| Product: |
Drums of Autumn - Diana Gabaldon |
| Date: |
21/03/07 (155 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Fantastic story, great characters
Disadvantages: It's a big book if you don't like 1000+ page novels!
Back in 1999, I read the book that I consider my all-time favourite novel. It was Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon (The US title is Outlander) and it followed the story of Claire, a woman who travelled through time and fell in love with a man from the past – a Highlander called Jamie Fraser.
It was such a captivating novel, that it wasn’t long before I read the sequel – Dragonfly In Amber – then in 2000, the third book – Voyager. But despite buying the next three novels in the series, I didn’t get round to reading the fourth book – Drums of Autumn – until this year. In fact, I just finished reading it today and as I loved it, I wanted to share my thoughts here and hopefully persuade more people to try Diana Gabaldon for themselves.
Her novels are huge weighty books. The paperback version I have of Drums of Autumn is 1185 pages long. Personally, I enjoy long novels as you really get a chance to know the characters and follow their lives for some time. Despite its length, I have never felt Gabaldon uses much padding – everything is there for a reason. Even after completing such a huge novel, I was left eager for more and I was disappointed when it finished.
Drums of Autumn is better read after the first three books in the series, although it would work as a stand alone story too. It concentrates on Jamie and Claire again, but also their daughter Brianna and her boyfriend Roger. Brianna and Roger begin their story in 1969 – Brianna being based in Massachusetts, USA, with Roger in Scotland. Jamie and Claire Fraser are meanwhile living in 1767.
When Claire first travelled back in time in Cross Stitch, she did so by the power of a stone circle in Craig Na Dun, Scotland. Brianna and Roger both know about this and therefore, they potentially have the knowledge to travel back as well. Brianna has never met her father, as she came back through the stones with her mother as a baby.
Later on, Claire discovered Jamie was still alive and went back to be with him, leaving Brianna in the present day. As Brianna grows up, she finds herself missing her mother, but also thinking about her father more and more. Her life in 1969 is good though. She is intelligent and happy – but somehow restless and incomplete. Will her curiosity lead her to try to travel back in time too? And if so, what will Roger do?
The mention of time travel here might lead you to expect the novels to be science fiction, but they aren’t really. I would describe them as time-travelling historical romances, but again, this might be misleading. They aren’t slushy girlie romances with knights on white stallions. My husband has read the books and enjoyed them as much as I have. Besides romance, there is violence, sex, swearing, executions, war, rape and torture.
But overall, these novels are family sagas which involve you, draw you in and carry you away. I have never met a female reader who has read these books and NOT fallen in love with Jamie Fraser – myself included. Yet he is not perfect. He has real faults, annoying quirks and irritating habits. Each character is like this, so even the lesser-mentioned ones are vividly real and evoke varying emotions in you, as you read along and live their adventures with them. It is just like revisiting old friends and seeing what they’re doing nowadays.
Reading a Gabaldon novel is rather like watching an epic film. There are evocative descriptions of the country, amazing characters being very well acted and the whole thing is held together by a brilliant and inspiring director.
The novels are extremely well researched too and I have found myself learning a lot about Scottish and American history. A lot of it is fascinating and has made me want to find out more about a certain time, event or custom.
Diana Gabaldon writes beautifully. Her stories are well-paced and very clever. The only disadvantage I have found is that sometimes events refer back to things that happened several hundred pages before, so I have to check back if I can’t remember something well enough. But that’s a minor fault and probably mine. Otherwise, I can’t recommend the books highly enough.
Summary: Another excellent, absorbing adventure from Gabaldon
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