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Review: A Fugitive Green by Diana Gabaldon

Book review of A Fugitive Green, an historical novella by Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander books.

A Fugitive Green by Diana Gabaldon cover
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This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. Please see our full disclosure for further information.

Synopsis

This novella tells the story of how Lord John’s brother, Hal (the Duke of Pardloe), met his wife. Minnie is sent by her father to London, ostensibly to search for a husband, but really to obtain information. While there, she takes the opportunity to find out what happened to her mother.

Hal is struggling with grief over the death of his first wife, Esme. At the same time, he is facing a possible court martial over the duel he fought with Esme’s lover, Nathaniel Twelvetrees (the result of which was that worthy’s death), while trying to rebuild his father’s regiment.

Two men approach Minnie, wanting her to get hold of letters exchanged between Esme and her lover. Harry Quarry is a friend of Hal’s and wishes to prove that Hal had good reason to fight and kill Nathaniel. Edward Twelvetrees, Nathaniel’s brother, wants to destroy all evidence of an affair so that Hal will be convicted of murder and his regiment will be destroyed for good.

Review

A Fugitive Green is full of action and thought. A lot of things happen in a short space. There is one scene with overly detailed descriptions of various plants, but it is the exception in this particular book.

In Diana Gabaldon’s ‘big books,’ Hal isn’t a super loveable character. He’s honourable, loyal, and loves his family, but he doesn’t inspire any great emotion. A Fugitive Green gave me a greater appreciation for Hal and I really felt sympathetic towards him.

‘He turned away and, chilled, made his way by instinct toward the fire. He’d felt as though he were moving through cold honey ever since he’d forced himself out of bed, and now he collapsed joint by joint into his father’s chair.

‘His father’s chair. Blast. He closed his eyes, trying to summon the will to stand up and move. The leather was cold and stiff under his fingers, under his legs, hard against his back. He could feel the fire, a few feet away in its hearth, but the heat didn’t reach him.’

It took me a while to get used to Harry Quarry as a nice 21-year-old rather than a lecherous middle-aged man. Harry appears multiple times through the Lord John stories, but almost always writing lewd poetry or eating/drinking excessively or ‘admiring’ some woman. Here, he’s young, handsome, and acting nobly.

Minnie was such an enjoyable character to read about. She’s independent, spirited, and sassy. I liked how most of A Fugitive Green was told from Minnie’s point of view; it helped me to get to know her and her background. Afterall, we already know Hal’s backstory from the Lord John books, but not Minnie’s.

While Minnie’s search for her mother was touching, the story she eventually uncovered about her conception and birth was disturbing. Seriously, a nun who’s so clueless and distressed over having a child that she goes insane? Sick! However, Minnie’s relationship with her father was adorable.

Conclusion

Have you read A Fugitive Green? What did you think? Do you agree with what I’ve said about it? Let me know in the comments.

If you haven’t, it is found in the collection Seven Stones to Stand or Fall. You can buy it at Book Depository (they have free international shipping!) or Waterstones (free delivery on UK orders over £25, will ship internationally).

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Outlander Book 9 Anticipation

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Warning: this post contains spoilers. If you haven’t read the previous books in the series yet, please consider this before you read, or don’t read, this post.

I’m really looking forward to reading Diana Gabaldon’s next Outlander book: Go Tell the Bees that I am gone. The release date hasn’t been announced yet, but I expect it to be near the end of this year or early next year. The following is a list of some of the things I’m looking forward to seeing in this book.

update: we now have a publication date! BEES will be available from the 23rd of November 2021.

Jenny meets Roger

In the last book, Written in My Own Heart’s Blood (MOBY), Roger spends time in 1739 and while there meets Jamie’s sister Jenny. Back in 1779, Jenny has aged 40 years but for Roger it has only been 6 months since he last saw her.

Jenny has been told about the whole time-travel thing, but I’m not sure how much she believes it. I want to see what happens when Jenny and Roger meet again. Does she remember him? How long does it take for her to realise who he is and the implications of his presence?

Jamie’s Reaction

Bad things have been happening to Brianna and her family in the 20th century causing them to escape back to the past. I think that Jamie has thought of the 20th century as somewhere that his family can be safe if anything happens to him (America being particularly dangerous during this time).

Recent events have shown that this is not true; the 20th century is not safer than the 18th. I want to see how Jamie reacts to this.

