| Title | : | A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander, #6) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0385340397 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780385340397 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 980 |
| Publication | : | First published September 27, 2005 |
| Awards | : | All About Romance (AAR) Annual Reader Poll Most-Hanky Read (tie) & Best American Historical/Frontier Romance (2006), The Quill Award Science fiction/fantasy/horror (2006), Corine Internationaler Buchpreis Weltbild Leserpreis (2006) |
The year is 1772, and on the eve of the American Revolution, the long fuse of rebellion has already been lit. Men lie dead in the streets of Boston, and in the backwoods of North Carolina, isolated cabins burn in the forest.
With chaos brewing, the governor calls upon Jamie Fraser to unite the backcountry and safeguard the colony for King and Crown. But from his wife Jamie knows that three years hence the shot heard round the world will be fired, and the result will be independence — with those loyal to the King either dead or in exile. And there is also the matter of a tiny clipping from The Wilmington Gazette, dated 1776, which reports Jamie’s death, along with his kin. For once, he hopes, his time-traveling family may be wrong about the future.
A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander, #6) Reviews
-
*Poke* *Poke* *Poke*
"AAAAHHHHHH!! What the?.....who the?....where the?"
"When the?"
"Stephanie wake up! It's Claire Fraser. What are you doing here? And should you be driving that contraption? You smell like a brewery!!"
"Oh Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ!....whaa....I'm not *hicup* a-saxtly sure how I ended up here. Oh look..hee...hee... I'm sitting on the time mower.....Kemper ish going to be sooo pissed at me, but what else is new?....haaaaaaaa!" *slowly sides off time mower in heap*
“Claire, what happened to her?”
“Jamie....do you remember Stephanie? She’s another time traveler like me, but she’s from somewhere in the 2010’s.”
The corner of Jamie’s mouth twitched in a wry smile, “Aye, I do. I’d say that lassie is drunk!” he rubbed his knuckle on his long straight nose.
Holding my hand up “That’s because I am....very, very drunk. Ya see, I read another book *hic* in the series that has been written about your lives, A Breath of Snow and Ashes. Don’t ask me how this is poshsible, I don’t know, but it’s most likely something to do with you messing about with time. Anyhow, just for funnzies I decided to make a drinking game out of the book, whenever you said “Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ” I took a shot of whiskey since you all drink the stuff like water and I thought whatzz good fer the goose is good for the gander.......Haaaaaa.......weeee!
“Why would you do that? Not a wise move if you asked me, I say that ALL the time.” Said Claire. “I KNOW! That was the point......Well, I didn’t ask you Claire because I don’t think you make the wisest choice with the whiskey yourself! By the way, who the hell do you think you are judging me about my alcohol consumption? Around here it’s the answer for everything. Pregnant? Drink some whiskey. Just vomited from being sedated with homemade ether? Drink some whiskey. Been gang raped? Drink some whiskey....okay that one makes sense. Whatever is going on the answer is “drink more whiskey!!” One has to admire that. It’s a damn good thing that I didn’t pick the words ‘wry, knuckle, or rubbed’ or I would be in an alcoholic coma or worse, dead.”
Jamie looked at me and narrowed his cat eyes “If our lives and the words the lady who writes these books uses bothers ya so much, why do ya keep reading them?” The corner of his mouth twitched in a wry smile and he rubbed his long straight nose with his knuckle......again.
“That’s an excellent question Jamie and I don’t have a good answer for you other then that I can’t quit you.....either of you.” *sigh*
“Awe Stephanie, that’s so sweet I could cry. I think we need to drink to that!” said Claire. “Suuure…..what’s a little more whiskey gonna hurt at this point?” Said I. Jamie pours us all a dram of whiskey, says something in Gallic, and we all drink it down in one swallow. He then rubs his long straight nose with his knuckle and smiles wryly.
“One thing I can say in the positive about the authors’, Diana Gabaldon, word choices is that she never ever uses the words ‘throbbing’ and ‘member’ together, and with all the sex scenes in all of these books that’s saying something.”
*Blushes* “She writes about…..mm hmm? What happens at night between me....and my wife?” asks Jamie. “Oh sure…between the two of you, and between Roger and Brianna, between any two people who may cross paths, I’m pretty sure that’s why so many people read the books.” I said.
