I ever read and now am enjoying them again 15 years later. Jean Auel takes us back to a world that most of us don't think about very often and the challenges people would have faced in those early years.
   
   I have never read the Shelters of Stone and am looking forward to reading it next.



3. I will buy however many books Auel has left in her. I've accepted that the writing will never match the first three books and the plot will never match the first book. I'm still grateful that Ayla exists and will enjoy seeing where Auel wants to take her.
   
   That being said, there are large parts of Plains of Passage that are just cringe-inducing. I really can't read the Joplaya section, as it is just bad plot, bad writing, and bad characterization. Just bad. The S'Arumunai section is only slightly better. Fortunately, there are a few short pieces in this book (the Sharamudai section, the Losadunai section, and the Clan Encounter) that are actually quite good. Most of the book, though, is just filler. Mildly interesting, but not enjoyable.



4. I enjoyed the first three books, even though I was slightly frustrated by the amount of time spent on describing the landscape. This book is practically nothing BUT landscape. I like the characters and enjoyed the storyline (when it was there), but I really couldn't care less about how the glacier came to be or how many different types of trees grow next to the river. There were pages at a time when not a single word was spoken; it was all description. This book would be much better if it was about 200 pages shorter. I wish someone had warned me that this book reads like an Earth Science textbook.



5. I'm 300 pages into this book, and I'm still waiting for something to happen. Please tell me something is going to happen... soon... PLEASE!!! Throw me a freaking bone, man! Not sure I can take this anymore!

5 comments about Shelters of Stone, The (Earth's Children®) (Earth's Children®).

1. I ordered this book to help complete my Earth's Children Series...I had absolutely no issues with this purchase. For a used book it is in excellent condition. The product I ordered had a very decent purchase/shipping price and was delivered on time. There was no need to contact the seller. As I stated this was a perfect purchase and I give this seller the highest recommendation. Thank you and keep up the great work!!



2. The Shelters of Stone is Jean M. Auel's fifth novel in the Earth's Children series, published twelve years after the fourth, The Plains of Passage.
   
   Ayla and Jondalar have reached the home of his people, the Zelandonii, and are welcomed by his family. As in the last two novels, strangers are amazed by the tame horses and wolf, impressed with the spear thrower, and disgusted by or suspicious of Ayla's background with the Clan.
   
   There is a lot of repetition from the previous novels in the series, perhaps due to the lengthy gap between the fourth and fifth novels. This might be because Auel wanted Shelters to be a stand alone novel for new readers to the series, but for those who have recently read or remember the others, it can cause the story to drag.
   
   There is not a lot of action in this book and at times it can read like a textbook on how Ancient Peoples lived, much of which was already learned in the first four novels. While there are some interesting sections, overall I was a bit disappointed. Also, if I read that darn "Mother's Song" one more time, I could have performed it at a Zelandonii festival myself!



3. The book I bought was well worth the price. I'm very satisfied with my purchase.



4. Auel has nothing to worry about. If Plains of Passage wasn't bad enough to make me stop buying her books, pretty much nothing will. I'm not going to deny that Shelters of Stone is a badly written book, because it is. A lot of the Ayla Fan Fiction is comparable or better. It is still fun to read the canon, though, and I'll be buying the next book whenever it comes out.



5. There were originally supposed to be five books in the series; this is maybe half a book's worth of content expanded and fluffed out to serve as setup for the final book in the series. I will not be reading the final book because I'm too disappointed in this one.
   
   Ms. Auel is a fine writer and she does good research. Yet this book lacks the character development and structure that characterized her earlier work. It comes across as having been written on an ad hoc basis here and there. Unlike a Tolkien tale that "grew in the telling", this just kind of rambles. Auel's using a loose episodic structure instead of the plot-driven and character-driven style from "Clan of the Cave Bear". It isn't working. The repetition is getting old. A good editor would not have allowed this much repetition, particularly of that mediocre poem. Editing would have condensed the "story" and plot into about a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty pages of potentially good reading. But that wouldn't have allowed for a sixth book.
   
