Voyager

** spoiler alert ** Yea this fell short to me. Like why would she want to go back to Jamie. Ma'am you have a daughter.

The year of "read all the Outlander books while watching the series" continues! This is a fun one, as there is more deviation from the narrative of the shows than the first two.

The weakest of the Outlander series so far (though still a good book by far; I just happened to like the first two better, as they're practically perfect), Voyager gets better the further you read through it.

It doesn't start out slow per se, but Claire's/Roger's chapters at the beginning are far less exciting than Jamie's and finding out what happened to him after Culloden. Though, once he goes to prison, I didn't like that it switched to Lord John Grey's POV.

Unpopular opinion, but I don't like Grey. I wish, first of all, that Jamie could have been the narrator/POV of the chapters dealing with him before his and Claire's reunion, and didn't care for Grey's POVs. I don't understand the need to have him be in love with Jamie. Quite frankly, I don't like that either.

Other narrative choices I don't like include Jamie having to have a son with someone else or why he and Claire had to be separated for twenty years in the first place. The more I read, the more I came to terms with some of these things, but not everything. I take notes while reading, when the mood strikes me, writing down thoughts to include in a book review. Having finally finished this massive, 1000-page book, I kind of disagree with myself from earlier. That is, I wrote that I didn't care to know every detail of Jamie's life in the twenty years he and Claire are apart, but looking back I think this has more to do with the size of the book than anything. Sure, I prefer Claire's first person POV over anything, but I can withstand Jamie's. It's Jamie, after all. He's such a well-written, three dimensional character. He's the very definition of book boyfriend, too.

One of the main problems I had with this book was its size, yes. Sometimes it felt like a chore to get through. Slow reader that I am, a book of this size is a hefty project, and reading for the sake of making progress sometimes takes away from my enjoyment of the story. Additionally, I felt the writing self-indulgent at times, unnecessarily adding to the length when some things could have been trimmed better. The editing was also a little sloppy toward the end.

Having watched the Outlander TV series, I knew most of what was going to happen, but I'm glad nonetheless that the book had characters and events that the TV show didn't. I think that didn't necessarily help my soldiering through this giant book, but that's on me for watching the show first. The book answers a lot of my questions that the show didn't, which I appreciate.

For the most part, size notwithstanding, I enjoyed this book. It is slow in some parts but overall packed with action, adventure, romance, history and magical realism. Aside from not liking LJG all that well, I liked the characters, too. Claire and Jamie are the best literary couple. And this book encompasses a lot of settings that would interest any history lover. It is lush in its descriptions, never making it difficult for this reader to picture the people and places described. Gabaldon is a great writer who has crafted a unique love story, though it's so much more complex than that. I will be reading the next installment, have no doubt (though not right away).

I'm fully caught up on the show and trying to catch up on the books! I remembered what happened as I continued reading. I still am very invested in Jamie and Claire's relationship and their reunion was lovely. I just wish this book hadn't had so many racist bits! Thankfully, changes were made for the show, but it was not a fun experience at times.

And on the reread goes *** These books are equally addictive and exhausting

Book was well written as always and the plot was engaging, but I couldn’t get past the numerous ethnic and racial stereotypes and worse. Warning to those who want to read it: the author doesn’t handle her non-white characters well and it hasn’t aged well either. Least favorite in the series so far.

Previously read back in 2006/2007.

I am convinced that Diana Gabaldon had a great, no, an absolutely rollicking good FUN time with Voyager. For such a hefty tome, this book was a quick exciting read. Loved every moment.

LOVE LOVE LOVE!! THE DRAMA!! THE FALLING BACK TOGETHER!! Everything was amazing!!! I love this series and Jamie and Claire so much😭 I’m so excited to read drums of autumn!!

3.5 stars Quite good and entertaining though I enjoyed it less than Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber.

actual rating: 4.5 stars. yo shoutout to voyager for making me fall back in love with jamie and claire. most romantic babies eva eva.

What a story! I was planning to take a break from Outlander before the next one but I don't think I can!

