Product Description
Jean M. Auel’s enthralling Earth’s Children series has become a literary phenomenon, beloved by readers around the world. In a brilliant novel as vividly authentic and entertaining as those that came before, Jean M. Auel returns us to the earliest days of humankind and to the captivating adventures of the courageous woman called Ayla.

With her companion, Jondalar, Ayla sets out on her most dangerous and daring journey--away from the welcoming hearths of The Mammoth Hunters and into the unknown. Their odyssey spans a beautiful but sparsely populated and treacherous continent, the windswept grasslands of Ice Age Europe, casting the pair among strangers.

Some will be intrigued by Ayla and Jondalar, with their many innovative skills, including the taming of wild horses and a wolf; others will avoid them, threatened by what they cannot understand; and some will threaten them. But Ayla, with no memory of her own people, and Jondalar, with a hunger to return to his, are impelled by their own deep drives to continue their trek across the spectacular heart of an unmapped world to find that place they can both call home.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 255 reviews)

Could have been better

Having read the previous three novels, I was disappointed when I read this one many years ago. It is a very tedious, redundant book with remarkably similar encounters with various tribes along the way.

The good: Auel provides rich scenery (sometimes too rich) for the reader and I like the way that she works artifacts into her novels. In my anthropology, art history and ancient history from college, I was often thrilled to find a "venus" statue that she had described or a mammoth bone dwelling. The tediousness of the book even works for it in a way since you have a huge sense of relief at the end, much as Jondalar and Ayla would have felt, FINALLY!!! There was also a lot of potential with this novel. For characters, I liked S'armuna, Epadoa, Dolando and Joplaya simply because all of them had a chip on their shoulders for one reason or another.

Unfortunately, Auel did not take advantage of it. The conflicts are mild and predictable. There is more telling than showing. Wolf, who is hardly a year old, responds to Ayla with almost perfect obedience. The characters for the most part are eminently suited to their positions. With the exception of Attaroa, there are no leaders who are incompetent or who make mistakes or do anything bad. Ayla in the first three novels made cultural mistakes, got angry and spoke without thinking, and didn't always do things the right way. Now, she always does what is right and Jondalar is there to support her. Her personality has gone.

Also, I find it very incredible that all of these cultures are so similar in their religious beliefs. Auel has put a lot of effort into the Sharamudoi and Mamutoi culture, but hasn't given them any spiritual independence. All worship The Mother, all have First Rites, all accept women leaders in some form or another, it is very incredulous to believe that these people were so similar

August 22, 2008

Jane M. Auel's Earth Children Series Truly Amazing

Who would believe a mini-series about a woman living in the Stone Age could be so fasinating. I for one would not had not a friend insisted I would enjoy these books. I am now reading the fourth book in the series and my friend was on the money. What a wonderful writer.
January 21, 2008

This was my favorite of the series

What a mixed group of reviews! This, however, ranked as my favorite in the the series.
January 02, 2008

Book on CD review "Plains of Passage" by Jean Auel

Wow, this book comes alive with the reading aloud on this book CD. I read the other books in the series but this is so easy to listen to and I can listen at any time.
I would recomend this book on CD to any one who likes to read but doesn't have the time to.
December 31, 2007

downward curve

In this series I felt each book has been better than the previous one...until Plains of Passage. I feel that the novelty of these characters and pets and wonderful inventions are beginning to wear thin. I don't want to read any more paragraphs that begin with Jondalar saying "Ayla, my Ayla!" and how she was the first, and only, woman that could 'take his all' (reference to the huge size of his 'manhood'). I did enjoy this book but it's becoming a bit hard not to poke fun at all the repeated sex scenes and wonderment from the different peoples that they encounter. I loved the first three books in this series but now everything seems to be repeating on itself. I liked the anti-racist tones of these novels but feel a little uncomfortable at the authors obvious admiration for people that mother-nature has made beautiful/tall/well endowed/blonde/naturally gifted etc. At first we rejoice in these things because Ayla and Jondalar were both given a tough time in previous novels, and we cheered them on. But now in Plains of Passage, they plod along doing the same things and the novelty's wearing thin. But still worth a read. (flip past any paragraphs beginning "Ayla, my Ayla")
December 05, 2007

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children (Paperback))
by JEAN M. AUEL

The Mammoth Hunters (Earth's Children)
by Jean M. Auel

The Valley of Horses
by JEAN M. AUEL

The Clan of the Cave Bear
by Jean M. Auel, Jean M. Auel

Clan of the Cave Bear
Directed by Michael Chapman
Starring Daryl Hannah, Pamela Reed, James Remar, Thomas G. Waites, John Doolittle
Warner Home Video