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Sunday, November 2, 2014

Sunday Review: Outlander and Dragonfly In Amber by Diana Gabaldon


Title: OUTLANDER
Author: Diana Gabaldon
Source: Purchase from Amazon
Buy Link: AMAZON
 
The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord . . . 1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

Title: Dragonfly In Amber
Author:Diana Gabaldon
Source:Purchase form Amazon
Buy Link: AMAZON


For twenty years Claire Randall has kept her secrets. But now she is returning with her grown daughter to Scotland's majestic mist-shrouded hills. Here Claire plans to reveal a truth as stunning as the events that gave it birth: about the mystery of an ancient circle of standing stones ...about a love that transcends the boundaries of time ...and about James Fraser, a Scottish warrior whose gallantry once drew a young Claire from the security of her century to the dangers of his ....

Now a legacy of blood and desire will test her beautiful copper-haired daughter, Brianna, as Claire's spellbinding journey of self-discovery continues in the intrigue-ridden Paris court of Charles Stuart ...in a race to thwart a doomed Highlands uprising ...and in a desperate fight to save both the child and the man she loves....

Review:

This is a combined review of the first two books in this series.

I would like to start this review off by saying I think the technique of writing and the in depth character development and plot are amazing. This author is extremely talented and I can really understand why so many people are obsessed with this world.

It simply is too long.

As I read each of the novels I keep thinking to myself If I was an editor what would I cut. I never can answer that. There is nothing that I would want to cut because each detail is essential to the world she has created.

And that's my problem. Reading novels that are larger than the bible isn't something that I am interested in doing on a regular basis. There are always exceptions, like with Styxx or Acheron from Sherrilyn Kenyon. The difference is those books flew by, I couldn't put them down. This series I found myself not rushing to finish after work or before my drive in. I wasn't so sucked into the world that it left me constantly wondering what was Jamie and Claire up to. Would they be okay, would they be reunited? I never asked those questions because I just didn't care enough about the characters.

To me it felt like so much detail pushed me away.

Now I know I am in the minority on this one. I know there are thousands of readers out there that love this type of epic writing and maybe I am just the wrong target audience for it.

I am not saying this whole series isn't good. Because there are somethings that are magnificent in their own right. For example her attention to detail about everything of the historical time. I had no idea what they used to do to traitors and I found that whole scene fascinating when they were talking about what would happen to Jamie if he was caught and found as a traitor. I will never forget that moment when I felt my stomach clinch visualizing the heart being ripped out of his chest cavity and tossed onto a fire.

That was brilliantly written.

Like i said her writing style is great. It really is. These books are just too long for me.

I am currently reading book three, Voyager and I am still struggling. While I still am not drawn into the book and feeling the 'must finish' sensation, after 2000 pages, I am vested in these characters.

Overall, I have to give this series thus far a 3.5 Star. Maybe if I continue to read then I will feel otherwise. I just can't say that I feel that right now.

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