The Land of Painted Caves - The Clan of the Cave Bear

while the story was good there was way to much repeating of previous material. i don't think i have ever read a book with this much repeating in it and yes sometimes repeating can be nessasary in this case it was to much. if she had cut out half of the repeating this would have been a four book series and if she would have cut that in half it would have been a three book series that would have been a five star rating and went down as a classic book of all time. i'm not sure if the author was under contract to write this many books for the series or what but no matter what reason the people around her did her and any of her follwers a big disserves i for one will never buy another book she writes. another reason for me not ever buying any more books she writes is the last book in the series toook her almost ten years to finish she is one of the reasons i quit buying books that where series until after i knew the book series was done and i could read any reviews written. like i said this would have been a five star book if it had been a trilogy. this is a do not buy series unless it drops down in price to $1.00 and even then prepare yourself to have to muddle through it

I have loved this series after I read the first book. The movie that starred Darryl Hannah based on the book is what got me interested in the whole storyline. Will keep reading the series as long as books are made.

Wonderful, compelling story. The writer takes you with her through time.
Well researched and wel written. Very enjoyable.I initilly red them as the came out, but since they are large books I bought them again on Kindle.

This series is great you get more out of it each time you read it. Jean auel must have done so much research just on plants and how they can be used. Over the years, I have read this series of books MANY times and waited for the next book to read. Long awaits, but well worth the wait each time. You can tell how much she loves her Ayla, and wants to be true to physical history of evolution. She puts you back in time, as if you were there with them. Way to go girl!!!!! To Ayla and to Jean Auel !!!!.

There is nothing on the description that states that this CD set won't work on a normal portable CD player. When I purchased it, I was already listening to another series and was looking forward to listening during an upcoming road trip. Today, I placed the first one in my car stereo and it worked fine, however, it won't work in my Walkman. I use audio books when I am busy gardening, cleaning or walking. I can't return it since it is outside the 30 days, but I think it should be clearer that these "new" CD's won't work on normal (read outdated) CD players. It is stupid! If it is a CD, it should play on a portable CD player. Not everyone wants to spend money on fancy listening equipment when we like the equipment we already have. the store should make it clear what exactly MP3 CD's mean.

It seems like some else took over the writing after the first book. After reading 10 chapters of the second book it became too painful to continue. Perhaps I should have read this series when I was 14 or 15. then again, perhaps that was her intended audience. It really is a book set for children.

I picked up Clan of the Cave Bear while standing in line at the checkout counter in K-Mart many years ago and was enchanted. I thought it was a stand-alone book and was quite happy with that, but when The Valley of Horses was featured as a book club selection, I had to get it too, and was equally enchanted. I could see myself living alone in a cave and hunting (hopefully with less fuss than Ayla had) and eventually living with a horse and a lion. The story was fascinating and the way it ended was satisfying. Next came The Mammoth Hunters and I still remember the way they burned bone in the hearths and how urine was collected and saved to be used to bleach animal hides to white. I read all the books many years ago but they were memorable and fascinating.

Jean Auel has a way of imparting so much information about the landscape and the flora and fauna that I didn't feel the books were bogged down by the elaborate descriptions. The descriptive passages helped me to see the world in which Ayla lived and hunted and how where she lived in part guided her actions. I was mesmerized -- and informed.

I recently discovered there were three more books in the series but wanted to go back and read the other three books to see if they were as good as I remembered. They were, although I feel that The Mammoth Hunters was weaker than the first two books. The Plains of Passage came next and Ayla and Jondalar traveled across the land between the Black Sea and France meeting more people and getting into some trouble, nothing that Ayla couldn't find a way to manage.

That's what I liked so much about the series. Earth's Children was a woman's journey, a woman of strength and ingenuity and power, and Jondalar neither over shadowed her or was afraid of what Ayla was and how much she could accomplish. He celebrated her independence and skills and loved her for it, even learning from her. Ayla was the star and Jondalar was quite comfortable being second string. It was her Journey after all.

The Plains of Passage took Jondalar back along the route he took with his brother Thonolan and was bittersweet for that reason alone. The movement was ever forward and often dangerous, but Ayla and Jondalar were equal to every danger.

The Shelters of Stone was a bit slow but gave the effect of Ayla finally settling down. She didn't have an easy time of it and gained some more enemies along the way, especially when she, being who she was, shone brighter than her enemies. She wasn't showy or looking for praise or applause, just being who she was meant to be, sharing her gifts with everyone and anyone --even her enemies. Ayla was still the star and Jondalar still content to be second string in spite of Shelters of Stone being set in his home cave.

In the final book, The Land of Painted Caves, Ayla comes into her own, but not without having to pay a price for everything she had gained. Jean Auel took Ayla on another journey to see the painted caves in France and along the western coast of Europe. The descriptions, as detailed as they were, didn't quite give as clear a sense of place and environment as in previous books and I think Auel was running out of literary gas at this point. The books span more than a decade of publishing time and several years of Ayla's life and journey, often skipping over a few years. The Land of Painted Caves is the weakest of the six books and repeats the same situation between Ayla and Jondalar that made up such a huge part of The Mammoth Hunters, and therein lies one of the major problems with the series: repetition.

