Skip to main content

Book Review: Drums of Autumn (Outlander #4)


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.” 


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.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Earth Day aka "Green Love" 2008

Leafy Tree Pendant from OneElf Earth Day’s fast approaching and I’m super excited. My ‘hug a tree’ shirt’s ready and waiting and I’m impatiently counting down the hours. Yes I’m a giant geek, but it’s the one day where spreading the green love is totally socially acceptable. Although I will still try and refrain from yelling at people who chuck plastic bottles in the trash; I will not refrain from rolling my eyes at people who look at me funny when I remove perfectly good rolls of wrapping paper from the trash. It’s going to be fun. However since it is Earth Day I know everyone’s being berated with things like ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ and ‘turn the water off when you brush your teeth’. Important, yes, but I think there’s a bit of a bigger picture that gets missed in all that, so I’m going for something different. I’m not going to talk about it, at least not today. Today I’m talking about worms. Yes, I’m finally writing a real entry about something, and yes it’s about worms. ...

12 on 12: September 2015

         I had forgotten to do my 12 on 12 on the 12th this month so when I went out on Saturday I was only all too willing to get a bit snap happy. The day started out back in my old neighborhood at the annual library book sale. I stocked up and then we headed to my favorite places to shop: the farmers market, Trader Joes, and Wegmans. After that, we stopped off at the Stone Quarry Hill Art Park since Saturday was also the Smithsonian's annual Museum Day Live . The park was beautiful, we had a nice walk and even ran into a wedding party. We took the long way home and had a great time meandering through the country looking at old barns, cows, and windmills.

Oh Canada… thank you for your awesomness

I’ve gone and fallen in love with Flashpoint .  I hadn’t intended to.  It started out a lot like most other things with me watching a couple of episodes with *insert favorite actor here* (Pacale Hutton, in this case, for those of you who are wondering).  The episodes were good, really good, but I chalked it up to the amount of glee I had over cop uniforms and the CN Tower.  I’m really not hard to please when it comes to all things Canadian, but then I watched another episode.  I had an hour before bed, no biggie, but one turned into two, I feel in love with the characters and I was hooked.  And since it’s been awhile since we’ve had some Canada <3 on this blog, here’s a bit of Toronto themed goodness. Sources (clockwise from top left): A Wintery Day in Toronto , Toronto Throw Pillow , The Birds , Transportation Collage of Toronto .