The Plains of Passage (Earth's Children, #4)

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The Plains of Passage (Earth's Children #4)

3.72 of 5 stars 3.72 · rating details · 24,594 ratings · 609 reviews

Ayla, the heroine first introduced in The Clan of the Cave Bear, is known and loved by millions of readers. Now, in The Plains of Passage, Ayla’s story continues.

Ayla and Jondalar set out on horseback across the windswept grasslands of Ice Age Europe. To the hunter-gatherers of their world--who have never seen tame animals--Ayla and Jondalar appear enigmatic and frightenin...more

Hardcover, 768 pages

Published November 27th 2001 by Crown (first published 1990)

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Mar 25, 2012 Crystal Starr Light rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, read-at-your-own-risk, so-boring-it-s-boring, so-bad-it-s-good, anachronistic-heroine, audiobook, hello-my-name-is-mary-sue, banned-books

Summary: Ayla and Jondalar travel to his homeland.

Oh, you wanted me to be a bit more specific? Okay.

Summary: Ayla and Jondalar head out to his homeland (because while Ayla is supposed to sacrifice her newfound family, the Mamutoi, Jondalar can whine and complain to get what he wants). They stumble upon Mammoths having sex, the Sharmudoi and the Ramudoi who almost immediately induct Ayla into their clan, a group of Femi-Nazis (aka, what many conservatives think Feminists are), a couple of Clan pe...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Annette rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Let's start saying that I loved the first three books of this serie. They were just so lovely, and they communicated something...they gave me that "pre-historic" vibe... I don't know, they were quite charming. But I'm having serious issues with this fourth one: I'm currently half way through it and I'm not sure whether to continue it or no, as I'm not sure if I'll read the last two books (I already own 'Shelters of stone' but 'Land of Painted Caves' is still unpublished in Italy...). Why?
Well, l...more Let's start saying that I loved the first three books of this serie. They were just so lovely, and they communicated something...they gave me that "pre-historic" vibe... I don't know, they were quite charming. But I'm having serious issues with this fourth one: I'm currently half way through it and I'm not sure whether to continue it or no, as I'm not sure if I'll read the last two books (I already own 'Shelters of stone' but 'Land of Painted Caves' is still unpublished in Italy...). Why?
Well, let's explain...
First of all, it seems that Jean Auel couldn't come up with ideas for this book. There are pages and pages in which nothing significant happens, and all we can read is looong and boring descriptions of prehistoric landscapes...and sex scenes. If you already read one of the 1st three books you know how much Auel loves to put tooons of details in her descriptions -and you'd be aware of her sex scenes, which to me were a little bit too much! Let's be clear, it's not porn, but I don't like to know details of the sexual life of the characters!-... but this time...it's simply too much.
As I said, you could go for pages withouth anything significant happened, and then when something did, It was just...boring. Book number two was about a journey as well, but it was funny, light hearted and lots of things happened and I was quite impatient to see where Jondalar and Thonolan's journey would lead them, what tribes they'd meet, what were their habits...I'd easily skipped over Ayla's parts to keep reading about the two brothers! (ok,I had a thing for Thonolan and Jondalar was so lovely and fun back in book #2...yep, he was a pain, but not a total one as in book #3 in which he was really a pain. An handsome pain, a cute pain, but soo pain!) In book number four I didn't feel the same. Retourning to the Sharamudoi? BO-RING. They were so lovely in book #2 but now... Ahem.
As you could understand, really, few things happen in this book...and these episodes are separated by pages and pages of nothing,landscapes, Jondalar and Ayla's private life.
It really seems that Auel has NO IDEA of what to write in this book. And I got the feeling that the last 2 books are pretty much the same...
She really seems she lost inspiration after book #3... maybe she should have stopped there and let Ayla&Jondalar remain with the Lion Camp... or, she should have waited 'till better plot ideas'd come to her.
Then, even characters lost something of their charme to me. I don't know, their interaction looks...somehow flat, there's no major...anything between them -even if they should be doing lots of discussions and stuff after the crisis they went through in book #3! They seem they never..talk about this...bah!-...and...dunno, maybe Ayla is starting to become a little bit too perfect. Auel was really, really uninspired. Ayla has always been a lovely character, a light hearted, strong, fierce young woman... she just got flat! Even Jondalar! C'mon, I love his being such a dumb... his flaws made him cute... I remember the first time I was introduced to him I thought "God, he's such an idiot!" and after some page "I LOVE this idiot! Yup! <3"... where is my BELOVED IDIOT in this book?? ç-ç
How to ruin a lovely serie...
I gotta say that there is actually something good in that book. The S’Armunai part was kinda good and interesting…but it goes on for a ridiculously low amount of pages…so we can’t consider it as a redeeming for the whole book. (less)

