Don't read this! It's horrible, really. The book is extremely repetitive. When you start reading it, you might think there's going to be a point to Ayla visiting all those caves. Don't bother looking for it. There really isn't.
If it makes you feel any better, the perfection between Ayla and Jondalar does get broken a bit, with Jondalar acting like an ass (he cheats), and Ayla reacting like an idiot (she cheats back.). For me, that wasn't an improvement, though. It annoyed me, and I hated the ending. HATED the ending. All this potential building up, Ayla being special and clearly Destined For Something, and then this is what it comes down to? No fun. Really, this book is a combination of boredom, frustration and exasperation. Don't bother with it, it'll save you the aggravation. ( )

I was terribly disappointed in this book. I had loved the earlier Earth's Children novels dearly and had eagerly anticipated hearing what happened to Ayla and Jondalar when they reached his home. Perhaps it's only that I was only a teenager when I read the first several books, and nearly 40 when I read this one, so that I'm approaching the main characters and their drama from a different perspective and with an adult's experiences and taste. In any case, I couldn't even work up an interest in the final book just released last year. ( )

Los refugios de piedra
Jean M. Auel
Publicado: 2002 | 773 páginas
Novela Aventuras HistĂłrico
Serie: Los hijos de la tierra #5

Después de su épico viaje a través de Europa, Ayla y Jondalar llegan por fin a su hogar, la Novena Caverna de los Zelandonii, al suroeste de Francia, antiguo emplazamiento de la Edad de Piedra. La familia de Jondalar se muestra cauta con Ayla, la bella y joven mujer que le acompaña, criada en su infancia con el Clan. Pronto se verá sorprendida por sus costumbres y forma de vida, así como por sus ropas, casas y diferentes formas de interpretar el arte. Ayla queda encantada cuando encuentra a Zelandoni, la líder espiritual de la Novena Caverna, junto con la que podrá compartir sus conocimientos y prácticas medicinales de curación. Tras las dificultades y los peligros que hasta ahora les han acechado, Ayla anhela paz y tranquilidad junto a Jondalar, quien desea unirse en la inminente ceremonia matrimonial. Sin embargo, sus singulares dotes espirituales no pasan inadvertidas a los integrantes de su nueva comunidad, e incluso después de dar a luz a su deseado hijo debe aceptar la idea de que tiene que desempeñar un papel más decisivo en el destino de los Zelandonii.

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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. 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. This one seems to get bogged down in the repetitious details of the cave people's everyday lives without propelling the storyline forward. 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 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. 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. She also introduces the controversial notion that the Flatheads are human, not animals, to Jondalar's people. Also, the concept that men's sperm—or their essence, as the book calls it—is responsible for starting a new life in a woman. It's hard to imagine that these things were not apparent from the beginning in our day and age. Still, Jean Auel makes us realize how primitive the first people who lived off the land with only basic concepts of how to survive were, although some of their methods for creating tools, clothing, and structures were very creative. Ayla and Jondalar are finally mated at the summer meeting, and Ayla gives birth to their daughter, Jonayla. But, just as Ayla is hoping to settle into everyday life, The Doni of the Ninth Cave, who realizes her unique healing ability and insights into the spirit world, insists she become her Alcolyte to train as her replacement as The First of the Ninth Cave. And so, the next phase of Ayla's life begi ( )