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2.92 AVERAGE
2.92 AVERAGE
adventurous
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I love historical fiction and this series made me realize I also love ANCIENT HISTORICAL fiction. Auel's fictional characters and cultures are based on such painstaking research that any lover of ancient history will find this series slow but intriguing.
After reading a bunch of reviews, I decided to skip the first two thirds of the book. The last third was terrible: everything that was wrong with #5 was doubly worse in this one. I feel bad counting this as one of the books I read this year.
The only reason I didn't give this a 1 is because I loved this series so much that it would physically hurt to shun it completely. Honestly, this was book so boring and awful that I could barely read it. I skipped over loads of pages in the middle and I just didn't get what was going on, not that I cared enough to work it out. Then the Jondalar and Ayla debacle. It was so contrived and over-the-top and melodramatic that I didn't believe it for a second. I didn't understand why Auel couldn't have just left them alone! Oh but lo and behold, they made up and invented something else! Monogamy! Gee, how utterly revolutionary of them.
It made me so sad to remember how much I loved the first three books of this series, then it slowly dwindled and then this.
So, sorry Auel, there goes my respect.
It made me so sad to remember how much I loved the first three books of this series, then it slowly dwindled and then this.
So, sorry Auel, there goes my respect.
Rereading the series this year.
I hadn't read this one before because of the horrible reviews when it came out. Now I understand why, and while I'm not sorry I read ('read' as I skimmed much of it) this final book, I continually wished it had been better.
So much of this book is a repeat of Shelters of Stone, which is itself a repeat of the previous 4. Exhausting to slog through. The 'resolutions' were not satisfactory, and again, I wish some editor had kept tabs on the storylines and threads...
For instance, someone from Ayla & Jondalar's past shows up at the Zelandonii summer meeting, but other than a brief reintroduction and a couple of actions, this character was basically forgotten. This 'storyline' - actually much of the last quarter of the book - was practically lifted wholesale from Mammoth Hunters, including the datura experimentation and Ayla & Jondalar's torturous 'misunderstanding.'
This final entry in this series left me feeling disappointed and bored, skipping madly to the end just so I could say I finished it. Not recommended.
I hadn't read this one before because of the horrible reviews when it came out. Now I understand why, and while I'm not sorry I read ('read' as I skimmed much of it) this final book, I continually wished it had been better.
So much of this book is a repeat of Shelters of Stone, which is itself a repeat of the previous 4. Exhausting to slog through. The 'resolutions' were not satisfactory, and again, I wish some editor had kept tabs on the storylines and threads...
For instance, someone from Ayla & Jondalar's past shows up at the Zelandonii summer meeting, but other than a brief reintroduction and a couple of actions, this character was basically forgotten. This 'storyline' - actually much of the last quarter of the book - was practically lifted wholesale from Mammoth Hunters, including the datura experimentation and Ayla & Jondalar's torturous 'misunderstanding.'
This final entry in this series left me feeling disappointed and bored, skipping madly to the end just so I could say I finished it. Not recommended.
This book should have been about half the length and could have used some fresh themes instead of the repeats from previous books in the series. I wish more emphasis had been put on the societal implications of the Big Secret being revealed, instead of three hundred pages of donier tours and moon phases. Seeing Ayla's new role as Zelandoni fleshed out a little more would have been nice too instead of the angst she lives through in excruciating detail after her "calling" and the whole Marona thing. I barely finished this book, and being a huge fan of the first 5 this was a disappointment.
adventurous
slow-paced
I was reading this book purely to complete the series. It is utter rubbish! I didn't finish it!
I'm sorry to say that i only made it about 250 pages into this due to boredom and disinterest, and even getting that far was a fight. She really should have ended the series, which is one of my favorite, with the last book.
I found a lot of the conflicts in the book (there was not much "plot" -- I love the cave paintings too, but hearing them described repeatedly and vaguely is stultifying) recycled from previous novels in the series. It was dull. I understand the point Auel is making about the origins of the modem world/gender politics/religion, but making that point overshadowed the story to an inappropriate degree.
Perhaps this sixth part was not really necessary, but I enjoyed it none the less.