A convoluted, long-winded tome from Gabaldon (Voyager, 1994, etc.), who brings back the Scottish rebel Jamie Fraser and Claire, a time-traveler from the 20th century and the love of his life, as they face the late 18th century with characteristic aplomb. This time out, Jamie and Claire arrive in the US from Great Britain and are joined by Jamie's teenage nephew Ian. Although vividly drawn and well-developed, all three characters quickly become tangential; from the very first scene, set in Charleston in 1767, it is clear that the focus is to be not on them but on the "hot button" issues of the time: British/American tension, slavery, Indians, and impending war. There's a secondary storyline as well, which takes place in the late 20th century and involves Jamie and Claire's college-student daughter Brianna and her desperate attempts to find love in her present-day life while simultaneously striving to rejoin her mother - and Jamie, the father she has never known - in the past. Roger Wakefield, a Scottish student who helped Claire travel back in time in the previous books, is the object of Brianna's affection now; the fact that he knows about Brianna's parents' unusual situation allows him both to win her heart for eternity and also help her rejoin her loved ones, in very unusual fashion. Conflict between Claire's past and present lives is omnipresent; at various times she's forced to perform surgery (she was a doctor in 20th-century England), explain TV, and reminisce about life with the husband she had in modern times, pre-Jamie. Ghost story, historical novel, fantasy, stock romance? In her attempt to be all things to all people, Gabaldon has created a 900-page monster with far too many components. Only for the author's most rabid fans. (Kirkus Reviews)

How far will a woman travel to find a father - a lover - a destiny? Across seas - across time - across the grave itself. It began in Scotland, at an ancient stone circle. Claire Randall was swept through time into the arms of James Fraser whose love for her became legend - a tale of tragic passion that ended with her return to the present to bear his child. Two decades later, Claire travelled back again to reunite with Jamie, this time in frontier America. But Claire had left someone behind in her own time - their daughter Brianna. Now Brianna has made a disturbing discovery that sends her to the stone circle and a terrifying leap into the unknown. In search of her mother and the father she has never met, she risks her own future to try to change history - and to save their lives. But as Brianna plunges into an uncharted wilderness, a heartbreaking encounter may strand her forever in the past - or root her in the place she should be, where her heart and soul belong...

How far will a woman travel to find a father - a lover - a destiny? Across seas - across time - across the grave itself. It began in Scotland, at an ancient stone circle. Claire Randall was swept through time into the arms of James Fraser whose love for her became legend - a tale of tragic passion that ended with her return to the present to bear his child. Two decades later, Claire travelled back again to reunite with Jamie, this time in frontier America. But Claire had left someone behind in her own time - their daughter Brianna. Now Brianna has made a disturbing discovery that sends her to the stone circle and a terrifying leap into the unknown. In search of her mother and the father she has never met, she risks her own future to try to change history - and to save their lives. But as Brianna plunges into an uncharted wilderness, a heartbreaking encounter may strand her forever in the past - or root her in the place she should be, where her heart and soul belong...

Diana Gabaldon is the international bestselling author of five previous historical novels - Cross Stitch, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn and The Fiery Cross, and one work of non-fiction, Through the Stones. She lives with her family and a lot of other assorted wildlife in Scottsdale, Arizona.

2008-03-18 Could have been so much more

The Outlander series and I have a bit of a love/hate relationship, much like the relationship between an obsessive-compulsive eater and McDonalds - I know it's bad for me but I feel oddly compelled to keep going back. On the one hand, I admire the spirit of what it's trying to accomplish and genuinely appreciate when it gets things right, as is the case with Cross Stitch and Dragonfly in Amber. However, as my review of The Fiery Cross proved, I find myself increasingly disgruntled with their bloated length, rambling plots and unlikeable characters. Thus, it was with some trepidation that I started on this instalment.

Weighing in at a hefty 1200 pages, Drums of Autumn certainly ticks my first box of annoyance. Still, it breaks with the traditional Outlander formula in that it divides its story more or less equally between Claire and Jamie in the past, and her daughter Brianna and Roger in the 1970's. Brianna has made a disturbing discovery about her parents and resolves to journey into the past to protect them, while Roger also learns the truth and soon sets out in pursuit of Brianna, Benny Hill style. Meanwhile, Claire and Jamie have decided to make a new life for themselves in colonial America, presumably because there was nothing particularly interesting left for the author to write about in post-Culloden Scotland. God forbid they would choose to live somewhere that isn't teetering on the brink of rebellion and war.

This two-pronged approach to the story is quite effective as the contrast between the two worlds makes for interesting reading, but it also creates its share of problems. The first and most obvious of which is that neither story gets the attention it deserves - Roger and Brianna's tale feels fragmented and incomplete, while Jamie and Claire's feels more like filler than a properly developed plot arc. There's no sense of urgency or development to their side of things.

It's not all bad, though. Seeing Brianna and Roger piece together the clues about her parent's life story is interesting in a Columbo-esque kind of way, helping to remind the reader that there's actually time travel involved in this story, and that Claire hasn't just gone to some exceptionally backward and remote place - like Wales.

But the real shortcoming is in the characters themselves. Firstly, Brianna and Roger. These are easily two of the most insipid, irresponsible and incompetent characters ever portrayed in a work of fiction since Scooby Doo and Shaggy took off in the Mystery Van. Brianna is so ridiculously arrogant and reckless that it's almost a relief when she falls foul of her own hubris - as a reader, I actually enjoyed seeing her suffer as one might enjoy seeing a particularly annoying villain get his just deserts. And Roger? Well, the expression `pussy whipped' simply isn't an adequate description of such a painfully weak and indecisive character. Jamie Fraser he ain't.

Speaking of which, Jamie is about the only character who comes off well in this decidedly below-par instalment; still a tough and reliable man of action, able to toss off glib remarks like an 18th century James Bond. It's just as well, really, since Claire seems to be letting the side down of late. Back in the days of Cross Stitch and Dragonfly in Amber, she was a lively, spunky young woman who spoke her mind and refused to back down in the face of danger. But now? Well, I don't know if it's the perceived age of her character that's changed her, but the old gal just comes across like an arrogant middle-aged woman. There's a certain knowing smugness to everything she says and does that starts out as a minor irritation and eventually develops into a festering boil of real annoyance.

Some of my friends, in between bouts of alcohol abuse and self-flagellation, have described this book as `hard to put down'. I suspect they were thinking of a different book however as I found this one particularly easy to put down; it was picking it up again that was the hard part, and not just because of its atrocious size. At some points while reading, I actually found myself wanting to go off and do other things like fix a broken light switch or wash my car or bury the corpse of a double glazing salesman that's been stinking up my dining room. That's right, I was seriously tempted to do WORK rather than read this book. For something which is ostensibly designed to entertain and excite, this is not a good sign.

Still, I slogged through to the end partly because at heart I'm a petty man who doesn't like to admit defeat to a book, and partly to maintain my treasured reviewer integrity, which is sometimes the only thing that stops me from shoving a sharp pencil up my nose and headbutting the table. Having finished Drums of Autumn, conquered the forbidding peaks of The Fiery Cross and now facing the towering summit of A Breath of Snow and Ashes, I'm beginning to wish I'd taken the pencil option.