The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children, Book Five) [Mass Market Paperback]

 

 

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First off, I'm very glad that I got this from the library and didn't waste my money.

This book hardly justifies a 12 year wait for some fans. 3 years, in my case. It's boring, repetitive, and doesn't even offer anything significant to justify its incredible length.

What about all the buildup, the incredible conflict we expected? What about Zolena, Jondalar's former lover, being a possible factor between Ayla and Jondalar? Nope, she has to be incredibly fat and thus sexually undesirable, an effectively neutered woman. Jondalar's former fiancee is portrayed as completely rabid and malicious, when she's more than entitled to a little resentment of Ayla and Jondalar. The man *jilted* her, after all. But no, if you dislike Ayla, that makes you rotten to the core.

The Zelandoni prejudice against the people of the Clan that we were all so afraid of? Dealt with in one tiny scene wherein all Zelandoni are ooing and ahhing over Ayla's sign language. Give me a break. That's disgustingly unreal, and a disgrace after all the hype about it for the past three books.

The "villains" are cardboard stereotypes. Those who aren't immediately enthralled by Ayla we *surprisingly* find are bad, evil people. I'm in mind of Frebec from "MH" here...he was a fully developed quasi-villain whose transformation was within the realms of belief. No such luck here. They're totally bad and have the utter gall to try and humiliate or hurt dear Ayla.

Ayla makes no faux pas, saves every situation with perfect panache, enchants everybody despite her having been raised by (and having had sex with) "animal flatheads". (Which everybody conveniently accepts despite long-standing prejudice that's been harped on for the past three books.) In fan fiction there is a word for a beautiful, incredibly talented, and universally liked perfect young woman. It's a "Mary Sue", and it is not a complimentary term.

Ayla's lost all depth she had in "Cave Bear" to become the original Cro-Magnon Mary Sue, perfect in every way. Every Paleolithic (and some Neolithic!) innovation can apparently be traced to her somehow: the atlatl (spear thrower), iron pyrite as a fire striker, animal domestication, the needle, the concept of conception via sexual intercourse being just a few.

I'm just waiting for her to invent the wheel. Though she probably will as First Among Those Who Serve the Mother (come on, you know she'll have the spot soon enough.) I much prefer the uncertain, definitely flawed and definitely human Ayla of "CotCB" instead of this prissy, power-hungry, perfect and boring woman. Give us a normal woman with fears, flaws, and all, instead of this laughable, inane Super-Ayla.

Jondalar is also disgustingly perfect, though he's basically just Ayla's stud and bodyguard. I'm also amused by the fact that the copious, purple-prosed love scenes seem to portray him as merely a one-trick pony. (So much for his prowess in the furs). This increasing trend towards nauseating perfection has annoyed me slightly since it began in "VoH" and has increased steadily with every book. Perhaps Thonolan should have survived that cave lion attack in Jondalar's place...

The characters have become cardboard, mere shadows of what they could have been, should have been. What they were promised to be when we first met them and they enchanted us. Many good books have been ruined with multiple steadily more awful sequels. Laurie R. King's "The Beekeeper's Apprentice" is one. "The Clan of the Cave Bear" is another. Ms. Auel should have left it at the end of "CotCB" and been remembered for that splendid masterpiece instead of cranking out ever worsening tripe *ad nauseum*, justifying it by, "It continues the storyline."

How about Ayla being an outcast from Zelandoni society because of her past? How about that causing strife with Jondalar, torn between love and his people? That was the book we should have received, the book that previous volumes promised us. Instead we find the couple happily married and accepted, with unquestioned incredibly high status, showering benevolence and help upon all who are needy. Is this supposed to be a parody, a farce?

This book has no conflict. This book has no action. This book has positively no character development. This book practically deconstructs any good done in "CotCB" and "VoH". In fact, this book has absolutely *nothing* to justify spending 28 dollars and 12 years of anticipation. Any first-time writer sending this in would be firmly rejected and laughed at. "SoS" indeed--very apt. Send out the distress call and load the lifeboats, because this one plummets to the bottom fast under the weight of its own bloated self-importance. A solid F.