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Nov 18, 2007 Kerry rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm still at the very, very beginning of the book, but see that one little star? That's because the book essentially opens with an extremely graphic mammoth sex scene.

Oh, Jean...what am I going to do with you?

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May 22, 2009 BoekenTrol rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, historical_fiction_or_non_fiction

The more books are published in this series, the less magical the life of Ayla and Jondalar becomes to me.
First of all I have the feeling that whole text passages are just 'copy-pasted' from (a) previous book(s) into this one, because in my opinion there is a lot of repetition. These books are quite unique, and therefore it is not neccessary to repeat so much. It is disturbing the reading process and has no use: no book (at least not one that I read or heard of) looks like these. There's no cha...more

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Aug 21, 2007 Renee rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Botanists & Anthropologists

Shelves: topshelf

I get it. The struggle of the longest journey. The challenge came once I read it for the 3rd time... yes I love the series that much....then I realized I had to skip over 10 chapters, #13 - #23 as I flipped and scanned it was all a tedious and meticulous description of the landscape. The same animals that roamed the stepps, from mammoths, to horses/onagers, aurochs, deer, and mouflon, etc. I enjoyed the natural geographic studies of these sections, as I would any...but I'd already read it in the...more

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Nov 10, 2007 Stef rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Okay, good. I liked this one slightly better than the last one. Ayla and Jondalar have kissed and made up and are on their way back to his home in Zelandonii. They meet some people, have some laughs, do it in the bushes, and show everyone they meet how awesome they are.

Also Ayla's superwoman transformation is complete. The girl can learn languages almost immediately, control horses and wolves, she practically invented fire, sewing needles, is a master at her weapons of choice- the sling, she ca...more

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Aug 07, 2008 Christen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: auel, will-not-finish, historical-fiction

I'm about 1/3 of the way through this book, but I will be setting it down for awhile. First off, it's not as good as the other 3. I have been able to skip pages and pages of material. She covers so much stuff and gives the background story to everything that happened in the last 3 books. I'm sorry, but I really don't know why anyone would read this who hadn't already read the first 3 - enough with the background into, already! Plus, after 3 full books, I've had enough of the sex scenes. And the...more

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May 22, 2007 mrs. fig rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oh my God . . . the most boring book I've ever read! and i must give credit to jean auel because i read about how much work and research and time she puts into these novels and i know how accurate her descriptions are of everything . . . but she easily devotes 4 pages (atleast) to describing the terrain, the flora and fauna, the animals . . . and picture this . . . the story is about two people crossing ice age europe from one end to the other . . . and the book is 865 pages . . . the longest on...more

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Apr 23, 2013 Swankivy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the last of this series that I read. I was interested in what happened to Ayla, but after reading this book I felt like it was an awfully long book for nothing to have happened. It's Ayla and Jondalar traveling. It didn't really go anywhere, plot-wise. Which actually would normally be okay with me if the rest stops on the journey are interesting, but it's kind of the same thing over and over. Ayla has sex with Jondalar. Everyone who meets Ayla is impressed with her, and those who are mal...more This is the last of this series that I read. I was interested in what happened to Ayla, but after reading this book I felt like it was an awfully long book for nothing to have happened. It's Ayla and Jondalar traveling. It didn't really go anywhere, plot-wise. Which actually would normally be okay with me if the rest stops on the journey are interesting, but it's kind of the same thing over and over. Ayla has sex with Jondalar. Everyone who meets Ayla is impressed with her, and those who are male would like to have sex with her. She has skills she invented and seems to have been single-handedly responsible for passing on a good couple dozen survival skills to cultures she encounters. And it's weird that someone who's clearly got the skills and abilities necessary to survive on her own acts like she's so dependent on Jondalar. She doesn't usually act like she has low self-esteem (except in weird little pockets where she conveniently remembers being raised as Different); she seems pretty confident and headstrong and willing to tackle supposedly insurmountable odds to help people. And yet she acts like she's physically dependent on her man. It's kind of incongruous.

