Jean Auel Gets the Smack-Down.

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triceretops

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This book has no conflict. This book has no action. This book has positively no character development. This book practically deconstructs any good done in "CotCB" and "VoH". In fact, this book has absolutely *nothing* to justify spending 28 dollars and 12 years of anticipation. Any first-time writer sending this in would be firmly rejected and laughed at. "SoS" indeed--very apt. Send out the distress call and load the lifeboats, because this one plummets to the bottom fast under the weight of its own bloated self-importance. A solid F. (A partial of one of the hundreds of similar reviews)


I must say that I've never seen such blistering, scathing reviews before for an A-list best-selling author as I have with Jean M. Auel's The Shelters of Stone. Even Ann Rice never took such a beating, or Terry Goodkind, for that matter. There must be over 900 reviews of this book, which was released in 2002, after a 12-year hiatus, and most of them are dreadfully explicit and quite accurate in what they are trying to portray. I think SoS has an average 2.5 stars across the board, and a good percentage of the reviews are current and still creeping in.

I read over 250 reviews, facinated by the accounts of both fans of the series and one-time readers. The consenses is that there is something tragically wrong with this tome, even evidenced by the readers who gave it high marks. And it has everything to do with ALL of the basic craft techniques associated with capable writing. How could verbosity, repetition, lack of plot and conflict, cardboard characterization, stilted dialogue, massive info-dumping, deliberate padding, and all other elements be that prevalent in a work put out by a seasoned writer? Nearly all of the people who read it admitted to skipping paragraphs, pages and whole chapters. Apparently it was that boring. All of them confessed that it was the most contrite, sluggish read they've ever encountered. Dozens accussed her of using a ghost writer, and many blamed a complete and total lack of editing. A few people blamed her publisher, Crown.

Now, to be fair, I've always liked Jean and always will, having followed her articles and interviews. She was a very early inspiration to me. Sadly I've never read ANY of her books. So I cannot, and won't speak on that matter. It seems that no one really considered that she's not the young bird that she was when she came out with CotCB. What is she, about 71 years-old now? Is it possible that she had a stroke that we're not aware of? Maybe the onset of senility has taken its toll.

Or is this one of the biggest rip-offs in literary history? Why has it taken her over 29 years (aprox) to knock out only five, count em, five books in an award-winning series? You would think that with such success, her books would be delivered to an eager public in a timely fashion, at least with some exhuberance and gratitude for the wealth accumulated. Why was this book seemingly cobbled together, containing identicle information that was present in the others, and passed off as a new work? Who were the real authors? Has Jean lost interest in her storyline, and is she really the textbook version of a doomed series writer?

It would be interesting to hear any accounts from her fans out there. Could somebody who has read Shelters of Stone (or any of the others) chime in here and give us their thoughts on this? I'm insanely curious about what happened in this author's case.

Thanks,

Tri
 
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Age is no excuse. I've read books by authors far older and they've still had all their wits about them. We can't assume that writing quality declines as we age. In fact, it should improve.
 

WittyandorIronic

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I've read all of her books, andI reread three of them about once every 2 years. She is one of the first author's that took me beyond YA books, and I thought she was brilliant. But the criticism for SoS is a little misleading.
Auel has always used info dumps to a high degree. One of the reasons, IMHO, for the few books in such a long career (minus the rumored publisher issue that postponed SoS) is because her books are 1/2 story and 1/2 fictionalized history. She doesn't just focus on her characters and their story, she focuses on what she imagines and meticulously researches to be the climate, landscape, and flora and fauna of the time. She gives you insight into the life and land at prehistoric times (dramatized of course) and that means that her readers have always skipped parts or skimmed when feeling lazy. I LOVED the descriptions of grasslands and glaciers when I first read the books...when I reread them I certainly skip over the 19 pages of flora description. I already know the scene and the history.
I never liked CotCB, which surprises me considering how much I loved VoH, tMH, and PoP. Those books spoke to me in a way very few titles since have, and I have worn paperback versions, beautiful hardcovers and many more duplicates in my collection.
I have also read SoS several times, but not with the love and sentimentalism as the others. It was not the same type of stories as the others, but I don't think it deserves the vitriol of those negative reviews. You can call it lazy or whatever else, but IMHO I think that SoS was a long epilogue meant specifically for people who already loved the series. I don't think it was (or can be) a standalone book, which is probably why so few liked it. Ayla and Jondalar were probably very cardboard and uninteresting if you weren't already in love or closely involved with them. If you read the series 12 years prior and then picked it up, it probably didn't work very hard to bring you into the characters and the story. But if you were like me, than it was like an extended version of PoP. lol. The story after the story kind of concept.
Knowing what I do now about writing and the common "rules and tips" that are thrown around, I can see where she broke about every single one at some point. Sometimes I felt she was much more of a historian than a writer. But obviously she did something right.
I will agree that SoS is not as well written as the others. But as for stoning the author....well IMHO I don't think that Auel deserves it nearly as much as others. *ahem* Laurell K. Hamilton *ahem*
 

Marian Perera

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I wrote a rather severe critique of the series on my website. I don't mind long descriptions or infodumps if the characters hold my interest, but there wasn't anything particularly intriguing about Ayla the Golden Girl or Jondalar of the Throbbing Member by the time I got to the last book. Which was a shame, because I felt much more sympathetic towards the Ayla of the first novel, back when bad things could and did happen to her.