“She’s also obsessed with describing hair. Seriously how many times must we hear about hair? I know everything there is to know about everybody’s hair in the history of ever. Yours Jamie is always a fire and Claire, you constantly have escaping curls.” I said “but I guess that’s better than the last book, The Fiery Cross, where Diana was obsessed with describing every detail about every dirty diaper, or clout as you call them, that adorable little angelic Gem produced. Forget about the obsession with lactating breasts…..and sex with, around, and about lactating breasts…..and the sticky aftermath. I couldn’t even come back and talk to you about it, any review I tried to write just came out dirty, and not always in a good way.”
“That sounds disgusting.” Said Claire. “At times it was” I said.
“Well, I better get this thing back to its owner before he misses it. I’m not scared of the guy, he likes to pretend he’s evil and all by wearing fake felt mustaches….but he doesn’t fool me.” I said, and then set the time mower for home instead of Kansas; if Kemper wants his time mower back he’ll just have to come to Ohio and get it.
“Haahaa ha…..Mwa ha ha……MWAHAHAHHAHAHAAAAA!!!”
I did enjoy this book more than the previous one. It's a 3.5. There was a new time traveler from her time that enter the story and I was disappointed with how the author handled this character. There was a potential there for something really interesting and she decided to make the character boring instead. But overall it was entertaining. -
The paperback edition of what is the sixth book in the Outlander series is over 1500 pages long and sorry to say, I did not hang on every word. Who could? There's so damn many of them! Talk about bloated. Diana Gabaldon's editor must love her a lot, or is just too nice for the business. "Kill your darlings" -- remember that timeless piece of advice from Mark Twain?
I love Jamie and Claire (not so much Roger and Brianna) and have been hooked since Outlander, but the series is floundering, and has been for some time. I could not even finish the fifth book, The Fiery Cross. As for Breath of Snow and Ashes, how many times can any handful of people escape from prison, mob scenes, near death, kidnappings, etc, etc. Maybe I'm just cranky because while I was reading this tome, I could have finished at least four other books on my to-read list. But I sacrificed, I persevered, and I wanted to LOVE this book, I really did. But alas, it was not meant to be.
There was enough Jamie and Claire antics, and classic Gabaldon humor, to recommend this title, but only to hardcore Outlander fans. Remember, 1500 pages is a huge chunk of prose which translates into a huge investment of your precious reading time. Approach with caution. -
I got through another door stopper =) But this one made me freaking cry in the end. Just nooooooooo. I will talk about that later. I still love it though!
I guess I'm going to add some *SPOILERS*
So this review is in no particular order. As I have said before I'm listening to them on audio and marking my place in the book and they are all starting to run together. And there are lots of things going on in the books and I love most all of it. Not the bad stuff!
There are some funny parts in the book. I think my favorite is when Bree is in the shed chasing off a raccoon that is eating their food and Roger comes in - scares her- and she nails him in the head with a potato! I wanted to add the excerpt of this but I didn't mark the freaking spot, but I was rolling with laughter at that part and Roger's reaction.
There's a funny part about a snake in the church. And I can't remember the others because I'm all upset about the ending. Nothing major just wait.
Life is going along with everyone. BUT . . .
Marsali (Fergus wife) and Claire are out at the thingy working on the stuff for booze. They are all by themselves because they think nothing of it. Some arsehole men show up, attack the women because they want the booze but the woman can't give them what they don't have. These freaking jerks kick Marsali in the pregnant stomach and take off with Claire. Claire gets raped of course and beaten to within an inch of her life. I think these are also the same men that killed a family, sold some of the kids and burned another one alive in the home. I think these were the same ones. Oh, how death needs to come to them. And it does. . .
all the evil people should meet the same end. Anyway, Jamie wrings a neck and has the boys kill the rest of the gang. Takes Claire through to make her look at all of the dead so that she knows they are gone and can't hurt her any more. It was horrible. And the part before all of this, when Jamie and Roger find that family killed and the little girl still alive in the burned house, OMG, I can't even. I mean Roger had to suffocate her because it was so dreadful and I felt sorry for everyone involved.