Throughout all but the first book, Clan of the Cave Bear, Auel repeats much of Ayla's history, rape by Broud, and her experience at the Clan gathering when Creb, The Mog-ur, guided her through the memories of their origins in the sea and brought Ayla back from the formless black void, changing Ayla at some basic level and letting Creb see that the Clan were on a course to extinction. Ayla's son Durc would be the only future remaining for the Clan, the people the Neanderthals called Flatheads, who saw births of such mixed heritage abomination. While some repetition of the major points laid down in the first book is necessary, Auel repeats the same information several times in each book. That much back story is repetitious and bogs down the story.

Another repetitious point is the way Ayla speaks. At first, the difference in how she pronounces words was a minor variation, one that added to her uniqueness. Auel repeats this information so many times it becomes irritating, especially when Ayla's unusual way of pronouncing words becomes very noticeable and not, as when first mentioned, a slight difference. The difference is exaggerated more and more and is repeated so often that it is like a bit of seed stuck between the teeth that cannot be easily removed, and sometimes as irritating as fingernails on a blackboard. Ayla speaks differently because she lived the bulk of her early life with the Clan and spoken words were few and only for emphasis; we got it.

The Mother's song, which is the oral history handed down by the Neanderthals as their creation myth, is also repeated many more times than necessary. There are times when the whole "poem" is repeated and other times when large sections are repeated. It was unnecessary when referring to the poem to go through the whole thing again. The creation myth is important in the final book of the series, The Land of Painted Caves, but only when it is central to the story and not necessary every time it is mentioned. I got it. The Mother's song is important, but I don't need to read it every time it is mentioned. I skipped over those parts rather than read it again and again -- ad infinitum, ad nauseam. I began to wonder if Auel was using the repetitious sections of Ayla's time with the Clan, her unusual accent, and the Mother's song as a way to pad the books and make them longer. Take out those sections and nothing is lost from the narrative, which is a sign that an editor should have blue penciled much more of the books.

One thing I have learned as a writer is that when two characters' problems can be solved by talking to each other, it's not really a problem. No matter what justification Auel used for Ayla and Jondalar's emotional separation, the problem could have simply been solved by talking to each other. Of course, that would have meant a much quicker resolution of the central issue and a shorter book, but pages could have been added with new material and the bumps and potholes that normally crop up in any relationship between man and woman. Ayla and Jondalar are fully realized characters, but they are a bit tedious and somewhat ignorant for all the innovations that evolved from their willingness to try different methods, like using a horse to transport goods and food and learning to hunt and live with a wolf.

Despite the failings in Auel's writing and plotting, what she does well is evoke the time and the landscape of neolithic Europe during the glacial period. Descriptions of mammoths mating, the dynamics of herds and living in a cave dependent on each other for all needs, and the way Auel describes the relationships between families and their religious caste, the Zelandonia, is part of the charm and uniqueness that is central to the Earth's Children series.

Though much of what is contained in the series is conjecture as to when horses and wolves were domesticated and became part of the fabric of human existence and when and how the various weapons were used and improved, these facts ring true and demonstrate the difference between Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals. After all, history and archaeology are built on such conjecture and fitting disparate pieces of the fossil and pictorial records together to provide a somewhat homogenous picture of what life would have been like for humans and how they adapted.

I give Jean M. Auel kudos for her imagination and for the way she took the experience of seeing a man who was deformed, whose arm had been amputated, and creating a believable world full of mystery and majesty where a young girl could be orphaned and injured and become one of the most admirable and amazing female icons in modern times. The series is a remarkable achievement for all its flaws and Ayla a strong and wonderful female protagonist that I will always remember.

I read the first 5 of these books years ago. I've purchased the 6th but haven't read it yet. I wanted to go back and read the others again first. However, they are so long, that I doubt I will do it. On the upside, each of the first 5 replay a lot of the previous books to catch you up. I found that annoying as I read them in order, back to back. I understand it a good bit more after waiting 10 years for this last book to come out!

The only negative thing that I can say about the first 5 books is the repetition. These books are very long, but worth every single second. I did find myself skipping over parts of each book that did a recap of previous books, but outside of that, the books read fast and do not feel nearly as long as they look in hard copy. The story is beautifully written with characters that come alive. The is a must read series, in my opinion

I read the first book in this series, "Clan of The Cave Bear", shortly after it was published in 1980. I then read the following four books as they were published. It was a long time between the fifth book, Shelters of Stone", and the sixth book, which was published in 2011. I decided that I had to re-read all the books to be able to appreciate the sixth. I just finished today, and I can honestly say that I loved each book much more than when I first read them. I highly recommend reading the series as a whole. Ms. Auel is both a marvelous storyteller and a remarkable scientist. The story of Ayla's journey is a tour de force. I can't even express how much I learned during the reading of this series. I am led to understand that the sixth book is the end of the series. I hope this is not true as I am still interested in Ayla and believe there is more story to tell. If and when Ms. Auel decides to continue the story, I will be first in line to purchase it. I offer my highest recommendation for the "Earth Children" series.