First I want to establish my "credentials." Of my favorite books in the world, Jean Auel's Earth's Children series make up the first four. I have been her ardent fan since I first read her books at ten years old and have devoured every word many times over. I have owned many copies of the series and they have all fallen apart from rereading. They were a major formative force in my life, leading me to study archaeology and ancient art in college. I waited eleven years for this book!
It is difficult to say anything that has not already been covered by other reviewers, but I will try. The good first ... it is an absolute joy to read about Ayla and Jondalar again :^)) It's like catching up with old friends, camping with them for a weekend. I also enjoyed the fact I am familiar with the area where all of this took place, along the Dordogne River of France. I guess I could say that if you had never read anything else by Jean Auel you could still read this book and follow the "plot."
But you see, that is the problem. Any attempt at a plot is submerged beneath the recaps of the material from the previous books, word for word, in italics. Nothing is left to the imagination nor the memory. The scenes tend to be repeated more than once, like the scene with Creb in the cave of the Mog-urs; that scene is repeated no less than four times. Repetition is the name of the game here, with Ayla's names and ties repeated each time she meets someone new. There are several hundred people for her to meet (all with names like pharmaceutical products) and her full name is repeated to each one. Also, each and every one is afraid of Wolf and the exact same procedure of hand sniffing and petting is demonstrated for EACH ONE. They accept the horses pretty easily, frankly. I have horses and I know a lot of people who are more afraid of horses than just about any one of the Zelandonii. Another gripe, the religion plays a huge part, but in a very dogmatic way. This, I must admit, may be a very very subtle foreshadowing for the next book, but if it is it is a way more subtle touch than JA usually uses, even at her best. (More a Robin Hobb subtlety.) The style seems stilted and awkward as well, telling rather than showing. If you read the book, the more shame on you, you will see what I mean.
I think that the person reading this review may feel that I am nitpicking and not including anything about the plot. Quite simply, there is no plot. There are some things that happen (Ayla mates Jondalar, they have a baby, so does Whinney) but not enough to constitute a story. The best part of the book is the last fifty pages, with the plot finally taking off ... in the last paragraph. No kidding. There is no story here, just a series of recaps of the first four books, although rather twisted and changed to fit THIS setting. Also, there is a lot of description of the area which she obviously knows well; in fact, she tries to give a guidebook to the area without giving exact names. Now honestly, none of us are likely to hike up the Dordogne, so the extensive travelogue is not helpful. One more substitute for plot is the really heavy "mother" religion, which revolves around a very long creation song that gets repeated at full length twice, and parts of it about ten times, as though it held some great truth.
The last big problem, and it is a huge one, is that the Zelandonii accept her flathead background with scarcely a ripple. Even when she tells them about her other child, they don't say a thing. This is my biggest problem because it was reinforced from the start of the Valley of Horses that the Zelandonii are racially intolerant to an extreme degree.
This book could have been better very easily. It could have been another 300-700 pages longer. It could have have a plot involving the flatheads. It could have had more "inventions," like the other four books. And last, but certainly not least, it could have had better sex. Each and every one was boring and just like the one before. Someone described them as "copy and paste" -- a very good summation of the feel of the love scenes. ...

If you really want to know what happens, wait for the paperback. If you are looking for a really good read, try anything by Robin Hobb, in particular Fool's Errand, or Faith of the Fallen by Terry Goodkind. They evidence the subtlety and dynamism so sadly lacking in this woefully boring book. I gave it two stars for the sake of how much I still love the other four books in the Earth's Children series, otherwise it is a one star book.

I went back and read the rest of the books in the series a few months before Shelters of Stone came out. In fact, I didn't get it right away based on the terrible Amazon reviews!

Honestly, I do not see what everyone's problem is. Yes, Jean is in need of an editor--that's been obvious from the beginning. I'm an editor myself and yes, she repeats herself from time to time. She does that in all of the books. This isn't fine literature here, folks--it's entertainment. :)

Now, about this book. It's not terrible, but not the best book from the series either. No, there's not a lot of adventure because it focuses mainly on character development and Ayla's relationship with the Zelandonii. It also talks about her pregnancy with Jondalar and her relationship with the Zelandoni (first among those who serve the mother, who was Jondalar's red-foot that he fell so hard for). It's a really fascinating dynamic.

The one thing that got annoying is the very long poem that gets repeated time and time again, and I just skimmed over it after the first time through.

I really don't understand how people can complain about the length of the book and the lengthy descriptions of life back then. That's in all of the books. I wonder how many of the negative reviews are written based on their rosy memories of the past books, which they may not have read recently.

So basically, don't believe all of the reviews. Check it out from the library and see for yourself (that's what I did). I for one was not disappointed and intend to buy the book. :)

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1.0 out of 5 stars Awful
I think the book would've been better if someone had edited it and lost 300 pages. I was wondering if the author had dementia and couldn't remember what she had written. Read more

Published 13 months ago by Edith A. Reardon

3.0 out of 5 stars Glad I read it but it was not worth the wait...
I've always been a fan of the series so I was excited when this book was released after waiting so long. What was it? 10 or 12 years? Something like that. Read more

Published 14 months ago by Thanatos_SG9

1.0 out of 5 stars Repetitive and deadly dull
If you haven't read any of the Earth's Children series, you might manage to wade through this one and get some enjoyment out of it. Read more

Published 21 months ago by R. Lloyd

5.0 out of 5 stars The Shelters of Stone
The fifth in the Clan of the Cave Bear series. Told in a most interesting way which captivates the reader into wishing he/she could have been there to see what transpired during... Read more

Published on Oct 27 2009 by Joan Kilpatrick

1.0 out of 5 stars Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn....
Like most readers of the "Earth's Childrens" series, I was hooked on book No. 1 which I found incidentally in a book store when searching for some easy stuff to read during... Read more

Published on Nov 5 2007 by jules183

2.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't know how to end it
I have been a fan of the Earth's Children Series since that day when I opened the cover of Clan of the Cave Bear. Read more

Published on July 6 2007 by Janna Goddard

2.0 out of 5 stars Soft-core Filler
I thoroughly enjoyed the first 3 books of this series. I found the sexual scenes in books 2 and 3 a bit "explicit", but the storylines were still good. Read more

Published on Jun 27 2007 by Max

1.0 out of 5 stars Cave people soap opera
I have never seen so much padding in a book, ever. It is worse than General Hospital that my mother watched for so many years. Read more

Published on July 17 2004

2.0 out of 5 stars Monotonous and Inaccurate
I loved Clan of the Cave Bear, but after that, each book in the series got worse. Auel has taken what could have been a great prehistoric fiction series and turned it into... Read more

Published on July 12 2004 by Rob

5.0 out of 5 stars The Shelters of Stone
This book is quite possibly the best of the series. Ayla finally meets the ALnzadonii, Jondalar's kin, but can they accept this stragne woman and her even stranger animal friends... Read more

Published on Jun 5 2004

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