Voyager

Before I go on to review this particular installment of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, I'll give you a brief recap of what to expect if you're not yet aquainted with a certain rugged red-haired 18th-century Scottish vagabond named James Fraser  - and of course, the main character herself, Claire Randall, a dispossessed woman of the 1940's who takes an unexpected foray through some standing stones right into Jamie's Scotland.  Intrigued?  You should be.

The very first tome in the series, Outlander, is historical romance at its absolute best.  The good guys are loveable, the bad guys are despicable and the suspenseful drama between them all keeps a constant tension present throughout the entire story, just setting you up for a long night on the beautiful but insanely dangerous highlands of 18th-century Scotland.  With the next book in the series, Dragonfly in Amber, the page-turning will slow down a bit, as we're taken through a time of political upheaval, in preparation for the famous Battle of Culloden in 1746.  But you'll have to keep slogging through some of the ho-hum details and eh-characters to discover Jamie's place in the scheme of things - will he fall at Culloden as predicted by his time-traveling wife?  And finally, on to the "present" with Voyager, the third novel.

Voyager picks up right where Dragonfly left off, as each new book does.  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 -  or you can blame it on the fact that you just know nothing really bad will ever happen to these folks because they are, of course, the main characters.  I guess this is a common problem with most series, I just don't happen to read very many (there are way too many books out there to read and re-read the same characters, right?).

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, 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 readers 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, as soon as I find it again (I think my sister stole it, so you'll have to excuse my promise to continue with the series uninterrupted).  Voyager did end with a good cliffhanger, and in some form I do very much care about Claire and Jamie's adventures in (not gonna tell you where!), but there's a reason it took me such a long time to get through.

Now on to the next read, which is very fall-ish indeed!  Check out my Currently Reading widget to see what's next!