An Echo in the Bone
Diana Gabaldon's brilliant storytelling has captivated millions of readers in her bestselling and award-winning Outlander saga. Now, in An Echo in the Bone, the enormously anticipated seventh volume, Gabaldon continues the extraordinary story of the eighteenth-century Scotsman Jamie Fraser and his twentieth-century time-traveling wife, Claire Randall.Jamie Fraser, former Jacobite and reluctant rebel, is already certain of three things about the American rebellion: The Americans will win, fighting on the side of victory is no guarantee of survival, and he'd rather die than have to face his illegitimate son--a young lieutenant in the British army--across the barrel of a gun.Claire Randall knows that the Americans will win, too, but not what the ultimate price may be. That price won't include Jamie's life or his happiness, though--not if she has anything to say about it.Meanwhile, in the relative safety of the twentieth century, Jamie and Claire's daughter, Brianna, and her husband, Roger MacKenzie, have resettled in a historic Scottish home where, across a chasm of two centuries, the unfolding drama of Brianna's parents' story comes to life through Claire's letters. The fragile pages reveal Claire's love for battle-scarred Jamie Fraser and their flight from North Carolina to the high seas, where they encounter privateers and ocean battles--as Brianna and Roger search for clues not only to Claire's fate but to their own. Because the future of the MacKenzie family in the Highlands is mysteriously, irrevocably, and intimately entwined with life and death in war-torn colonial America.With stunning cameos of historical characters from Benedict Arnold to Benjamin Franklin, An Echo in the Bone is a soaring masterpiece of imagination, insight, character, and adventure--a novel that echoes in the mind long after the last page is turned.From the Hardcover edition.
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Community Reviews
Or... as my friends like to call it, the Boner Book.
I had been waiting for over a year when this book finally showed up in my mailbox. Unfortunately, the mail key was somewhere in the Baja peninsula or Austria or wherever it was, it was completely inaccessible. After a small tirade, I resigned to wait and then it took me a month to finish reading.
Something is completely wrong with this picture.
But something was completely wrong with the latest installment of Gabaldon's Outlander series. Although I am completely in love (read: hopelessly devoted, slightly obsessed and completely head over heels) with Jaime and Ian (and Roger and even William) I couldn't help but think that this book was boring.
Never mind that it takes place in the middle of the Revolutionary War, never mind that William keeps running into his real father that he doesn't know is his father and we get more of his story - which I had really been looking forward to; never mind that Roger and Bree are facing a mini-crisis as to whether or not... blah blah blah. It doesn't matter. I was b.o.r.e.d. I couldn't bring myself to care about half of it. Gabaldon spent way too much time on Lord John Gray and I felt like she was just plugging her spin-off series that focuses on him and trying to trick me into going to the library and picking them up.
Won't work Diana! I refuse.
The ending sucked. Not because it was poorly written, but because the story was FINALLY starting to get good, and then it ended! And now I have to wait another three years to find out what happens.
Talk about a serious case of blue balls.
I had been waiting for over a year when this book finally showed up in my mailbox. Unfortunately, the mail key was somewhere in the Baja peninsula or Austria or wherever it was, it was completely inaccessible. After a small tirade, I resigned to wait and then it took me a month to finish reading.
Something is completely wrong with this picture.
But something was completely wrong with the latest installment of Gabaldon's Outlander series. Although I am completely in love (read: hopelessly devoted, slightly obsessed and completely head over heels) with Jaime and Ian (and Roger and even William) I couldn't help but think that this book was boring.
Never mind that it takes place in the middle of the Revolutionary War, never mind that William keeps running into his real father that he doesn't know is his father and we get more of his story - which I had really been looking forward to; never mind that Roger and Bree are facing a mini-crisis as to whether or not... blah blah blah. It doesn't matter. I was b.o.r.e.d. I couldn't bring myself to care about half of it. Gabaldon spent way too much time on Lord John Gray and I felt like she was just plugging her spin-off series that focuses on him and trying to trick me into going to the library and picking them up.
Won't work Diana! I refuse.
The ending sucked. Not because it was poorly written, but because the story was FINALLY starting to get good, and then it ended! And now I have to wait another three years to find out what happens.
Talk about a serious case of blue balls.
I have this love/hate relationship with these books. The characters are compelling, the writing is top notch, the historical components are interesting and bring insight to my prior knowledge and the books are WAY TOO LONG.
This one was delightful in many ways. Brianna and Roger have come back to the 20th century with their kids, Claire and Jamie are embroiled in the beginning of the Revolutionary War in America. Ian returns from his life as a Mohawk and navigates his participation in his family again. I love hearing what Claire does as a 'surgeon' in the 18th century, how she navigates the vague medical knowledge of the day to prevent being considered a witch, but still manages to perform surgery and heal people! In this book, I was especially struck by the camaraderie among combatants. At one point Jamie, recovering from a knife wound that nearly severed an artery and the man he shot in the process are chatting one another up in the makeshift 'hospital' No hard feelings. No strife. The battle was over and they both survived, so they were just men. I hope that modern folks can get back to that again! Someday.
And yes, i plan to read the next book.
This one was delightful in many ways. Brianna and Roger have come back to the 20th century with their kids, Claire and Jamie are embroiled in the beginning of the Revolutionary War in America. Ian returns from his life as a Mohawk and navigates his participation in his family again. I love hearing what Claire does as a 'surgeon' in the 18th century, how she navigates the vague medical knowledge of the day to prevent being considered a witch, but still manages to perform surgery and heal people! In this book, I was especially struck by the camaraderie among combatants. At one point Jamie, recovering from a knife wound that nearly severed an artery and the man he shot in the process are chatting one another up in the makeshift 'hospital' No hard feelings. No strife. The battle was over and they both survived, so they were just men. I hope that modern folks can get back to that again! Someday.
And yes, i plan to read the next book.
You know, normally by the 7th book in a series you get a little tired of the writing style and general themes of an author-but not with Diana Gabaldon. This is probably my favorite in the series since Outlander itself.
I really hope that Diana Gabaldon is already at work on the 8th book in this wonderful series. I certainly think she left too many cliffhangers at the end of this installment not to be. I'm not entirely sure that this book is quite up to the standard set by the first 6 in the series, but anyone as taken with Jamie and Claire (and their various compatriots) will be left as breathless as ever.
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