I was contemplating giving this book half a star, but I'm giving it one for the extensive research involved. However, research is all this book is. After "shelters of stone" I didn't precisely have high expectations, but this book failed to meet even my modest ones. It has no story line that I could detect. This is purely a discussion of the possible life of the cro-magnon people - the first "modern" humans. To say it is boring is an understatement. To say that the author is high on her own research ability is to put it mildly. It makes me wonder whether the first four books were really as good as I remember, because it's seems incredible that the plunge in readability could be so steep.

Jondalar, Ayla, their daughter and the Zelandoni of the ninth cave make a Donier tour and visit other sites of human habitation and some sacred sites. This goes on for nearly all the book. At the end of it "the great Mother" calls Ayla and makes her miscarry her second child (mystical mumbo-jumbo). She has a falling out with Jondalar, who's had "intimate relations" with his former fiancé. After this she takes a spirit journey and falls into a coma, from which Jondalar miraculously calls her back to life and they live happily ever after. It really hadn't required 661 pages to tell this story. If you have read the other Jean M. Auel books and liked them, do not read this book. It will ruin the memory of Ayla. This is the worst book I've read in a long time.