Someone once described this series as "Mary Sue walks across Europe, slowly." After the first novel, this sums it up quite well for me.
 
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I read Clan of the Cave Bear for the first time when I was 17 and adored it. I was mesmerized, just gobbling that book up.

I haven't liked the rest of the series very much, but I still re-read the first one. And I still just love it.
 

nerds

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Zoinkies.

I'm not an Auel fan, but that review alone would be enough to make one want to go reside with the bears in a cave somewhere and never write a word again. Holy jalapenos Batman.
 

KTC

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I have never even heard of this author before clicking on this thread. What are some of the books she wrote?
 

KTC

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Wait. Ha. I just googled her. I actually read Clan of the Cavebear. That's why I don't remember her...I thought that book sucked. Not my cuppa.
 

ajkjd01

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I've read the whole series, and I have to say that I agree that SoS was NOT a standalone book. I thought it was an epilogue. I felt that it wrapped things up nicely, but it didn't really create a whole lot of desire for me to read any thing else she writes in the series beyond it. To me it was an ending, not a continuing of the story.

I'm happy if it ends there. If it doesn't, then I probably won't continue with it.
 

badducky

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In my anxiously-waiting-for-reviews-to-trash-me phase of the career, I have come to the conclusion that the only thing that's really important is that the reviewer spelled the title and author correctly, and engage in communication about the book with others.
 

aka eraser

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I read and enjoyed the first book in the Clan series but vaguely recall tossing the 2nd one against the wall. Haven't tried any of her stuff since.

I think the likeliest reason an author/publisher releases a substandard work is (drumroll please) -- money. Another is to fulfill a contractual obligation.
 

GeorgieB

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Someone once described this series as "Mary Sue walks across Europe, slowly." After the first novel, this sums it up quite well for me.

I thought much the same when I tried to read "Clan of the Cave Bears". I said "tried" because I never finished it and never tried to read another of her books.

I wrote the following inside the front cover of the "Clan...": "This book gives the word garbage a whole new meaning". and left it in some RV park.

That's my opinion of her writing.
 

Good Word

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I remember really loving the first book way back when I read it, but hated the second and didn't finish it. I sort of remember it as a caveman soap opera.
 
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I tried reading her first book years ago, then I discovered setting fire to my own toenails was less painful.
 

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I read Clan of the Cave Bear when I was 12, and immediately fell in love with it. Every one of the books up through Plains of Passage has become a favorite of mine, and I reread them regularly. The books are far from perfect, but it is a huge comfort to me to be able to pick them up and transport myself to a vividly-drawn reality where there are no cell phones, no traffic, no corporations and people living their entire lives in touch with the natural world.

Now, as for Shelters of Stone...that book is perhaps the biggest disappointment I've ever suffered with a novel. It seems to me that it wasn't edited at all. There are scenes that are utterly pointless, bits of dialogue that don't make any sense whatsover and so much repetition of particular descriptive passages that what was previously just an annoying habit of Auel's becomes something that very nearly caused me to not bother to finish the book at all...

and those are just the more minor problems. She cops out big time on what should have been a really interesting conflict, by taking a former love interest of the male lead (whom he has not seen in years and who would otherwise have been in competition with Ayla) and dodges the whole subject by stressing dozens (if not hundreds) of times, that this former love interest is now the size of a small mammoth. She places the book in a setting where the population is many times larger than what the characters experienced in the previous books, but doesn't make any allowance for that and still insists on continuing her habit of introducing Ayla to what seems to be every single person.

She also, apparently in an attempt to prove to us that ancient man had EXACTLY the same problems we do, fills the book with arbitrary conflict, such as some mean-spirited girls who play practical jokes on Ayla and a family that would today be considered "white trash," with the stereotypical dirty living environment, bratty kids and alcoholic dad. This took away all of the escapist comfort of the previous books - I felt like I was reading a modern-day urban drama.

Most problematic, though, (as if the book needed any more problems), was the portrayal of Ayla herself. She was reduced in this book to a cardboard cut-out, completely lacking any real emotion or motivation. The relationship between her and Jondalar is lackluster as well, and when Ayla's dream of having another child is finally realized, it's dealt with in an off-the-cuff manner, and doesn't seem to have any impact at all once it happens. At the very end of the book, I forgot she had a kid at all.

I read Shelters of Stone twice - the first time because I had been anticipating it for so long and the second because I just had to see if it was really as bad as I thought it was. In the end, I had to conclude that it was even worse.
 

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I tried to read the first book to find out why it was so popular but I didn't get very far. It is basically Chicklit. So why was the first book so popular?
 

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I've read the whole series, and I have to say that I agree that SoS was NOT a standalone book. I thought it was an epilogue. I felt that it wrapped things up nicely, but it didn't really create a whole lot of desire for me to read any thing else she writes in the series beyond it. To me it was an ending, not a continuing of the story.

