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The Land of Painted Caves A Novel Earth Children Jean M Auel Books

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The Land of Painted Caves A Novel Earth Children Jean M Auel Books

I'm a die hard Jean Auel fan and I put off reading this book for so long because of what I heard about it. I agree with everyone else. This book is the worst out of the six and a total disappointment. The first 2 parts could have been cut out completely. There's only so much you can write (or read) about describing caves. Blah, blah, blah. I'm also sick of the repeat on Ayla's life story. After 5 books, I know it by heart. We all do. I'm sure I could start a fire with firestones, butcher a deer myself, and make my own prehistoric stuff after reading about it so much. (I guess if I get lost in the woods I have a good chance of surviving now.) I'm also tired of Ayla the Almighty. Why didn't she invent the wheel, design the first toilet, discover electricity, try out barrel racing with the horses, and split the atom while she was at it?

After I read this book, I was glad it was over. I'll always like the first books in the series and continue to reread them, but this one? Ummm, no. I will never, ever read this book again.


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The Land of Painted Caves A Novel Earth Children Jean M Auel Books Reviews

I am almost 50 years old, and I was in high school when the first Earth's Children book (Clan of the Cave Bear) came out. I LOVED it. I was so excited for the second book (Valley of the Horses)which came out while I was in college... and it was even better. One of my favorite books ever. The third book (Mammoth Hunters) came out a few years later and I did love it... though I thought the whole love triangle was really contrived. 5 long years went by til we got the 4th installment (Plains of Passage), I was going nuts waiting for it... and I was disappointed. It was very, very repetitive, and over-long, and detailed to the point of tedium. But there was still a plot, and some conflict inherent in a long journey, and some exciting moments. I didn't hate it. TWELVE years went by til book 5 (Shelters of Stone), and it was so boring that I never re-read it (I have re-read the first 3 probably a dozen times in the past 30 years)and honestly I barely remember what happened. So I was thrilled to see this 6th and final book, but I was also worried.

Sadly, I was right to be worried. This is so disappointing. I barely care about Ayla or Jondalar anymore. I feel like Jean Auel painted herself into a corner by making both of them so perfect and so good at everything and so in love.... there's no conflict unless it's forced and contrived. 'Cave Bear' had all the conflict of the Cro-Magnon girl living with the Neanderthal clan... very organic conflict. 'Horses' had the fabulous juxtaposition of the two difficult scary journeys and then Ayla and Jondalar meeting and discovering each other. Again, very organic. 'Mammoth' had some natural conflict - Ayla meeting her first group of people and admitting her background, but some forced conflict (love triangle) thrown in. It wasn't quite as good of a book. 'Passages' was the same way... there was some natural conflict (the tribe of women, meeting the flatheads, the glacier), but not really enough... so too much time was devoted to boring details ad repetitive pleasures. As the protagonists' lives become more perfect, the books become more boring. And 'Painted Caves' is boring. It took me weeks to get through it (I remember reading 'Horses' in 2 days!). Argh... this series has just been so drawn out....there's no story any more. Nothing to care about. No-one to fear for or root for. It's plotless and character-less and just empty and dry. It makes me sad.

It seems like Jean Auel has no idea about 'what happens next' or how to keep the story urgent, or exciting, or even just interesting. (Why she takes 8000 pages to NOT tell any sort of a story is beyond me.) It's all blahblah Ayla is foreign and blahblah Ayla is exotic and blahblah she invented everything and tames animals and heals all and her daughter is perfect too and Jondalar who? And then it's all blahblah cave paintings and blahblah more cave paintings and blahblah description exposition blah. Then there's another piece of utterly contrived marital blahblah we don't communicate conflict. Culminating in blahblah Ayla has a Revelation and Teaches Her Wisdom To All.

Also? Her daughter's stupid combo-name gives me nauseating flashbacks to Renesmee (if you don't know who I'm talking about, count yourself lucky) which makes me want to gouge my eyes out.

BOTTOM LINE Tedious, over-written, repetitive, and forced. A massive disappointment... but you may want to plow through it if you read the first 5 books and want closure.

Oh Creb, Iza, Durc, Brun, Baby... I miss you guys!
There are many other reviews, here on all over the internet that exhaustively and hilariously cover how horrible this book is but if you've read all the other books leading up to this one then you're probably going to read it, just like I did, no matter what anyone else says.

But hoo boy, is it bad.

I'm more interested in how such a bad book gets published than I am in how it gets written. Did Auel just have such a good contract that she could write whatever she wanted and it had to be published? Was she implacable enough that no editor's notes would could derail her fixation on cave paintings? I mean Jesus Christ, it was like watching someone's vacation slides, only there were no slides. It was just a person describing the things they saw over and over "There was a drawing of a horse facing to the right and then another horse, also facing to the right, then a mammoth, facing to the right." I also wonder if Auel has gone so far down the rabbit hole that it seems normal to mention 378 times that Ayla has a distinctive accent that makes her seem foreign. If you didn't read the 17,000 pages written about Ayla over the last 30 years, here's a reminder she talks funny, and she's weird AF, but not weirder thatn Jean M. Auel.
I'm a die hard Jean Auel fan and I put off reading this book for so long because of what I heard about it. I agree with everyone else. This book is the worst out of the six and a total disappointment. The first 2 parts could have been cut out completely. There's only so much you can write (or read) about describing caves. Blah, blah, blah. I'm also sick of the repeat on Ayla's life story. After 5 books, I know it by heart. We all do. I'm sure I could start a fire with firestones, butcher a deer myself, and make my own prehistoric stuff after reading about it so much. (I guess if I get lost in the woods I have a good chance of surviving now.) I'm also tired of Ayla the Almighty. Why didn't she invent the wheel, design the first toilet, discover electricity, try out barrel racing with the horses, and split the atom while she was at it?

After I read this book, I was glad it was over. I'll always like the first books in the series and continue to reread them, but this one? Ummm, no. I will never, ever read this book again.