The Shelters of Stone Review

Rating:

  

*For those of you who haven’t read The Plains of Passage yet, SPOILER ALERT!

     I feel silly saying spoiler alert for this post because, was there really any doubt that Ayla and Jondalar would make it back to his homeland? True, there were a few moments that probably had us all a little worried (like the S’Armunai War of the Women), but sure enough, our heroes prevailed!

     In The Shelters of Stone, we join Ayla as she finally gets to meet the Zelandonii. In a way, the whole series has really been leading up to this book, more so than the final one. Ever since Ayla came to realize how different she was from the people of the Clan, she’s been searching for people like her and a place to call home.

     She’s been welcomed almost everywhere she’s gone and even adopted into another family, but there was always this temporary feeling at each place. Her heart belonged to Jondalar, and he could never be satisfied living somewhere other than his true home. Now, at long last, Ayla can really sink in her roots and start a family with him.

     This book was a tough one for me to rate because there wasn’t really anything in particular that I disliked about it. At the same time, nothing extraordinary really stood out to me.

     This far into the series, I’ve gotten used to Auel’s phenomenal attention to prehistoric detail, and I know all of the incredible things that Ayla is capable of. Overall, it was a bit less memorable than the other books. So, it has been given the rating of three Star Lords.

     The one thing I loved about this book, though, was that we finally got to meet all of these people that we’d heard so much about: Jondalar’s mother, Marthona; his older brother, Joharran; Willamar, Folara, and all of his other family members; Marona (ugh); and, of course, Zelandoni, not to be confused with Zelandonii, the name of the people as a whole (yeah, that’s totally not confusing).

     Needless to say, none of these people were expecting Jondalar to come back after five years had gone by, and they definitely weren’t expecting him to show up with a beautiful foreign woman, two horses, and a wolf. Read for yourself to see how each of them reacts and welcomes (or doesn’t welcome) Ayla into their home.

     If you’ve already read this book, I’d love to hear what you thought. Were Jondalar’s family members and his Zolena similar to how you thought they’d be?