And of course just like every other book, a lot of the pages are taken up by rambles that fill in research and history and scenery. Hmm. The only thing the extra text really helped me see was how long a journey is when you're not in a vehicle and you feel every step. (Jondalar complaining about it a lot helped reinforce that even though it was annoying.) But there was a lot of weird canned philosophy--I got pretty tired of them discussing how pregnancy happens, and I just remember thinking when I closed the book that I didn't really care where they were going to go next because they would be worshiped or attacked and bring inventions that get them worshiped or attacked and ramble about the same things and have sex. It's one thing to convey something being boring; it's another thing entirely to bore the readers.

The fifth book in this series wasn't out when I finished reading this one. It took twelve years. I thought about going back to reread the first four books so I could have context for book 5, but I realized I just didn't care enough and my reading list is huge enough.(less)

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Dec 28, 2012 Iceman rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Em "Planícies de Passagem" chega ao fim toda a saga de Ayla, a menina Cro-Magnon que em o "Clã do Urso das Cavernas" se viu aos 5 anos sem família e só num mundo inóspito e cruel, sendo então adoptada e carinhosamente criada por um clã Neanderthal, seres muito diferentes dos seus.

Neste 4º volume, Ayla já é uma mulher responsável mas que busca o seu espaço no mundo e sobretudo junto daqueles da sua espécie.

Acompanhada de um homem que escolheu para parceiro, partem os dois em busca de uma terra a...more Em "Planícies de Passagem" chega ao fim toda a saga de Ayla, a menina Cro-Magnon que em o "Clã do Urso das Cavernas" se viu aos 5 anos sem família e só num mundo inóspito e cruel, sendo então adoptada e carinhosamente criada por um clã Neanderthal, seres muito diferentes dos seus.

Neste 4º volume, Ayla já é uma mulher responsável mas que busca o seu espaço no mundo e sobretudo junto daqueles da sua espécie.

Acompanhada de um homem que escolheu para parceiro, partem os dois em busca de uma terra a que possam chamar de lar e aí constituir família.

É extremamente complicado abordar a história deste livro porque fazê-lo significa desvendar obrigatoriamente vários factos que põem em causa outros factos que se descobrem no primeiro, segundo ou terceiro volume. A vida de Ayla é uma autêntica aventura no período Paleolítico, logo, um período em que muito há a descobrir, sobretudo ao nível da antropologia e geologia. Uma aventura que coloca em evidência a relação do Homem primitivo com o mundo que o rodeia e a percepção que o mesmo tem desse mundo e do lugar que ele começa a ocupar.

Ao nível geológico e antropológico, todos esses volumes são um manancial Histórico surpreendente e assaz rico. Desde o modo de vivência e relacionamento entre os membros das próprias tribos, até ao relacionamento entre os mesmos e interacção desses com o ambiente. Toda a viagem de Ayla dá-nos a conhecer vastos locais que hoje são perfeitamente identificáveis e, sabe-se, que Jean Auel foi bastante minuciosa e atenta às descrições que efectua, assim como bastante rigorosa na descrição do clima e das condições de vida daqueles primitivos povos.

Fazendo uma retrospectiva deste 4 volumes - "Clã do Urso das Cavernas", "Vale dos Cavalos", "Caçador de Mamutes" e "Planícies de Passagem" -, vendo todos estes livros apenas como sendo uma obra com o título "Saga dos Filhos da Terra", posso garantir-vos que se trata de um conjunto de livros muito interessantes, que se lêem com gosto e de uma forma compulsiva, tal a forma e o ritmo agradável e ávido que Auel utiliza na sua escrita. No entanto e enquanto eu aconselho principalmente os dois primeiros livros, já deixo algumas reservas no terceiro e já não recomendo o quatro.

