The wait is over. And what a wait. There hasn't been an impatient clamor like the one for THE SHELTERS OF STONE since Stephen King --- at the end of THE WASTE LANDS, Volume Three in the Dark Tower series --- left his protagonists and readers hanging while a sentient choo-choo hell-bent on destruction careened across a foreign yet familiar landscape as Roland the Gunslinger and his motley crew tried desperately to answer a riddle that would save their lives. The train ride lasted six years before King followed it up with WIZARD AND GLASS. But this one! It's been 12 years since Jean Auel ended THE PLAINS OF PASSAGE with something more terrifying, more suspenseful, than anything King could ever dream up: Ayla's momentous meeting with the family of her true love Jondalar!
But here we are, in 2002, and lo, all of the rumors about Jean Auel (she's dead, she has writer's block, she has a case of the fuggedaboutits) are laid to rest with the publication of THE SHELTERS OF STONE, the very-long awaited fifth volume of the Earth's Children series. And was the wait worth it? Oh, yeah, very much so.
I'll get the major complaint out of the way before we get to the good stuff. A synopsis of what has gone before would have been nice. There. That done, let's talk about what Auel does do. THE SHELTERS OF STONE begins a few pages behind where THE PLAINS OF PASSAGE ends, with Jondalar's return to the people of the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii (if you're lost already, never fear, there is a handy-dandy glossary in the back of this mammoth volume that will bring you up to snuff in no time).
Ayla finds Jondalar's people to be spellbinding. Their homes, for one, are formed in cliffs of vertical limestone, and their clothes and customs are a fascinating, but alien, concept to her. Similarly, the Zelandonii are somewhat nonplused when Jondalar shows up with a blonde-haired "flathead" (as Ayla's clan is referred to) and with domesticated wolves and horses in tow. How can this be, that wild animals dwell peacefully among human beings? Jondalar's family, for the most part, welcomes Ayla. There are those, however, who are not at all welcoming of Ayla, who are afraid of her unfamiliar customs and resent her relationship with Jondalar. So Ayla relies on her wits, rudimentary dignity, and charm to deal with the hostile elements of the Zelandonii as she and Jondalar prepare for their formal mating. Once they are mated, however, Ayla discovers that her trials have only begun. She finds herself in a complicated society where she must find a place with Jondalar --- and prepare for the birth of their child.
The Earth's Children series might be described as historical chick books, but they, and THE SHELTERS OF STONE, are ultimately so much more than that. Auel's research of that which is known about our ancestors remains exhaustive, and it is an absolute delight to watch her weave the fruits of this research into a cohesive story about what might indeed have been. Where a lesser writer might have lost character development under the weight of facts and events, Auel's protagonists are sharp and true and, most importantly, believable. The people and events depicted in THE SHELTERS OF STONE resonate long after each passage is read.
Auel reportedly is working on the sixth volume of the Earth's Children series, even as THE SHELTERS OF STONE is being snapped up and devoured by her legion of established fans and the new generation of readers who only now are discovering her. It is safe to conclude that Auel's exponentially growing list of readers will wait for the next volume, albeit impatiently, for as long as is necessary.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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