The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children, Book 5)

by Jean M. Auel

Hardcover, 2002

FPCL Notes

Condition: excellent, no jacket

Publication

Crown (2002), Edition: 1st, 753 pages

Original publication date

2002-04-30

Status

Available

Call number

Best Seller

Description

Fiction. Literature. Thriller. Historical Fiction. HTML:The Shelters of Stone opens as Ayla and Jondalar, along with their animal friends, Wolf, Whinney, and Racer, complete their epic journey across Europe and are greeted by Jondalar�??s people: the Zelandonii. The people of the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii fascinate Ayla. Their clothes, customs, artifacts, even their homes�??formed in great cliffs of vertical limestone�??are a source of wonder to her. And in the woman Zelandoni, the spiritual leader of the Ninth Cave (and the one who initiated Jondalar into the Gift of Pleasure), she meets a fellow healer with whom to share her knowledge and skills. But as Ayla and Jondalar prepare for the formal mating at the Summer Meeting, there are difficulties. Not all the Zelandonii are welcoming. Some fear Ayla�??s unfamiliar ways and abhor her relationship with those they call flatheads and she calls Clan. Some even oppose her mating with Jondalar, and make their displeasure known. Ayla has to call on all her skills, intelligence, knowledge, and instincts to find her way in this complicated society, to prepare for the birth of her child, and to decide whether she will accept new challenges and play a significant role in the destiny of the Zelandonii. Jean Auel is at her very best in this superbly textured creation of a prehistoric society. The Shelters of Stone is a sweeping story of love and danger, with all the wonderful detail�??based on meticulous research�?? that makes her novels unique. It is a triumphant continuation of the Earth�??s Children® saga that began with The Clan of the Cave Bear. And it includes an amazing rhythmic poem that describes the birth of Earth�??s Children and plays its own role in the narrative of The Shelters of Stone. This eBook includes the full text of the novel plus the following additional content: �?� An Earth�??s Children® series sampler including free chapters from the other books in Jean M. Auel�??s bestselling series �?� A Q&A with the autho… (more)

Physical description

753 p.; 9.5 inches

Language

Media reviews

That's informative but not nearly as much fun as The Flintstones. The story is thin and the cast so distended—there are 86 characters—that few will make it to the end. Ayla and Jondalar's saga would have been a breeze at 300 pages, but unfortunately for readers and forests alike, Auel allows it
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to bloat to more than 700.
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2 more
Bursting with hard information about ancient days and awash in steamy sex (though lacking the high suspense that marked Ayla's debut), Auel's latest will not only please her legions of fans but will hit the top of the list, pronto.
The plot is slow to unfold, because Auel's first goal is to pack the tale with period Pleistocene detail, provocative speculation, and bits of romance, sex, tribal politics, soap opera, and homicidal wooly rhino-hunting adventure. It's an enveloping fact-based fantasy, a genre-crossing time trip to
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the Ice Age.
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