CS's Reviews > Voyager

I read these books so long ago I barely remember them. I think I stopped at Drums of Autumn, though; people kept warning me that every book is longer than the previous one but covers a shorter and shorter span of time, so eventually there's a Ulysses-style 800 page brick that only covers one day. Maybe it was Drums of Autumn. No clue.

My regrets about never picking these books up become smaller and smaller with every review like this. :P

I love trashy soap operas like this, but in more digestible sizes thx. These sounds increddddddddibly self-indulgent rambling fanfiction of the author's own stuff.

The problem with Diana Gabaldon is she's a genius. And geniuses often do stupid, outlandish things that a less talented author would know better than to attempt. But getting annoyed with her books is like getting annoyed with life. A lot of times it's horrible, but then, the good stuff is better than anything you can imagine!

I could say the same thing about Colleen McCullough. ;)

Fair enough, Karla! Hopefully someday we can find a really great author we both agree on. How do you feel about Mary Balogh? ;-)

Never read her. Not sure if I'd like her or not...but I've got a few on the TBR to try sometime.

She's really good . . . but it's pure romance without any rough edges. Not at all like those old Rosemary Rogers novels where there's plenty of blood and guts along with all the sex!

Madame X wrote: "I read these books so long ago I barely remember them. I think I stopped at Drums of Autumn, though; people kept warning me that every book is longer than the previous one but covers a shorter and ..."

Hoooo boy...I knew these books were long, but dayum. If I plan on continuing, I'll be looking at more 36+ hour long audiobooks :P

Karla (Mossy Love Grotto) wrote: "My regrets about never picking these books up become smaller and smaller with every review like this. :P

I love trashy soap operas like this, but in more digestible sizes thx. These sounds incredd..."

That's kinda how I felt. There was just sooooooo muuuuuuch going on that I completely forgot about a kidnapped boy!

Lily wrote: "The problem with Diana Gabaldon is she's a genius. And geniuses often do stupid, outlandish things that a less talented author would know better than to attempt. But getting annoyed with her books ..."

Gabaldon is a great writer; I mean, she wrote the characters that I fell in love with (Claire, Jaime, Fergus, Jenny, etc.). I guess every author tries to do something new and exciting; sometimes it works (for some people) and sometimes it doesn't (for some people).

See my comment above about how geniuses can be really annoying!

I liked drums of autumn much more than voyager. I had some of your same gripes but still enjoyed the ride. I consumed these all in audiobook format as well, and I just have to say that Davina Porter completely owns these titles. I don't think I would've enjoyed them nearly as much without her lending her incredible talent to the task.

I am really glad you enjoyed this; I wonder if maybe I hadn't had my expectations so high, I might have enjoyed this even more.

Davina Porter is amazing. I didn't mention it in the review, but she IS Claire to me. And I love how she does the accents--if I were reading the actual book, I would have so much trouble understanding what Jaime and the other Scots were saying!!

I think they both grew and changed, but both are strong people who see no use in moaning about the past. Claire and Frank had a loveless marriage, and Claire and Jamie were soul mates. They have telepathy, they don't have to discuss everything.

Telepathy?! When did Claire and Jamie get telepathy?! Did we read the same book, or?!!!

YES. What did you think of Drums of Autumn? I was not pleased. Like you said about Claire and Jamie not ever worrying about Ian, I feel like Claire of DofA just does not care much that she left her daughter behind. She is rarely mentioned and then when (SPOILER) she shows up in the 1700's, Claire is just like "oh it's you. You're interrupting sexy times with Jamie so how about you go back to your own time, hmm?"

Amazing and spot on review!

I had a hard time with the scene in which Claire finds out about Jamie's wife. I even re-read it hoping for her to scream at him about who he choose. Maybe he didn't know it was the woman who tried to have Claire killed, but I couldn't imagine a woman like Claire not making that abundantly clear. There is something addictive about the stories though. I'll probably move on to Drums of Autumn.

I 100% agree!!!!! The 3rd novel was cringey AF for me to read and I'm sorry but the whole time traveling paradox with the bones still doesn't make sense to me this day. But its business as usual with these books!!

I'm forcing myself to continue inwards in Hope's that it gets better. Currently reading the Lord John Series before venturing to the 4th book.

I agreed with you about so much of this book. The stereotyping was especially difficult for me to handle. It was rampant. Why, oh why, would Jaime marry this girl of all people? It felt like reading soap opera scripts - the melodrama, the lack of character continuity, the near disregard of Ian's situation, until the last second.

After reading your review, I’ve decided to not read this series even though it is highly rated especially the book 1. Your review just sums it up for me. Thank you for saving my time.

Your review really resonated with me. My addition to this is that I understand that in life, rape and other human atrocities happen, just like when Randal raped Jamie. However, when Jamie rapes Geneva, that's where I think Gabaldon crosses a line. Apparently, this is why they changed the controversial Jamie-Geneva sex scene in the tv version, as well. Because of this, I wasn't privy to this rape scene. Obviously controversial, it depicts Jamie, the hero, morally compromised. Yet he continues to rape Geneva even when she says no! With Jamie being a rape victim, you'd think he'd be more sensitive. I couldn't finish the book, at this point. For me, everything that was built up, at this point, came crashing down. I lost all respect for Jamie as a character and Gabaldon for crossing that line and ruining it for me.

I just got to the part where Claire finds out about the wife and she's on her way back to the stones. I think you just saved me the rest of the hours from listening to the book tbh. What character spends a really long time researching for beloved then because of one lie is like oh I'm done bye..... it's just I forgot how insecure Claire was. I just thought she'd let that go. She's confident in the 20th century and then bumbles around with Jaimies time. Like she could stand up for herself and figure out a way to talk to her supposed husband. She doesn't seem like this strong confident woman she was made out to be. It honestly has made to want to stop reading the series entirely. I'm glad im not the only person who has some issues with Claire's character. I'm sure this series is amazing since it's successful but I don't think I can spend more time on it. The first two were great. And im glad I have some closure from past events.

You summed up exactly how I feel. This book was horrible and the end of my outlander journey.