Rating: 
Summary: Slow and Repetitive
Review: I was eagerly awaiting the 5th book in the Earth's Childern series, but it left me somewhat disappointed. In all of the previous books, there were numerous scenes of action, suspense, and intrigue. Even though they all would have the chapters of long descriptions of Pleiostcene life and ecology, they flowed better. The previous books also cover a much longer period of time. I estimated 80%-90% of the book takes place within the first few weeks Jondalar and Ayla return to the Zelandonii! Around a 1/3 of it is the first day back! It then seems Auel realizing how long the book has gotten, quickly moves ahead until its time for Ayla to have her baby. Many scenes were repetitive, Ayla and Jondalar seem to be constantly reminiscing in great detail. Even the expected controversy over her being raised by the Clan seems less dramatic. All but the dregs of Zelandonii society are quick to accept it and believe the Clan is at least worth an acknowledgement of their humanity. But, it was good enough for me to look forward to the next book. Maybe Ayla will invent agriculture or the bow and arrow?? Or make contact with the local Clans?
Rating:
Summary: Dreary
Review: Jean Auel has written 5 books in this series. This one is the poorest. It drags, page after page, it drags. It is repetitious to the point where I skipped whole paragraphs. Much of it is re-hashes the previous books. The sex appears to be added as an afterthought to relieve the boredom. I kept hoping, but nothing ever happened that grabbed my attention. "Valley of the Horses" was fascinating, it sits in my bookcase and I'll re-read every couple of years. Shelters of Stone I'll donate to the local libary.
Rating: 
Summary: And it took 12 years to write THIS????
Review: Thanks God I work in a book store and could review this book without spending any money on it. I buy tons of books but frankly, if somebody gave it to me for free, I probably would have tossed it just to save the space for even a mediochre book...the...reviews that gave the book one star. They got it right!
Rating: 
Summary: A little disappointed
Review: Not up Jean's par. Too much repetition. Not enough plot. Too predictable. I really hope the next book is back to the level or her earlier works. And I hope it doesn't take another decade. Still an enjoyable read and a must for those following the series, but if this was the first and not the fifth book I don't know if I'd be so anxious for the next one.
Rating:
Summary: Shlteres of Stone
Review: I have read the first four books so many times my friends tease me that I can recite long passages. I say this to give some means of valuation of my opinion. OK here goes. I was disappointed in the book. I cannot uderstand why it took so long to write. The book uses pages and pages of quotes (word for word) from previous books, renames charactrers that appeared in other books and presents them as new--they are not--and uses scenes and situations from previous books that are hardly reworked just name changes (the young man who is attacked and Ayla rushes to the rescue and sets the bones. Sound familiar? check Valley of Horses). Just one more example: The child that is shunned in the Mamouth Hunters is presented again in this book under a different name with a different handicap but the situation is the same. Much material in the book is repeated needlessly. The book needs a good editing. There are contridictions within this book and constridictions of material in the previous books. I thought it was poorly organized and that there was no real plot just aimless wandering with little or no connection. After so many years of waiting it was quite a let down.
Rating:
Summary: *yawn*
Review: Ayla and Jondalar arrive at his people's home, where some people are awed by the things they bring back while others are nervous and/or hostile.There, now you can save yourself the trouble of reading The Shelters of Stone. This book has nothing new to offer. The pages could have been recycled from the third and fourth volumes, changing people's names and titles to fit. Ayla meets Jondalar's people and goes through the same process of introduction and mutual discovery that she's gone through with every society she's encountered throughout her journey. As if we hadn't been there when she raised her animals or discovered the firestones, here we're subjected to those same tales as Ayla tells them to her new people - not once, not twice, but half a dozen times - and only one iteration is noticeably condensed from the others. At this point it would be perfectly acceptable for the author to say "Ayla showed them the firestones and they all murmured in amazement," or something to that effect, but no, each time someone new comes along we get another three-page demonstration (and I won't even mention all the new people who have to be introduced to the horses and the wolf). You can get through the first 400 pages without discovering anything of great interest. I recommend finding something better to do.
Rating:
Summary: 12 years of waiting...
Review: I'll admit to being one of those fans that read the first four books in this series 15 times a piece! They were wonderful. But after waiting the twelve years it took Auel to write this fifth book, I was sorely disappointed. The style, the excitement and the herbalism i had grown to treasure in the other Ayla books were really lacking in this one. The rehashing of old stuff was over the top, and I think the editor didn't do such a great job of catching the repitition Auel insisted on writing. I guess it would have been helpful for someone who hadn't read the other books in the series, but even then, some of the repition was within this same story! Had i not known better, i would have believed this book written by a totally different person. On the flip side, if you are a die-hard fan such as myself, this book is a must. If only to offer us hope for the next one!
Rating: 
Summary: Loved the story, hated the details
Review: I have been eagerly waiting for this book for years, scanning book review journals every month to see if it's been released yet. I loved the story, but the repetition was somewhat boring. Auel told over and over of the people's reaction to Ayla's animals and "her (Ayla's)big, beautiful smile" was really starting to get on my nerves by the end of the book. Also, I kept expecting something terrible (death/destruction) to happen with the Marona and/or Brucheval and it never did. I also thought the endless description of the landscape (right,left, north, south) was too much for me. Tell me about heading up the river to the camp but leave out all the directions. I'm not really going there for heaven's sake! Even with these criticisms though, I would recommend this book to other fans of the series, in fact, I can't wait till the last books is published to finally finish Ayla's story.
Rating:
Summary: Sadly disappointing Shelters of Stone
Review: This book was a great let down. If you have read the 2nd - 4th books in the series then there is no need to purchase this one. I don't know what happend but Ms. Auel just regurgitated those books through out most of this book. It was sad that the story line which was hinted at in the last book is not fully explored in this book. What a waste of money, check it out of the library before you decide to spend some cold hard cash.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth reading, even to a Jean Auel fan
Review: 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.
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