Marsali and Fergus have another child and he's a dwarf that Marsali names Henri-Christian. So they have a ton of kids now. But some arsehole jerk little kids tried to drown Henri and luckily Roger was there to save him and give those evil kids what for. Not long after that Fergus tried to kill himself and luckily Jamie was there and it made me so sad. Jamie and Claire had to send them away and got Fergus a job at a printer and Fergus was happy so hopefully all of that will work out.
Bree got to finally get her vengeance on her rapist. She shot him in the head. Good riddance.
Bree and Roger also had a little girl named Amanda Claire Hope and there were some medical issues with her that Claire couldn't fix because it was one of those advanced things.
This is where I get really sad because Bree, Roger and the kids went back through the stones to save the baby. And now Claire and Jamie only have Ian and it's so freaking sad because that whole family was there and I want them back.
Just damn it all =(
Also, in these books there are always references to the other books and things that happened. Explanations and I like that! Even still, I'm sad - BUT. . . on to the next.
MY BLOG:
Melissa Martin's Reading List -
Where I got the book: audiobook from Audible.
I have spent the best part of a year listening to the Outlander series and honestly, by this point the books are just blending into one another. Most of the time the story isn't really a story so much as a container that holds a whole load of smaller stories, some resolved quickly, others left for later. If things slow down, one of the women gets kidnapped, raped or threatened with kidnap or rape, or all of the above. Which probably happened quite a bit in pre-revolutionary America.
And then Jamie turns up and rescues everyone, and takes Claire to bed. Considering she's about 55 by now she's doing pretty darn well; they don't seem to go much longer than 3 days without a good bonk, Jamie never has eyes for anyone else, and he likes it when she puts on a bit of weight because it goes straight to her lovely round arse. The perfect man indeed.
After hundreds of hours of listening, Gabaldon's writing is pretty predictable. She never passes up the chance to use a well-worn phrase, endlessly describes what Jamie's hair looks like, and loves to go off on a tangent about 18th century science or doctoring. Narrator Davina Porter never flags, although I have known her to mix up an accent here and there.
And you know what? I'll miss these books when I'm done. They may be rambling and way too long but they're fun to listen to. One day I'll probably go back to the beginning again... -
5 STARS!!!!!!!!! JESUS H. ROOSEVELT CHRIST!!!!!!
What can I say that hasn't already been said about Diana Gabaldon and her fabulous Outlander books!!! This is yet another. Claire and Jamie's story continues here in the wilderness and growing new world of North Carolina. So many mysteries brought to the foreground in this episode, and many more laid out.
Jamie Fraser
The American revolution is in full swing, and Jamie finds himself caught between a loyalty to his king and a betrayal he knows he must make in order to survive the conflict. His knowledge of the events to come have him walking a thin line between honor and treason, and to the shock of his oldest friends and countrymen, his choice will surprise them all.
Claire Fraser
And Claire... OMG Claire has so many life altering events to overcome in this book. I frequently found myself biting my nails down to the quick wondering how the hell she would get out of this story alive, or without permanent scars, both inside and out. But as usual she perseveres with tenacious ferocity as usual. I just love her character... and Bree's. These are some strong women!!!!
Brianna Fraser Mackenzie
Then there is Brianna and Roger... So many traumatic events and shocking revelations... These two are quickly growing into my favorite characters. Their romance in no way shares the passion of Jamie and Claire's but it is showing fantastic potential in doing just that. And the kids.... I love all the kids!!!! Jemmy and especially Germain, Fergus' boy. This whole band of little people had me laughing and crying with joy throughout the book.
Roger Mackenzie
One of the things I love most about these books is the real-life dramas that continue to plague the characters. I can easily say that even through the explanation of many of the historical events that are occurring at the time, the continuous myriad of changing characters and situations, the medical explanation, and the constantly changing points of view... I never once... not once got bored. There was so much action packed into these thousand pages that I didn't regret a single one. I only have one book left, until the final book next summer, and then I will be sadly mourning my daily dose of Outlander.
Diana Gabaldon... I have nothing but the highest of praise and thanks for you in creating these fabulous characters and epic, EPIC stories!!!!
The Infamous White Sow!!!
