The Shelters of Stone

...Auel achieves very little in this book. You could say the only thing she does manage in this 750 page doorstopper is convince Ayla she belongs among the spiritual elite of the Zelandonii and that puts her in a position to force the loss of innocence (or in less cryptic terms the realization that sex and reproduction are linked) described in The Land of the Painted Caves on these unfortunate hunter-gatherers. Ayla brings change, she is like a storm waiting the break loose but it doesn't happen in this book. In fact, Auel would need many more pages to get to that point. With a little better plotting it might have been worth reading but as it is The Shelters of Stone is mostly filler. Not many people would be willing to plow though that many pages of ineffective writing. The only thing that saves this book for being the worst in the series is that Auel manages to outdo herself in in the final volume. It's very sad to see that a series that started with such a special novel as The Clan of the Cave Bear sinks to these depths in the final volumes.

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