Finally finished The Fiery Cross (Outlander #5)

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I finally finished reading book 5 in the Outlander series. The Fiery Cross, by Diana Gabaldon. I will be 100% honest with you. I won't be able to give you a great review of the book because I can't remember what happened in this book versus earlier books. I don't remember exactly where Book #4 ended and Book #5 began. (That can happen when it takes a full two months to read a book.) And I don't want to give away anything!

I was really late to join the Outlanders fan club. This past summer, Books and Beer Club was reading the first book in the series for its July and August book! Book #1 left me with a ton of questions which could only be answered by continuing to read Book #2. Book #2 ended with more of a cliffhanger than an over-abundance of questions, as did Books #3 and #4. Book #5 doesn't end with a cliffhanger. I'm curious about what happens next but I don't have any burning questions. I'd planned to take a break after this book and I think it's worked out to be the perfect time.

In case you're unfamiliar with the series, as I was until I started to read it, it's a combination of time travel and historical fiction. Claire Randall, a British WWII nurse on vacation in Scotland, somehow goes back in time to the Scotland of the 1740s. That's where she meets and eventually falls in love with Jamie Fraser. Prior to reading the book, I knew nothing of the Jacobite Rising. I've learned more about redemptioners (a sort of indentured servant). And now I'm learning more about the years leading up to the American Revolution. I think I've mentioned before that I love learning new things so this is right up my alley. Books #1 and #2 had some pretty steamy sex scenes. While the content has gotten more factual as the series progresses, the romance has not died one bit between Claire and Jamie.

You might be wondering about my 4-star review on Goodreads for the book? Why not 5? I assign my stars based on a gut reaction to a book.

• If it's pure perfection and the absolute perfect fit for me, I'll assign it 5 stars.
•  If something nags at me, it goes down to a 4... which is still a pretty darn good book that I'd highly recommend to anyone who loves to read. 
• 3 stars means that I liked the book well enough but I'd only recommend it to certain people.
• 2 stars means that I got through the book just fine but I really didn't like it and I wouldn't recommend it.
• 1 star means that something at the end of the book got me really angry or was a huge disappointment in the end. Otherwise, I drop books after about 100 pages if I don't really get engrossed in anyway. When I last checked my dropped books shelf on Goodreads, I was surprised by how really full it actually was!

Having said all that, while I don't think I've given any of the Outlander books more than 4 stars, but I would most definitely give the series 5-stars.

Here's an interesting interview with Diana Gabaldon that I just came across that was most informative. And to think that she wasn't just playing around when she first started to write the book. Wow. Wowee! You can also see how huge the books are that she's signing in the video. No wonder it's taken me 8 months to get through 5 books!  


What I think I can say about The Fiery Cross without spoiling anything for you is that this book is told from 4 points of view. Claire tells her story in the first person. Jamie, Brianna and Roger's stories are told in third person. Each of these characters has many, many stories to tell.

There were lots of political stories to tell. The setting for the book is 1771 and 1772 North Carolina. While most of those in the Colonies weren't aware that big things were brewing, Claire, Jamie, Brianna and Roger know exactly what's coming. I learned tidbits of things regarding the American Revolution that I never knew before.

There were medical stories to tell. Claire seemed to rely more on her 1960's medical training to deal with the healing she needed to provide in the 18th century. As I read about her experiments with penicillin, I wondered if the character of Claire was changing the history of penicillin that I'd first learned about by reading A Fierce Radiance, a historical fiction novel about the early days of penicillin written by Lauren Belfer. How much of that history would have been changed had someone caught on to what Claire was trying to do. With all the talk about changing the history of the United States, what about the possibility of changing medical history? She also did much more reflecting of her life as a healer and a doctor. I wonder if that will continue in subsequent books. No, please, don't tell me!

Finally, there were all the relationship stories. Claire and Jamie, Brianna and Roger, Jamie and Roger, Roger and Stephen Bonnet, Jamie and Stephen Bonnet, the families living on Fraser's Ridge. Some sex and romance but not as much as in earlier books. At least they didn't stand out as much.

I loved reading about Jemmy growing from a baby to a toddler with thoughts, ideas and dreams for himself. There are also reappearances of some other characters from earlier books and explanations regarding a few other characters who don't exactly reappear.

What am I going to read next? Books and Beer Club is reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss for it's March meeting. I got a little nervous when I saw that this book is part of the Kingkiller Chronicle series, but since fantasy, especially fantasy/science fiction is never a favorite genre of mine. It's another long book, over 600 pages. I've just started it today. Will I be able to finish it by the last Wednesday of the month? It's highly rated on both Amazon and Goodreads so I'm hoping that I'll enjoy it enough.