Dragonfly in Amber

Diana Gabaldon - curse you for creating a character such as James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser. For engaging me so fully in your novels that I'd happily spend all night long reading just to see what happens next to our hero and the wonderful heroine Claire.

This is the second book in Gabaldon's Outlander series and begins in 1968 in Inverness with Claire Randall and her daughter Brianna coming to Scotland to find out the fate of a group of men who are suspected to have died in the battle of Culloden.

Seeking the help off the adopted son of her old friend she appears to hold many secrets and Roger soon begins to wonder how she seems to know so much about the battle and the men she seeks to trace.

Stumbling across the grave of a James Fraser in a small churchyard far from the battlefield of Culloden she breaks down and tells her daughter that the grave if this highlander is that of her father, a man she believes dies in the battle of Culloden over 300 years before.

the rest of the book sweeps is back to the time when Outlander book one ended with Jamie and Claire in France setting out to try desperately to stop the advance of Bonnie Prince Harlie Nd the eventual battle he will lead his dates troops to at Culloden. sweeping through the court of King Louis of France and the Palace of Versailles. It sweeps from France back to the shores of Scotland as we follow Jamie and Claire as they desperately try to thwart the advices of Charles army.

This was a wonderful novel, taking place initially in a very different place setting to that of book one we get to see James and Claire as they mingle in the upper echelons of Paris society, but that doesn't mean it is filled with any less danger or superstition than the Scottish Highlands.

Many of the amazing characters from the first book feature again and perhaps I may be alone in letting out a little whoop of joy when characters such as Dougal and Collum Mackenzie made their appearances, so engaging were they. Also returning in this book is the villain Jack Randall, although maybe I am alone in beginning to find something a little endearing about the man.

gabaldon has done a quite wonderful thing, she has created a book based on the concept of time travel and made it into a sweeping and wonderful love story. I was utterly engaged with this book immediately and found it really nice to read about the battles which took place right next to where I myself live in Falkirk. Reading about the stationing of English troops in Callendar House, our closest sizeable historic manor and park.

I am most likely not the only person who would rather love the prospect of finding themselves wishing for the opportunity to escape through a circle of standing stones into the arms of a hunky, sexy Scottish red head dressed in full highland dress. I live in Scotland and even I'd go for that, a visit to find out if Craig Na Dun exists is high on my agenda.

Of course this book again ended on a cliffhanger just trying desperately to draw us into the next book. I am so very tempted to dive straight in but am going to force myself to take a break for fear that any more heroics from one Mr Fraser may drive me to Inverness post haste in search of those standing stones.

While not as exciting as the first book (I don't care for France or French history, both of which is favoured heavily in this narrative), it was quite a page-turner and answered more than a few questions raised by the first novel in the series. I quite liked the shocking ending. The only main problems I had with this book is the weird Geillis Duncan sub-plot (Claire seems really obsessed by her and her death, though I can't imagine it's important except that it proved to Brianna that Claire was telling the truth?) that featured in the last part of the book, and Claire seemed a bit dull throughout the book - there were more than a few times I wanted to throw the book across the room because of something Claire said or did that was completely idiotic. Overall, a fun ride and I'll definitely be continuing on in the series, though it was hit or miss for a good chunk in the middle. Slug your way through that and the battle narrative back in Scotland for the last few parts of the book will key up your interest again.

I wanted to like this book, but expected not to due to previous experiences with sequences of great novels. It is clear the author tried, and some of the aspects I liked in the first book are here.

Two things I did not like and a third failed to impress me:
1) The book started with romance. It took about half the book or more in Outlander for the romance to begin to take place. This book feels like the author received the feedback that “sex sells” from her first book and went with it.

It felt forced, and I was willing to let this go as background noise for the rest of what could be a great plot, but...

2) The prose is too full of descriptions. The author takes too long to transmit an idea. She seems to master the written language very well, but I do not care if there is nothing interesting going on. First sell me on the plot and characters, the prose is a bonus. But hey, the amazing time-traveling, intricate plot was just about sweep me out of my feet, so I could bear this a little longer but...

3) The plot failed to impress me. Jamie and Claire had fled to France and are looking to make themselves useful. They set as their goal to prevent the Scottish rebellion led by the exiled Prince Charles to take place, because it would fail miserably, and lead to the massacred of thousands of Scots and keep the clans under a brutal oppression for two hundred years.

So far so good. But this is developed too slowly. Jamie is trying to get close to Prince Charles and have secured a job as a wine merchant. Claire so far has only managed to make a mortal enemy because of some careless thing she said out loud.

In the midst of some dinners where Claire job is to play the part of a charming hostess, I stopped reading. The first book managed to create an intriguing mystery when she traveled to the past and you were left to wonder what would happen to her. On this one, you already know what happens, because she is telling the story from memory, as she sits safe and sound by the side or her daughter.

The first book was full of characters with unknown motives, a protagonist that doesn't quite know how to behave at that time period, living in an open doors prison where the distance from civilization was her only cell.

In short, the first book captivated me from the start. This one has managed to do little for me in the 6 hours I spent listening to it.

Read 6:15/77:49 8%