Book 35: Shelters of Stone
Shelters of Stone, Jean Auel. 741p. Crown Publishers/Random House, 2002.
Reading Time: Aug 11-26. Work breaks, commutes, zomgCanIBeDoneWithThis?
So Ayla and Jondalar finally return to Jondalar's hometown. Well, okay, his Cave. And the first thing they do is recap how Ayla and Jondalar met in Valley of the Horses.
Four. Times.
When I attend writing workshops, one of the big Do's is "Show me, don't tell me." Also, I've read articles on the different writing styles for different genres, which enable the different reading styles. As in certain genres are written for certain types of readers, and these certain types of readers gravitate toward certain genres because they're written in a certain way.
So Shelters was not written for the SF/F crowd, because those readers are hanging on every word and don't need information repeated throughout the book. This was written for the commuter crowd, the waiting-room crowd, the reader who's mostly staring at the pages rather than reading, and needs the same details repeated several times throughout the book, because by the time they reach page 100, it's been a week since they read page 5. Bah.
I'm reminded why I was so glad to call this series quits in the first place: it is little more than Ice Age soap opera/romance. Stuff happens, people are mean, and rather than learning the error of their ways through karmic justice, they get to suffer while Ayla quietly gets her Cinderella ending. So much of the book was describing the landscape through geology lecture, that half the time I was skimming -- barely reading two sentences out of each paragraph, flipping pages because nothing was happening. It was nice that Ayla and the Cave's healer-priestess could discuss science over metaphysics (babies come from SEX, not because the Great Mother chose to "mix their spirits"), but do we need 40 pages of this? and by the way, WHAT WAS THE FREAKING POINT OF THIS BOOK?!? "People hate change"?? DUH.
I'm taking a break from all-text books to catch up on my comic books, then rooting through my Free Book Box con scavenges. Admiral Bob, take me on a Rocket Ride.
Reading Time: Aug 11-26. Work breaks, commutes, zomgCanIBeDoneWithThis?
So Ayla and Jondalar finally return to Jondalar's hometown. Well, okay, his Cave. And the first thing they do is recap how Ayla and Jondalar met in Valley of the Horses.
Four. Times.
When I attend writing workshops, one of the big Do's is "Show me, don't tell me." Also, I've read articles on the different writing styles for different genres, which enable the different reading styles. As in certain genres are written for certain types of readers, and these certain types of readers gravitate toward certain genres because they're written in a certain way.
So Shelters was not written for the SF/F crowd, because those readers are hanging on every word and don't need information repeated throughout the book. This was written for the commuter crowd, the waiting-room crowd, the reader who's mostly staring at the pages rather than reading, and needs the same details repeated several times throughout the book, because by the time they reach page 100, it's been a week since they read page 5. Bah.
I'm reminded why I was so glad to call this series quits in the first place: it is little more than Ice Age soap opera/romance. Stuff happens, people are mean, and rather than learning the error of their ways through karmic justice, they get to suffer while Ayla quietly gets her Cinderella ending. So much of the book was describing the landscape through geology lecture, that half the time I was skimming -- barely reading two sentences out of each paragraph, flipping pages because nothing was happening. It was nice that Ayla and the Cave's healer-priestess could discuss science over metaphysics (babies come from SEX, not because the Great Mother chose to "mix their spirits"), but do we need 40 pages of this? and by the way, WHAT WAS THE FREAKING POINT OF THIS BOOK?!? "People hate change"?? DUH.
I'm taking a break from all-text books to catch up on my comic books, then rooting through my Free Book Box con scavenges. Admiral Bob, take me on a Rocket Ride.