Reviews

The Plains of Passage by Jean M. Auel

icelore's review

2.0

My least liked novel of this series, this books just seems to go on and on. It's repetitive to the point of frustration and aside from one unique encounter, just has a terrible feeling of plodding along.

kurteff's review

4.5

The best book in the Earth's Children series? No. But, my favorite. The book is half incredibly beautiful passages describing native flora and fauna of middle Europe and half poorly written smut. But God, the former just whisked me away to another world reading this as a teen

linda_1410's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative slow-paced

3.0

At this point in the series, it really was getting ridiculous how many of the crucial advancements to humanity Ayla and Jondolar were responsible for discovering and spreading across Europe. Again, no real plot here so this serves as more of a travelogue back up the Danube to what we currently call France. We see some of the same tribes as from book 2, but meet others along the way, and there's some messed up crap going on here and there, and some more early human inventions to discover, like soap. 

The big tension here though is they're getting closer and closer to Jondolar's people, who Jondolar has said won't accept her if they find out who raised her. And then I had to wait eight years to find out what happened next. 🤣

noemilysclub's review against another edition

4.0

My least fave of the series I think. Still good, but the formula of travel a bit -- meet new people -- travel a bit more gets pretty tiring! Also I'm sooo sick of the sex scenes.

Full disclosure I'm stupid attached to these books so I'm giving them all 4 or 5 star reviews.

fernandoyataco1991's review against another edition

4.0

El inicio de un nuevo viaja marca el inicio de nuevas aventuras. Una oportunidad que Auel le da a sus personajes para crecer y estrechar esa relación con los lectores de la serie.

crystal_dark's review against another edition

4.0

I love this series and all the characters but since the characters are traveling the author includes a lot of research about the environment and history of the regions that I wound up skimming to get back to the story. I loved when they came across other groups of people though.

branomir's review

3.0

My second time going through this book and boy is that first part long! The book describes a journey of more than a year and that's what it feels like. When Jondalar and Ayla encounter other people it is actually a decent Earth's Children book, but for the first 400 pages or so this rarely happens and there are so many long, descriptive, repetitive and sometimes downright boring scenes in it. The book does end on a high, so you feel kind of forgiving as a fan. Not a bad novel, but definitely the least of the series.

readinginthewings's review against another edition

adventurous informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

mthereader's review

adventurous reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.25

michyb's review against another edition

3.0

Ayla and Jondalar are travelling to get back to his homeland. The author spends a lot of time describing the flora, fauna, landscape, climate etc. in great detail. Coupled with a lot of repetition, the first quarter of the book is very slow. The pace does pick up after that and the story becomes more interesting and enjoyable, with the exception of Jondalar, who continues to whine whenever he doesn't get his way.