Dragonfly in Amber

This subsequent installment following Outlander is riveting. This series has caused me to do additional research into the Jacobite wars and I have found the books to be pretty accurate in their broad strokes. Excellent characterizations and an attention to detail keep them interesting even when plot slows a bit. Worth the time it takes to work through these ponderous books.

This book is amazing. As the second in a series it holds my attention and ignites my imagination.

If you like Hustler you will love this book - if I wanted Pornography I would order it on Pay per View. Totally unnecessary porn as in Mister Raymond putting fingers into Claire's vagina in order to save her life! Randall buggering Jamie and Jamie letting him after Randall had already let Claire leave. Yeah I know he gave his word of honor but I don't believe any true Highlander would let himself be buggered for the sake of honor. If you are anything like me you will find yourself skipping pages at a time in order to avoid this trash.

Boring to the point of fatigue through a lot of it. If you are having trouble sleeping this is the book for you.

Maudlin enough at times to bring on nausea.

Crisis after crisis after crisis and all they have to do after each crisis is bang each other's brains out and that makes everything all right.

I'm sorry I had to give it one star.

Dragonfly in Amber is the second book in Diana Gabaldon's phenomenal "Outlander" series. At the end of Outlander, we left Claire and Jamie Fraser in an abbey in France, exiled from Scotland. At the opening of Dragonfly in Amber, we find Claire back in the highlands in 1968, investigating the fates of Jamie's men at the battle of Culloden - with her red-haired daughter Brianna: Jamie's daughter.

As the search for Jamie's men, and then Jamie himself, unfolds, Claire finds herself revealing to Brianna and their friend Roger her history with Jamie in the past - and we learn the other half of her and Jamie's adventure as they attempt to prevent the carnage they know is coming in the Jacobite rising and its culmination at Culloden.

As with Outlander, I have nothing but praise for Dragonfly. Although I did not race through Dragonfly as quickly as I did Outlander (this time it took me roughly a month to read Dragonfly's 950 pages as opposed to the week it took me to fly through Outlander's 860 pages), I still loved it. Every time I picked the book up, I could not put it down without having read at least 100 pages, if not more.

Dragonfly in Amber had me in turns gasping, laughing, and (at the end) crying. Sometimes I did all three at once. Even though I knew the battle was an inevitability - and we, as readers know this from Claire's search in Inverness from the beginning of the novel - I found myself hoping ad praying that Claire and Jamie could somehow prevent the disaster. Having been to Culloden battlefield myself, I cried at Gabaldon's description of battles and the uselessness I knew Jamie and Claire's self-appointed mission to be.

In fact, I immediately picked up the third book, Voyager, and am already 450 pages into it. Gabaldon delivers a powerful narrative, drawing the reader fully into her world: you cry with Claire, scream with rage for Jamie, and end on a hopeful note with Claire and Brianna, searching for the man whose love for them endures through the ages.

Outlander was an exceptional book. It was exciting, sad and sweet all at once. The idea to write such a book was phenomonal. The author is very good which is why I was excited to read the 2nd installment. I have to say I was sorely disappointed. The book was quite tedious to say the least. It could have been much shorter and would've been a great read. I got to the middle of the book and I skimmed the rest. I hated to do it but I just couldn't take it anymore.

There was just too much time spent on mundane things. It had the habit of getting exciting and then it would get drawn out. There just wasn't even of a storyline to keep the battle from happening.

I will give the third a try because like I said, Diana G. is a very good writer. I hope the next is better.