Sobretudo porque o quarto título (também ele divido em dois volume), deveria ser um título que finalmente desvendasse algumas das muitas questões que Auel vai levantando nos seus antecessores. Questões essas que nos deixam na ânsia de ler para saber, porém é imensamente frustante muitas dessas questões ficarem sem resposta.

Por outro lado é nítida a saturação da escritora. A aventura parece não ter fim, é aborrecida. As zangas e as pazes entre Ayla e Jondalar são quase sempre iguais, as cenas de sexo repetem-se numa clara tentativa, frustada, de dar algum erotismo ao livro, no entanto e embora Auel use uma linguagem muito explicita, geralmente essas cenas não nos comovem rigorosamente nada.

Porém e embora me tenha desagradado bastante este livro, pois admito que também eu já estivesse saturado da obra - 6 volume são 2463 págs. -, sei que este título não fechou a saga, pois e posteriormente Auel ainda editou um outro livro com o nome "The Shelters of Stone" (2003) que nunca foi editado em Portugal e em muitos países, visto que o flop foi tão grande com os últimos títulos que, acharam as editoras, um novo título não seria vendável.

Tenho pena, pois e provavelmente teríamos a resposta a várias questões que ficaram no ar, logo, parte da minha crítica que me leva a classificar este volume como um mau livro, poderia sofrer uma grande atenuante, pois parece-me ser este "Planícies de Passagem" mais um volume intermediário e não um volume final. (less)

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Dec 04, 2012 Katie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Normally I don’t bother with reviews but I decided this time I would. I give this book 4 stars because despite so much repetition it was still a good read and I am eagerly getting to the next one. After I read the last book and read some quite funny reviews about how often things were mentioned (like we’d forget) I decided to keep a tally list for this book for some of the most frequently mentioned things. Enjoy.

7 x we are told Ayla can control whinny with her muscles in her legs.
8 x we get long...more

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Nov 12, 2012 Delicious Strawberry rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: jean-m-auel, historical-fiction

Having read the first three books in this series (the first being the best, hands-down) I was excited to read this book and see how Jondalar and Ayla would continue their journey.

Auel is very imaginative and descriptive, but she definitely overdoes it in some parts. You could easily cut out a couple of hundred pages from here (the original volume is over 800 pages) and not miss anything because she goes in such lavish, long descriptions of the landscape and flora and fauna. Now, I'm happy that s...more Having read the first three books in this series (the first being the best, hands-down) I was excited to read this book and see how Jondalar and Ayla would continue their journey.

Auel is very imaginative and descriptive, but she definitely overdoes it in some parts. You could easily cut out a couple of hundred pages from here (the original volume is over 800 pages) and not miss anything because she goes in such lavish, long descriptions of the landscape and flora and fauna. Now, I'm happy that she did so much research and put such effort into this book, but I found some scenes to be plodding and repetitive. Ms. Auel has already established the richness of the land in previous books, so at this point, it just feels like repetition.

Also, Ayla comes across as bit of a Mary Sue character because she has invented and discovered so many things. At this point, it's getting old. Yeah, Ayla's smart, and her experience with the Clan has given her valuable insight, but like with the land-description, Ayla's 'genius' gets to be repetitive as well. Another thing I found extremely repetitive and boring was the sex scenes. No, I am not a prude, and a few sex scenes are fine, but it just got to be overkill. Reading about Pleasures stopped being a pleasure for me after about the third or so intimate scene.

I'd have to say my biggest gripe is (surprisingly) not what I mentioned above, but Jondalar going on and on about how much he loves Ayla, how he would not want to live without her, etc etc. Come on. We get the idea already. It's nice to know that Jondalar is in touch with his feelings and is honest with them, but really. He just repeats himself.

My favorite scenes in this book was their interactions with other people. It helped to break up the monotony of reading about their Journey. I liked reading about Ayla healing Roshario, or helping the Clan couple after they were being attacked by a band of renegade Others.

If you've read the first three books in this series, then it won't hurt to pick up this volume, just don't expect it to be as 'fresh' as Clan of the Cave Bear or Valley of Horses. Fortunately, it does have its interesting scenes, so this book gets a decent 3/5 stars from me. (less)

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May 16, 2012 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-list-2012, historical-fiction, library-book, read-more-than-once, series

I really enjoy this series, but I would say that this is my least favorite of the Earth's Children series. The scenes where Ayla and Jondalar are with other people are great, and truly do carry the book. However, they are few and far between - with good reason. People were few and far between in that era, and when two people are traveling on horseback, they will not run into other people very often.