Nothing less than 5 STARS
now on to book 6... YAY!!!!! -
Still hardly any plot, just people doing things, a few kidnappings, rapes and childbirths, a million of scenes of Clare healing someone. But at least Brianna wasn't lactating all book long this time.
-
”All I want, is for you to love me. Not because of what I can do or what I look like, or because I love you, just because I am”.
(2.75)
Vamos a ver, no entiendo a las personas que le dan cinco estrellas a este libro. Lo siento, pero no lo veo. Yo soy la fan más acérrima de Outlander, pero debo admitir que este libro y el anterior son el recuento más mundano de una vida aburrida que he podido encontrarme por allí. Sí, al principio de este tomo suceden cosas traumáticas, pero una vez pasa eso nos enfrentamos a mil páginas de una rutina que no es interesante de leer.
Sobre Jamie, Claire, Brianna y Roger pesa el hecho de que muy pronto sucederá el supuesto incendio que acabará con algunos de ellos y, además, están a puertas de la revolución norteamericana, pero no, Diana Gabaldon decide dedicarle 200 páginas a eso y 1.200 más a ver cómo van de una casa a otra, cómo rotan los cultivos, cómo lidian con la gente de Fraser’s Ridge, etc… Madre mía, es que no podía del aburrimiento.
Todo el mundo me dice que el siguiente libro es una locura y espero que así sea porque, de verdad, creo que esta saga decayó muchísimo en el momento en el que Jamie y Claire se fueron de Escocia. Ojalá vuelvan en algún punto. -
I feel I have already written a review, with all the updates I did!! Where to start? We know these books are long. It’s taking me, on average, three weeks to read them. So, you sort of have to be dedicated to the genre and writing style to appreciate them.
Jamie and Claire are living in North Carolina. Their passion is still alive, their love is still true. I absolutely love this couple. Have loved watching them grow older together.
“Ye’ve no idea how lovely ye look, stark naked, wi’ the sun behind you. All gold, like ye were dipped in it.”
A lot happens in this book and some questions from the previous books are answered.
“I canna look at ye asleep without wanting to wake ye, Sassenach.” His hand cupped my breast, gently now. “I suppose I find myself lonely without ye.”
Her writing is very descriptive and she pays a LOT of attention to detail. There was one part where Claire was making Black Pudding and I swear to God I swore I would never touch the stuff again… I know I probably will, I just don’t want to know how it is made.
Roger and Brianna were wonderful also. And wee Jemmy, what a hoot he was! Loved him.
Vroom, vroom!
I won’t say too much as it would give things away and spoil the reading for others. Or spoil the TV show if some of you will not read the books.
“I chose my way when I wed ye, though I kent it not at the time. But I chose, and cannot now turn back, even if I would.'
'Would you?' I looked into his eyes as I asked, and read the answer there. He shook his head.
'Would you? For you have chosen, as much as I.”
The books is so much more than my review. There is Ian, Lizzie, the twins, Malva, the Bugs, Lord John, Bonnet, Jocasta and many more. Pieces of the puzzle are put together, and some pieces are left for us to discover in the next books. I must applaud Lizzie for her "way" of ensuring that she got what she wanted. Apologies for bombarding you with so many updates! -
Poor, poor Claire...Diana Gabaldon sent you to hell and back in this book didn’t she? What’s her problem anyway? Is it too much to ask that she and Jamie will get one moment of peace. I would have though that twenty years apart would warrant some kind of second honeymoon?
I never thought I’d say this, but I actually like Bree and Roger more and more. Still not enough though. But going from reading about Jamie and Claire to Brianna and Roger gave a certain nice.. diversity. But they were given way more space then they should have had for my taste. Some of their storylines were actually emotional and interesting though. But who am I kidding here? Was this book solely about Jamie and Claire this book would have been a big, fat 5! They freaking rocked! As usual.
