I hold in my hand a copy of JEAN AUEL's THE LAND OF ThE PAINTED CAVES

I want to hear about the willy waving. Not bothered about 400+ pages of cave descriptions/native flora/horseriding though.

He waves his WILLY at MARONA?!?!?!

What does Ayla do?

oh i am so read glad it isn't just me that finished the book and went and not in a good way

that said though, i didn't not enjoy it, it was just disappointing

and poorly edited too, IMO

yy to weird lapsings of time

and ICK x 10000 to ayla's response to jondalar waving his member at marona

does anybody else start singing my sharona every time they read the name marona?

no?

just me then...

Catching j...? what!?

I'm even more shocked at what Ayla does after catching j

Oh, I'm disappointed by these reviews. I read the first four books hundreds of times between the ages of 11 and 14. The fifth came out when I was about 17 and I thought it was pretty awful - badly written, thinly characterised and repetitive - but I'd hoped the final book would at least tie up some loose ends. I was looking forward to Ayla's inventing the wheel.

Ah. I thought we were at the same summer meeting

My DD thinks the publisher should offer an Abridged version that doesn't backtrack in great detail over the previous books, so that you can follow the story (what story?).

Very disappointed with this book. Really not worth the 12 year wait :(

I've gone back to re-reading Stephen King's The Stand for the umpteenth time instead.

Tallulah, she's is a baby (under one year) at the beginning. They cover off most of her first year (with some slightly weird variations in her ability to manage herself which clearly has to do with the fact that Auel has weak fact and consistency checkers for this novel).

Then they skip 3 or 4 years. The clues are partly in Jonayla's increased age. but also in the fact that Jondalar's apprentices have gone from one to four and they are now housed outside in a seperate dwelling. The oldest apprentice is now also largely trained and is helping Jondalar train the others.

Then I think they skip at least a year again, possibly two I think - so she goes on one of her endless trips to look at caves and talks about having to do her nighttime training looking at stars and moon and then suddenly she's at the end of it (conveniently not showing us the time that Jondalar was getting all lonely and eyeing up other women).

The more I think about this book, the more cheated and disillusioned I feel. She should have got someone hwo cared to ghost write it for her.

Bling

Apparently Jonayala is 4. How did that happen? I worked out today that what is wrong is the characters are all very one-dimensional. There is no "fleshing out" of the vast majority of them, including Jonayala. JA had a perfect opportunity to explore how Ayla would teach a child who didn't have the Clan memories all she'd learnt about healing etc. It is hardly mentioned at all. Yet the landscape and caves are described in utmost detail.

No no, I am afraid Tallulah, I disagree. Maryz has given the book too much credit...

SPOILER ALERT

1. Ayla invents NOTHING in this book (oh, sorry, except that she convinces the whole world that men actually have a part to play in conception).
2. Her children do NOTHING in this book, except grow up (we skip YEARS at a time, so that we can go to the next summer meeting where nothing happens).
3. It's true that everyone else wonders around going "Urgh". However, that's just the Others. The Clan is completely nonexistent except for right at the end when she has a vision where because of half breeds like Durc, Ayla has ensured that a little bit of the Clan carry on forever....

MORE SPOILER:

J shags Marona - his ex. Because of course, as the most "charismatic" man on the planet at the time, the only person he could get to "relieve his needs" is the one woman he dislikes the most and who destroyed Ayla...! He even laughs with her while enjoying a romantic interlude in a swimming hole...

Maryz- yup, you've got it

Who does J shag then?!!??! I dont care about spoliers I MUST KNOW, J turned shagging fuckwit, too much tea/wine and dysfunctional families is this MNCave version?!?!

Right, now I'm completely confused. The first 300 pages of the book Jonayla is constantly referred to as baby, infant. She is being nursed frequently and having a nappy changed or being "held out to eliminate". At one point Ayla leaves her with Wolf and comes back to find she has "somehow" turned onto her front, and is pushing up with her arms. Suggests young baby, right?

Cue page 310 and suddenly Jonayala is standing in front of the horses to protect them, and is riding a horse. On her own .

Have I missed something? Is the journey between caves supposed to take over a year or something? Or does JA not actually have children and not understand ?

any more for any more?

or have you all given up in despair??

I agree with Bling. I finished the book and felt a bit "so what?". and if that's the ending of six books that I started reading nearly thirty years ago then I feel pretty cheated. It seems a real cop out and to suggest that J could decieve A after 4 books of her expertly reading his body language ............ bah!

Such a disappointment. I have enjoyed parts of every other of the books but this one was downright boring from start to finish. And NONE of the themes we were expecting came out - no interaction with the Clan, nothing about her past, STILL no one else has figured out you can tame animals. Nothing.

A complete cop out. I didn't expect War and Peace, but really - this was insulting.

oh god the dysfunctional family

it will get much much worse

and icky

Oh dear. Now we've got to the disfunctional family who don't look after their kids. If they are like the DF in all the other books they'll be singing Ayla's praises ere long and standing up for her in the face of opposition from other Caves (yawn)

It seems to be the exact same story in a new setting. Another Summer Meeting as well. How original

oh i couldn't be arsed with the book cover thingy

far far too much faff for me

Only just started this one. Managed to get the book cover model thingy to work, but it was a bit of an anti-climax. Struggling to work out who everyone is- don't like these Zelandoni names

oh do read it

is worth a look

just don't expect The Answers to all your questions

and also expect the cave-man version of an art gallery tour. a detailed one