Did I mention repetition?

I came away feeling somewhat lukewarm towards this much-anticipated book. Definitely, there were enjoyable parts to it, even parts that moved me to tears.

However, this book had a much different pace to it than what I’ve come to expect from this series. For every event, it reviewed experiences from the earlier books in tiresome detail. Later in the book, it even reviewed experiences that happened in the first part of the book.

And, really, how many times did we have to read about the people’s first reaction to meeting Wolf, Whinney, and Racer? Yes, the animals were new to the people, but they were not new to the readers. Recounting the same reaction from the dozens of people that met the animals as well as the never-ending recitation of all the formal names and ties of the characters made for tedious reading.

I’ll admit to skipping the long narratives to get to the action. In the earlier books I was fascinated at Ms. Auel’s extraordinary talent of setting the scene with lots of rich details. In this book, it just seemed to make the story plod, maybe because I had read most of it before.

This book is a definite, if somewhat disappointing, read for those that have been captivated by this series. I find myself eagerly awaiting the next book. I only hope the author once again warms to her subject and the plot instead of relying on page-fillers from past books.