I’ve read the series multiple times and they are all amazing books. They are actually in my third of favorite series of all time. Diana’s writing style and attention to detail is crazy amazing. She manages to paint a picture for you without boring you in the process. These books are so huge that they can be intimidating to start. But, in the process of time and a certain amount of rereads, I’ve gone from thinking these books are too huge, detailed and slowly paced to pretty perfect...really. I’m still not thrilled of all the various point of views, they make me loose a little interest, but I have come to accept and semi liking them. I just try ro take it for what it is. I’m surprising myself but I’ve come to like all characters and every small detail of the 18th century’s America, although I do further miss my beloved Scotland. And to be honest, I would only like to read about Claire and Jamie if I got one wish.
“A Breath of Snow and Ashes” was filled with adventures, drama, heart stopping moments and emotional storylinesso many things happened. It was like ten books in one. I wish I was a better reviewer so I could do amazing novels like “A Breath of Snow and Ashes” justice. Too bad that Bree and Rogers POVs slowed this awesome book down. I’ve tried to like them for years now, I really have, but I just don’t care about them. Not enough anyway, I’m sorry. They are good and solid characters, don’t get me wrong. But for me, Outlander is Claire and Jamie’s story. I wouldn’t mind though if Roger and Bree and their kids were side characters, possibly in the future. But unfortunately, they have taken over more and more and with that, I do loose interest. -
Was lange währt wird endlich gut. - So oder so ähnlich :D
Ich gebe zu, dass ich mir für diesen Klopper - mit sage und schreibe über 1300 Seiten - mehr Zeit als üblich gelassen habe, aber ich möchte einfach möglichst viel von dieser epischen Geschichte habe und jede einzelne Seite genießen und jedes einzelne Wort in mich aufsaugen.
Habe einfach selten etwas besseres gelesen als diese Reihe von Diana Gabaldon und mir bricht langsam der Angstschweiß aus, dass mir irgendwann ihre Bücher ausgehen und ich mich - Gott bewahre - irgendwann von Claire und Jamie verabschieden muss.
Auch in diesem Buch geschehen natürlich wieder so einige Sachen. Wir nähern uns wieder einmal einem für unsere Protagonisten gefährlichen Zeitpunkt in der Geschichte und begleiten unsere Gang dabei, wie sie sich darauf vorbereiten. Im zwischenmenschlichen Bereich tun sich auch wieder einmal Abgründe auf von denen ich nie und nimmer etwas geahnt hätte. Sorry, dass ich euch zum Inhalt nicht mehr erzählen kann, aber da es nunmal bereits Band 6 ist würde einfach alles was ich erzähle spoilern.
Am allerwichtigsten ist jedoch: ich habe wie bei jedem Buch der Outlander-Saga sowohl gelacht als auch geweint und ich habe die Geschichte immer noch nicht satt und freue mich darauf auch in Band 7 wieder zu unseren heißbeliebten Charakteren zurückzukehren. Es ist jedes mal wie heimkehren :) -
The first book had me completely absorbed in the little details and fascinating plot, the second book made me angry by the huge jump in time and then made me happy, while the third book continued to hold my interest. The fourth book was a little slow. The fifth book made me wish for all that time spent listening back again because really, however many pages an author should devote to homesteading, Ms. Gabaldon surpassed it at least ten-fold. The sixth book frustrated me with its plodding story, with its hyper-attention to detail, and with the continued and inexplicable use of multiple narrators. This does nothing but prolong the agony. If the last two books have been less-than-ideal and even somewhat of a waste of time, why did I continue the series and move on to A Breath of Snow and Ashes? I wish I knew.
The writing sucks. It is not a well-written series at all, repetitive and worthy of many an eye roll or snort of disbelief. Ms. Gabaldon uses the same phrases, descriptions, and dialogue all the time. While continuity is important, the repetition becomes old very quickly. This is on top of the fact that the entire series is just one big, very bad soap opera – the kind where the villain suffers forty different ways to die but always survives to torment his victims. Stephen Bonnet is the eighteenth-century Stefano. One can practically predict which major character is slated for his or her turn at mortal peril because it happens to them all with such frequency. Yet, I keep listening, yelling at the characters for their stupidity and getting anxious on their behalf even though I know they all survive for at least two more books. I was sucked into the Outlander world, and I can’t seem to get out.
