Diana Gabaldon's Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander Book 2)

If you haven't finished book 1, you may want to stop reading this review. I can't guarantee that my ramblings won't have any spoilers.



You've been warned.


So, if I thought I could use a better grasp of the pertinent history for book one, I definitely needed it for book two. I took a look at the Wikipedia page for Bonnie Prince Charlie, and I think it gave me enough background information to have a better understanding of what was going on during this book. I highly recommend it if, like me, Western Civilizations class was over 20 years ago and you haven't been spending your time reading history textbooks.

So with that out of the way, I'd say that I enjoyed reading this book because at least now Jamie and Claire know where each other stands. Book one was much about Claire coming to terms with her new reality and deciding to invest herself in it. In this book, Claire is asking the question, "Can I change anything?" Like so many time-traveling stories, we have to figure out if Claire can, in fact, change history; if she was always meant to go back and be a part of history; or if, in the most frustrating circumstance, she is merely playing a part that someone else would have otherwise played, and nothing she does can change a damn thing.

Reading the first chapter or two of this book was unbelievably difficult for me. I truly thought that I had missed a volume. Get past that and you'll be rewarded with the continuing story of Claire Fraser making her way incongruously through mid-18th century Europe, with its political knots, illogical rules of decorum, and hopelessly dirty medical facilities. There are still points of loss, love, humor, and hatred, which made this book a page-turner for me!

• Series: Book 2 of 8 (so far)
• Number of pages: 947 (first paperback edition)
• Year published: 1992
• Days to read: 7 days

Diana Gabaldon's Outlander

This is book one of a series that has been turned into a TV show. That's one of the reasons I picked it up - I'm a sucker for books that have movies or shows made out of them. I like to pick apart the differences, see how capitalists twist and bastardize great stories in order to make more money out of them. I'll let you know what I think once I finish the books and start in on the TV series.

I have to say first that this isn't my usual genre. Although it had its fair share of the mystical and mysterious, it is by and large a work of historical fiction. I hated history classes in high school, but good Lordy, after reading this book I'm thinking about reading up on mid-18th century European history. Gabaldon does a beautiful job of working fair bits of dry history into what is otherwise an alluring love story, and manages to intersperse a bit of a whodunnit as well.

Although the descriptions of flora and fauna found in both past and present can get a bit tiresome, most of Gabaldon's details serve to create a realistic framework from which to draw a greater appreciation of the settings. Her characters' voices are real and distinct; I could almost hear the voices from Braveheart coming from the Scottish clansmen Claire finds herself surrounded by. Claire's struggles are realistic and got my heart pounding more than once. So are Jamie's, although he does seem to get himself into trouble more often than is strictly necessary. If there is one overarching criticism that I have regarding this book, it's that there seem to have been a few too many out-of-the-frying-pan, into-the-fire episodes. Strife and difficulty is indispensable in a great novel, but this one left me a bit fatigued by the conclusion.

Highly recommended! A surprisingly smooth and easy read considering the content and length!

• Series: Book 1 of 8 (so far, as of June 2017)
• Number of pages: 850 (Mass market edition)
• Year published: 1991 
• Days to read: 8 days