The Shelters of Stone

Earth's Children, No. 5

896 pages

English language

Published Nov. 7, 2003 by Bantam.

ISBN:
978-0-553-28942-8
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OCLC Number:
52739813

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3 stars (4 reviews)

In The Shelters of Stone, Ayla meets the Zelandonii tribe of Jondalar, the Cro-Magnon hunk she rescued from Baby, her pet lion. Ayla is pregnant. How will Jondalar's mom react? Or his bitchy jilted fiancée? Ayla wows her future in-laws by striking fire from flint and taming a wild wolf. But most regard her Neanderthal adoptive Clan as subhuman "flatheads." Clan larynxes can't quite manage language, and Ayla must convince the Zelandonii that Clan sign language isn't just arm-flapping. Zelandonii and Clan are skirmishing, and those who interbreed are deemed 'abominations.' What would Jondalar's tribe think if they knew Ayla had to abandon her half-breed son in Clan country? 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 …

31 editions

Review of 'The Shelters of Stone' on 'Storygraph'

2 stars

I didn't like this book quite as much as I was hoping to. I guess my main complaints are that Ayla just seems a little too, perfect? Too super-human. Reading through the book, I almost get the impression the story is as much about what a wonder Ayla is than about the life and times back then. I know that's probably somewhat the point, because whenever Ayla tells her story to someone new they rarely believe her, but I think the narrative would seem a bit more believable if Ayla was more like your every day person like all the rest of us, just trying to survive in the circumstances. Her exceptional beauty and perfect body take away from the otherwise uniqueness of the series. That's just my opinion though.

Apart from that, I do still enjoy the different setting and getting a glimpse into what life was probably like …

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Subjects

  • Fiction
  • Ayla (Fictitious character)
  • Prehistoric peoples
  • Glacial epoch

Places

  • Europe