Voyager By Diana Gabaldon (review)

Voyager
Diana Gabaldon
Paperback 1072 pgs.
Delta








Before I review, I must say that I wound up loving this book just like the others.  I wouldn't say it's my fave so far, that's still #1, Outlander, but Diana Gabaldon crafts a great tale.  What I will say is that it gets bogged down in minor details and storytelling that can probably cut about 500 pgs out and still be a great book.  I have browsed the details of the others as well and have found they are major tomes too, with as many as 1400 pages!!!  Phew, I'm in an Outlander challenge that goes till January so some of my fall reading is definitely going to be this series.

That said on to the review.  I know there will be some minor spoilers that is also in the basic book descriptions on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, so if you want to be completely clueless, stop now.


Claire goes back to Scotland 20 years after she returned to her present time under the wishes of Jamie, who was going to battle on Culloden Field.  She was pregnant and he didn't want her to be alone in Scotland, nor die.  He had no clue if she'd make it back nor did she, but return she did.  To say her present day husband Frank, was shocked to see her after 3 years is the understatement of the century!  But he took her back and raised Claire and Jamie's daughter as his own and loved her dearly.  That is the only good thing I will say about Frank.  Read them to find out more : )

Claire decides she needs to find out just what happened on that battlefield and that Brianna should know who her real father is.  She hooks up with Roger Wakefield, who's foster father was the historian who helped Frank trace his own roots and now Roger is going to help her.  She finds out that Jamie didn't die in battle, and after the initial shock of the whole situation, Bree tells her mom she most go back and find him.  This was a rough one for me, I don't know if I could leave my child, not knowing if I'd make it through, let alone if he was still alive, but go she does and the adventure begins again.

Of course Miss Gabaldon details excruciatingly what happened to Jamie in the 20 yrs gone by.  And yes they were tormenting and heartbreaking.  If this poor guy isn't the Andy Sipowicz (NYPD Blue) of the Scottish Highlanders, I'll eat my shoe!  When Claire comes to him he nearly faints!!

Of course there are kidnappings and fighting and pirates, and a nasty evil witch who I can't stand!  Some things happened between Jamie and Claire and she makes me mad.  She is so tough and yet at times she is a wimp that doesn't fit the picture for me, with some silly bad romance novel misunderstandings that aggravated me and made me want to yell.  It was nice to see Fergus again, Jamie's adopted son who is now grown and very handsome, but the fact that he married a 15 yr old kinda irked me, would've liked to see him with a real beauty, but those were the times where older men married children.

I was amazed that in this series so far, not 1 but 2 men desired Jamie with intense fierceness.  Quite interesting.  The difference being one was a bastard, the other quite the opposite.  Their journey takes them on the high seas to find Jamie's nephew who was kidnapped and then onto the new world.

What will always stay with me is how much they love each other.  Jamie adores Claire with every fiber of his being, it is a timeless tale of true love and it touches me to my very core.  The fact that the last 1/3 of the book was so intense, such a page turned flipped me out.  Most books start to wind down and wrap up and this just ramped up instead!  Of course I will continue the journey to see what trouble comes their way next.

a favorite part -

"Oh what a tangled web we weave." Claire intoned. "When first we practice to deceive."  He gave me a quick blue glance and the corner of his mouth lifted slightly.  "It gets a bit easier with practice Sassenach," he said.  "Try living wi' me for a time and ye'll find yourself spinning silk out of your arse as easy as sh*t, er, easy as kiss my hand."

I give this book 4 cannnolis