While Voyager was a mess of action from the beginning, I am left, at the end, utterly speechless. For context, I consider the first book in this series, Outlander, to be one of my favorites. I found the most perfect mix of fantasy, historical fiction, and romance a girl could ask for. Incredibly touching and moving. The second one I liked as well, and any of my qualms were purely from a standpoint of loving the characters too much to bear any of their misfortunes. By the time I got to Voyager, I couldn't wait to devour it- and then I didn't. It is very unlike me to leave a book unread after starting it, and I actually started this one about two years ago. I blame it partially on a hectic school and work schedule, but still, it just didn't quite grab my attention as much as the others. It felt wrong to not feel a connection with this story after loving the others so deeply. I attribute the early desertion to the change in writing style; Everything felt incredibly detached from the reality we had just left, which was a hard one to grasp given the gut wrenching ending we left off on. The first bit of the book goes back and forth from first to third person rather abruptly. I'm all for getting a chance to see inside another perspective, but when the device doesn't flow smoothly, it is incredibly jarring and makes it harder to digest the change. It is one of my flaws as a reader to get so attached to the context of a story- the setting, the day to day, the comfort of a consistent narrative- that when things not only go off course, but maddeningly so, it almost makes me uncomfortable (if I had it my way, all my favorite books would be about my favorite characters living easy lives and enjoying their time together. Let them be happy!). Unfortunately, while there were things I loved about this book, the scene hopping nearly gave me whiplash. Because of my love for Jamie and Claire, I will always be happy to have more Outlander content; I've probably watched the first season of the show too many times. However, because of the way the plot bounced from one scenario to the next, it was hard to really settle into. You can always expect action in Outlander, but for some reason Voyager felt like a rapid-fire choose your own adventure novel, except you get absolutely no say in it at all. I often found myself saying "What is the point of all this?". Some points would become relevant, but around 500 pages later, when you've forgotten names and plot points to make room for the new ones being thrown at you. That being said, despite the length of this book making these connections a little difficult to pick up on, the spiderweb of connections that Gabaldon made are a bit impressive. From past acquaintances showing up across sea, space, and time, to smaller details like how a certain cask of crème de menthe winds up on a specific Caribbean shore, it is truly a tangled web that she weaves. It is incredibly chaotic, and half the time I didn't know where we were or who we were talking to, but impressive nonetheless. Another issue I had was the slow but sure defamation, and then defense, I guess, of Jamie's character. Maybe this is just a personal annoyance because I have always found Jamie to be the most gallant of heroes, but I was appalled not only by the secrets of his past twenty years lost, but of the ways that they slowly came out. Maybe it is to drive home the fact that he is a changed man after all this time, but I think I felt more betrayed at times than Claire. Granted, things all worked out and made sense in the end, but it threw me for a loop that I did not quite enjoy. A plus about the evolution in our characters is we got to see a side of Claire that we haven't really seen. Previously, if she ever experienced any sort of doubt or fear, it was mostly related to the fact that she found herself two centuries in the past. But, now that she has come on her own accord, we see her start to view her life more in the present, rather the future (or past depending on how you look at it, I guess). She is really humanized in this book, coming to terms with how to rekindle a relationship after so long, and finding your new life within it. While not my favorite, this book was not bad. Once I had decided to give it another shot, it slowly got easier to fall into this world again. By the end, I was entirely sucked in, and had to binge the last of it into the early hours of the morning. In a way, it was fun to revisit these people and see where they ended up. I am genuinely interested to see what the next edition has in store. Overall, in a word, this book was chaotic. Incredibly touching and moving at times, but chaotic. While not necessarily a bad thing, because we know the Frasers will keep us on our toes, I am going to have to take on a lighter reading challenge next. Maybe.

** spoiler alert ** Unlike the first two books in this series, Voyager has me locked in a little more from the beginning. ******Possible soft spoilers********* About half way through this book my deep love for Jamie and Claire turned into exhaustion. How many things can two people really go through? Their ups and downs (and all arounds, I swear) are well written, and the characters hard to leave behind when you set the book down. I will take a long break before book 4 though. Long.

These are the most well written entertaining trashy books I have ever read. Generally because I just can't read trashy books because they are written by people who should have stayed in corporate banking. These, however, are witty, sexy and clever. Claire left old Scotland and came back to current time to save the life of her baby. She assumed Jaime died in the war. But after digging in musty old books and tromping out to grave sites she finds out that he survived. So, armed with some photos and penicillin she climbs back through the rocks into the arms of her true love. The books are thick and full of superfluous stuff, but I'll check them all off my to read list eventually.

короче, ЭТО СЛУЧАЙНО ВЫШЛО. я после каждой серии ходила читать немножко, ну и как-то так получилось, что дочитала

Not nearly as good as the first two installments... and still ridiculously well written and pretty flipping entertaining. BUT. I really can't get past one thing. No. Two things. 1. (Quasi spoiler that sort of spans book 2 and 3) (view spoiler)[TWENTY YEARS?! Just no. It honestly sort of ruined the whole series for me. I'm supposed to believe that Claire wouldn't have done ANY semblance of research into Jamie's death before her daughter turned 20? That... is just really hard to believe and kind of stupid. Also, she finds him like, a second after getting back with no problem? Um, ok. (hide spoiler)] 2. Literally everyone and their mom (and dad?) wants/is in love with Jamie. I get that he may be hot stuff. Like, I've seen the show, really, I do. But seriously? I'm so sick of the "everybody is in love with the hero" trope and it's just kind of far fetched. Just please no more sex drama, it makes me hate all the characters and I can't deal with it. What would have been a 5 star book for writing alone (the overall plot wasn't all that exciting but Gabaldon has a way to make me want to keep reading) had a whole star knocked off for those two things because they bugged me so much. Outlander was so epic and wonderful, and Dragonfly in Amber was nearly as good-- but Voyager just wasn't what I hoped. I wonder if it's because (view spoiler)[a good portion of it wasn't set in Scotland (hide spoiler)]. Anyway, of course I'll pick up the fourth book. I've put too much freakin time into this to quit now.

