Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3058 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-01
• Binding: Paperback
• 800 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Jean M Auel's The Shelters of Stone, is the latest title in the Earth's Children series--undoubtedly one of the most celebrated works in publishing history--and includes The Clan of the Cave Bear, The Valley of Horses, The Mammoth Hunters and The Plains of Passage. Each of these books enjoyed long runs on the bestseller lists across the world and have sold more than three million copies in the British marketplace. There are 28 foreign language editions of Auel's books in print and 34 million copies have been sold worldwide.

The Shelters of Stone continues the story of Ayla who lost her family to an earthquake and was raised by the people who call themselves the Clan of the Cave Bear. She arrives in the land of the man she loves, but his people are wary of her and think of the Clan who cared for her as animals that resemble people and who are not much smarter than beasts. Ayla has brought with her two horses and a wolf over which she has uncanny control. Ayla vows to learn from the Zelandonii and hopes, in turn, to teach them. She is particularly pleased to meet the spiritual leader of the tribe, a fellow healer with whom she is able to share medical skills and knowledge. But Ayla's greatest problem is to convince her new hosts that she is from a tribe of human beings, not the subhumans they are regarded as. And when she gives birth to her eagerly awaited child, she is forced to accept that she and her child will have to play a very significant role in the clouded destiny of the Zelandon.

Auel is particularly sharp in her characterisation of Ayla, the woman who is foreign and strange in this new land, and her heroine's clashes with her new-found people are handled skilfully. The reader is immersed in another world, one whose every detail is skilfully evoked, while the writing has all the colour and vividness of Auel's previous books.--Barry Forshaw

Daily Express
'Impeccable research makes this much more than a fantasy reconstruction of prehistoric life.'

Good Book Guide
'A rewarding read. A brilliant work of imagination'

Customer Reviews

Judge for yourselves
Having read the reviews for this book, I put off reading it for quite a while. However, I finally decided to read it anyway and I am really glad I did. Yes, there is some recapping but not that much. I'm really sad that this is going to be the last book as I enjoyed all of them.

And so I face the final curtain...
You know, I really love the Earth's Children series. Sometimes it's hard to tell if it loves me back, but like the socially inept kid at the periphery of a group of friends, I keep coming back in the vain hope that my perseverance will ultimately be rewarded. And the reason I love it is that it has so much potential. Yes, it hasn't always lived up to that potential, but it does keep trying and that's commendable.

The Shelters of Stone isn't an easy book to comprehend. And by that, I don't mean that it's filled with mind-bending existentialism or complex philosophical musings. No, what I mean is that it's difficult to understand how the person who wrote a modern classic like The Clan of the Cave Bear could also turn out tosh like this. Like a long-retired heavyweight lumbering back into the ring for one last fight, you can't help but remember how great they used to be and pity them for the shambling wreck they've become.

Basically, Shelters of Stone continues the adventures of Ayla and her fair-haired mate Jondalar as they try to make a new life amongst the Zelandonii. Although perhaps 'adventure' is the wrong word since almost nothing happens in this 600+ page behemoth.

In theory, this should be the most exciting book in the series, since the story has been pretty much building up to the moment of Ayla meeting Jondalar's people ever since the end of The Valley of Horses. And yet it plays out as a complete anti-climax, like the post-match reviews after a World Cup final. Characters which have been built up to be formidable and dangerous opponents come across as whiny immature idiots, and obstacles which should spell disaster for Ayla are overcome without her so much as breaking a sweat.

In all fairness to Auel, there was little chance of this book living up to the ridiculous hype surrounding it. Twelve years in the making, many of her fans were treating it like the second coming of Christ in the run-up to its release. But honestly, I expected it to be better than this. One can't help but think it took so long not because the author poured her heart and soul into it and spent years polishing it to absolute perfection, but rather because she's lost interest in the series and finally forced this novel out like an uncomfortable kidney stone in a cynical attempt to bilk more money from her rabid fans.

