Book Review: The Plains Of Passage
Having read the first three books in this series (the first being the best, hands-down) I was excited to read this book and see how Jondalar and Ayla would continue their journey.
Auel is very imaginative and descriptive, but she definitely overdoes it in some parts. You could easily cut out a couple of hundred pages from here and not miss anything because she goes in such lavish, long descriptions of the landscape and flora and fauna. Now, I'm happy that she did so much research and put such effort into this book, but I found some scenes to be plodding and repetitive. Ms. Auel has already established the richness of the land in previous books, so at this point, it just feels like repetition.
There were a few pages that felt like information dumps of her research. They were very interesting, I'm not arguing that, but they did absolutely nothing to move the story along. Just show off Auel's knowledge of the ice age.
Also, Ayla comes across as bit of a Mary Sue character because she has invented and discovered so many things. At this point, it's getting old. Yeah, Ayla's smart, and her experience with the Clan has given her valuable insight, but like with the land-description, Ayla's 'genius' gets to be repetitive as well.
I'd have to say my biggest gripe is (surprisingly) not what I mentioned above, but Jondalar going on and on about how much he loves Ayla, how he would not want to live without her, etc etc. Come on. We get the idea already. It's nice to know that Jondalar is in touch with his feelings and is honest with them, but really. He just repeats himself.
My favorite scenes in this book was their interactions with other people. It helped to break up the monotony of reading about their Journey. I liked reading about Ayla healing Roshario, or helping the Clan couple after they were being attacked by a band of renegade Others.
If you've read the first three books in this series, then it won't hurt to pick up this volume, just don't expect it to be as 'fresh' as Clan of the Cave Bear or Valley of Horses. Fortunately, it does have its interesting scenes, so this book gets a decent 3/5 stars from me.
Auel is very imaginative and descriptive, but she definitely overdoes it in some parts. You could easily cut out a couple of hundred pages from here and not miss anything because she goes in such lavish, long descriptions of the landscape and flora and fauna. Now, I'm happy that she did so much research and put such effort into this book, but I found some scenes to be plodding and repetitive. Ms. Auel has already established the richness of the land in previous books, so at this point, it just feels like repetition.
There were a few pages that felt like information dumps of her research. They were very interesting, I'm not arguing that, but they did absolutely nothing to move the story along. Just show off Auel's knowledge of the ice age.
Also, Ayla comes across as bit of a Mary Sue character because she has invented and discovered so many things. At this point, it's getting old. Yeah, Ayla's smart, and her experience with the Clan has given her valuable insight, but like with the land-description, Ayla's 'genius' gets to be repetitive as well.
I'd have to say my biggest gripe is (surprisingly) not what I mentioned above, but Jondalar going on and on about how much he loves Ayla, how he would not want to live without her, etc etc. Come on. We get the idea already. It's nice to know that Jondalar is in touch with his feelings and is honest with them, but really. He just repeats himself.
My favorite scenes in this book was their interactions with other people. It helped to break up the monotony of reading about their Journey. I liked reading about Ayla healing Roshario, or helping the Clan couple after they were being attacked by a band of renegade Others.
If you've read the first three books in this series, then it won't hurt to pick up this volume, just don't expect it to be as 'fresh' as Clan of the Cave Bear or Valley of Horses. Fortunately, it does have its interesting scenes, so this book gets a decent 3/5 stars from me.