The Plains of Passage
by Jean M. AuelSign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
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Read in April, 2008
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Read in October, 2007
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 slin...more
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 slin...more
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Read in February, 2002
recommends it for:
Botanists & Anthropologists
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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Read in January, 1990
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
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Read in August, 2007
There's something about these books that I love even though, if I were to pick them apart, the would drive me crazy.
The characters never change. Not even their reactions to things or eachother. It's almost the same scene, played out in 15 different ways.
The author draaags you through the landscape and wildlife, and hurries you through the interactions with people. I found myself actually skipping over whole pages, and what I didnt skip over, I had to force myself to read, just waiting f...more
The characters never change. Not even their reactions to things or eachother. It's almost the same scene, played out in 15 different ways.
The author draaags you through the landscape and wildlife, and hurries you through the interactions with people. I found myself actually skipping over whole pages, and what I didnt skip over, I had to force myself to read, just waiting f...more
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Read in September, 2008
I had read Clan of the Cave Bear, Valley of Horses and The Mammoth Hunters before attempting to plow through the fourth in a series of 6 books regarding the "adventures" of Ayla. I am very anal and I was determined to get through the series. Couldn't do it. I gave this book away on a flight home. I just couldn't take it anymore. The first book was ok and the rest have been DULL.
Every now and then Auel throws in some soft core porn passages but this book was brutal. Ayla and...more
Every now and then Auel throws in some soft core porn passages but this book was brutal. Ayla and...more
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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
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This is probably one of my least favorite books in the series but only because I felt that Auel's descriptions of the Plains that Ayla and her companion are traveling becomes a bit to tedious. Also, all the "Pleasures" throughout the book I don't feel were all that necessary. Where I enjoyed the full descriptions of the various lands and the medicinal lore in the other books, sometimes I felt in this book that Auel was concentrating on the details from her research a bit too much. T...more
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Read in January, 1991
The Plains of Passage by Jean M. Auel
Ayla and Jondalar travel along the Great Mother River, from The Mammoth Hunters to Jondalar's homeland. They encounter every type of person, animal and plant (of that time period) that one can imagine along the way.
A long book with interesting characters and adventures. NOT my favorite "story" in the Earth's Children series.
However, personally having strong archaeological interest, I very much enjoyed the lengthy environmental des...more
Ayla and Jondalar travel along the Great Mother River, from The Mammoth Hunters to Jondalar's homeland. They encounter every type of person, animal and plant (of that time period) that one can imagine along the way.
A long book with interesting characters and adventures. NOT my favorite "story" in the Earth's Children series.
However, personally having strong archaeological interest, I very much enjoyed the lengthy environmental des...more
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If there was one book in the series that I didn't enjoy as much as the others, it would be the Plains of Passage. To me, I feel like this book went a little slower, as I was so eager for Ayla and Jondalar to get to where they were traveling. There is a lot of description of the land they were traveling over, which is quite detailed. Auel did a wonderful job in her research in writing all of the books, but this one was a little "drier" for lack of a better term. However, even if it ...more
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Read in September, 2008
This book was better than the last one but I would have liked it a whole lot more if it were condensed into about half the size. There weren't as many but still way too many of the same old sex scenes and the author describes everything repeatedly. The same plants and animals are described in several places as well as every time they meet new people they go through almost identical events and re-telling of their adventures. I listened to this as an audiobook but I would have probably preferre...more
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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.
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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Read in May, 2008
I really like the Earth Children series but out of all the books this is my least favorite. This is probably the 3rd time I have read this book. I think that if I really stopped and thought about the series too much - I would get picky. So I just try to enjoy the story of Ayla. Okay one picky thing she is a little too perfect for me. But again I enjoy seeing where life takes her. I know some people doesn't like the long drawn out details of the land, animals and plants but I personally have a...more
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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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Read in October, 2007
Oh man...
What a lump of coal....
I guess I realize now why I had never heard about the latter 2 additions to the Earths Children series until I started running a bookstore and came face to face with them...
This effort is so boringly written it made me wish I was a guy who could not finish something that I start, but I cant... So I struggled through and now it is done, but if anyone out there is trying to decide - save yourself the time, and just take a few sleeping pills instead...
What a lump of coal....
I guess I realize now why I had never heard about the latter 2 additions to the Earths Children series until I started running a bookstore and came face to face with them...
This effort is so boringly written it made me wish I was a guy who could not finish something that I start, but I cant... So I struggled through and now it is done, but if anyone out there is trying to decide - save yourself the time, and just take a few sleeping pills instead...
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Read in June, 2008
the final in the series, this is a great read. I think it's my favorite of all of them. It killed me at the end that we didn't get to see Ayla give Jondalar his matrimonial tunic, but oh well.
The story is of their trek back across iceage Europe, basically from almost Turkey back to Spain. on foot. They meet new people, fight against the elements and fall in love with each other all over again. It is a great story of an incredible journey. Wish she had written just ONE more....
The story is of their trek back across iceage Europe, basically from almost Turkey back to Spain. on foot. They meet new people, fight against the elements and fall in love with each other all over again. It is a great story of an incredible journey. Wish she had written just ONE more....
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Read in August, 2006
I have a huge Love hate relationship with these books. The author repeats herself over and over again; she treats the reader like they're stupid and cannot remember a thing. In fact I believe any good editor could cut these books down by hundreds of pages. Yet, this series is addicting. The first one is by far the best but be prepared to be sucked in - if you read the first you will want to read them all.
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Read in January, 1989
I couldn't wait for this book to come out because I enjoyed the first three so much. It is the longest book so far. Although I didn't have much trouble getting though it, I thought it had far too much "flora and fauna." The author obviously wanted to put in everything she had researched and found in the library into this book. There is suppose to be two more books in this series, but I'm still waiting.
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recommends it for:
all my friends
The 4th book of the Earth's Children Series. The story continues as Ayla and Jondalar travel across Ice Age Europe. They meet many strange and wonderous people. Many are amazed at Ayla's skill at taming wild horses and wolves, but many are also threatened by what they don't understand. Together Ayla and Jondalar must help each other as they make this amazing journey to find a place to call home.
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Read in April, 2005
Although sometimes I had the feeling I was reading some kind of pre-historic kama-sutra, I did enjoy this book a lot. I especially liked the descriptions of the flora and fauna of the Danube and the steppes, all the info on edible plants, the geology descriptions and I also had great fun looking up in maps the places Ayla and Jondalar were travelling through. I wish I could make such a journey!
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