To fill the gaps, we are given a large amount of descriptions of plant and animal life (much of it...more

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Feb 15, 2012 Colleen O'Neill Conlan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

THis is a looong book, but I suppose it would have to be, considering it tells of Ayla and Jondalar's long journey west across prehistoric Europe back to Jondalar's home. There are several long sections where not much happens, so we read about the landscape, the plants, and the animals. The best parts are when they interact with other bands of people along the way.

Ayla continues to impress everyone she encounters, and she is coming into her own not only as a healer, but as a bit of a spiritual/c...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Sarah (Tail-Kinker) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This one was a relief from the third book, The Mammoth Hunters which I found to be full of "Oh, come on!" with the love-triangle drama between Jondalar, Ayla, and Ranec.

This book was enjoyable and well-paced. Some of the descriptions of the flora & fauna of that ancient world get a bit tedious but you can tell it was extensively researched. I confess to getting very curious over whether any of these medicenes and foods would really work and taste good. If ever the apocalypse came, I would gr...more

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Jun 29, 2011 GingerNut rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 20, 2011 Immen added it · review of another edition

My memory of this book was a vague annoyance with the depiction of the sexual sadism, but on the reread, it feels very different. There's a genuine disquiet, for me, with the invasion of violence into Auel's edenic ice age. I read this series confident that Wolf will never tear out the throat of innocent children, that no one will kill and feast on Ayla's horses. I'm not really in this for the glib handling of torture and rape. But let's not be deep here. I love the parts where Clan women get ra...more

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May 01, 2011 Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, historical

A reread to prepare for reading The Land of Painted Caves.

I decided to start with this one rather than Clan of the Cave Bear having read the first three so many times in the past. Jean Auel's later books suffer from much repetition of previous events, so I don't feel like I missed much of the previous three books! The Plains of Passage is interesting for its descriptions of glacial-epoch flora and fauna, but some of it drags and I found myself longing for some interaction with other ice-age peop...more

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Apr 02, 2011 Nicole rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love the entire Earth's Children series. The amount of research that Auel did astounds me. However, maybe it's because I tend to sit down and read these books as an entire large tome back-to-back, but all the descriptions of the plant life, geography, and the rehashing of what has gone on in previous books just gets unbelievably tedious in this one. It finally picks up when they get to the Sharamudoi, but I find myself skimming much of the first 250 pages of this installment. In the previous b...more

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Apr 01, 2011 Barbara rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is book #4 in the Children of the Earth series.
Things I like: I like the way they talk - it is formal, courteous and thoughtful.
The way the Earth is revered and respected makes you feel the same.
The cooking descriptions, while not practical for today, definitely make me want to experiment more.
A leisurely read.
Things I don't like: The descriptions of the valleys are getting repetitive.
While each group is different, they aren't unique enough to keep your interest.
The sex scenes are qu...more

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Mar 08, 2011 Rebecca Radnor rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction-adult, ancient-history

Having read the whole series.... book 1 ROCKED, book 2 was not bad... book 3 was cheesy.... book 4 was a bore, book 5 however seems to be getting back on track and is on par with book 2. Ms. Auel has this nasty habit of repeating everything so much that you have the feeling its to compensate for lack of inspiration. Lady, if we've gotten to book 5 all we need is a reminder (think flat heads) you don't have to tell us everything all over again, and DEFINITELY not more than once per book. That and...more

