The Plains of Passage (Earth's Children, Book Four)
by Jean M. Auel
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jean M. AuelEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-06-25
ISBN: 0553381652
Number of pages: 784
Publisher: Bantam
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780553381658
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Plains of Passage (Earth's Children, Book Four)
Book Review: The Plains of Passage - A True Gem of an Epic Pre-Historic Journey Adventure!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am compelled to provide this review (even though I have never provided such a book review before) to negate at least in part some of the unjustified negative comments that I have read on this site. Perhaps this book is not for everyone. If you're looking for fast action and non-stop suspense at every twist and turn, perhaps you should try the Da Vinci Code (which I also like) or the many similar books in that genre. But let's get on to my take on this book.
This book is a richly detailed adventure story of an epic prehistoric journey across ice age Europe. As one might expect with any lengthy journey, there are routine parts where the participants just plod along. (Some of the comments claim these are the slow parts!) But the author has filled even these parts of the story with meticulously researched details that add a high level of interest to the story including the herbs that Ayla uses for healing, the noteworthy characteristics of the changing landscape, and other factors germane to that time period. There is still plenty of action interspersed with the more routine parts of the journey to keep the book moving. As with any journey (today or prehistoric or life itself for that matter), the over goal is to enjoy the journey and savor all the incomparable details, not just rush to the end point.
The author has an uncanny ability to take the reader inside the heads of the main characters to better understand their dilemmas and related thoughts about other characters in the book. The character development is so outstanding that one feels that the main characters are long time friends, and that you are even following along with them on their journey.
I am immensely curious about our prehistoric ancestors and what their daily trials and tribulations of life were like. This book provides a reasonable insight into prehistoric life based not only on the author's opinions, but on substantial research as well. Did everything happen exactly as Jean Auel presents it? Probably not exactly, but that doesn't really matter. She has woven an intricate story line around the available research from that time period and produced an entertaining saga to escape into.
I presume that writing this book was perhaps more difficult than the first three books since it involved a long journey through a wild prehistoric environment. But the author has carried it out in grand fashion. In addition to being a stand-alone novel, it is also a bridge in the Earth's Children series between the wandering couple in The Mammoth Hunters to the end of the journey by the arrival at Jondalar's home, the Ninth Cave of the Zelondonii.
I may not be an English professor, but I have read enough (300 plus books in the last four to five years) to know a good book when I read one (or listen to the audio book in this case). I enjoyed this book immensely as part of the continuing saga of Ayla and Jondalar. And I look forward to listening to the fifth book, The Shelters of Stone, which I have just started. As far as the Amazon reviews, 130 out of 259 were five star rated or 50 percent - now that should say something!
If you are a prospective reader looking for input, I would encourage you to try this book and make up your own mind about it. Don't be unduly swayed by my glowing endorsement or that of the naysayers. Do your own thing, form your own opinion, and enjoy a great story during the process.
Summary of The Plains of Passage (Earth's Children, Book Four)
Jean M. Auel?s enthralling Earth?s Children® series has become a literary phenomenon, beloved by readers around the world. In a brilliant novel as vividly authentic and entertaining as those that came before, Jean M. Auel returns us to the earliest days of humankind and to the captivating adventures of the courageous woman called Ayla.With her companion, Jondalar, Ayla sets out on her most dangerous and daring journey--away from the welcoming hearths of the Mammoth Hunters and into the unknown. Their odyssey spans a beautiful but sparsely populated and treacherous continent, the windswept grasslands of Ice Age Europe, casting the pair among strangers. Some will be intrigued by Ayla and Jondalar, with their many innovative skills, including the taming of wild horses and a wolf; others will avoid them, threatened by what they cannot understand; and some will threaten them. But Ayla, with no memory of her own people, and Jondalar, with a hunger to return to his, are impelled by their own deep drives to continue their trek across the spectacular heart of an unmapped world to find that place they can both call home.
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