Review for Jean Auel's "Land of Painted Caves"

The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I fell in love with Jean Auel's Earth's Children series when Clan of the Cave Bear was first released. I loved that book. I loved the second one and even the third. As the four and then the fifth book came out, my love affair was being strained.

It took 30 years for Ms. Auel to produce the 6 books of the series, but frankly, she would have been better to stop at the third, if not the fourth.

I had high hopes for The Land of Painted Caves. They were crashed to the dark abyss of those caves.

Ms. Auel would have been better writing a travel guide to these painted caves she so obviously visited. Her research, etc, was excellent. Unfortunately, in the span of her research for her books she forgot something very important - how to tell a story.

The CONSTANT repetition, the lack of any plot until the very last of the book, the need to skim over pages and pages just to get to a possible point, were only a few of the issues I had with this book.

As an author myself, I feel that a lot of the onus of this book's miserable failings has to land on Ms. Auel's editors. In my opinion, they did not do their job. I do believe that this book could have been better written, in both plot and structure.

I hate to say it, but if you love Earth's Children, then don't read past the Mammoth Hunters, you'll only become more and more dissappointed, especially when you reach the Land of Painted Caves.



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