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Feb 15, 2011 Tania rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
“The Plains of Passage“ describen el viaje hacia el oeste de Ayla y de Jondalar a lo largo del Great Mother River (el Danubio), desde el hogar de los cazadores de Mamut (Ucrania) hasta el hogar de Jondalar La Novena Caverna de los Zelandonii, (cerca de Les Eyzies, en Dordogne, Francia). Durante este viaje, encuentran pueblos muy variados, varios campamentos de camino en el que paran a descansar unos días. Otros campamentos los encuentran desiertos pues la gente que los ve de lejos a caballo pien...more
“The Plains of Passage“ describen el viaje hacia el oeste de Ayla y de Jondalar a lo largo del Great Mother River (el Danubio), desde el hogar de los cazadores de Mamut (Ucrania) hasta el hogar de Jondalar La Novena Caverna de los Zelandonii, (cerca de Les Eyzies, en Dordogne, Francia). Durante este viaje, encuentran pueblos muy variados, varios campamentos de camino en el que paran a descansar unos días. Otros campamentos los encuentran desiertos pues la gente que los ve de lejos a caballo piensan que son espíritus malignos y se esconden. Pasan de nuevo una temporada con los Sharamudoi al que Ayla llega a tiempo de curar de una quebradura de brazo a Roshario que la hubiera dejado lisiada de por vida. Darvalo ya es un adolescente y Serenio se ha ido a vivir a otra cueva. Ayla hace buenas amistades con todos, especialmente Tholie y Markeno que les piden que se queden a vivir permanentemente con ellos. Ella desea quedarse , al igual que quería quedarse con los Mamutoi pues no está segura de ser bien recibida en la cueva de los Zelandonii. Después de esto pasan una temporada con los cazadores Hadumai. Continúan su camino y una noche se les pierde Whinney que se ha ido con una manada de caballos. Tratando de recuperarla Jondalar es apresado por un grupo de cazadoras de Lobos SÁrmunai, lideradas por una mujer diabólica llamada Attaroa. Wolf salva a Ayla cuando Attaroa está a punto de matarla. S’Armuna, la curandera queda a cargo del campamento de las cazadoras de Lobos después de que Jondalar y Ayla liberan a los hombres que tenían en prisión y que Ayla cura sus heridas y trae al mundo a los gemelos de Cavoa. Continúan el viaje hasta llegar a la cueva de los Losadunai. Ahí son también muy bien recibidos y se aprovisionan de comida, carbón etc para poder pasar el glaciar. Jondalar encuentra que Filonia que había tenido sus ritos con Thonolan tuvo una hija y le puso Tholonia y se parece mucho a su hermano desaparecido. Jondalar está preocupado de no ser capaz con su espiritu de darle un hijo a Ayla. Antitos de pasar el Glaciar encuentran una pareja del clan que están siendo golpeados por Charoli y su banda de maleantes. Ayla y Jondalar les dan una paliza y estos salen huyendo y Ayla cura a Guban que tiene una pierna quebrada y después de unos días él y Yorga regresan a su gente con una idea muy diferente de los que son “los otros“.
En el glaciar tienen muchas aventuras pero una vez superadas llegan a la tierra de los Lanzadonii, la tierra de su padre Dalanar, Joplaya y Jerika donde se quedan unos días a descansar para continuar su viaje a la tierra de los Zelandonii.

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Feb 04, 2011 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, prehistoric-fiction

The Plains of Passage is the fourth book in Auel's wonderful Earth's Children series. Unlike the others, I don't recommend that this one be read as a stand-alone. There is just too much background information and the series should be read in order. For those unfamiliar with the series (and this could be a possible spoiler) it revolves around Ayla, a little girl who was orphaned and raised by a clan of Neanderthals who took her in, taught her their ways and their sign language. When she is forced...more The Plains of Passage is the fourth book in Auel's wonderful Earth's Children series. Unlike the others, I don't recommend that this one be read as a stand-alone. There is just too much background information and the series should be read in order. For those unfamiliar with the series (and this could be a possible spoiler) it revolves around Ayla, a little girl who was orphaned and raised by a clan of Neanderthals who took her in, taught her their ways and their sign language. When she is forced to leave the Clan and her son behind, she makes her way to a remote valley where she makes unlikely friends in the animals there and eventually, a tall handsome man who is on a journey from the West, Jondalar, discovers her there. They fall in love and make a small trip where they meet the Mamutoi people and they gain not only friends, but family as well in the meeting. However, Jondalar is anxious to return home and he and Ayla start back on a journey to the lands of the Zelandonii far to the west.