   The character development in this book is particularly sloppy. Auel was starting to lose it as early as "The Plains of Passage" because of the repetitive nature of what had to happen: Ayla and Jondalar meet people, people meet horses and Wolf, people freak out, etc., etc. By now she's in the very familiar series-writer problem: how does she bring a new reader into the story without reiterating what people who have been following the series already know? She's accordingly cut corners in the development not only of her main characters, but in the development of new characters. Even the love scenes are repetitive and lack variety. Large amounts of terrain and anthropological information is repeated from previous books.
   
   Earlier in the series, even the antagonists were not presented in a uniformly negative way. Broud, Frebec, Attaroa, and other antagonists were presented as products of their environments. None were completely evil. Each had some redeeming qualities. Each one had a plausible reason for hating Ayla, and the resolution wasn't always complete. Ayla definitely didn't always win and the conclusion was not always foregone. But after "The Mammoth Hunters" where Ayla did successfully bring a community around to support her, detractors and all, every other community she and Jondalar encountered has followed more or less the same shock/revulsion/acceptance pattern. What started in "Plains" has continued in "Shelters". The characters have become very black and white in a way that worked in "Plains" because Ayla and Jondalar were just passing through. It doesn't work in the community they've made their home. These newer characters either adore and nearly worship Ayla, or they are severely defective and their objections to her are based solely on their own inadequacy and bigotry. When Frebec and Broud disliked Ayla, their dislike had a reasonable basis in fact. In "Shelters", the only people who dislike Ayla are those who are completely immature or who are threatened by her superiority.
   
   Meanwhile, Ayla and Jondalar have stopped making mistakes and being human. In "Clan", Ayla was impulsive and sometimes immature. As recently as "Mammoth" she made a serious error in judgement and got engaged to the wrong guy. But somewhere during "Plains", she gradually morphed into this omniscient, infallible person. There's nowhere to take this character. She's been overbuilt. The only way she comes into conflict with other characters or with societal rules is if those characters and rules themselves are wrong. But, unlike in "Clan", where the rules triumphed over Ayla, in "Shelters" when the rules are wrong, it's the rules and the society themselves that have to change instead of Ayla. Suspension of disbelief aside, it's impossible to keep this Mary Jane state of affairs and still build plot tension.
   
   Now, if Ayla made a medical mistake and someone got badly hurt as a result, or if she had a fight with Jondalar, or lost her temper, or went on an ego trip and told off Zolena or somebody powerful for no good reason, it might be different. Similarly, if Wolf developed rabies, if one of the horses broke a leg, or if Baby showed up and started eating people, that would provoke some legitimate conflict. As it is, Ayla's become a force of nature. Forces of nature are... not... interesting... to read about.
   
   Jondalar's character has mostly flattened out. His development was best in "The Valley of Horses". As recently as "Mammoth" he was inventing stuff and generally acting like an individual and not just a foil for Ayla. He started his decline in "Plains" and is now simply an object to be fought over by women.
   
   Essentially, this is half a book, and less than half a character if you add up everybody.

5 comments about The Valley of Horses (Earth's Children®).

1. Valley of the Horses is one of my favorite in the series and I was thrilled to see this at the library. After twenty minutes, I gave up trying to listen. The female narrator is really annoying to the point I was unable to focus on Auel's terrific story.



2. 
   The second book of The Earth Childrens Series by Jean Auel is Excellent!! Just like her other books in this series. Make sure you have a lot of time for reading because this, and the other books in this series, are impossible to put down.



3. The story in the first book was more interesting to me, but this continuation of Ayla's adventures is also a rather interesting and satisfying read if a bit slow at times, and serves more like a bridge to the third book than a full story on its own. Even though I call it a 'bridge'. this book is more than, and is satisfying and fun to read. A solid 4/5 stars.



