Take a photo of a barcode or cover
nmcannon 's review for:
Dragonfly in Amber
by Diana Gabaldon
Another plane trip, another chance to sigh longingly over Claire and Jaime.
DRAGONFLY IN AMBER is packed to the brim with a bit of everything. Catching the plot is like catching a live snake, with subplots galore. The nature-based imagery and refreshing characterization leave not an annoying cliche in site. The themes and motifs deepen and intertwine in surprising ways, and my favorite by far is Claire as a White Lady because YES. With her characters, Gabaldon takes firm hold of the reader's heart and twists and pumps and wrenches it as she likes. It's a little bit wonderful, and it makes perfect sense that Claire calls artists the real sorcerers.
All of this was present in the first book though, and Gabaldon shows more of her struggles as a new novelist in this sequel. While the OUTLANDER series' sense of time is slippery (they are time travel novels, ya know), Gabaldon reflects that in her writing to the point of exasperation. The plot jumps around in time a lot, solely for the sake of drama. It reminded me of trashy TV shows and left my fingers itching for a red pen to edit these sections and tell Gabaldon to just tell the story in order.
In addition, the plot is bookended by sections that intersperse Claire's first person POV with the grown Roger Wakefield's POV. Gabaldon struggles a lot with this, and for no earthly reason makes Roger's POV in third person. These POV sections Do Not fit together nicely, and I frequently had to stop and ask myself wtf. The switching seems like a clumsy attempt to write about things Claire wouldn't have access to, but if I wanted to watch Roger flop around, I'd walk to the local duck pond. The only positive thing about getting sort of inside Roger's head is that I get to see what a huge adorkable historian he is. I know everyone wants to be a Claire when they go back in time, but we'd all probably end up being Rogers.
But but but buuuuuutt, Ohhhhhhhh mYYYYYYYYYYY GOOOODDDDDD, the majority of the book is back in the past in Claire's powerful and beautiful POV, with the kind, giant Red Jaime by her side. I got mad at Jaime a couple times because he was too awesome and too fictional. I'm being absolutely spoiled by this series, and I can tell you already that I will be comparing a lot of romance I read to OUTLANDER and finding them wanting.
DRAGONFLY IN AMBER is packed to the brim with a bit of everything. Catching the plot is like catching a live snake, with subplots galore. The nature-based imagery and refreshing characterization leave not an annoying cliche in site. The themes and motifs deepen and intertwine in surprising ways, and my favorite by far is Claire as a White Lady because YES. With her characters, Gabaldon takes firm hold of the reader's heart and twists and pumps and wrenches it as she likes. It's a little bit wonderful, and it makes perfect sense that Claire calls artists the real sorcerers.
All of this was present in the first book though, and Gabaldon shows more of her struggles as a new novelist in this sequel. While the OUTLANDER series' sense of time is slippery (they are time travel novels, ya know), Gabaldon reflects that in her writing to the point of exasperation. The plot jumps around in time a lot, solely for the sake of drama. It reminded me of trashy TV shows and left my fingers itching for a red pen to edit these sections and tell Gabaldon to just tell the story in order.
In addition, the plot is bookended by sections that intersperse Claire's first person POV with the grown Roger Wakefield's POV. Gabaldon struggles a lot with this, and for no earthly reason makes Roger's POV in third person. These POV sections Do Not fit together nicely, and I frequently had to stop and ask myself wtf. The switching seems like a clumsy attempt to write about things Claire wouldn't have access to, but if I wanted to watch Roger flop around, I'd walk to the local duck pond. The only positive thing about getting sort of inside Roger's head is that I get to see what a huge adorkable historian he is. I know everyone wants to be a Claire when they go back in time, but we'd all probably end up being Rogers.
But but but buuuuuutt, Ohhhhhhhh mYYYYYYYYYYY GOOOODDDDDD, the majority of the book is back in the past in Claire's powerful and beautiful POV, with the kind, giant Red Jaime by her side. I got mad at Jaime a couple times because he was too awesome and too fictional. I'm being absolutely spoiled by this series, and I can tell you already that I will be comparing a lot of romance I read to OUTLANDER and finding them wanting.