The Plains of Passage cover art

The Plains of Passage

Earth's Children, Book 4

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The Plains of Passage

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

Ayla and Jondalar leave the safety of the lands of the Mammoth Hunters and embark on a seemingly impossible journey across an entire continent. Their goal is the Cro-Magnon settlement in what is now southern France where Jondalar lived as a young man. Accompanied by the half-tame Wolf, the superb stallion, Racer, and the mare, Whinney, they brave both savage enemies and the elemental dangers of weather and terrain in their search for the place that will become Home.

Jean Auel's imaginative reconstruction of pre-historic life, rich in detail of language, culture, myth and ritual, has become a set text in schools and colleges around the world.

©1990 Jean M. Auel (P)1992 AudioGO Ltd Fiction Historical Fiction Thought-Provoking

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All stars
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easy to follow, it pulls you along at a fast pace. I loved it and cannot wait for the next book.

fantastic book

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I loved the first two books in this series. This one is a good story, but padded out with too much description and repetition. Some is enjoyable and sometimes necessary, but not to the extent in this story. Also the rather too frequent description of sexual experiences add nothing to the story and leave nothing to the imagination.

Good, but not her best.

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this 4th book in the series about Ayla contains unnecessary repetitions of the sexual act. The tale and the research of the conditions of the era is well written and there is nothing like it edited . I am rereading the series about 20 years after it"s first edition and I think it has a lot to tell us about the human condition and the social complications of being a foreigner.I warmly recommend the series even if this book could be much shortter

the saga of the Iceage

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Book 4 in the ice age love story about the adventures of Ayla and Jondalar, this time the account of their journey home. The story depicts various misadventures, mishaps, near-escapes and meetings with all kinds of others along the way back to Jondalar's people, the Zelandonii. Including nearly dying of hypothermia trying to cross a huge, icy river and getting up the next day perfectly fine without catching even a slight cold, and going straight into a superhumanly passionate lovemaking session (come on!!! Reality? They would need a few days at least to recover and would surely catch pneumonia?!!)
Throughout the journey, Ayla has a recurring dream about Creb leading her to a cave with a strange rock formation (which as it turns out, is Jondalar's home). This is repeated in almost every chapter. I get that the spirit of Creb is guiding her, which is really sweet and saves their lives on occasion, but it is repeated so often that it gets quite tiresome (oh no, not that bloody dream AGAIN ) and rather over-eggs the pudding.
The dream isn't the only thing oft-repeated. Surely nobody begins reading book 4 in a series and needs the entire contents of the 3 preceding books rehashed? This book was made far longer that need be by all the endless repetition of previous events. How many times do we need to hear again about Ayla's childhood events, Creb's favourite ptarmigan recipe ("the fat birds with the feathered feet") And Ayla's instinctive posture-directed control of her horse and speech abnormality which is "not unattractive but unusual" ?
Auel also doesn't lose an opportunity to lecture us, the modern reader, on the dangers of ignoring/plundering/polluting the Great Earth Mother at our peril!

Rowena, the narrator, in her very precise, plummy Queen's English, has expressive reading but sticks to several main voice tones : the lecturing tone she adopts when describing the landscape and natural history, the very repetitive slightly reproving, cautionary schoolma'am tone, the mildly encouraging tone used for describing events, the excited shocked/slightly disapproving tone for when a character shows wonder, and the slightly raised, mildly upset tone that does duty for every other emotional disturbance, from fury to despair. I have had to repeatedly imagine to myself what a character crying hysterically or furiously angry would ACTUALLY sound like.

I was also driven to distraction by the ENDLESS recounting of the exact, detailed habits and appearance of every single animal, every stripe on every horse's leg, every blade of grass and bend in the river, the exact appearance and use of every type of plant, every habitat detail, every migration pattern and ecological niche of every species, every mammoth penis... even every time the 2 travellers piss on the ground! - which, though giving background knowledge, tended to interrupt the flow of the story unecessarily with repetitive and far too lengthy natural history lectures (showing off Auel's extensive research so as not to waste it) that had me fast forwarding 10 minutes at a time.
Even when Ayla falls down a crevasse in the ice and is left precariously clinging to a ledge, we have to immediately endure a long geology lecture about the process of ice cave and moraine formation. OK, I get it! You did shedloads of research, great! That's what makes the story realistic and believable. But I don't need every last detail of it regurgitated every few minutes. I just want to enjoy the bloody STORY!!
This book comes across rather as if the "story" is just a veneer to give an excuse to spout on about Ice Age history.

Repetitive!!

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loved it, completely captivating, looking forward to the next book to see what happens next

enjoyed the whole book

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excellent I await listening to last book in the Cave series. ...... ....... ....... .......

excellent as always in this series

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I enjoyed this story better than the last book lots more action . more interesting

good stuff

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I’ve been enjoying these books, but they are getting rather repetitive now. If you’re this far into the series, chances are you know about her upbringing, we don’t need reminding all the time. Also, can’t believe I’m saying this, but even the sex is getting in my nerves now! Will finish the series out of curiosity, but I feel like the quality has gone down with each book.

Repetitive

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I enjoyed this book though it was repetitive In parts to the previous three but can understand it is a stand alone book like the others if you haven’t read them before
Descriptive writing of the journey on the glacier
Narrator gets 5 stars she is brilliant

The plains of passage

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Much better storylines than 'Mammoth Hunters'. Loved the glacier section. Would make a good film. Who could take the parts I wonder...

Enthralling and exciting

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