content: Only reason to continue the series at this point would be to see how many more pages it takes for Ayla to invent The Wheel (and is anyone else as irritated as I am by the constant capitalized spellings for nearly every activity from ceremonies to having sex?) Seriously, I can guess why Auel is constantly rehashing material from earlier books--to hide the lack of a story or interesting new characters--and I had particularly looked forward to meeting Zelandoni, the previous great love of Jondalar's life. For an entertaining and far quicker read on the subject of Stone Age life, read Joan Wolf's trilogy(Daughter of the Red Deer, The Horsemasters, The Reindeer Hunters). I've recently reread the book, and while still giving only two stars, I must say that it reads faster the second time around--maybe because of knowing which segments to skip over altogether!