Books: Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon (1992)

So, I finished the second book in this series, and mostly, I have the same issues.

Its way over long -and the each novel in the current 7 book series gets longer- and there is a lot of downtime where nothing really happens. While there adventures in France were integral to the plot, it becomes clear towards the end that most of that time could have been edited down to a few pages, brief chapter’s or two.

But what we get is a very detailed day-in-life of Claire and Jamie that often borders on tedious. It’s like this: say it’s a three day journey between point A and point B. As far as Gabaldon is concerned, we need each of those days spelled out in the most infinite detail, from what they ate, to family stories that no one could remember in the detail she describes –and most with no bearing on the plot what so ever. 

Also, I guess I know why women read and write romance, because they can create the perfect man. Jamie and Claire love each other (to the point where you swear they had Alzheimer’s, ‘cause almost 20 pages don’t go by without them having sex or babbling their love for one another. It’s tedious) and Jamie –as noted before- is a super hero Terminator, able to be beat down again and again, and never ever complain. So the author forces us believe that somehow, this guy could survive while others die easily. 

This second book opens in 1968. We learn Claire returned through the stone circle three years after she vanished in 1945. We know that she was pregnant with Jamie’s baby, but Frank (her 20^th Century husband) became Brianna’s father. Now Frank is dead and Claire has decided to tell her daughter the truth.  She’s returned to the area for the first time since her return and explains to her and Frank’s friend Roger, the story of what happened before she returned.

Part of the problem is the first person narrative Gabaldon foists on us. While I understand the underlying reason she chose to use this prose devise –the reader learns as Claire does- it becomes tedious as Claire vacillates between a smart, 20^th Century woman, into a bubbling pot of gooey love when Jamie is around –and we get her 16 year-old school girl version of it. There were times I was not surprised to see her writing Mrs. Jamie Fraser again and again with little hearts above the i’s. 

And maybe this is why the author chose 1945 for the setting of Claire’s departure from the 20^th Century. While she was educated in medicine, and knows how to heal people in 1745, her lack of knowledgeable history is appalling. And at times, Claire seems to have some idea about the past, other times she seems lackadaisical. And though she spends another 22 years in the 20^th Century, does she spend it reading history books? Nope, because it would be too painful for her. Ugh. Seriously? 

In this book Gabaldon does address the timeline issue. In book one, her and Jamie thought that a descendant of Frank was killed in 1744, and not 1745 as history had shown. But since her wedding ring from Frank did not vanish (because of the Grandfather Effect) they were not sure how the flow of time proceeded. Then, she introduces a brother (of course) and you can eventually see where this is going. Plus, while Claire encountered a woman in the past from 1968, she waits until then to even investigate her. I applaud her for not mucking up the timeline -Duncan has to go back in time- but I don't buy for the minute why she waited 22 years to figure out the whole time-loop thingy.

The book ends with a cliffhanger of sorts. For 22 years she’s believed Jamie to be dead, killed at battle that marked a turning point in history in the war between the English and the Scots. Now –because Claire changed history by telling Jamie of that battle, he appears to be alive.

So I’m guessing, she’ll return to the portal in the stone circle for book 3.

But I doubt she’ll bring a history book with her. And I doubt I'll take the time to read it.

Books: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (1992)

It’s been 20 years since Diana Gabaldon began her romance/historical/fantasy/science fiction series about one Claire Randall, 20^th Century heroine who is transported back in time (via some stone circles) to the 18^th Century. I had been aware of them for that long as well, but no matter what books store I worked, they were always shelved in the Romance section –one genre I don’t read. 

Of course, over the years, many readers (all women) have told me that the series is not really all romance, that it has equal doses of action, humor and history lesson. Still, it was considered Romance – at least to eyes of the Border, B. Dalton, Walden Books and Waterstones that I’ve worked at since 1987. Eventually, the books would be re-categorized as General Fiction/Literature I would guess more at the instance of the publishers, who always packaged them in plain, primary color covers –no half-naked men and women on the covers that was, and still is, typical Historical Romance. They obviously felt that the series sort of should not be pigeon-hold under one genre and is kind of telling men, you'll enjoy it for the violence.

But when Borders was closing down, and I was buying books on the cheap knowing it would some time before I could purchase new ones again, I bought the first 2 books in the series. So, I finally grabbed book 1 and sort of liked it.

The premise goes as this: The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is 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 stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach - an "outlander" - in a Scotland torn by war and raiding Highland clans in the Year of Our Lord 1743. Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into intrigues and dangers that may threaten her life...and shatter her heart. For here she meets James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, and becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

Here’s the thing. It is long -850 pages in this mass market edition. And with 7 books out in the series, each topping at close to 1000 pages (one of the later editions clocks in at 1400 pages!!), I’m weary to start another endless series (an 8^th book is due next year) that are doorstops in book format.

Outlander is a bit too long, too wordy, and vacillates between badly written and showing true talent. There is a lot of romance, or sex, and Gabaldon has created a perfect man in Jamie Fraser (who comes off more life the T-1000 in Terminator 2 very un-killable despite the efforts of friends, family and foes). And Claire does a lot of hand-wringing about whether she should leave Jamie and try to return to her own time –and seems to need rescue every 5 minutes as well. It gets old very fast.

Plus, its 25 pages to the end where she first starts pondering –after having killed two men in battle –whether she’s affected the flow of time. Did Claire enter a parallel universe? Is she caught in a time-loop? And since we find out she’s not the only one to travel back in time, who else has stumbled through? And since the one who came from 1967, if Claire returns to 1945, can she look the woman up and prevent her from going...time travel. Maybe that's why she ignores those time threads altogether? So it forces me to obsess about them.

Still, surprisingly, the book is fast-paced (even if it was overlong) and Gabaldon is a good storyteller. She has created some believable characters and they’re well developed (like George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire, each character and location seems to have lengthy, colorful background and she wants to tell us) and the author uses her three degrees – a Bachelor of Science in zoology, a Master of Science in marine biology, and a Ph.D. in ecology- well. 

Still, the next book is 947 pages. I have it, so I guess I should read it, but…well come on!!!