This book is about that journey. It starts shortly after they leave the summer gathering of the Mamutoi and start heading west to get back to the Great Mother River who they will follow all the way to the end in the West. Along the way they encounter several different types of people, some good and some bad, and learn their ways and make new friends. With them are Ayla's two horses and the wolf cub she has raised from a pup which causes both fear and admiration from the people along the way. Not all are so impressed however and it is up to Ayla to rescue Jondalar when he is captured and their future seems uncertain as to whether they will make it back to Jondalar's home.

The characters in this book are more rushed than they have been in the previous books. Ayla and Jondalar are a little too perfect and it makes them unbelievable and doesn't promote connectedness in their characters. The other people in the book are only mentioned briefly as they are on a journey that takes them away from everyone quickly and therefore don't have the richness that is seen in the Mamutoi tribe or Ayla's clan in the previous books.

The writing is very descriptive and while that's normally a plus in Auel's book, here it makes the reading very tedious. Since they are on a journey they pass through many lands and vegetation and Auel takes the time to describe ALL of it. But, on a better note, she actually has other people invent things instead of Ayla and Jondalar for once and this makes the book a little more believable than some instances in the previous three. Readers should be warned that there are several explicit sex scenes in this book (and the others) and Auel leaves nothing to the imagination in them. Some people may like this, others may not.

While its not my favorite book in the series and arguably not as good as the first three, I still enjoyed this continuation of Ayla and Jondalar's story. I would rate it about 3 1/2 stars as its not bad, but definitely not up to par with Auel's normal work.

Book 1: The Clan of the Cave Bear
Book 2: The Valley of Horses
Book 3: The Mammoth Hunters

The Plains of Passage
Copyright 1990
757 pages

Review by M. Reynard 2011(less)

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Feb 23, 2012 Darlene rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone who hasn't read it yet.

Recommended to Darlene by: Everyone

Shelves: audible, history, herstorical-fiction, horses, kindle, womyn, kindle-books-i-own, not-loanable

This was probably my favorite of the series both for the writing/research but also for the narration of Sandra Burr. I think Ms. Burr finally hit her Cave-womyn height with this one. I more often pulled away from the Kindle version and let Sandra tell me the story. In the Audible version, the characterizations were seamless. When it was a man talking, I pictured the man. I often forgot a womyn was narrating. She kept each of the female voices different enough and consistent enough that I wouldn'...more

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Jan 16, 2008 Keely rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i love how the main character is so sure of herself, and what she wants in life... but the repetition of what she learned in the books that came before this get a little annoying, but it doesnt happen that often in this book, so i skipped a few paragraphs.

over all, in this book, the author creates a strengthened, comfortable relationship[between the main characters] with new adventures, and has that same rich-in-detail that i love so much.

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Mar 25, 2012 Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

More adventures of Super-Ayla, who cures all, invents all, and saves all while having the most graphic intimate life possible (read: skim skim skim skim...turgid member...skim skim skim...hot folds-ew...skim..ok, back to the story). Jondalar continues to obsess over only liking virginal young girls which, given that he is 23 and admittedly a middle-aged guy, is really creepy. He even gets all flirty with his younger sister.

Also, if Auel tells me one more time what a ptarmigan is I may lose my m...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Jayne Charles rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Anyone who has got this far in the series knows what to expect of these books, and this instalment does not surprise or disappoint. Though Ayla eases off on the inventing spree and concentrates on being a one-woman UN peacekeeping force (somewhere between Kofi Annan and Marjorie Proops methinks) she still manages to invent a sexual position or two and come within a whisker of inventing the umbrella. Not at the same time I hasten to add.

Being serious, this novel was one heck of an achievement -...more

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Aug 05, 2008 Truc rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is worth reading if you've read all the previous books in this series. Unfortunately it doesn't deliver as the other books have but it's a nice continuation of Ayla's journey and begins some closure to her story. I am not as excited about this book as I am about Auel's previous novels. I haven't heard a lot of good things about the next book in this series, so I think this is a good book to end with.

