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The product itself was excellent, in perfect shape and as a new book should be. I must qualify this review by saying that I had been looking forward to this book for years and that may have colored my evaluation of it. I found the book contained too much repetition both of previous books by Mrs. Auel and within the book itself. It repeats also the experiences of the characters from previous books, just in different settings. The feeling of connection to and understanding of Ayla is not present, other than you want to shake her to wake up sometimes. It is obvious that the author has done extensive research on the caves and area in which this takes place but I don't think she did as much with the information as she could have. A little more imagination would have been welcomed in this instance. Sometimes I became annoyed with her attempt to make work plays, knowing that most likely they did not speak English and the plays would not necessarily work in another language, especially an unsophisticated one. All in all, however, I did enjoy the book and am content to know what happened to these characters that we have traveled with for so many years.Read full review
Multiple book saga of the heroine Ayla and her life in a time most of us can only try to imagine. It has been many years from the time of the first book of the series "Clan of the Cave Bear" to this final one. Writer Jean M. Auel did much study, learning and investigation into the time period she has her story line taking place and it really shows in her details on subject matter. Well worth having all 6 books and reading! Would have liked a bit more of a stronger ending, still, really and excellent series!
Disappointing. With apologies to Ms. Auel, this story is little more than a rehashing of many aspects of Ayla's life which may have been necessary to make it stand alone; for people who have been faithfully following this saga in hopes of a worthy successor to " The Valley of Horses," alas, this is not that book. Instead of Ayla discovering who her people were or perhaps seeing her grown son Durc or even, as was hinted at in the previous installment,the Zelondonii having a meeting with the Clan to resolve disputes and discovering they are in fact humans though a different kind, this story gives every indication of a writer who has lost her imaginative spark and is merely fulfilling a contractual obligation to produce-something. One would have hoped that nearly half a decade as mates would have given Ayla and Jondolar a higher level of maturity than they display here. Instead of a meaty story replete with new discoveries, adventures, and encounters with the Clan it devolves into more of the noncommunicative misunderstandings which plagued them as young lovers living in the Lion Camp. After 700+ pages of lukewarm build-up the only climax comes when Ayla is confirmed as one of the Zelondonia and reveals a rather ordinary secret from the Mother. True, such knowledge would have been a major event back then but for a modern-day reader, well, it just isn't worth the slog through the rest of the novel. Those of us who awaited each episode of the life and times of Ayla of No People will not be happy unless we read everything about her; nevertheless, I felt cheated. Maybe Ms. Auel will write another story and answer the questions we have about Ayla: Will she ever find out who her people were? Will she ever see Durc again? Will there ever be a face-to-face meeting of Clan leaders and the Others? And will we have to wait half a decade before we get the answers?Read full review
Having read all of the rest of this series AGAIN starting in Jan of 2011 (these are probably my most read books), I was disappointed in the finale. Perhaps it was the anticipation of the ending of the Earth's Children Saga that I allowed to build up my expectations, but this book simply did not grab me as the first 2 did. The latter 3 were also good reads but the sixth seemed to drag...not just the journeys and the cave painting descriptions, but even the Pleasures became old news. Another problem is the amount of repetition that becomes necessary with a story that spans decades in 6 volumes. As with the others, this book was amazingly well researched. I enjoyed the moments of true life drama, still they were not up to the standard set in the earlier books. Had there been actual photos included of the prehistoric cave paintings that inspired the title, I think the reader would have found more depth. In the end, however, I still enjoyed being immersed in a part of history that no other author can do better than Auel.Read full review
Fourteen years ago, I read the "Clan of the Cave Bear" Series and loved it. I purchased this book to complete my collection. It was a long time coming (7 years). I re-read the entire series in anticipation of being able to read the last and final novel. Jean Auel is a good author when it comes to detailed information, yet I felt like over half the story was a repeat from the other novels in the series. It was almost like she needed more pages to come up with a novel, so she kept repeating information that was already given...over and over and over again. It wasnt just this last novel that I noticed this repeat fettish--and it was very distracting. I was also extremely disappointed that she did not invent a story line to bring the Clan and/or Durk back, if for nothing else but to bring closure to everyone wondering what ever happened to them. I thought she was going to when she told about Ayla's dream about her son & Durk in a battle. Ayla's original heritage could have been discovered too--if she would have just applied a little imagination.Read full review
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