Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love a good book series. And there are a lot of other folks out there who have been Outlander die hards long before the TV series, and we’ve been waiting on each book installment with YEARS in between them. When I realized I could access the audio for this book, I tag-teamed with the hard copy to whittle away at it. It was a great way to keep plowing through a lot of content, instead of being limited to when I had time for one format or the other.
At this point, no one who hasn’t read the previous eight books is going to dive into this 900-page monster on a whim. So it is primarily fan service, wallowing around in a familiar setting with familiar characters. But for 900 pages, we don’t really get a lot of plot advancement. We do get a LOT of reminiscing and recapping of what happened before, since it’s been so long no one can remember what happened in the previous books. (Especially when a side character mentions something about another side character. Then I had to cross-reference - “Who are they talking about?”) And a million side characters. And bees.
This series started as a fish-out-of-water story, when Claire accidentally time travels and is displaced and wants to get home, but is also torn by wanting to stay. Now that she’s chosen to stay for good, there seems to be very little discussion of the modern world she left behind. Not even casual mentions of things like “gee, I sure miss indoor plumbing,” or “wish we could just turn on the electric lights.”
The bees. The herbs. The traveling. If you’ve ever listened to the Heaving Bosoms podcast, they coined a term for long, boring passages full of details that you just skip over: “herbs herbs herbs.” And we have herbs AND bees this time!
It was too long and too detailed about the wrong things. But I’ll still come back for book 10.
William - was super annoying. In fact we get way too much of the Grey family and the church services and the Pennsylvania Quakers. And of course - of course!
At this point, no one who hasn’t read the previous eight books is going to dive into this 900-page monster on a whim. So it is primarily fan service, wallowing around in a familiar setting with familiar characters. But for 900 pages, we don’t really get a lot of plot advancement. We do get a LOT of reminiscing and recapping of what happened before, since it’s been so long no one can remember what happened in the previous books. (Especially when a side character mentions something about another side character. Then I had to cross-reference - “Who are they talking about?”) And a million side characters. And bees.
This series started as a fish-out-of-water story, when Claire accidentally time travels and is displaced and wants to get home, but is also torn by wanting to stay. Now that she’s chosen to stay for good, there seems to be very little discussion of the modern world she left behind. Not even casual mentions of things like “gee, I sure miss indoor plumbing,” or “wish we could just turn on the electric lights.”
The bees. The herbs. The traveling. If you’ve ever listened to the Heaving Bosoms podcast, they coined a term for long, boring passages full of details that you just skip over: “herbs herbs herbs.” And we have herbs AND bees this time!
It was too long and too detailed about the wrong things. But I’ll still come back for book 10.
William - was super annoying. In fact we get way too much of the Grey family and the church services and the Pennsylvania Quakers. And of course - of course!
Spoiler
Claire is super magic now and can bring Jamie back to life when he dies on the battlefield. And there are time travelers just everywhere, when in the earlier books they didn't dare mention it for fear of being burned at the stake. Brianna's even writing a BOOK on it. In pig latin, of course. I mean I guess her editors are like, "you do you, DG, we don't care any more because people will buy this anyways."
Have I lost interest over the years, or has the series lost its steam?
I trudged through the 900+ pages, and after a bit, it did get easier to read, but there wasn't a great deal of momentum; instead, the narrative consisted of vignettes and a whole lot of travelling back and forth.
There are characters I wish weren't a focus (Roger and Bree, especially Roger - sadly, they've always been boring and lacking chemistry, at least in my eyes), and others who weren't focused on enough (Ian, one of my faves), and those who should really, really be given some POV chapters (Fergus and Marsali, who have some Revolutionary War drama that's barely touched upon. Seriously, can we have any time with Fergus instead of Roger going on about religion?) William's story doesn't go much of anywhere, but I find him a compelling character, though I'm less than impressed with his new love interest and hope that storyline goes in a different direction, unlikely as it is.
The book throws back to events in previous books, going all the way back to the second. It's great for nostalgia's sake, but this doesn't drive the narrative forward. The whole thing feels like the filler before a hopefully thrilling conclusion to the series?
I trudged through the 900+ pages, and after a bit, it did get easier to read, but there wasn't a great deal of momentum; instead, the narrative consisted of vignettes and a whole lot of travelling back and forth.
There are characters I wish weren't a focus (Roger and Bree, especially Roger - sadly, they've always been boring and lacking chemistry, at least in my eyes), and others who weren't focused on enough (Ian, one of my faves), and those who should really, really be given some POV chapters (Fergus and Marsali, who have some Revolutionary War drama that's barely touched upon. Seriously, can we have any time with Fergus instead of Roger going on about religion?) William's story doesn't go much of anywhere, but I find him a compelling character, though I'm less than impressed with his new love interest and hope that storyline goes in a different direction, unlikely as it is.
The book throws back to events in previous books, going all the way back to the second. It's great for nostalgia's sake, but this doesn't drive the narrative forward. The whole thing feels like the filler before a hopefully thrilling conclusion to the series?
I always miss the characters in this series when I’m done with a book, I feel like I don’t get to check in with them anymore. However, overall, this book was probably my least favorite in the series. It seemed like a bunch of smaller stories all loosely connected and not a significant series of events throughout to keep it focused.
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Finally completed! Love this series and these characters!
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Way too long and then you get to the end, and it's not wrapped up. So now I'm waiting for the next book to find out what happens.