In the beginning of the series, the sex scenes were so unusual in a romance novel because they were actually vital to the story. Through their most intimate moments, readers learned more about Clare and Jamie, their vulnerabilities and their sensitivities. It was never a sex scene purely for titillation but a method by which the characters developed and grew. The same can no longer be said about any of the sex scenes within these later novels. First of all, there is nothing more to learn about Jamie or Clare. Readers have been with them for years now, and their characters are fairly set in their development. Then, there is the ick factor. Both are approaching 60 years of age, and while I appreciate that their love life is healthy and frequent, it is not necessarily something about which I want to read. Jamie’s comments about Clare’s body have him turning into a lecherous old man, and that is just wrong. Then there is the physical descriptions themselves. While Jamie is clearly an ass man given his many lascivious (and slightly disturbing) comments about the state of Clare’s derrière, I’m beginning to think Ms. Gabaldon is a breast woman herself. There is way too much attention and description devoted to all females’ breasts. Dresses cling to them, sweat trickles between them, they are fondled, kissed, and cupped, they leak milk, and babies release them with audible noises. If there is a woman in any given scene, Ms. Gabaldon will inevitably mention something about that woman’s breasts. Frankly, it’s annoying and disappointing.
Then there is the issue with Jamie and Clare’s daughter and son-in-law. I hate Bree and Roger. There. I said it. Bree is one of the most spoiled, stupid girls in print. Roger was great, if a bit weak and unmanly in comparison to Jamie, until he married Bree. With that one act, he became thoroughly uninteresting and superlative. As for Bree, she is just now thinking of the dangers of going back in time 200 years to the Revolutionary War – after the war has started. For someone who is supposed to have such a brilliant mind, she completely lacks in common sense as well as empathy. The scenes told from either of their points of view are just agonizing, as Roger spends most of his time thinking about Bree and Bree spends most of her time worrying about how certain events are going to affect her. Their sex scenes are not in the least bit erotic or even very romantic. Very rarely do they contribute something to the overarching plot, and most of the time, their presence causes more complications than solutions. It goes without saying that their removal from the story would also eliminate a good number of pages in this very bloated series.
The problem is that at an average audiobook length of 50+ hours, I have spent way too much time devoted to Jamie and Clare to quit the series now. I may not be quite as vested in their survival as I once was, but I would like to solve the mystery of how they die. I would like closure. Ms. Gabaldon has not yet written her stories to provide closure, and so I am stuck in this world of time travelers. I will continue with the series onto book 7 and eventually book 8 when it is released next year. Perhaps by then, Ms. Gabaldon will have made it possible for me to say good-bye. Until then, there will be more yelling and eye-rolling and general frustration at the slow pacing, repetitive syntax, unnecessary narrative shifts, and completely unnecessary sex scenes. It is most definitely the book world’s version of a daytime soap opera. -
**4.5 stars**
This book, this series, is a total love fest. You would have to love it to come this far in the series...and be dedicated to reading these long books. I'm always apprehensive to start one but when I do, I'm totally swept away and then I'm sooo sad when I'm finished!
As with all books in this series, DG packs an enormous amount of "happenings" into them and I actually had to take notes. But I'm not sure that I can really talk about them without spoiling something. Suffice it to say that this book will take you on a roller coaster of emotions. Everything that you think might happen, will happen and then some.
You may not understand these if you haven't read the book but some things I want to highlight:
♦ Claire's surgery/ether
♦ Cherokee agent/naked women
♦ Lizzie/Manfred/Bobby
♦ Roger/Amy/"calling"
♦ Claire event #1/Donner
♦ Henri-Christian/Ian with the wolf hide
♦ Claire event #2/her hair
♦ Fergus!!
♦ Ian and Bree's trip
♦ Lizzie/Jo/Kezzie
♦ lice/Roger & Jem
♦ Malva !!! (knew who it was!)
♦ arrest/Governor's house/Tom Christie
♦ Bonnet!!
♦ Amanda
♦ Brianna/Will
♦ Jamie's "dreams"
♦ stones
♦ fire/gold
♦ BOX!!
Another fantastic addition to the series. Loved Claire and Jamie and Roger and Brianna! But...I didn't care for all the war talk and the correspondence. Thank goodness, it was only a very small part.
Favorite quotes:
♥ “Ye’ve no idea how lovely ye look, stark naked, wi’ the sun behind you. All gold, like ye were dipped in it.”
