The Passage of Plains (10)

The Passage of Plains
by Jean M Auel

This is the 4th book in the Earth Children series that follows Ayla on her journeys in pre-historic Europe. This book is 760 pages long and I wanted to be able to get though it in the 8 days I worked over 2 weeks.. so that is roughly 95 pages a day... I got behind at one point but got caught up and did read it in 8 days. The books was somewhat slow. The first 150 pages was mostly recaps of other books and history of the people.. useful if this is your first book.. or you have not read the other stories recently. I would probably benefit from reading Clan Of the Cave Bear again, because so much of Aylas personality and beliefs comes from her time with the Clan. I read this book over 25 years ago.. and don't remember all of it. I might try to cheat and watch the movie (again).

The book has long vivid descriptions of the land, terrain, weather and animals as they make their 1 year journey from Ukraine to France. Eventually they meet some people along the way which livens up the story greatly. Toward the end they encounter some people and have a great adventure with them.. and encounter some clan people that also adds and interesting twist to the book.

The book ends with Ayla believing she is pregnant.. and someone greeting Jondalar as he approaches the Ninth Cave of his people. I have the next book and will read it soon.. does not appear to be so lengthy and will hopefully add more to the story.

The anticipated 6th book has not been written yet, hopefully it will be coming along soon.

In general I would not recommend this book by itself.. However, I do enjoy this series. Start with Clan of the Cave Bear, and if you enjoy it work your way through the series.