The story line of this book was just as good as the others in the series but it could have been written with half of what I call "filler". A lot of describing various painting in caves, journeys from here to there and non- stuff to fill the pages. Looking beyond that, it was a good book but had I known,I'd have waited til it was on clearance sale.

Jean Auel should to be ashamed of the lousy writing and a huge disappointment to her fans experience with this book. How many times do you want to visit a painted cave and visit a painted cave and then visit a painted cave, I think you can grasp whereI am coming from. A major disappointment I think you will agree. I am not looking forward to her next book that I will probably not buy if it's anything like this one. Shame on you Jean Auel!

I wish I knew Jean personally so that I could give her a hug. I feel so sick for her. I have loved the Earth's Children Series up until Shelters of Stone and hoped The Land of Painted Caves might be the come back. I am wondering if the editor of this one even read the others. Perhaps the repitition was for the editor? I hoped to hear more of Ayla's first born and was sure we were headed there with the extent of travelling in this book. There were 3 interesting parts for me but they all fell flat. The lion hunt, the pregnancy, the affair. I am an artist and thought the painted caves would be very interesting. I was seriously bored to tears. I will continue to recomend the first 3 books.

I blame the editors for this rambling boring account of Ayla's adventures. At least one hundred pageswere repeating prior events in Ayla's life'( one event was recounted three times); at least one hundred pages of repetitive and unnecessary dialogue; and one hundred pages of boring repetitive descriptions of caves. There is a good story underneath all this but the book was tiring and disappointing to read.

I gotta say that I fell in love with this series when I found the mammoth hunters in my grandmas books and proceeded to buy all the others and was so excited when I found out she had written another till I started reading it anyway. I think Ayla and jondalar definitally deserved a better ending to their journey then this. It is so repetitive I think I skipped through half of it and didn't miss a darn thing. Plus nothing really happens. I got to the end and just shook my head asking aloud, that's it, that can't be the end?!?! I was so darn disappointed, like opening up a big Christmas present as a kid to find out there are socks in side. *sigh* definitally not the book I had been dreaming about and I still find it leaves so many things unanswered...

After some of the poor reviews I thought I would put my positive plug in for this book. Agree with some of the posts that the Mother's Song is perhaps overused but IMO its stressing a point. Descriptions of the caves are somewhat repetitive but the characters are on a journey. I would absolutely recommend this book for Earth Childrens' followers.

This is, I believe, my very first negative review on a book. Having a really hard time thinking of something kind to say about it. I loved the first two books in the series, but the series has gotten progressively worse & this one-- well it was painful to finish it. But I promised to review it and I ALWAYS keep my promises! The Good Stuff * Seems to be well researched * Love the sense of community between the women and the raising of the children * Had no problem falling asleep at night -- just read a couple of chapters of this and fell asleep The Not so Good Stuff * The repetition in this book is unlike any book I have ever read before. On many occasions I actually felt like throwing the book across the room in frustration -- but I could have hurt something since the book is so feckin thick (I received the large print edition -- hmm think someone is trying to tell me something) You could have cut almost 400 pages out of the book and there still would be way to much repetition * I never want to hear about someone describing a cave again, and at the beginning I thought that bit was interesting -- but after the 15th cave -- I'm set for life * That mother song written in its entirety over 5 times -- hello I get it - once would have been fine. I will be singing the song in my sleep tonight & which might be a change from the Go Diego Go theme song * Laughable dialogue and plot points. So Jondalar is the first modern daddy who likes to take care of his daughter while mommy goes to work and does drugs. Ayla suffers from a sort of post postpartum depression after losing her baby and tries to kill herself, but gets over it way too quickly -- which is an insult to anyone who has ever suffered from it -- trust me on this point. Ayla can solve every problem, she is little miss perfect and guess what she can talk to animals too. * Ayla has an accent -- yup got that - you didn't have to mention that so many times (hmm get the repetition comment now) * The constant long winded introductions that they go through every time they meet someone new * Hmm, now I am repeating myself. The constant repetition of stories from the previous books * Ok I know this is getting picky but expected Ayla to somehow connect with her first born again * The book honestly really didn't tell us anything new or give us any closer about anything * I liken my experience of reading this to the dismay of seeing the travesty that was The Phantom Menace after loving the original Star Wars series so much - A total disappointment * All of a sudden the story jumps into an explanation of the ice age & it just comes across as a lecture and distracts from the story * Enough with the bodily functions -- NO ONE wants to read about bodily functions (and by the way -- it is written about on many occasions -- yup repetitive again) Favorite Quotes/Passages "She knew that Jondalar was only appreciating; he had no desire to do more than look" (yup that is exactly how I feel about all the attractive men in this world) What I Learned * Some interesting THEORIES about the origin of the species * Might have to change my thought that I will never give a book a DNF rating - and I am a stubborn one, unless there is abuse to a child or an animal, I usually can finish a book no matter how bad it is Who should/shouldn't read * Die hard fans who loved ALL of the books in the series might find something to like * Fans of Painted Caves -- this is your book! * Also highly recommended for insomnia 1 Dewey's Notes from Joan and Ted * The most boring and awful ending to a book I have ever read * I understand that the Zeladoni is a fat old chick there is no need to repeat it so often * I loved the rest of the series and have bought this book to complete my collection, but I will probably never read it again * This was like the ramblings of an old women who is prone to repeating herself * Feckin (yup Joan is the reason I use Feckin all the time, but she says it so much better with her wonderful Irish accent) painted caves * Ted Hated it and kept falling asleep while reading it and he loved the series too I received this from Random House in exchange for an honest review -- sorry guys I feel like I should apologize for my review, but had to be honest.

Jean Auel should have quit writing this series a couple of books ago. Her last book and this one are so much repetition from the first 3 books that I was able to skip quit a bit of the book and therefore did not have a good read. This book took her into the Harlequin romance genre, and is certainly not worth the money. It's too bad, she started out so well. My other complaint about this last book, is the modern day attitudes and feelings that she has attributed to the characters. I am sure that the people of the day were too intent about survival, to have time to sit and worry about someone else's problems.

Frustration prompts me to write this review. As I understand this series has 30 years between creation and conclusion; and also that readers (including myself) yearned for closure.... I feel if the author did not have anywhere left to go with this series she should have finished it with the last book. This frustrating journey of repetitive jibber jabber and factual content reminds me of trying to write a high school paper and doing everything conceivable to achieve the required word count. I agree with previous reviews regarding the monotony of discussing Ayla's unique voice and mannerisms. I also discovered I could read a paragraph and skip 6 or 7 pages, as the author would continue to document the same incident from the perspective of three or four non significant characters. The feeling I am left with as i read this book is the authors passion for the series has been exhausted and she was driven by money to create this conclusion; or .. she simply did not have the means or passion to come up with a suitable conclusion. Perhaps utilizing her energy on a research paper would have been more appropriate.

How absolutely disappointing!! The author is so repetitious. Here we are at another painted cave...again. Lets introduce Ayla and use all her ties...again. Lets sing the "mother song"....again (and what the hell is with that??). Absolutely nothing happens in this book that's new. I can't believe the publisher didn't pitch this back at Ms. Auel and say "you can do WAY better than this". Save yourself the money and pretend this book was never released.