Having read OUTLANDER, the first book in Diana Gabaldon’s time traveling historical fiction series about a year ago, and liking it, I decided to give the second book in the series a try. Coming in at nearly 950 pages, DRAGONFLY IN AMBER is no quick read, but it is one of those immersive stories specifically written for those readers who love to get lost in a big thick book, and the adventures of the characters within. I like a decent time travel story, and well written historical fiction, and that is what drew me to OUTLANDER, even though I usually have little patience for “romance” books or chick-lit in general. But Claire Randall, the WWII era nurse who goes through a portal between some ancient rocks on a hillside in 1945 Scotland and comes out 200 years in the past, and Jamie Fraser, the Highland warrior she meets there, are compelling enough characters to grab my interest and hold it.

For the most part, DRAGONFLY IN AMBER manages to avoid the sophomore slump many book series seem to fall into. The book is bracketed by sections set in the year of 1968, where we learn that Claire came back to the modern day twenty years before and returned to her husband, Frank, even though she was pregnant with Jamie’s daughter. Though she told Frank the truth about her disappearance, he believed she was suffering mental trauma brought on by her abduction. Nevertheless, he raised her daughter, Brianna, as his own, passing away some time shortly before DRAGONFLY begins. Now, Claire returns to Scotland with her daughter, to whom she wants to reveal the truth of her origin, and learn the fate of Jamie, who was in the middle of the disastrous Jocobite rebellion against the English king, a rebellion Claire knows will badly for the Scottish side. We don’t know the circumstances of how Claire got back to the 20th Century and I admit that it is a good hook for the rest of the story. After about eighty pages, Claire sits down and begins to the recount events that led her back to the modern day, and the narrative shifts to 18th Century France, which was where we left Claire and Jamie at the end of OUTLANDER. In Paris, they attempt to sabotage the attempts of Charles Stuart—Bonnie Prince Charlie—to return to Scotland and proclaim himself king, something Claire knows from history will not end well for the Scottish. There is intrigue at the French court, rape and attempted rape, plague, dueling, a miscarriage, sodomy, Satan worship, and the horrors of 18th Century medicine. Failing to dissuade Prince Charlie from his ambitions, Claire and Jamie return to Scotland, where they hope to keep a low profile during the coming rebellion, but as always in these kind of stories, the plot takes a turn and they soon in the thick of the fighting as one event after the other leads to Culloden, the last pitched battle on British soil, where hopes for Scottish independence were brutally crushed. It’s a calamity that hangs over the whole book, as we know from the opening pages that is does end happily for our main characters.

Though I enjoyed DRAGONFLY IN AMBER, I must admit that some of the parts set in Paris felt drawn out, though Gabaldon made up for it by having there be a plot twist every chapter or so, including the resurrection of the villainous Jack Randall, the ancestor of Claire’s husband, Frank. I do think the story was on more solid and compelling ground, when Claire and Jamie got back to Scotland. DRAGONFLY also boasts some strong supporting characters, like Fergus, the young Parisian pickpocket whom Jamie enlists to steal the Prince’s correspondence and who accompanies them back to Scotland; Mother Hildegarde, the nun in charge of the Paris hospital where Claire works for a time, and Master Raymond, a mysterious apothecary who may be more than he lets on. There are two particularly odious villains, the Comte St. Germain and the Duke of Sandringham, one of whom Gabaldon can’t help but make out to be a sexual degenerate, an old writer’s trope when they want to make you really hate the bad guy. The author has clearly fallen in love with Claire and Jamie, and really wants the readers to love them too. In doing this, she runs the risk, as some other reviewers have pointed out, of making them just too perfect, of making Claire into a Mary Sue. Maybe so, but I bow in respect to the massive amount of historical research Gabaldon has done, and then applying it to the awesome amount of world building she pulls off effortlessly.

The last fifty pages or so brings the story back to Scotland in 1968, and sets up where the series continues from there. I like that the loose thread of Gillie Duncan is addressed, and the twist with the origin of young Roger Wakefield, who is taking quite an interest in Brianna. I have my copy of VOYAGER, the next installment of Gabaldon’s saga, as I do want to see what she has in store for Claire and Jamie, and all the other characters who populate this world. ( )

Love this series and this book especially. I was hooked on time-travel romances from this point on, but none out at the time came up to the high standard that Diana Gabaldon set with these books. ( )

By the end, I also was in love with Jamie. ( )

Veinte años después de haber experimentado la aventura más extraña de su vida, Claire Randall regresa con su hija Brianna a las imponentes y misteriosas montañas escocesas donde todo comenzó. Con la ayuda de Roger, un joven historiador, Claire se lanza a una obsesiva búsqueda de las tumbas de los caídos en la batalla de Culloden, en 1745.

I sure liked this one-just not quite as much as Outlander, which I'll probably read again at some point. This book felt like it could have been split into two shorter books or edited down a bit to be a shorter book. Gabaldon does seem like an author that plans far ahead, though, so maybe some of the details that I thought were superfluous will be important later. I love Jamie and Claire and the possibilities for more adventures and interesting story lines with the new characters that have been introduced. Gabaldon is a wonderful storyteller, and I will keep listening/reading this series. It's one that I listen to on my work commute but keep the actual book readily to hand to find my spot and read when I'm not in my car. ( )