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Aug 28, 2012 Julia Bauer rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Plains of Passage ran very hot and cold for me. The sections when Ayla and Jondalar were with other tribes of people continued to capture my attention and make me want more as the first three books had done. The sections of the book when Ayla and Jondalar were traveling alone were tedious -- stretches of the story that were too long and redundant. I know other readers have criticized the amount of sex in the book. My problem is that it is essentially the same sex scene with nearly identical word...more

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Mar 16, 2010 Sarah705 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. In The Plains of Passage I feel like there are some pretty deep identity issues. Although Jondalar loves Ayla, when he's with her I feel like he kind of gets lost in her. He always wants to be with her, but when he was alone at the Wolf Women camp, he seemed to be more himself then I've seen in a while. At this point he's really used to being with Ayla- sleeping with her, eating with her, hunting with her, etc. He used to love flint knapping, and when he was with only the other men, that showed...more

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About Jean M. Auel

Jean M. Auel, née Jean Marie Untinen is an American writer. She is best known for her Earth's Children books, a series of historical fiction novels set in prehistoric Europe that explores interactions of Cro-Magnon people with Neanderthals. Her books have sold 34 million copies world-wide in many translations.

Author Jean Marie Auel (surname pronounced like "owl") is the second of five children of...more Jean M. Auel, née Jean Marie Untinen is an American writer. She is best known for her Earth's Children books, a series of historical fiction novels set in prehistoric Europe that explores interactions of Cro-Magnon people with Neanderthals. Her books have sold 34 million copies world-wide in many translations.

Author Jean Marie Auel (surname pronounced like "owl") is the second of five children of Neil Solomon Untinen, a housepainter, and Martha Wirtanen. She and her husband, Ray Bernard Auel, have five children and live in Portland, Oregon.

Auel has been a member of Mensa since 1964. She attended Portland State University and the University of Portland. While studying, she worked as a clerk (1965-1966), a circuit board designer (1966-1973), technical writer (1973-1974), and a credit manager at Tektronix (1974-1976). At one time, she shared a secretary with author Ursula K. Le Guin.[citation needed] She earned an MBA in 1976 and has received honorary degrees from the University of Maine and Mount Vernon College for Women.

In 1977, Auel began extensive library research of the Ice Age for her first book. She joined a survival class to learn how to construct an ice cave, and learned primitive methods of making fire, tanning leather, and knapping stone from aboriginal skills expert Jim Riggs. Auel describes Riggs as "the kind of person you could put into one end of a wilderness naked, and he'd come out the other end fed, clothed, and sheltered." Clan of the Cave Bear was nominated for numerous literary awards, including an American Booksellers Association nomination for best first novel.

After the success of the first book, Auel was able to travel to prehistoric sites and to meet many of the experts with whom she had been corresponding. Her research has taken her across Europe from France to Ukraine, including most of what Marija Gimbutas called Old Europe. She has developed a close friendship with Dr. Jean Clottes of France who was responsible for, among many other things, the exploration of the Cosquer Cave discovered in 1985 and the Chauvet Cave discovered in 1994.

Jean Auel's books have been commended for their anthropological authenticity and their ethnobotanical accuracy. However, recent archaeological research may suggest that some prehistorical details in the series are inaccurate and others fictional, and that specifications of prehistorical milestones are sometimes arbitrary and inconsistent. For example, the differences between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens may have been exaggerated or underestimated in the series; it has been found that Neanderthals had a hyoid bone and may thus have been capable of using vocal language and not as dependent on sign language as portrayed in the series (the existence of a Neanderthal hyoid bone wasn't confirmed until 1983, some years after the first book in the series was published).
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Books by Jean M. Auel

The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children, #1)

The Valley of Horses (Earth's Children, #2)

The Mammoth Hunters (Earth's Children, #3)

The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children, #5)

The Land of Painted Caves (Earth's Children, #6)

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Quotes from The Plains of Passage

“The other mammoths were as protective of the dying as they were of newborns, and they gathered around tying to make the fallen one get up. When all was over, they buried the dead ancestor under piles of dirt, grass, leaves, or snow. Mammoths were even known to bury other dead animals, including humans.” — 8 people liked it

“In a world so empty of human life, there was comfort in the thought that an invisible realm of spirits was aware of their existence, cared about their actions, and perhaps directed their steps. Even a stern or inimical spirit who cared enough to demand certain actions of appeasement was better than the heartless disregard of a harsh and indifferent world, in which their lives were entirely in their own hands, with no one else to turn to in time of need, not even in their thoughts.” — 1 person liked it

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The Plains of Passage (Earth's Children #4)

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