The Title

The title has been announced as “Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone.” This is in reference to a custom where you’d tell the bees if anyone comes or goes so that they don’t fly away. It makes me wonder which character leaves for it get that title.

Fraser Prophecy

While she is sorting the family belongings prior to returning to the past, Brianna finds a letter written by Frank. This letter details a prophecy made by the Brahan Seer about the Fraser family. How does this pan out? Does something come of it? How does it affect the family?

Ian’s Child

Young Ian’s new wife, Rachel, has just given birth to a son. The child does not yet have a name but is referred to as Oggy. It’s not a pressing desire, but what do they call him? I must know!

Fergus’s Father

Lord John’s ex-step-brother, the slimy Percy Beauchamp, has been sniffing around with the story that Fergus is the son of a rich French baron. Does Fergus turn out to be the son? How much does Percy keep hounding the family? Does Fergus eventually get the family fortune?

William and Jamie

William has known for a while now that Jamie is his biological father. At the beginning of MOBY he wasn’t coping with it very well, but at the end he had come to terms with it enough to ask Jamie’s help and entrust Fanny to him. I want to see how their relationship continues to develop.

Brianna and William

With the MacKenzies back in the 18th century, Bree and William have a chance of meeting again, and this time William can know who Bree is. Perhaps Bree will help William come to terms with his parentage.

Roger’s Voice

In MOBY, Roger meets a time-travelling healer who has discovered a new method of healing. This method has great potential to slowly fix (or at least improve) Roger’s voice, previously ruined by a hanging. It would be idiotic for Claire not to try this method, so I want to know how it works out. Will Roger ever sing again?

Benjamin Grey

Benjamin is Hal Grey’s eldest son (and Lord John’s nephew). So far, he has disappeared, presumed dead. Hal and John have tracked down the woman he supposedly married, and William has dug up his grave, only to find that the body in it is not Benjamin. So what has happened to Benjamin? Do they find him?

Brianna’s Bag

When Brianna and the kids join him in 1739, Roger wonders what makes Brianna’s bag “heavy as lead.” What does she have in it that makes it so heavy? I want to know.

Have you been following these books? Do you plan to read Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone when it’s published? What are you anticipating about it? Let me know in the comments.

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Review: Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon

Cross Stitch is the first book in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series; historical fiction set in 18th century Scotland. Cross Stitch is also known as Outlander (it’s the same story, but published in the UK instead of the US).

Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon cover
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Synopsis

Claire is on holiday with her husband, Frank, in Scotland following World War 2. She walks through a circle of standing stones one day while picking flowers and finds herself in the 18th century.

To keep herself safe from her husband’s sadistic ancestor, she has to marry Jamie, a young highlander with an interesting history. Despite trying to keep some emotional distance between them, she finds herself falling for him, so much so that when she finally has a chance to return to Frank she decides to stay with Jamie.

They return together to Jamie’s family home but don’t get to spend much time as a happy married couple before Jamie is taken by the black watch. Claire has to search all over Scotland for him and save him from Frank’s sadistic ancestor.

Review

Love, love, love this book. I read it and re-read it and read my favourite bits over and over again and again. It was so engrossing. My first copy fell to pieces and my mum had to buy me a new one.

I was 15 when I first read Cross Stitch and Mum was unsure whether to let me. At first, it was because she remembered it having a lot of magic and witchcraft. After she read it again before giving it to me, her objection was based on the amount of sex portrayed. I didn’t have a problem with it; it wasn’t overly explicit and focused on feelings rather than actions.

The beginning was a bit slow (the first day of reading, I only made it to page 132 and had no trouble putting the book down). However, I learned a lot about Claire early in the book and there were scenes later on that were so much more interesting because I could link back to something that had happened earlier.

I loved how the traditional relationship roles are reversed in Jamie and Claire’s romance. Usually, the woman is the inexperienced virgin. However, here, Jamie is the inexperienced virgin and Claire is the experienced one. Also, Claire is four years older than Jamie, where men are usually older than their wife or girlfriend.

“Does it bother you that I’m not a virgin?” He hesitated a moment before answering.

“Well, no,” he said slowly, “so long as it doesna bother you that I am.” He grinned at my drop-jawed expression, and backed towards the door.

“Reckon one of us should know what they’re doing,” he said. The door closed softly behind him; clearly the courtship was over.