I'm happy if it ends there. If it doesn't, then I probably won't continue with it.

That's another thing...it's not an ending. There's at least one more book planned, and I read recently that she has said that even that won't be the end of the story.

Which brings me to another beef of mine. The true end of this story needs to bring Ayla back into contact with Durc and the Clan that raised her. But I have read that that is absolutely not going to happen. I don't see any way to resolve Ayla's story without that closure, and am afraid that in the end these final books (SoS and whatever comes after) are going to have the effect of really trivializing the much better books that came before.
 

chartreuse

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Because it was chicklit.

That may be why some readers liked them, but that certainly wasn't the appeal for me. The people I've talked to who loved the book feel the same as I do...that all of the love stories and sex scenes were just something we tolerated. The real appeal of those books was the way they transported us back in time, the details of weapons, herbal medicine, firemaking techniques, hunting strategies, methods of preparing hides, the social organization of the various clans and tribes, etc., and, as I said before, reading about people who lived 100% of their lives in contact with nature.

I'm not a big fan of modern life, and I think we've lost at least as much as we've gained. The fact that the books let us get in touch with a little bit of that are their biggest draw, IMHO.
 

KTC

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I wrote the following inside the front cover of the "Clan...": "This book gives the word garbage a whole new meaning". and left it in some RV park.


Have I told you lately that I love you? I wish I had the book...I would write the same inside it and leave it in a bus terminal.
 
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That may be why some readers liked them, but that certainly wasn't the appeal for me. The people I've talked to who loved the book feel the same as I do...that all of the love stories and sex scenes were just something we tolerated. The real appeal of those books was the way they transported us back in time, the details of weapons, herbal medicine, firemaking techniques, hunting strategies, methods of preparing hides, the social organization of the various clans and tribes, etc., and, as I said before, reading about people who lived 100% of their lives in contact with nature.

I'm not a big fan of modern life, and I think we've lost at least as much as we've gained. The fact that the books let us get in touch with a little bit of that are their biggest draw, IMHO.

My point was...the person I was replying to said "It was chicklit," as if that was a reason to dislike a book. And I was endeavouring to show that the reason some people avoid particular books is also the reason others make an effort to seek them out and read them. One man's chicklit is another man's entertainment.
 

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I enjoyed the entire series prior to Shelters of Stone. I do admit to skimming through some of the endless detail in the middle books, I don't think I'll ever be insane enough to actually cook the meals or craft the tools described, so why waste my time with so much instruction? Simpler descriptions would have sufficed and I would still have been amazed. But overall I took much enjoyment from this series and was greatly looking forward to the final book.

For me, SoS's only worth came in its heft whilst throwing it angrily across the room. I was too far removed from Ayla after such a long passage of time, (which could be a blessing-who knows what anger could have been unleashed from anxious fans had this book come in a timely manner.) It's almost as if we were subject to the basic plot outline of the story, filled with little to no substance. In addition to some comments above about flat characters and anti-climatic or absent resolution to series-long themes and conflicts, Auel was annoyingly repetitive in this book. So little happened, yet this book was just as thick as the others.
Huge disappointment.
 
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Marian Perera

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That's another thing...it's not an ending. There's at least one more book planned, and I read recently that she has said that even that won't be the end of the story.

Possible plot : Ayla invents the sailing ship and takes Jondalar, the Aylaspawn, the horses and the wolf on a journey to colonize the New World. Jondalar becomes seasick, but after Ayla whips up a stomach-settling tea out of seaweed and cuttlefish ink, they share Pleasures once again. And again. And again. Ayla domesticates a dolphin and rides on its back. They meet a Native American tribe which is awed by Ayla's beauty and her multiple inventions.

In the next book, Ayla will visit Australia and domesticate a kangaroo.
 

Williebee

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Clan was ok. Better than the movie (like that was hard.)

But I didn't finish any of the rest of the series, either. The only thing that bugs me more than info dumps are info dumps that I wrote.

GoergieB -- I used to leave paper backs on benches or other places when I finished them, all the time.

Know what? These days, when you do that in an airport, they follow you and take you to a small room for a little Q & A.
 

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I read The Valley of Horses first, then Clan of the Cave Bear -- and liked Valley much better. At the time, a lot of us were comparing notes and decided that which of the first two you liked best seemed to depend on which one you read first.

All that said, I don't enjoy historical fiction as a rule, and was never tempted to continue reading the series. Same with Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series: I read the first two and then lost interest.

What I find sad about this discussion is that so many writers seem content to dismiss the work with an easy (and wrong) label like Chicklit. Since Chicklit has a clear definition (modern-day woman worries about life, love, and shoes, usually in the big city and generally with some humor) that simply doesn't fit Auel's work, the only conclusion I can reach is that it's intended in this case as a dismissive and derogatory "just for chicks" label.

There are sex scenes and love stories: hey, chicklit!

If you don't like her work, you don't like it. If you had problems with a particular book and want to complain, fair enough. But don't slap a misleading and incorrect label on something.

We're writers. We, of all people, should know better than that.
 
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