The Land of Painted Caves
by Jean M. Auel
The highly anticipated sixth book of Jean Auel's Earth's Children® series, The Land of Painted Caves, is the culmination fans have been waiting for. Continuing the story of Ayla and Jondalar, Auel combines her brilliant narrative skills and appealing characters with a remarkable re-creation of the way life was lived more than 25,000 years ago. The Land of Painted Caves is an exquisite achievement by one of the world's most beloved authors.
Pages: 757 Publisher: Crown Publishing
Released: March 29, 2011 Standalone/Series: #6 in Earth's Children Series
Genre: Fiction Format Read: Ebook
Released: March 29, 2011 Standalone/Series: #6 in Earth's Children Series
Genre: Fiction Format Read: Ebook
Where did I get the book?
I unfortunately bought this book.
I unfortunately bought this book.
For anyone who loves:
I don't recommend it.
BUT If you do read it,
I highly suggest reading the others in the series.
I don't recommend it.
BUT If you do read it,
I highly suggest reading the others in the series.
Why did I read it?
Because this was MY series.
The first series for me.
My Rambles:Because this was MY series.
The first series for me.
To give you some background....
The first adult book I ever read was The Clan of the Cave Bear. It is the first book in Ms. Auel's Earth's Children series. I was hooked. I read books 2, 3 and 4 very shortly after that. I was 9. No, I completely agree that these books (at least book 1) was not appropriate for most 9 year olds!
Then, we had to wait 12 long years, until 2002 before we finally got book 5. Again, I devoured it within hours of having purchased it.
Nine years later, book 6 finally hit the shelves. This was it. This was the end of the series.
And I was so incredibly disappointed. Where was her editor? I guess she can get away with it because she is so popular and has made her publisher crap-tons of money, right? Either way, I was disgusted.
In fact, I was so disgusted with the repetition in this book that I in fact made a drinking game. Yup, you read that right.
So grab your drink of choice....
I'm flexible, you can either do a shot, or take a drink of your cocktail.
The rules are:
- Every time Cave is mentioned, take a drink/shot
- Every time Ayla's accent is noticed by new character, take a drink/shot.
So yeah, drunk out of my gourd by the second chapter!!
Over all?
Ayla's accent was mentioned a total of 41 times throughout the book. Forty-one times, a character remarked upon Ayla's manner of speaking.
Want to know how many times the word cave was written in this book? I'll tell you how many times.
1,579
(Thank god for find and replace in Word, or else this would have killed me)
I almost could have overcome that, but then the ending sucked. There was no resolution (not that there was really any conflict). The characters got super stupid. And the book just ended.
The amount of rage I felt at the end of this book was amazing.
I implore of you, beg you, if you have any love for this series? Pretend that book 5 is the last in the series.
1/5
My first ever. (I read this prior to reading Delirium)
Quality of writing: 2/10
Pace: 2/10
Plot Development: 1/10
Characters: 1/10
Ease of Reading: -10/10
Enjoyability: 0/10
Overall: 1/5
You're my heroine for even finishing this. I tried so hard - I'd get 50 pages in, have to stop. 25 pages in, have to stop. I finally quit less than halfway through because I was afraid I was going to kill someone and I loved the series so much before this book.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with everything you said. What dreck this was. I'm glad I didn't make it through to even be more disappointed by the end.
You're a far, far better woman than I, lol.
(wanted to add - I had an ARC hard copy - I swear, I'm using it as a freaking doorstop it's so big)
ReplyDelete@ Barbara - The only reason I finished it is because I was so heavily invested. I wish I hadn't *sob*
ReplyDeleteYou're spot on. By about halfway though, I couldn’t help but think this book was self-indulgent drivel. Now I can’t help but think she’d promised another book, but had no ideas and hoped noone would notice it was all filler. Sorely disappointed after nearly 10 years of waiting.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Don't forget the ninety-five (and a half) verses of the Mother's Song, most of which are repeats. *rage*
ReplyDelete@freezingsheep
@freezingsheep - It's bad, but I don't even notice the Mother's Song. I automatically skipped anything in Italics :D
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. Waited years for it. Took couple days off work. Reread previous 5 books. First 4 of which were awesome. I was bit concerned as book 5 hadn't been brilliant, but still. Where was story? Plot? Characters? I know she did huge amounts of research but really do we want that much detail about painted caves in France?? I was expecting to follow her getting older, instead we get just avrehash of hurried plot lines from previous books. Very disappointed.
ReplyDelete