Voyager by Diana Gabaldon

          Outlander #3

          Another great book by Diana Gabaldon!  I am so pleased I found this series. I’ve enjoyed every moment of these very long books. Gabaldon has made her way onto my list of favorite authors.

          Voyager is the third book in the Outlander series. After thoroughly enjoying the first two, Outlander and Dragonfly In Amber, [Outlander, Dragonfly In Amber] I was looking forward to this one. In the first book, Claire travels two hundred years back through time and finds herself in Scotland just prior to the Jacobite uprising. While there, she meets, marries and falls in love with Jamie Frasier, a large, handsome charismatic Scot. She tells him that the Scottish forces will be massacred at Culloden Field, and as the battle approaches, she discovers she is pregnant. Jamie sends her back through time on the eve of the battle, intending to go back and die on the field. Claire returns to her own time and bears Jamie’s child.

          In the second book, Claire takes her daughter, Brianna, on a trip to Scotland with the intent of telling her who her biological father is, and attempting to explain the time travel. Claire tells the tale of her love affair with Jamie and of their adventures together. While there, Brianna discovers Jamie Frasier’s grave and Claire realizes for the first time that Jamie did not die at Culloden.

          Now, Claire works to discover where she might find Jamie Frasier twenty years after the battle of Culloden. Through the exhaustive efforts of Brianna and her historian boyfriend, they track down clues that indicate Jamie is working as a printer in Edinburgh.

          Claire gathers what she can and prepares to travel back through the stones to find her one true love. It is wrenching to leave Brianna, but she cannot stay away. She goes back through the stone and begins the trek to the city.

          Upon arriving in Edinburgh, Claire gets directions to the printing house she believes is now owned by Jamie. She sees him and knows she was right to return to him, but is nervous about his reaction.  When he turns around and sees her, he faints dead away! 

          Jamie and Claire then embark on the journey of relearning each other – neither is really the same person they were when they parted twenty years earlier. Their personal journey is paralleled in the book by their physical journey from Scotland to the New World.  It is fun and exciting with twists and turns in both treks that kept me on the edge of my seat. 

          I highly recommend this book.  I would also suggest reading the first two before picking this one up though.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

          This book is the first in a series. I added it to my to-be-read list after reading, and enjoying, The Scottish Prisoner a few months ago.  I’m very glad I did.  I really liked this one, and have added the rest of the series to the list.

          If you are a regular visitor to this blog, you’ll be aware that time travel is one of my favorite kinds of stories.  And, this is a time travel tale.  The story starts in 1946. Claire and her husband, Frank,  have been posted at opposite ends of the earth during WWII, and now that the war is over, they are enjoying a bit of a second honeymoon in Scotland.  Toward the end of their planned stay, Claire makes a solo trip to a stone dance where she stumbles through a thin spot in the space-time continuum and finds herself in the middle of a skirmish between some Scottish raiders and English redcoats.

          It takes some time, but fairly quickly she discovers that this is no historical reenactment or movie shoot. She really is in 1743.  She ends up being taken by the Scots back to their home, and must find a way to escape them and return to the dance where she hopes she can make her way back to her own time. 

          But fate intervenes, and in order to avoid being turned over to the British to be interrogated as a spy, she finds herself wed to Jaime Frasier, an outlaw and fine specimen of a man. Once wed, the Scots trust in her begins to increase, and her training as an army nurse puts her in great demand as a healer. Her attempts to help the sick and injured are not always looked upon in a friendly manner, though, and before long she finds herself accused of witchcraft. 

          She is rescued at the last moment, and finally breaks down and tells Jamie that she has come from the future, and has a husband and a life there.  While obviously skeptical, Jamie takes her back to the dance. And, while there, witnesses things that convince him her story is true. He loves her enough to allow her to return through the time rift to her life in 1946, but is not strong enough to watch it happen. He leaves her standing before the stone.

          And there she stands, unable to take the final step through the rift. She realizes that she is too much in love with Jamie to leave him, and chooses to remain in 1743, despite the lack of indoor plumbing.

          Together, Claire and Jamie have further adventures as they attempt to avoid the British, who have condemned Jamie to hang, and try to find a place where they can live and love.

          This is a very long book. The original hardcover edition was 688 pages long. It took a while to read it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I can’t wait to get to Dragonfly in Amber, the second book in the series.

The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon

               This book is part of a larger series called the Lord John novels. The series and its novels are outlined in the Preface to the book – and I gotta tell ya, I was totally confused by the time I’d finished reading it. So, with great trepidation, I opened Section I.

               And, was pleasantly surprised at how easily I followed the story line. I must admit, it did help that I am somewhat familiar with the historical time period and the customs of the British upper class. Without that background, some of the activities would be pretty inexplicable.

               I enjoyed the characters and the plot line.  The action moved along at a good pace.  I have not yet decided If I want to read the whole series, but I have added the first one, Outlander (if I interpreted the Preface correctly), to my book list.