"Outlandish" Book Reviews

Update: I forgot to give my Golden Bookmark ratings!

For The Outlandish Companion: 5 out of 5 Golden Bookmarks. Which means I'm seriously considering buying this book for my library!

For Fiery Cross: This one is a bit tougher because it's a "bridge" book in the series, although I enjoyed it more than Drums of August. It definitely is not a stand-alone book and there are still a lot of loose ends. I'm going with 4 out of 5.

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I am a regular patron at our local library and I always check out the "New Books" section. So I was really, really excited to see the latest book in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, A Breath of Snow and Ashes. Only one problem--it's been four years since the previous book and I couldn't remember if I had read it or not. (Diana Gabaldon writes slower than J.K. Rowling!)

So it was off to the computer files to request The Fiery Cross, the title of Book Five. As I was searching, though, I came across another book, The Outlandish Companion. I decided to request both of them.

About a week later (just in time for the Highland Games, in fact), both volumes had come in. I decided to "read" The Outlandish Companion first.

Wise choice.

Companion has a summary of the first four novels: Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, and Drums of August. While I have a pretty good memory, these summaries helped bring back some of the details. But the real treasure of the book comes after.

The subtitle of Companion reads as follows: In Which Much Is Revealed Regarding Claire and Jamie Fraser, their Lives and Times, Antecedents, Adventures, Companions, and Progeny, with Learned Commentary (and Many Footnotes) by their Humble Creator.

There are three pages of Acknowledgements. There is a Prologue, which starts, "Well, it was all an accident, is what it was. I wasn't trying to be published; I wasn't even going to show it to anyone. I just wanted to write a book--any kind of book." And then Ms. Gabaldon goes on to explain exactly how the first of the series, Outlander, came to be written. She does not have a degree in English Literature or History. She had never been to Scotland. She is a scientist and a storyteller, and she knew how to do research in those pre-Internet/early-personal computer days.

As I read this, I felt a sudden kinship. Later on, I discovered why: we're almost the same age.

Other Sections include Characters, including discussions of where they come from, a list of them (very helpful), and a horoscope of Jamie and Claire. There is a Family Tree. There is a Comprehensive Glossary and Pronunciation Guide that includes some archaic English terms, Latin and French phrases and pronunciation, and--best of all--Gaelic translations AND pronunciations, including a discussion of Gaelic grammar and the subtleties of Irish Gaelic versus Scots Gaelic. Since whomever came up with the rules for transcribing Gaelic (of either type) into the Latin alphabet must have been sampling some of the famous Gaelic "water of life," this guide was very useful.

Ms. Gabaldon mentions that she had wanted to put this glossary at the end of Dragonfly in Amber, but her publisher felt the book was already Long Enough. This, by the way, is a theme that recurs regularly throughout Companion: how she decides on the length of her books. And, for those of you who have read them, yes, she actually does edit out scenes.

Other sections include Outlandish Web Sites and Online Venues (if you haven't already discovered some of them like The Ladies of Lallybroch), Research, Where Titles Come From, The View from Lallybroch, Frequently Asked Questions, Controversy, Work in Progress (which includes an excerpt from Fiery Cross and what became A Breath of Snow and Ashes.) Just to be thorough, Ms. Gabaldon included an Annotated Bibliography and Appendixes, which include Errata.

I liked that last section. Ms. Gabaldon explains why the series begins in 1945 in the U.S. edition but in 1946 in the U.K. edition and the problems that single year's difference caused in the second book. She also answers one question that bugged the heck out of me when I first read Outlander: why does Claire think Jamie's last name is MacTavish? (It was an editing goof that no one caught until after publication.)

Companion is a marvelous reference work. I enjoy picking it up and just reading pieces wherever the book happens to open or whatever catches my fancy, although I did read the summaries straight through. Ms. Gabaldon writes in a self-deprecating, chatty style, and seems to be really surprised that she is now a best-selling author.

The Fiery Cross refers to a Scottish custom. Highland clan chiefs would fashion a cross of wood and set it on fire. The charred cross would then be carried through the area as a sign to the men of the clan that they were about to go to war and their chief needed them. (If this sounds similar to the Ku Klux Klan ritual, that's because it is. Many Highland Scots settled in the hills of Carolina.)

SPOILER WARNING! If you haven't read any of the Outlander series, stop reading this review now and go get the book! ;)
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V

The Revolutionary War is coming. Claire, Brianna, and Roger all know this. Jamie knows only because Claire has told him. Out in the backwoods country, taxes must be paid in cash which most landowners don't have. Those who can't pay are evicted, allowed to take only that which they can carry. Often the land is given to those who are connected to the sheriff or the local Justice of the Peace. This heavy-handed behavior has caused desperate men to protest to the governor. When they are ignored, they riot.

The governor requests the help of those landowners who have a royal grant, including Jamie Fraser. Although Jamie's sympathies lie with the displaced, he is a Catholic--and Catholics legally cannot have a royal grant. The governor knows Jamie is Catholic and chooses to ignore the fact--as long as Jamie is loyal to him. So Jamie receives orders to raise a militia.

Most of Jamie's tenants are fellow Highlanders who were with him at Ardsmuir Prison after the Battle of Culloden. Thus, when he burns the cross and sends it out, they respond, for Jamie is their "chief."

Subplots abound as well. Jocasta Cameron, Jamie's wealthy aunt, is set to marry Duncan Innes, who was a fellow prisoner with Jamie. A murder is committed during the wedding reception--who would have killed a slave and why? Jamie and Roger are looking for Stephen Bonnet, a pirate who raped Brianna shortly after her arrival in the Carolinas and who may--or may not--be the biological father to her son. (The son could be Roger's, after all. And Roger has acknowledged Jemmy as his own.) Claire tries to grow penicillin and avoid being cast as a witch. There is also the possibility of Brianna and Roger returning to their own time (1968 or so), but they're not sure how. They're also not sure if their son, Jemmy, can "travel between the stones," and, of course, Brianna won't leave him.

The book is 979 pages (hardcover edition) and I was sucked in from the beginning. Stayed up way too late reading it and my family heard those dreaded words, "Just let me finish this chapter!" (Never a good sign--for them!)

Some questions are answered, some are asked. Ms. Gabaldon does an excellent job recreating the Revolutionary War era and doesn't shy from the less-pleasant parts of it: slavery, anti-Catholicism, death, and sex.

The point-of-view shifts among the different characters in this novel, more than I remember happening previously. Most of the time this works and I knew who was speaking. A couple of times, I had to read a bit before I was sure who it was. Claire, though, is always in first person.

I love her ending sentence: "When the day shall come, that we do part," he (Jamie--ed.) said softly, and turned to look at me, "if my last words are not 'I love you'--ye'll ken it was because I didna have time."

As soon as A Breath of Snow and Ash comes back to the library, I'll be ready for it!