Review: The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel

Title: The Land of Painted Caves
Author: Jean M. Auel
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 2011
Rating: 3 stars



To start, here is a bit of information about the book, taken (again) from Goodreads.com:

The highly anticipated sixth book of Jean Auel's Earth's Children® series, THE LAND OF PAINTED CAVES, is the culmination fans have been waiting for. Continuing the story of Ayla and Jondalar, Auel combines her brilliant narrative skills and appealing characters with a remarkable re-creation of the way life was lived more than 25,000 years ago. THE LAND OF PAINTED CAVES is an exquisite achievement by one of the world's most beloved authors.

The Land of Painted Caves is a book that I (and many other people all over the world) have been eagerly anticipating for several years. The Earth's Children series was started by Auel back in 1980; now, more than thirty years later, the series finally comes to an end.

As you can see from this blog entry, I have spent a long time in recent days and weeks thinking about/obsessing over how the series would end. As it turns out, I didn't really need to be that worried. The Land of Painted Caves is written with the same attention to, and depth of, detail that is found in the rest of the series, with the prehistoric landscape vividly brought to life. As for the plot, well... it was a nice ending, I suppose. Everything was resolved, and tied up into a neat little parcel. Of course, there were some tense moments and some exasperating moments, but no issues that hadn't arisen earlier in the series. The good characters were still good - almost painfully so - and the bad characters were still devious and ruthless and malicious. 

I don't know what I was expecting from this novel, and my three star rating isn't to say that I was disappointed. I wasn't. This novel made me happy and provided the right amount of closure to the story. But really, not a lot happened. There were no big dramatic twists (well, not really), and nothing that really moved me. However, as I've said, it was an enjoyable read, and was very well-written. And, of course, meticulously researched. 

All in all, though, it simply doesn't live up to the earlier books in the series. It ends the series with a kind of quiet dignity that is, I suppose, fitting after its long 30-year life, but it is definitely an ending with less of a bang, and more of a whimper.

Three stars: enjoyable and a pleasant ending to the series, but definitely not for you if you're looking for something action-packed and dramatic!

So many books, so little time...

Well, I had a really busy weekend and didn't have time to post here for a few days - it was my housemate's 21st birthday, and my boyfriend was visiting for a few days. But you don't really want to hear about my weekend, do you. (In a nutshell: I ate lots of junk food and got pretty drunk. Standard party stuff, really...)

So instead, I thought I'd show you some of the exciting new additions to my TBR list.

From top to bottom:
The Seas - Samantha Hunt
Repeat it today with tears - Anne Peile
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Babel Tower - A.S Byatt





The best thing about these? I didn't have to buy any of them. I got The Seas from my boyfriend as part of my birthday present, my mum got me this copy of P&P (no, I don't know how I've got to 21 years of age without reading it yet), I was given Babel Tower by my aunt, who got it from someone who was getting rid of a load of their books, and I got Repeat it today with tears from the awesome people at Serpent's Tail, the publishers, after they ran a book giveaway on Twitter.

So there we go. Tomorrow I'll hopefully be able to get my hands on a copy of The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel, which will most likely be fast-tracked to the top of my list. At the minute though, I'm about 100 pages from the end of The Seas, which is pretty good except the narrator scares me a little...

Happy Monday, everyone!

Countdown...

OK, I should probably let you know that I'm pretty excited at the minute.

Why, you ask?

Because the new (last?) book in Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children series is out in a week! According to Amazon, the fifth book in the series, The Shelters of Stone, came out in 2002, 2003-ish. I'm not sure about that, because I'm sure I read the fifth book in hardback, borrowed from a friend, just after it came out. And I don't think I was reading this series at the age of twelve or thirteen.

ANYWAY. That aside, the point is that I've been waiting YEARS(!!!) for this book.

With the obvious exception of the Harry Potter series, I've never really had to wait for a specific book to be released. Probably because I'm a little slow on the uptake, and by the time I get round to reading a series, the final book has already been released. (I did that earlier in the month with Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games series...). And while I did have to wait a little while for the later Harry Potter books, it was only ever a year or two at a time.

So. After a wait of about eight years, I'm looking forward to getting a copy of The Land of Painted Caves. But, of course, I'm starting to worry about it too. What if the book doesn't live up to my expectations? What if the ending is terrible? What if my favourite character(s) die? What if everybody dies? I guess I'll find out soon enough..!

What is the longest you've ever waited for a new book to come out? What was it? Was it worth it? Tell me your tales of anticipation and (hopefully not) disappointment...

5 Books I Never Wanted To End

In my daily trawl around the internet, I came across The Next Best Book Club - a very interesting-looking book blog. Their most recent post is where I, uh, acquired the idea for this post from.

Have you ever read a book that you've enjoyed so much that you've wanted to be able to keep reading it forever? Well, I have. Here's my five:

1. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Wow. I don't know what to say about this book. But I haven't read another book that's had anywhere near the same effect on me. When I finished reading it I just sat there for a little while thinking "what's next?". As it was, I couldn't think of a suitable book to follow it that wouldn't pale in comparison, so the next day I picked it up and read it all over again. This is, I think, my favourite book ever. It broke my heart, and had particular resonance as a sometimes-friend recommended it to me after one of my school friends passed away, which is where the novel starts. Absolutely incredible.

2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
I have friends at university who haven't read any of the Harry Potter series. I struggle with that idea, personally, because they're the series of our generation. They were the first books I'd stay up all night to finish, and I suppose they're what really got me hooked on reading. I could read this whole series again and again. While I didn't want the series to end, I'm glad they did, in a way, before they went downhill in quality and storyline... But yes, I really love these books.

3. Possession by A.S. Byatt
I have a little notebook in which I write down all the books I read. I started doing this in December 2009, so I could keep track. It has a little system: an asterisk if it's a book for university, one tick if I thought it was really great. A cross if I didn't like it. Possession was the first book that I had to give two ticks to, because I thought it was too good for just one. Like Norwegian Wood I didn't know what to read afterwards. It's been about a year since I last read it, though - time for a re-read?

4. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
If you've never read Margaret Atwood... you should. I've read a fair few of her novels, and this is, by far, my favourite. The Goodreads summary says that once you've read this, "nothing will ever look the same again". And they're right. All the science in the background of this novel seems a little too realistic. True, it's taken to the extreme, but you can't help thinking "what if...?". This book terrified me, but in a good way. I just wanted to keep reading, especially when Atwood just... leaves it at the end. (Though there is some resolution in its sort-of sequel, The Year of the Flood...)

5. The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
Yes, I know this is the first book in Auel's Earth's Children series, but it is, in my opinion, the best by far. I loved the world of the Clan and Ayla's position within it - something that is missing from the rest of the series. I'm excited for the final book, The Land of Painted Caves, which is coming out at the end of the month, but I can't help feeling that it will never match up to the brilliance of the opening book of the series. I can't count how many times I've re-read this, but every time I notice something new. This is a wonderful, wonderful book. Everyone should read it. (Except you, Ollie. It's very long, it would probably take you ten years to read...)

Of course, I could've chosen many more than five books to enthuse about, but that would've been excessive, don't you think? What about you, then? Which books do you wish had never ended?