Voyager (Outlander) by Diana Gabaldon Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Voyager (Outlander)
Book Review: Great series but some parts not believable
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this series and have been reading straight through from Outlander to Voyager. Diana Gabaldon has done an heroic job of making her characters so endearing, so multidimensional -- I think about them often the way I think about a friend and feel like I know them; she's made me care about them so much. Her dedication to detail and to layering of each character is a gift.
The only thing is there are some parts that are not believable:
* I couldn't believe how easily Claire's daughter, Brianna, accepted the idea of Jamie as her father. I know Roger and Claire presented her with the evidence but what little anger or outrage she showed was short lived. She went from outrage at her mother even suggesting that Claire's first husband, Frank, was not really her father to a giddy declaration of Jamie as "Daddy!" I found it strange that there was very little confusion or anger with her mother at all this news. I guess the story had to move along so the author couldn't linger on this point.
* Aside from the odd mention of the woman's "courses," I was kind of surprised at the lack of mention at how menstruation was handled, practically, by a woman at this time in history. There's such detail about the way people prepared food, bathed, etc. at that time and was surprised by this omission.
These are minor flaws for a remarkable series... If you are looking for a one-of-a-kind historical/romantic series, start with Outlander and keep going!
Book Review: Huge fan but this fell flat
Summary: 3 Stars
Voyager picks up right where Dragonfly left off, and I won't give any details away, but I will say that the immediate drama and action is still there - it's just not as ... immediate and dramatic. Blame this on the fact that the main characters still don't seem to have very many flaws and don't ever really do anything wrong - and so nothing really new ever happens to them? Plus the addition of new characters doesn't help much when they aren't treated with nearly as much character development and description as the 2 main characters are.
The main reason I'm still reading the Outlander series is admittedly because Gabaldon did such a bang-up job on the first one. Unfortunately (for me, at least) the steam of the original romance has already run out, and so has the sense of real danger and the what-would-you-do fantasy that kept us guessing through Outlander and Dragonfly. I really hope this is just a lull in the scheme of things, and I still plan to pick up Drums of Autumn, in hopes of some real turning points in the story. Voyager did end with a good cliffhanger, and in some form I do very much care about Claire and Jamie's adventures, mostly because of Outlander, but there's a reason it took me a longer time get through this third one.
Book Review: It's a small world, ye ken ?
Summary: 1 Stars
Having enjoyed Gabaldon's first two books in the series, I had to review this book to say how disappointing and boring this one was.
The story sees Claire return to the 18th century after finding out that Jamie is still alive and takes it from there. We meet all the characters in the earlier books, Fergus, Jenny, Ian alongwith others - after all, it's been 20 years. The plot moves along briskly in the 1960s, however once Claire returns to the past, the story got majorly involved, convoluted and looong! Outlander and DIA were victims of the same kindof bloat, but atleast they were entertaining. The way the plot moves forward in this book, and the increasingly crazy situations the characters are put into had me shaking my head in disbelief - you'd think Claire and Jamie would learn to be more circumspect with age!! Claire has barely been in the past for a couple of hours, when she's having her bodice ripped by unsavoury characters and the action continues with no respite (except for them taking time off every couple of pages to have sex *enough already* ). Claire even finds herself saddled with her own 'Typhoid Mary'. I did read on the author's website that she writes different scenes in the book and then puts the book together and it seems pretty evident in this one - the dangerous situations faced by the characters never let up. Additionally, there are so many unnecessary and unexplained scenes in the book - the one where Jamie suddenly emerges as the captain of some French troops, etc - and these really bothered me. But to be fair, maybe they were explained, at this point of time I was so bored that I was skipping through pages just wanting it to get over. And for a story that covers 2 different periods in time, 3 continents, it's such a stretch to find that Claire and Jamie keep running into EVERY single character time and again. I know they say, it's a small world - but this small is really stretching it.
Anyway, I think I'm going to read the next one on the series, just because I already have it waiting for me in the library, but if that doesnt improve much more then that's it for the Outlander series for me.
Book Review: It's long, but not one page too long
Summary: 5 Stars
This series just continues to get better. There lives are adventuresome, but it never seems to reach the over the top stage. I think what I like best about these books are Jamie's and Claire's love for one another that binds them regardless of the many harrowing things that come their way. They fight, no doubt, but their love is never to be doubted. While each of these books are of epic length, I never think, "Get on with it already," as I do with other long books. Each of these seems just long enough to leave me ready for the next.Book Review: Just Ordered the Next Three in Series
Summary: 5 Stars
I was looking for a series that would make me stop rereading Twilight series for the 10th time, I admit I have another obsession. Don't know how I found Outlander, but it certainly has filled my desire for characters with lives I can escape into. Second in series was hard to get through, I just didn't care about French aristocracy. To demonstrate my deep obsession with these characters, as ordering next three, read author's page in Amazon and wept with joy to see there is a movie in the works. Thank you Diana Gabaldon.