All right. Five books into the Outlander series, I know what to expect. Jamie and Claire. Roger and Bree. Lots of ludicrousness, lots of rudimentary surgeries, and lots of “Wait, is anything actually happening? IS THIS ABOUT ANYTHING?” In The Fiery Cross, in particular, you get a wedding day that is, I don’t know, 300 pages?
Overall, I found this book to be more trying than its predecessors, but the charm and charisma of the lead characters — Jamie and Claire, I mean, since I still haven’t quite warmed up to Bree and even less to Roger — is still compelling. While the books have always oscillated between high-octane adventures and more low-key home life vignettes, the pacing and intent behind this volume seemed particularly off. There’s the ad infinitum wedding day that was so drawn out because of interludes banging on about Roger’s sexual frustration and angst over whether or not Bree’s baby is his, and the two separate militia campaigns that seemed included because of the misconception that whatever was going on at Fraser’s Ridge was not adventurous enough. There’s an entire section about everyone almost dying in a wildfire in the woods, but they’re fine. Also something about a ghost bear? And don’t get me started on anything to do with Bree’s breastfeeding or her dream journals, which I’m sure were meant to be sophisticated foreshadowing but were actually either very obvious or completely irrelevant. Bottom line is, Gabaldon’s “everything and the kitchen sink” tendency was dialed up to 11 here. I can’t tell if there was too much plot, or not enough, because as much as a lot of stuff happened, I’m still not sure that I could define what the overarching forward momentum was in this book. Winter war is coming, I guess?
I think what made the first three books work so well was how they explicitly dealt with Claire’s time travel, the heavy emotional decisions she was required to make as a consequence of that time travel, and the question of whether or not they could change history. Additionally, with 20th century Claire as the entry point for the reader, there was a whole “fish out of water” situation that signaled with a wink how crazy it was for a modern woman to adapt to 18th century life, particularly in the Scottish Highlands, with its reputation for machismo and olde-tymey mysticism. Afterward, the fourth book has Claire and Jamie finally reunited — for good, it seems — and building their life together. Without the decisions and adjustments made that formed so much of the emotional stakes of the first three, it acted as a coda to Claire’s former life and, in a way, the first “leg” of the series. Now, though Gabaldon clearly loves her characters and does a truly wonderful job embodying them, I got a sense in this book that, she hasn’t yet figured out what the most compelling aspects of their new, “settled” lives are and how to keep moving them forward. Of course, historically, they’re about to be swept up in the American Revolution, so there’s no rest for the weary, but this book had an exaggerated reliance on tangents that suggests that it is kind of in the holding pattern until Gabaldon plots out the rest of the series.
The formerly voracious pace at which I was reading this series has dwindled, but I’m not done yet. I still am in love with Claire as a character, and I hope that she is given a little more to do in the next book other than hold Bree’s baby in between her surgeries.
The quality of the storytelling diminishes with each new POV introduced in the books. I DNF the most recent Outlander despite being a huge fan. Conceptually Bree and Roger should be great fun: they’re young, sexy, also have the fish out of water. They should have breathed new life into the series but neither emerge as fully realized people and their characterization changes based on the day.
I want so badly to love Gabaldon’s later works but…don’t.
Yes, Bree and Roger could be wonderful, right? A Jamie and Claire reboot, even. But — and I am not sure I’ll ever stop harping on this — I really feel like Gabaldon made a huge mistake with the whole Stephen Bonnett rape thing, because it was a random, unnecessary inclusion that hangs over their characters like a cloud. Roger’s entire plotline is “Shall I man up and raise this kid as my own even though he might not be?” along with a bunch of other manly posturing about how Bree is his woman, so hands off! and “but why doesn’t she have time for my penis?” For her part, Bree is understandably still dealing with her own turmoil from the event, and while I respect that DG doesn’t gloss over it, it contributes to this hanging cloud sense that Bree kind of hates her life. She’s always frustrated at the baby, weeping milk, mooning over Roger being gone… I can go on. And when they’re actually together, they never seem to be on the same page.
Maybe it just comes down to a fundamental difference of opinion between DG and I about what the purpose of these characters should be. It seems she wants to use them as a vehicle to deal with hardships in a relationship, since Claire and Jamie are never allowed to be mad at each other for too long, whereas I seemed to want what you were getting at, which was maybe a more lighthearted take on both members of a modern couple experiencing fish out of water. Instead, Bree is immediately raped, because that’s just what happens in these books. Anyway, rant over (for now!)
This is a great review. Totally hit the nail on the head about everything, although you seem to have liked the overall product more than I ended up doing.
“Bottom line is, Gabaldon’s “everything and the kitchen sink” tendency was dialed up to 11 here.”
Ha ha YES.
Also, literally, NOTHING IMPORTANT happens in this book. I agree that theme seems to be “war is coming,” but she doesn’t do anything with it, and the next book also seems to have that same theme, so . . . why not just cut the page length in half (or more), combine them and be done with it? Sigh.
You’re totally right. When I think back to even one thing that’s going to have a ripple effect into the next book(s), maybe only Ian being back? Because the war is the obvious Big Deal, but that’s happening whether our characters like it or not so it’s not like their actions in this book really effected any change there. But yeah, for some reason, I still didn’t hate it. I just love C and J’s sense of humor, so the moments I got to spend with them being themselves were almost worth the price of admission. Almost.
The ghost bear is TOTALLY important for the series. Plot revolving stuff right there. We can’t discount that.
I wondered if she was giving herself a writing exercise to see if she could have one day take 300 pages. It certainly took about 24 hours to read that one day.
I agree that not much happens in this one, but I do love it when Bree comes to the rescue – the engineering feat with the snake and the antibiotics, and not only killing the buffalo but portioning it out to everyone on the Ridge. I also like that finally Jamie and Roger get to bond, and the scene at the end when all of the women and kids are picking blueberries I had to force myself to read slowly every time. I still remember reading that part of the book for the first time and tearing through it to get to the end.
My re-read of The Fiery Cross took absolutely forever and nearly broke me. Your review is absolutely spot on. I also agree with Narfna, the parts with the ghost bear are clearly extremely important for the series going forward. Same thing with Bree’s breast feeding. Not to mention her dream journal. No wait, they are boring and bonkers and the dream journal especially made me want to throw the book across the room with frustration.