I absolutely loved the wedding, particularly the walk up to the chapel. ‘“I can’t marry you! I don’t even know your last name!”’ I found it hilarious that Claire ends up marrying Jamie in the same church she married Frank in. It’s one of those little things that isn’t crucial to the story but makes the reading experience so much more enjoyable.

While some characters did things that are completely unacceptable to a modern audience, they were still essentially good people and were acting as someone in that time and place would have acted. The exception to this is Captain Randall – he’s nasty, I hate him, but then we’re supposed to hate him. The only person (real or imaginary) I can think of who’s more sadistic than Randall is the Marquis of Sade, and sadism is named after him.

Conclusion

Have you read this Cross Stitch/Outlander? What did you think? Do you agree with what I’ve said? Let me know in the comments.

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Review: The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

Review of The Fiery Cross, book 5 of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon

The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon cover
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This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. Please see our full disclosure for further information.

Synopsis

The Fiery Cross opens at the clan gathering at Mount Helicon. Over the course of a day, nearly everything possible happens: Jamie find lots of new tenants, Claire heals a bunch of people, and Brianna and Roger get married (but not before the priest is kidnapped).  Back at Fraser’s Ridge, Jamie summons the men to join a militia company and sets out to gather more recruits, leaving Brianna manage the new settlers.

Jamie’s aunt Jocasta is finally set to marry Duncan Innes (not having been able to marry at the clan gathering because the catholic priest was kidnapped). On the day, the family has to deal with a murdered slave, regulators and loyalists, sexual frustration, and the appearance of Stephen Bonnet.

Jamie’s militia company is called into the War of the Regulation. Unfortunately, Roger has an incident which robs him of his voice and very nearly his life. This brings Jamie and Roger together, as does a snake-bite and hunting down Stephen Bonnet.

Review

Apparently the publishers announced the release date for The Fiery Cross before Diana finished writing it. As such, she didn’t have as much time to edit the draft as she would have liked. It shows. Some of the scenes seem really drawn out and others are not necessary to the story.

The main story arc is unclear. There seems to be several themes and story-lines that were woven together throughout the book, but there isn’t any one overarching story line. This made the book a bit difficult to stick with.

It was largely focused on the characters’ day-to-day life (as opposed to pushing the story forward). Almost nothing happens, things get a bit repetitious (constant references to Brianna’s breasts, Jemmy’s diapers, etc.). This focus made me wonder how I would cope with living in the 18th century (I like to think not too badly, if I could take my mother).

However, some individual scenes were fantastic. They were the kind of scenes that I go back and read again after I’ve finished. I really loved the parts where Claire was explaining 20th century science and medicine to Jamie.

The surfaces of both lungs were black and grainy; Betty was in her forties, and had lived all her life with open wood fires.

“Anything nasty that you breathe in and don’t cough up again – tobacco, smoke, soot, smog, what-have-you – gradually gets shoved out between the lung tissue and the pleura,” I explained, lifting a bit of the thin, half-transparent pleural membrane with the tip of my scalpel. “But the body can’t get rid of it altogether, so it just stays there. A child’s lung would be a nice clean pink?”

“Do mine look like that?” Jamie stifled a small, reflexive cough. “And what is smog?”

“The air in cities like Edinburgh, where you get smoke mixing with fog off the water.” I spoke abstractedly, grunting slightly as I pulled the ribs back, peering into the shadow cavity. “Yours likely aren’t so bad, since you’ve lived out of doors or in unheated places so much. Clean lungs are one compensation to living without fire.”

This book really starts to show American history. I found this boring and skipped through some more history-y bits. To be fair, I don’t know much American history, and I have even less interest in it; I haven’t ever been to America and it holds absolutely no attraction for me (I don’t know why, it just doesn’t). Maybe it would appeal more to Americans.

I felt really bad for Roger. In this book, he shines in his own story rather than just being a player in Claire and Brianna’s stories. While bad things have happened to him before, bad things continue to happen but I felt worse about them, maybe because I cared about him more.

I enjoyed the development in Jamie and Claire’s relationship. They’ve mellowed slightly and settled into a relatively regular life, but there’s still passion between them. I made my way through these books so quickly that I had barely gotten used to Jamie and Claire being parents, and now they’re grandparents. It took some adjustment (they’re not young anymore).

Conclusion

Have you read this book? What did you think? Do you agree with what I’ve said about it? Let me know in the comments.

If you haven’t, it can be bought at Book Depository (they have free international shipping!).