I loved reading this series growing up and wanted to re-read it and have an electronic copy. While this version of Clan of the Cave Bear was ok to read, I found the second book filled with typos, misspelled words, horrible punctuation, and mis-capitalized words that it became hard to read and understand the story. I would spend time trying to guess the real meaning of sentences but sometimes couldn't. I'm still trying to read through the second book, so I can't comment on the others.

In the kindle edition the repeats from other books like the Mothers song and filling ins about previous books was rather annoying because there is no waiting for sometimes as long as a year to get the next year or two and they get very distracting.

I have read and re-read this series since its inception in 1980. Each time I have become immersed in Ayla's world and found it hard to put the books down and return to the modern world. The detail is incredible, the characters memorable and the story fascinating. The Kindle bundle is even more amazing, simply because it is so much easier to take along versus the 6 huge books!

The Clan of the Cave Bear was 5-star. Absolutely. Very disappointed in now reading the near-porno explicit and lengthy sex scene(s) (I'm only halfway through) in this #2 of the Series, another otherwise excellent book. Several pages that could have come from any modern "romance" book and nothing to do with the customs or the times. As shown in Wikipedia: "As a whole, the series is a tale of personal discovery: coming-of-age, invention, cultural complexities, and, beginning with the second book, explicit romantic sex."

The author did herself and her readers a disservice by this and makes me not as likely to finish the series. What a shame that she seems to have fallen into the current trap of infusing explicit sex into everything - even the Stone Age.

I have read this series three times over the years and will likely read it again. I have shared it with friends and family, whom have all enjoyed Ayla and Johdalar immensely. Just a powerful read for those interested in a possible start to the human race and all the innovations we have attained.

Been reading all about Ayla since spring. I am done and will miss her and her little family:) Hope Author, Jean M. Auel, who happens to be my own brother's mother-in law, will write another one??? Very educational and I feel blessed to have Ayla intuition in to Mother Earth and Her possibilities:)

What I got was very nice and enjoyable until I got to the last book in the series and it was an unfinished cd. It stopped about halfway through the book like it is missing a disc. Very disappointed! Since I had no issues until the last book, I am making this review a bit after I originally ordered.

It was a good end to great story... I enjoyed all of her books they were insightful and made me think.. Wish I could write like that.. They were a way to get away from my problems to see how they were could have been back in the yesterday years..

Is there any plans for Jean M. Auel to write a sequel to the last book in the Earth's Children? I've followed every book in this series and she just left it hanging in the air as to what happened next.

I have to admit; I was bored. I have always loved this series, and have read it many times, but this last book just left me disappointed. I enjoyed the last quarter of the book, but up until that time I felt there was no real story to follow.

Fantastic carefully researched historic fiction about how both early homo sapiens and neanderthal men lived in a rich earth of fantastic animal and plant diversity at the end of ice age. Easy, pleasant, captivating read. The only criticism is that Auel repeats too much in each book to try to make each book a stand alone volume. This is annoying at times, but I generally tried to skip these repetitive sections. I would suggest she rewrite the series with deletion of these repetitive explanations. Readers remember enough of each previous book to understand what's going on.

I read the first three books when they came out. My wife bought the series set, I picked up in book four as if it was yesterday. This is the stuff made for old retired history/geology teachers like me.

The Clan of the Cave Bear was 5-star. Absolutely. Very disappointed in now reading the near-porno explicit and lengthy sex scene(s) (I'm only halfway through) in this #2 of the Series, another otherwise excellent book. Several pages that could have come from any modern "romance" book and nothing to do with the customs or the times. As shown in Wikipedia: "As a whole, the series is a tale of personal discovery: coming-of-age, invention, cultural complexities, and, beginning with the second book, explicit romantic sex."

The author did herself and her readers a disservice by this and makes me not as likely to finish the series. What a shame that she seems to have fallen into the current trap of infusing explicit sex into everything - even the Stone Age.

I have read this series three times over the years and will likely read it again. I have shared it with friends and family, whom have all enjoyed Ayla and Johdalar immensely. Just a powerful read for those interested in a possible start to the human race and all the innovations we have attained.

Been reading all about Ayla since spring. I am done and will miss her and her little family:) Hope Author, Jean M. Auel, who happens to be my own brother's mother-in law, will write another one??? Very educational and I feel blessed to have Ayla intuition in to Mother Earth and Her possibilities:)

What I got was very nice and enjoyable until I got to the last book in the series and it was an unfinished cd. It stopped about halfway through the book like it is missing a disc. Very disappointed! Since I had no issues until the last book, I am making this review a bit after I originally ordered.

It was a good end to great story... I enjoyed all of her books they were insightful and made me think.. Wish I could write like that.. They were a way to get away from my problems to see how they were could have been back in the yesterday years..

Is there any plans for Jean M. Auel to write a sequel to the last book in the Earth's Children? I've followed every book in this series and she just left it hanging in the air as to what happened next.

I have to admit; I was bored. I have always loved this series, and have read it many times, but this last book just left me disappointed. I enjoyed the last quarter of the book, but up until that time I felt there was no real story to follow.