The Land of Painted Caves

The last installment of the adventures of Ayla, the prehistoric version of Wonder Woman, is a major disappointment. What started as a riveting story in The Clan of the Cave Bear and proceeded through two well told stories in The Valley of Horses and The Mammoth Hunters has come to a screeching halt in the final installment of the series. It should have been obvious from the previous book in the series (The Shelters of Stone) that The Land of Painted Caves would be a book about how the characters do what they do and not about characters doing anything.

One could only hope for a return to any kind of story line. Ayla is married and has a daughter in the previous book. In this book she gets on the job training to finish her education for what the Cro-Magnon would call a priestesses. Unfortunately, the book is mostly filled with how to perform day to day activities or flash backs to the five previous books. The author repeatedly drones on to give you the history on why someone does what they do or how the horses and wolf act they way they act. I found that I skipped over large sections of the book simply so I would not have to re-read the same thing yet again. I looked forward to something really big from Ayla. I thought maybe sailing to America or founding Atlantis.

Unfortunately, The Land of Painted Caves does little more than provide an alternative to Ambien. It reminds me of the begats in the Bible. You read them and it gives you a sense of the history but the sheer repetition of the process provides very little to the overall story. If Jean Auel does decide to add to this series, take a lesson from the earlier books. Characters must do something for the book to be interesting. Reading about the ingredients of tea for the umpteenth time might be exciting in Great Britain but bored the daylights out of me.

Icool

Cobb