LAND OF PAINTED CAVES STINKS!

I had really been looking forward for the last book in Jean Auel's CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR to come out.

Although the 2nd through 5th books weren't 1/2 as a good as the first, they were still good and more importantly, continued the story of Ayla, whom I couldn't get enough of.

I was hugely disgusted and disappointed by this last book.

So many loose ends left loose.

No real summary.

So much repetition of story points we already know.

Nothing really new to add to Ayla's character.

Even recycling plot points from earlier books.

SPOILER ALERT!

How many painted caves do we really need a description of?

What was the point of telling us about the earthquake, about a 1/4 of the way through, if nothing came of it? It reminded me of a 5th grader doing an essay and "fluffing" it.

What happens to Brukeval? Madroman? Marona?

What about the visions alluded to Ayla having another boy?

Why, if children are so important to her, did we not see more interaction between Ayla and Jonayla? Yes, I know, Ayla was training. But still, I expected to see Jonayla taught the Clan language, the medicines, all of Ayla's knowledge.

Why, oh WHY, did she have to use the same trick from book 3 to bring Jondalar and Ayla together again? I wanted to see some character growth on Jondalar. Make him have to do deal with his emotions and set things right between them. In book 3, he left, and it was Ayla that ran after him. It was cheating to have him "call" her back from the spirit world and then that makes everything okay between them. I believe that Jonayla's and Wolf's love for Ayla could have brought her back.

This is not a weekly sitcom that has to bring up to date new watcher of things that have already happened. If someone is reading the 6th book, without ever reading the other 5, they are an idiot. The amount of time Ms. Auel spent reminding us of things that had already happened is ridiculous. And, she even went over it multiple times IN THIS BOOK!

Shouldn't Wolf die soon? You don't really expect to get more than 12 or 13 years out of most big dogs, I can't imagine more for a wolf. I wanted to see her deal with that.

There was a complete lack of story editing.

It was a horrible way to end a beautiful series.

I don't know what she was thinking, but Jean Auel has let me down terribly.

I found myself skimming though many parts of the books, looking for the next set of quotation marks.