The Land of Painted Caves cover art

The Land of Painted Caves

Earth's Children, Book 6

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The Land of Painted Caves

By: Jean M Auel
Narrated by: Rowena Cooper
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About this listen

The Land of Painted Caves concludes the story of Ayla, her mate Jondalar, and their little daughter, Jonayla, taking readers on a journey of discovery and adventure as Ayla struggles to find a balance between her duties as a new mother and her training to become a Zelandoni - one of the Ninth Cave community's spiritual leaders and healers.

Once again, Jean Auel combines her brilliant narrative skills and appealing characters with a remarkable re-creation of the way life was lived thousands of years ago, rendering the terrain, dwelling places, longings, beliefs, creativity, and daily lives of Ice Age Europeans as real to the reader as today's news.

©2011 Jean M Auel (P)2011 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd Fiction Historical Fiction
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Loved and enjoyed every min of listening
At the end really enjoyed the extra music and can't wait for the next book

Love it

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Loved the series from start to finish, a great escape from the world we inhabit today.

Great series, one to read over again.

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I have loved this series & I'm sorry it's over, but it has filled many hours for me & for that I'm grateful. Thank you.

The Land of Painted Caves

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The first time I listened to this I hated the ‘drama’ of this book. The process of being inducted into the priesthood and function of the ‘religion’ of earth’s children was interesting and even the speculations on what drove the cave paintings and use of psychedelic concoctions was worth reading. However the whole drama between j and a was both tiresome and repellent - quite a lot of it was a repeat of the whole plot of ‘mammoth hunters’ which was also annoying especially after the triumph of the first and second books. What saved this book was the contemplation of the way in which understanding the function of a man in starting life fundamentally changed society. Zelendoni number 1 also grew on me (mind the pun) as a character of interest as she manipulated, bullies and cajoles her society to stay together. So I give this book more stars than I would have if I had just listened to the book once. I admit to skipping several chapters around the time of the mother festival as being just too horrible to listen to again.

It took a second or third listen

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If it didn't repeat the same stories over and over and over throughout the book, it would have been a 5 star, 10 hour listen.

Having read all previous, I expected the repetition and put up with it to see where the story ended.

The audio is excellent. Very easy to listen to and her voice suits the story.

Good but repetitive

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I have enjoyed the entire series except the last. I had to read the whole lot and enjoyed the pre history, I personally could leave the sexual current out, but that is just me. I loved the interesting look into the past, prehistory but that is also one of my interests. I can say that if I heard the mothers song one more time I would scream, it came out in every chapter and as there are many chapters (over 50) so I feel it was there to fill the book. Maybe miss Auel ran out of things to say! perhaps she should have stopped one book earlier, it would have saved me a credit I guess.

I could do without the constant sex in this story

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Well written, as all the others in the series have been but there is very little action or storyline in this one. It seems to mostly have been intended as a tour of actual caves and cave paintings known to us today... except, without illustrations or photos, it felt pointless. It's very hard to visualise these amazing places via written word alone.

This book rounded out the Earth's Children series

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So much repatition so many recitals of the mothers song, every time it started , i just skipped ahead.
Not a particularly satisfying end to this series, felt a bit lazy and too much “reminding” about what happened in the previous books

Bit disappointed in this conclusion

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Loved it, couldnt leave it alone, was fantastic and full of history! Get reading it

Great story

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Just found this story dragged a little more than the others. Found myself tuning out a fair bit but getting this far through the series had to finish it…

This far in, I’m used to the narration. Kudos for having the same narrator for the entire series.

Hardest of the series to sit through

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