Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Dec 16, 2009

Kerry rated it:

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?

7 comments like (9 people liked it)

Sep 25, 2011

BoekenTrol rated it:

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 More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Renee rated it:

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...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Nov 10, 2007

Stef rated it:

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- More...

3 comments like (10 people liked it)

Aug 07, 2008

Christen rated it:

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. An More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 22, 2007

mrs. fig rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 28, 2012

Annette rated it:

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...). W More...

0 comments like

Jul 11, 2011

Sarah (Tail-Kinker) rated it:

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 apocalyps More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 29, 2011

Gingernut rated it:

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

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 20, 2011

Immen added it

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...

0 comments like

May 01, 2011

Kate rated it:

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 More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Apr 02, 2011

Nicole rated it:

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 previo More...

0 comments like

Apr 01, 2011

Barbara rated it:

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 re More...

0 comments like

Mar 08, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

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...

0 comments like

Feb 15, 2011

Tania rated it:

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

0 comments like

Dec 10, 2011

Jaye rated it:

The original storyline was creative and addictive and the characters were dynamic.
Unfortunately, the lengthy, monotonous, overly-explanatory paragraphs describing the shade of every leaf on every friggin’ tree drove me insane— ugh!

I was a bit annoyed, to say the least.

Now, it is clear that during the development of the first book, Auel inhaled small doses of, uh, let’s just call it a “rambling” leaf. And that’s cool, no worries, I’m all for, uh, leaf-inhalation-- i More...

0 comments like

Feb 04, 2011

Melissa rated it:

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 fo More...

0 comments like

Jan 16, 2008

Keely rated it:

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.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 02, 2011

Jayne rated it:

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 achi More...

0 comments like

Aug 05, 2008

Truc rated it:

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.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 16, 2010

Sarah705 rated it:

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

0 comments like

Feb 24, 2011

Isis rated it:

Once again, Auel has clearly put a great deal of research into the book, furnishing her descriptions with plenty of attention to detail. However, once again, Auel takes it too far at some points, with some passages reading like they'd been lifted directly from an anthropological academic journal. I don't mind being given information about the environment in which characters move, in fact I relish it, but the way it's written, it really feels like a chopped up academic article forcibly inserted i More...

0 comments like

Aug 22, 2011

Ilea rated it:

I understand the reviews left by others. This book did tend to drag, with detailed explanations of animal life, vegetation, geographical occurrences and the formations of glaciers. Since Ayla and Jondalar had few interactions with other groups of people, the author seemed to struggle to fill in the silence, so to speak. However, though I admittedly skipped over a page or two here or there, I ultimately enjoyed this book and hope that the next two provide more opportunities to see how Ayla and More...

0 comments like

Jan 06, 2012

Josh rated it:

As I predicated, The Plains of Passage featured exorbitant amounts of environmental description and sexual encounters which rarely strayed from the same repetitive formula. For the first two thirds of the book I think it's safe to say that NOTHING happens except maybe Ayla fell over once or something ... I really enjoyed the encounter with Attaroa, if only the rest of the book was like that! This was the first ever book that I skimmed (several pages at a time mind you). At least Auel structured More...

0 comments like

May 13, 2009

Linda rated it:

Once again, a very long wait was met with mediocre results the first time I read this book. After a second reading though, I got back in the groove with Ayla and Jondalar. Some of the new peoples they meet on their way to Jondalar's home are very interesting and I enjoyed the deepening of their relationship. There is a glaring exception to my overall good review of this installment and that is the overlong, overwrought and overdone descriptions of the plains through which they are passing. I rea More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 16, 2009

Frank rated it:

The story is basically about a couple traveling from one group of prehistoric people to another. The trip to take a year. The author goes into a lot of detail into the prehistoric animals and plants. The story is good interesting to read. The main fault if she was trying to be realistic is that she gives the human's a 21st century mind. But that is not why I gave it only one star. I cannot recommend a book that is porno in nature. The author is very into graphic sex (even for the animals)and it More...

0 comments like

Jan 24, 2012

essjay rated it:

This book should've been called How to Pleasure Your Way Across Europe, Righting Injustices Along the Way.

I've been meaning to do this write-up since I finished the book (over two weeks ago), but kept putting it off. The Plains of Passage comes in at just under 800 pages, but they're 800 pages in which nothing much happens. It's meant to chronicle the trip Ayla and Jondalar make from Ukraine to France (on foot, across a glacier) that takes over a year. You end up feeling like you're More...

0 comments like

Sep 29, 2011

Liz rated it:

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

0 comments like

Apr 14, 2011

Joanna rated it:

I agree with what most people have already reviewd about this series. Valley of Horses is without a doubt my favourite one.

But despite the constant ramblings on the weather or the environment or the customs or the food or the animals, they are actually very enjoyable to read. Once you realise the author is extremely repetitive you just learn to skip a couple of pages here and there....well more often than that, but you can still get the essence of the story and the characters withou More...

0 comments like

May 04, 2011

Colette rated it:

I first read the Earth's Children series in 2001. I read this particular book on a long Greyhound bus ride from Albuquerque to St. Paul. The book seemed endless then, and it seemed endless again in this 2011 reading. Having read it twice before, I looked forward to the different remembered stops in Ayla and Jondalar's journey.

Somehow, I had remembered the Valley of Horses to be full of tawdry caveman sex, and Plains of Passage to be relatively benign, but in fact, the opposite is tr More...

0 comments like