In this instalment Claire returns to the past and to Jamie. Twenty years have passed since they last saw each other, but they don’t have any time to reacquaint each other. Trouble is right on their heels. With the last book in the series I had a bit of a struggle to get through it. This time I was finished in no time. Considering that I don’t have much attention left in the evenings when I can read for recreational purposes I take ages to finish big books. This way I never really get into the story. So audiobooks are always a great alternative in those cases. I can listen to those during my commute and finish even big books in an acceptable time frame. This was finished within two weeks (audiobook length over 40 hours). Read by Davina Porter, of whom I had already heard great things but never listened to her narration before. She really gives the book that certain thing I was missing in the previous two books. I was eager to listen on and always regretted the time when I actually arrived at university and had to stop listening.

3.5/5 stars Man, this one dragged on... The middle was soooooo slow. But beginning and ending were great.

These books are amazing. I love the characterization and that three books in, the characters are still dynamic and making mistakes, and then learning. I also really like that Gabaldon’s characters change over time. Claire has the same core values as in the first books, but is still different because it has been twenty years; she has grown and matured and learned about life. That is one of the things that makes these enjoyable for me, the fact that the characters are evolving but still fundamentally themselves; unlike other stories where they’ll either stay the same the entire time, or change so much they become someone else.

What a ride this tome was. Gabaldon does epic, escapist, adventure/fantasy/sci-fi/romance like no other. I tried to hold off reading Voyager for a while (trying to savor this experience), but after the cliff hanger in Dragonfly in Amber two weeks was the longest I could hold out. While there were still many plot points that had my going "really?!" I still loved every second I read this book. And it fucking made me cry. Again. Gah. Spoilers abound for the rest of this review: (view spoiler)[I'm intrigued to say the least to see what will happen with Brianna and Roger in the 20th Century. I felt the separation of Claire from Brianna was a bit abrupt, but hey, she seems to be in good hands with Roger. I wonder if we'll get Brianna's POV in the future books. My god, that scene where Jamie and Claire reunite for the first time in 20 years about killed me. Thank you Gabaldon, thank you. But, it was simply beautiful and really it couldn't have been done better. I was worried a 20 year older Jamie and Claire may not work for me, but it TOTALLY does. I have no clue how they'll pull this off in the TV show, but whatevs. Lovin' it. Additional things I adored: Fergus has a hook. Yes. Using a peg leg to bash someone in the head. YES. Nessie as Time Traveler?! Best Theory EVER. FUCKING GEILLES IS ALIVE?!?!?!? Shit. And fat, and a pedophile? And is she really dead this time? Geilles address the huge question - what the hell is up with this time travelling? Why would you want to do it? And she totally says to CHANGE THINGS. That crazy lady is still trying to get a Scottish King on the throne of Scotland. More stones that can cause time travel! There is a prophecy?! I need to know more about this, now. (hide spoiler)] Anyway - in this six months of drudgery waiting for the second 1/2 of Outlander on Starz, at least I have the books to get me through it. Again, I want to wait awhile and savor but Drums in Autumn will probably be put on hold at the library soon!

I was hooked from the beginning.

Rating: 5/5 empty coconuts Format: Softcover and Audiobook. I highly recommend the audiobook, the narrator is fantastic and even though it is a million hours long, I missed her voice when I was done! What it's like: Just like the amazing show, and a little bit like Poldark. What I loved: Claire and Jaime. Their love is everything and their desire to work their way back to each other, support each other's independence, but still always have each other's backs is inspiring and goddamn beautiful. It was also really refreshing to have the major conflict be something that seemed relatively lower stakes but still personal. I won't say what it is, because no spoilers, but it was great to see them work together to confront various hurdles. I also found it interesting and heart-wrenching when they had to confront the fact that after so much time had passed, they could be different people, or have done things that are irredeemable. It was such a mature and fascinating topic for them to return to again and again throughout this book. What was meh: Honestly, not a lot. Sometimes it felt like there wasn't enough at stake, but that might just be because these books have desensitized me to drama since they are usually packed full of internal and external conflict lol I went in trying to distance myself a little from potential future pain Diana was going to bash me with, but was still drawn in to all of the character's struggles and don't regret it a bit. Who I'd recommend it to: Fans of historical fiction, romance, adventure, and serious Pirates of the Caribbean vibes! Favorite quotes: “It has always been forever, for me, Sassenach.” “For so many years, for so long, I have been so many things, so many different men. But here," he said, so softly I could barely hear him, "here in the dark, with you… I have no name.” “Do ye want me?" he whispered. "Sassenach, will ye take me - and risk the man that I am, for the sake of the man ye knew?”