Monday, March 29, 2010
Book Review: An Echo in the Bone by Diane Gabaldon
In her much anticipated seventh novel, Diana Gabaldon gave another peek into the lives of Jamie Fraser and his time traveling wife, Claire Randall Fraser. For those of you that have followed this pair since the release of the first book in 1996 the opportunity to learn more about Claire and Jamie was worth the wait. In her usual swashbuckling style, Diana Gabaldon took Jamie and Claire from America at the beginning of the revolution and carried them, almost safely, to Scotland and there, she left them, and me, anxiously awaiting the eighth novel.
When I first found Jaime and Claire more than ten years ago, I never imagined that their story would become so far reaching or continue to be so much fun. I can't tell you of another hero and heroine that I have enjoyed more. Their relationship, talents (individual and joint), conversations, friends, adventures and love would be worth reading without the masterful historical context, celebrity guest appearances and drama.
Three cheers for the adventure, suspense, history and joy I experience in each of the books of this series. My only complaint with this addition to the series is the avalanche of action in the last section. I ended the book breathless and was required to reread a bit to make sure I'd understood everything that had happened. A cliff hanger in every sense of the term. Write quickly, please, Ms. Gabaldon.
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I love the Outlander series dearly. It is my very favorite series, and Diana Gabaldon is an amazing author. But what the heck happened with this one?
ReplyDeleteEcho in the Bone is split into four different storylines, only one of which revolves mainly around Claire and Jamie. That means that 3/4 of this novel focuses on people other than the two wonderful main characters we all know and love. This was extremely frustrating. (Also, one of the story lines revolved around Lord John Grey - WHO ALREADY HAS HIS OWN SERIES...)
Also, there are major cliffhangers at the end, if it can even be called that. I feel like it should have said "To be continued..." at the end. All of the other Outlander novels tie off fairly nicely. This one just stops immediately. It was like reading a soap opera, except the commercial lasts years while the rest of the story is being written.