I have been one of Ms. Auel's addicted readers throughout her entire series. I fought my way through The Shelters of Stone for the first 275 pages and finally tossed it aside. Replay, Replay, Replay. I enjoyed the five page spread on the caves in France in one of the 2001 editions of National Geographic significantly more. 13 million copies printed of The shelters of Stone! My copy got trashed. A great disappointment to this previous fan.