The Shelters of Stone: Fool Me Once, Shame on You...
After a decade of impressive productivity, few would blame Jean Auel for wanting a rest. The Plains of Passage alone must have been a beast from a research and storyline standpoint. Its length is dangerously close to twice the length of The Clan of the Cave Bear . So who could blame Auel if she took a year off before starting the long-anticipated "Ayla meets the Zelandonii" novel? If she approached it fresh, the story would only be better for it. By the time I read Auel's first four novels, two years had already elapsed since The Plains of Passage , so I would have to wait, oh, another three maybe? And so the wait began. As the years passed, I frequented an Earth's Children message board , where people started to question whether the fifth novel would ever be released. Now and then Jean Auel's son would pop in to inform us of her progress (which boiled down to "No she's not dead. Yes she's still working on it"), but Internet-ave