Review: The Land Of Painted Caves (Earth’s Children #6) by Jean M. Auel
[Please note: this is quite an old review of mine–think I wrote it two years ago–that was originally posted on Goodreads. I thought that I’d also post it here on my site, as here I have a review of the first book, The Clan of the Cave Bear.]
Now, onto the review!
The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
For years I’ve been waiting for the last book in this wonderful series, and couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. And when I did I read it in four days flat.
One thing I did find was that there was an awful lot of repetition of scenes in the book, and retelling of previous scenes in previous books (and earlier chapters of this book too). And Ayla spent a lot of time going around all the caves, which are described in great detail – several times. Fantastic detail, but a little repetitive in places.
Also, a lot of the minor story lines are reoccurring ‘themes’ of the other books. Indeed parts of it seemed like a continuation to ‘The Mammoth Hunters’, but it was still good. Especially when old characters, who we weren’t sure we’d see again, appeared!
I did enjoy the book and, although it’s not the strongest of Auel’s books plot-wise compared to the others in the series, I love it! Especially the humorous parts! And, despite the plot lacking in places, the overall book worked as a wonderful conclusion to the series.
I chose to give this book such a high rating, mainly because I’m just in love with the series, and SO glad that Auel finished the series–I’ve followed Ayla since she was five years old, so it was great seeing her settle down with her own family. But, for me, she seemed to have lost some of her own ‘character’. An example of this is, in the first books she seemed more adventurious and would stand up for herself. This book… not so much. But, then again, through this character arc (spanning six books) Auel has shown how people really do change.
Don’t get me wrong, this book isn’t all bad, there’re parts which I loved, and, if you’ve been following the serious, then I’d highly recommend that you read the conclusion to Ayla’s story.