You know, I find myself thinking that when a series reaches a certain level of popularity, it almost becomes irrelevant how good or bad the books are - people will buy them on the strength of their predecessors, because they care about the characters and want to know what happens to them. And Shelters of Stone pretty much confirms that theory.

Speaking of characters, the twelve-year layoff has brought about some not particularly welcome changes in Ayla. No longer is she the unassuming, quietly confident yet fallible and naive young woman we used to know and love. Now she's balls-to-the-wall brilliant, and drifting perilously close to being an unlikeable Mary Sue. Maybe it's just a natural result of the author's perception of character changing over time, but it leaves one feeling that this isn't really Ayla. It's like coming home to find someone dressed as your best friend sitting in your living room - you almost want to believe it's them, but at the same time you're wondering whether they might drive a meat cleaver into your skull at any moment. Of course, it's not all change - Jondalar is still mostly a brain dead idiot, but I'd given up on getting any kind of realistic human emotions from him two books ago.

And yes, the old nemesis of repetition is also back with a vengeance. The book spends as much time recounting previous adventures as creating new ones, like an old man brooding on his life as he approaches the end. Strangely though, this repetition bothered me less here than it had in previous books, where I used to view it as an irritating distraction. Maybe because there's nothing in particular to be distracted from, or maybe, like a bad dose of herpes, it's just something I've come to accept. Criticising an Auel book for being repetitive at this stage is a bit like criticising Jade Goody for not having written a best selling existentialist novel.

A lot of people have criticised this book for its lack of plot, and for good reason. But I can't help thinking they're slightly off. It's not that Shelters of Stone has no plot, it's just that we've seen it all before. It's like a watered down version of The Mammoth Hunters and Clan of the Cave Bear but with all the interesting characters stripped away and most of the plot points ironed out. Right up to the last page, there was nothing remotely surprising or different about this book.

And that's the real problem. Each of the books in the Earth's Children series has attempted something different, taking Ayla's development in new and interesting directions. Okay, perhaps not so much Plains of Passage, but shut up, I'm trying to make a point here. And the point is that Shelters of Stone doesn't - it's nothing but a retread of previous ground, reiterating themes and ideas that the series has already covered more competently. In short, it bears all the hallmarks of an author who has run out of creativity, and is simply going through the motions in an effort to reach some kind of closure.

In the end, such closure seems unnecessary. For me, the Earth's Children series reached its logical conclusion with Plains of Passage, and Shelters of Stone has done absolutely nothing to change that opinion. Some have claimed that it is merely setting the stage for the all-conquering sixth and final book, though frankly that sounds suspiciously like Iraq's propaganda minister boldly claiming the Americans had been defeated even as tanks rolled into central Baghdad.

I can't tell people not to read this book, because if you care about the main characters then you're going to read it no matter what, but I would caution you not to go into it expecting too much.

Please, please read this book....
I have been a fan of this series since shortly after The Clan of the Cave Bear was published and have loved each one, eagerly and frustratedly awaiting the next installment. I have read each one countless times and agree with most fans that the 1st 2 books are the best of the series so far. Although a little dissapointed after reading this latest installment, due to the large amounts of repetition, I believe this book is still far superior to any other book I have ever read by any other author. I wouldn't recommend reading it if you haven't read and enjoyed the previous books in the series - the recaps are simply not enough. I don't think any of these later books can be fully appreciated as stand-alone pieces and agree with others that the author should accept this and limit the amount of repetition in the next book. The very descriptive sex scenes are also getting a little tedious now (I tend to skip them all ever since reading the Mammoth Hunters the 1st time and all of them on future readings). In summary, although not any way near as good as the previous books in the series, this is still a great book and well worth reading if you're a fan. If you're not yet a fan, don't start on this one, start at the beginning with Clan of the Cave Bear, then: The Valley of Horses, The Mammoth Hunters and The Plains of Passage. Please keep writing Jean and don't keep us waiting a decade for the next installment - please!!!