Kevin's Watch

So four years already? My, time flies. I remember how glad I was to see Shelters, even if the books have become rather formulaic. At least in it she switched the order of things for a change.

--A

It has been awhile since the fifth book. My friend was asking about when the next book would be coming out, which is why I was searching.

No firm word, but a possible shorter wait than last time?

Hard to imagine it taking longer than 12 years...

--A

I went to see her on tour for SHELTERS. She said during that long gap her large family of kids were all busily giving her grandchildren. She's a dedicated grandmother. One can see her love of children in the books.

Incidentally, I'm rereading MAMMOTH HUNTERS because of this conversation. My favorites of her characters are mostly in this book. Favorite group, too. Lion Camp.

I would agree with that. I love the culture of the Mammoth Hunters, and there are so many loveable (the children, especially Rydag) characters in it.

She does a wonderful job with child characters, doesn't she?

And next time any of you are in Chicago, they have a replica of a mammoth bone house, like the one in the book, at the Field Museum. It is a lot smaller than what I pictured when reading the book. The people must have literally been living almost on top of each other. For some reason I imagined all of the nuclear families having at least as much space as the average bedroom in a modern ranch house, but they would have been living cheek to cheek in much less space than what I had imagined. Not a good place to live in an Ice Age winter where personal hygeine would not have been anywhere up to modern standards.

Of course, in an ice-age winter you'd want people close for the warmth.

Yeah, I think that at the time and on the whole, books 2 and 3 were my favourite.

That said, book four had a couple of great scenes...but it dragged like hell.

Nah, I've read them enough. If 6 ever comes out, I'll read 5 again first, but otherwise, well, I could go a long time without reading them .

--A

I read The Clan of the Cave Bear shortly after it came out and loved it so much that I finished it within 24 hrs. Fast-paced, moving, and unpredictable. A truly great novel.

The Valley of Horses was an interminable wait once it became clear that Jondalar and Ayla would meet. Some nice scenes, but...

The Mammoth Hunters for me finished what had started so wonderfully.

Why did Auel do so much research for the first book when she clearly would have preferred a Mills&Boon career?

To me this is the quintessential case of an author falling too much in love with their lead character. Why did Ayla have to be responsible for every-single-stone-age-invention? While riding around on a Lion?

My apologies to Auel fans, but that's how I saw it.

Obviously, I may be just some half-wit who wandered in here at random. Please ignore me.

Trapper, I made pretty much the same comment in my review of SHELTERS. It's unrealistic for Ayla to have invented so much. And it's obvious that she is going to be the one to invent planting, to bring her people from the Hunter-Gatherer to the Farmer eras.

Auel has an astronomical IQ. She undoubtedly loves doing all that research, and using it to make her setting as realistic as possible. I couldn't handle that band of Amazon bandits in PLAINS OF PASSAGE, though. Unrealistic as h***, I'd say.

In spite of all that, she has come up with quite a story. I will probably reread SHELTERS when I finish MAMMOTH HUNTERS, just because of the momentum.

I notice that you don't say anything about rereading Plains. Unsurprising if you want to keep up momentum though.

Haha, yeah, like I said, they got forumlaic:

Travel...meet people...amaze them...reveal upbringing...shunned by many...save somebodies life...loved by almost all again.

That said, I'll still read the next one.

--A