When they arrive with Wolf and their two horses, Whinney and Racer, the Zelondonni quickly realize Ayla is unique, but that is only the beginning of the revelations she brings to the Ninth Cave. This book tells the story of Ayla and Jondalar's arrival at his home, the Ninth Cave of the Zelondonni, after their long journey across Europe and the glaciers. I think it could have been two hundred pages shorter if the repeated details had been edited out, but if you can get past all that, the amazing story of Ayla, one of the "others" raised by The Clan, also called Flathead, continues. This one seems to get bogged down in the repetitious details of the cave people's everyday lives without propelling the storyline forward. I have read the first four books, The Clan of the Cave Bear, The Valley of Horses, The Mammoth Hunters, and The Plains of Passage, and they were all five-star books. And it includes an amazing rhythmic poem that describes the birth of Earth's Children and plays its own role in the narrative of The Shelters of Stone.Fifth in the Earth's Children series, this book was the first one that was hard to get through, but I still give The Shelters of Stone four stars because of the insane amount of research it must have taken to write it.
It is a triumphant continuation of the Earth's Children saga that began with The Clan of the Cave Bear. The Shelters of Stone is a sweeping story of love and danger, with all the wonderful detail based on meticulous research that makes her novels unique. Jean Auel is at her very best in this superbly textured creation of a prehistoric society. Ayla has to call on all her skills, intelligence, knowledge, and instincts to find her way in this complicated society, to prepare for the birth of her child, and to decide whether she will accept new challenges and play a significant role in the destiny of the Zelandonii. Some even oppose her mating with Jondalar, and make their displeasure known. Some fear Ayla's unfamiliar ways and abhor her relationship with those they call flatheads and she calls Clan.
But as Ayla and Jondalar prepare for the formal mating at the Summer Meeting, there are difficulties.
And in the woman Zelandoni, the spiritual leader of the Ninth Cave (and the one who initiated Jondalar into the Gift of Pleasure), she meets a fellow healer with whom to share her knowledge and skills. Their clothes, customs, artifacts, even their homes formed in great cliffs of vertical limestone are a source of wonder to her. The people of the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii fascinate Ayla. The Shelters of Stone opens as Ayla and Jondalar, along with their animal friends, Wolf, Whinney, and Racer, complete their epic journey across Europe and are greeted by Jondalar's people: the Zelandonii.
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