4. Definitely a guilty pleasure, but pleasurable none the less. The first half (Ayla until Baby; Jondular until Thonolan's marriage) is close to the best section of the entire series. The last quarter after the two stories converge is quite fun. The third quarter isn't very good and I actually skipped it the first time I read the book (without any real loss). Worth it for the fantasy, not really for the writing or for the story itself.



5. I am glad I had the chance to do this. I have sent e-mails to Amazon 2 times and the seller once. I ordered 2 books before Xmas. One came in January and the other still has not showed. I would not buy another product from them if I owned the company!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 comments about The Clan of the Cave Bear.

1. There is something both mundane and exciting about this book. I read it cover to cover. I couldn't put it down. It's a beautiful story and the author has put so much research into it. A must-read for all women interested in prehistoric culture and even men who don't mind books with a good believeable heroine.
   
   I first started this book when I was 17 but couldn't get into it at first because of the apparent mundanity of the story. But I discovered later that the beauty is in the details with this book. The characters and the author's descriptions of the landscape and culture of the people are just wonderful.
   
   I highly recommend this as an addition to a fantasy collection.



2. Novels come and go, in our bookshelves and in our minds. But Clan of the Cave Bear is one with glue that sticks with us forever. I read this book 30 years ago when it was first published, and loved it. Shared it with my friends and family members at the time, who loved it, too. Now that I have a teenage granddaughter, I ordered it so she could enjoy it as well.
   Jean Auel created a character set in the backdrop of the Neantherthal age who could be (should be) a hero and role model to young girls everywhere. Her journey takes the reader into the hearts and minds of people who lived so long ago, yet the human element of love resounds deeply.
   Read this book! You won't be able to put it down. It is unlike anything you have ever read before.



3. This is the first book I ever read written by Jean Auel and could not put it down. Fascinating from the everyday description of the existance of a long gone species of a Neanderthal clan to the anthropological details that make us understand our origins and how we evolved to be who we are today...Recommend it to all...young and young at heart!



4. I bought this book because I had suggested my book club read it and I had loaned out my old copy. Everyone at the club said they enjoyed it. From the wonderful imagination that enables the writer to tell you what the day to day life of people in cave man times was like; to the research that gives you an idea of what the geography and environment were; to the incredible story of courage and perseverance that the heroine lives, this is an excellent read. I couldn't wait to follow the heroine in the succeeding novels written by Jean Auel.



5. Yes, you read that right, Science Fiction. Many people think that SF is all rocket-ships and ray-guns. But any novel that is based on Science and then some conjecture is basically Science Fiction.
   
   This is not an "Historical" novel as some have said, as it takes place in "pre-historic" times. So by definition it cannot be Historical.
   
   Auel was a technical writer, as I am. Technical writers will never win Nobel Prizes for literature, but they can write succinctly and accurately.
   
   She researched this book thoroughly, and the technical data in the story is very accurate as of the time it was written, although she takes liberties with some things to make the story work. And since the time it was written, Science has moved on.
   
   So if you look at this book as some sort of "accurate" rendition of what life was like for cave people, you are deceiving yourself. We cannot glean detailed parts of Neanderthal life from archeological records. But much of what she does put in seems based on sound conjecture.
   
   The central premise of the book, however, is pure SciFi/Fantasy - that Neanderthals had some sort of "racial memory" whereas Cro-Magnons had the ability to learn, and thus the Cro-Magnons were destined to displace the Neanderthals. (In one clearly SciFi scene, Ayla, in a drug-induced stupor at a cave ceremony, visualizes 20th century earth, if for a brief second - if that ain't Science Fiction, I don't know what is).
   
   From the various reviews I have read here and elsewhere, it seems that many people believe the story as historical fact, and not a work of fiction.
   
   It is an enjoyable book to read. But it is an entertainment, not a Scientific research paper. Don't take it as an historical record, as no such records exist from pre-historic times.
   
   Hence the name, "Pre-Historic".