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A review by brandidean
A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
3.0
OK, well. If nothing happened in the last book, plenty did here. One thing after another after another. It still wasn’t very well organized, but it did have a plot. But Gabaldon completely ignores a fact to make the plot work — she said previously (in Drums of Autumn) that the newspaper article was in the February 1776 edition of the paper and said Jamie and Clare died in January 1776. But now it was all just a typo ... except how could the paper be reporting news that happened in December 1776 in February 1776?
There also just some lazy editing mistakes. Fergus’ hands (plural) are mentioned at one point. She has things dated out of sequence. She lets a first person “I” slip into a passage from Roger’s point of view. And she says that the Roanoke colony vanished a hundred years earlier, when it would have been more like 200. The Bugs’ sudden treachery — she didn’t set that up at all. How did Jamie get Gideon back after the ambush? And why did Malva try to kill Claire and her father before she was present — that whole thing was pretty convoluted and hard to swallow.
And was there a reason we needed to find another stone circle and learn a special way to walk around it? What was wrong with the one Roger found where they lived? And there were no special walks necessary before. (The whole gem stone thing has always seemed like a random addition to the equation, too, but that’s a few books old, and has done some good things for the plot here and there.)
I’m so glad to finally be rid of Bonnett. Gah. I don’t know why he had to hang around for so long. The end in general drug on forever. And honestly, I’m glad Brianna and Roger have gone back. I like them, but I hope it should tighten up the story a little bit to get back to focusing on Claire and Jamie. But I’m really sincerely glad that they found a way to leave the letters for Bri.
These books are definitely not perfect, but I am still enjoying them and have the next one ready and waiting! Also, even though I consider myself a reasonable, well grounded person, I gotta admit, I’ve started comparing men around me to Jamie, to their general disadvantage.
There also just some lazy editing mistakes. Fergus’ hands (plural) are mentioned at one point. She has things dated out of sequence. She lets a first person “I” slip into a passage from Roger’s point of view. And she says that the Roanoke colony vanished a hundred years earlier, when it would have been more like 200. The Bugs’ sudden treachery — she didn’t set that up at all. How did Jamie get Gideon back after the ambush? And why did Malva try to kill Claire and her father before she was present — that whole thing was pretty convoluted and hard to swallow.
And was there a reason we needed to find another stone circle and learn a special way to walk around it? What was wrong with the one Roger found where they lived? And there were no special walks necessary before. (The whole gem stone thing has always seemed like a random addition to the equation, too, but that’s a few books old, and has done some good things for the plot here and there.)
I’m so glad to finally be rid of Bonnett. Gah. I don’t know why he had to hang around for so long. The end in general drug on forever. And honestly, I’m glad Brianna and Roger have gone back. I like them, but I hope it should tighten up the story a little bit to get back to focusing on Claire and Jamie. But I’m really sincerely glad that they found a way to leave the letters for Bri.
These books are definitely not perfect, but I am still enjoying them and have the next one ready and waiting! Also, even though I consider myself a reasonable, well grounded person, I gotta admit, I’ve started comparing men around me to Jamie, to their general disadvantage.