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

[Lonnie]

and YESSSSS Im so blinking excited I cant begin to describe it...

(anyone else??))

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.

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!

any more for any more?

or have you all given up in despair??

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 ?

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?!?!

Maryz- yup, you've got it

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...

I am near page 100 so far I am enjoying it and I am deliberatly taking my time

My favourite was Mamoth Hunters followed by Clan of the Cave bear then the p;lains of passage valley of the horses and shelter of stone

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Catching j...? what!?

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...

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

What does Ayla do?

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

Anyway I thought shagging others honoured the mother and was not frowned upon in cave culture?

My spoiler Alert - if you read The Mammoth Hunters and Shelters of Stone, it wont be any different plot to those two

However - do not read below if you dont want the basic plot

Ayla trains as a zeladonnii
J gets lonely as a single dad
Caves are visited, people are greeted with their entire list of ties, people are introduced to wolf, and horses.
Teas are made, tasted and described
The Mothers Song is sung, again and again

And then suddenly in the last third we get plot - BIGGER SPOILERS

Ayla miscarries and goes to the summer meeting to get jiggy with J
She catches J waving his willy at Marona
They refuse to talk / see each other

BIGGEST SPOILER ALERT

Ayla decides to get back at J by shagging

Laramar (having set up how horrible, disgusting, unclean, rude, hateful little drunkard he is)
J beats the crap out of him in front of everyone
Ayla drinks her stupid root drink that she promised never to drink again and goes into a drug induced coma
J rescues her
All is well with J & A as they agree to never couple with anyone else

The end - and yes it ties up very few storylines, there are many questions left unanswered and many many extremely unsatisified fans disappointed after 20 odd years of following

Oh

Your summary made me lol- 'her stupid root drink' 'mothers song sung, again and again'

That was SO boring in the other books. And naming all the ties. A dreary business.

Really? Laramar, really? Didnt he hate her?

Does ayla get fat, or is she still perfect?