My Rating 5 out of 5 stars
“And when my body shall cease, my soul will still be yours, Claire? I
swear by my hope of heaven, I will not be parted from you."
The wind stirred the leaves of the chestnut trees nearby, and the scents of late summer rose up rich around us; pine and grass and strawberries, sun-warmed stone and cool water, and the sharp, musky smell of his body next to mine.
"Nothing is lost, Sassenach; only changed."
"That's the first law of thermodynamics," I said, wiping my nose.
"No," he said. "That's faith.”
The wind stirred the leaves of the chestnut trees nearby, and the scents of late summer rose up rich around us; pine and grass and strawberries, sun-warmed stone and cool water, and the sharp, musky smell of his body next to mine.
"Nothing is lost, Sassenach; only changed."
"That's the first law of thermodynamics," I said, wiping my nose.
"No," he said. "That's faith.”
I know I'm skipping ahead a bit, but Drums of Autumn is my most recent read in the series. While there won't be any spoilers for the book itself, if you haven't read the previous books, I would skip this review until you've finished (every last page) of Voyager.
Like with Voyager, we see huge shifts in the character development and story lines of several of the main characters. While in Voyager mainly concerned Jamie and Claire, Drums of Autumn draws Roger and Brianna to the forefront, particularly in the second half of the book. While for me the series has always been about Jamie and Claire, as well as a sundry of natural and historic tidbits, I found that I really enjoyed the new narrative strain. This, along with the change in setting, heightened the sense of beginning, presenting the same sense of discovery and uncertainty that was found in Outlander, something I found both compelling and intriguing, given the maturation of Jamie and Claire's relationship.
While the locations presented in the other books were foreign to me, fascinating in their otherness, the setting of Drums of Autumn is more familiar if still somewhat remote. It is, however, equally as fascinating. Gabaldon, as always, does a wonderful job with the historical accuracy, weaving facts with tactile descriptions so real the chill of the winter months was palpable even in the summer heat. In this, Drums of Autumn stands apart from the other books. Jamie and Claire have both faced the hardship of life among men, war and unrest, and the fallout from political agendas and broken relationships, but here they face a new adversary. They have weathered storms before, but it's the vast and untamed character, the unpredictable and overwhelming scale of their new life that stuck with me most while reading.
Gabaldon has said that the first three books were intended as a sort of trilogy, exploring the interconnectedness of people on a regional scale. The next three books serve a similar function at a more personal level. The echos of Outlander and the new beginnings present within Drums of Autumn support this, while at the same time present a new facet of an ever evolving story. The prologue in particular illustrates this most bluntly, with its eerie yet somehow comforting spectral note, it sets the book off on one of many unexplored directions. If it puts you off, hold out a little longer, the book warms up, quite literally, after that. Needless to say, if you've made it this far in the series, Drums of Autumn is definitely worth picking up.
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