** spoiler alert ** So far, many complaints. Whereas Clan of the Cave Bear kept me turning the pages, wondering where Ayla was going to toe the line next, its sequel is bland and predictable. Okay, Ayla's got hangups about men and halfway across the continent comes an obvious stud who's never been in love. Gee. I wonder what's going to happen? I honestly want to see Ayla in a better relationship but how much to I have to go through to get there?

An inordinate amount of paper was spent on rehashing events in Clan of the Cave Bear - some understandable (Ayla's worry about her son, mourning for Creb, and recalling useful knowlege) but they get tiresome after a while.

Also tiresome are Auel's tangents into geography, fauna and prehistoric life, which form speedbumps in the action and stilt the dialogue. There are places when she educates us without interrupting the story (for example, when the travelers predict the severity of the winter by the migratory habits of the wooly mammoth, Ayla's difficulty starting her first fire) but many times these expositories just break up the flow and cause me to glaze over. When she pauses to explain the migratory habits of the woolly rhino about to charge Thonolin, that really takes the cake. I was interested in the world as perceived by the characters and thought the vast historical perspective diminished them somewhat.

The sex is getting old really fast. I appreciate that this culture has very different mores, but how much sex and in how much detail do we really need? We start out with the First Rites scene: we get cultural information and establish Jondalar's studmuffinry, both real contributions to the story. Excellent. Then there's the incident where the all girls molest Jondalar. Less of a point to that, but it's amusing. But by the time we get to Serenio... how does this further the story? And I'm not even halfway through, *and* I think I've probably left someone out.

I have enough interest in the story that I'll probably finish it eventually. I want to know how Ayla reacts when she finally meets her own people, and whether the brewing trouble between her people and the neanderthal/ Clan/ 'flatheads' comes to a head. I just really wish the book was about those things, without so much prehistory lesson crammed into every random crevasse.