♥ “If I die,” he whispered in the dark, “dinna follow me. The bairns will need ye. Stay for them. I can wait.”
♥ “Ye’ll do, Auntie,” he said. “It’s still you, isn’t it?”
♥ “Claire,” he said, quite gently, “it was you. It’s always been you, and it always will be. Get into bed, and put the candle out. As soon as I’ve fastened the shutters, smoored the hearth, and barred the door, I’ll come and keep ye warm.”
♥ “Ye’re mine, Sassenach. And I would do anything I thought I must to make that clear.”
♥ “But we are here, all of us. And we’re here because I loved you, more than the life that was mine. Because I believed you loved me the same way.”
♥ “I canna look at ye asleep without wanting to wake ye, Sassenach.” His hand cupped my breast, gently now. “I suppose I find myself lonely without ye.” -
This book covers the adventures of the extended Fraser-McKenzie clan through the years 1772-1776, and oh God, you feel every one of them.
I picked up this book in late August 2015. I just finished it last week. For those of you as bad at math as I am, that is NINE MONTHS. I coulda grown a whole baby in the time it took me to read this book. If I was a cat, maybe dozens of babies. A rabbit . . . at least a hundred. (If I was an elephant I would still be pregnant.)
According to Goodreads, it took me eighteen days to read Outlander, four days to read Dragonfly in Amber (Sidenote: Holy shit! how did I do that?), eleven days to read Voyager, seven days to read Drums of Autumn, and only nine days to read what felt like the interminably long The Fiery Cross. And really, I was on track to finish this one in a reasonable (for this series) amount of time. I read the first 54% in six days. And then I put it down and just . . . never picked it back up again. That was on September 2nd. I made a token effort on December 7th; read about six pages. Then put it back down again and didn’t pick it back up again until March 1st.
That’s not good! I shouldn’t have been able to do that. I should have been clamoring to see what happened next. I wasn’t. Nothing felt urgent at all. And I will admit, this book is SO much better than the previous one. Actual thematic relevance across storylines. Things moving forward (albeit glacially). And even though I have some problems with the repeated cycle of violence against these characters, at least here while I was reading, it was always interesting. (Not so in Fiery Cross.)
The problem is there’s just TOO MUCH OF IT.
In case you were wondering whether it is possible to in fact have too much of a good thing, this book is proof that you can.
1,439 pages. ONE THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED AND THIRTY NINE PAGES.
I know that part of the appeal of these books is that they are long, and I like long books! The length of the series itself, and the length of each individual book, really allow you to spend time with these characters and sink yourself into their world. But this one (and the last one) just go too far. 1,000-1,100 pages would have been okay and doable. Easily 400 pages of this monster could have been cut. Sure we would have lost some cute scenes, but were they really necessary? Especially when the alternative is that your book is so bloated it loses track of its own plot.
And really, couldn’t we also have cut out entirely that plot with Claire getting kidnapped (and )? Was that necessary? Especially since she’s put into peril at the end of the book as well. And yet again we have Brianna being rescued from Stephen Bonnet in an extended sequence that we’ve already seen before. At least this time he’s gone for good. (But again, I was so ready for him to be gone, I couldn’t even fully appreciate how good that scene was at the end between him and Brianna.)
It’s like that how you sometimes say you’re using belt and suspenders to indicate that you’re maybe doing something not necessary. Gabaldon is a belt and suspenders writer. She doesn’t just use one, she uses both, and then on top of that she also sows her pants to her shirt JUST IN CASE. And maybe also brings along an extra pair of pants in her purse.
At least most of the scenes in this one weren’t mind-numbing as well as repetitive and somewhat unnecessary. I’d rather read about Lizzie accidentally getting knocked up by the Beardsley twins and then marrying both of them, that tiny little bigamist, than read about ghost bears, Brianna's engorged breasts, and the state of Jemmy’s diapers.
But really, I think the main problem here is that Gabaldon was trying to bridge the years in between Brianna finding her family and marrying Roger at the end of Drums of Autumn, and the coming American Revolution, and it took her two books to do it when she should have done it in one. Nothing interesting happens politically in that time that couldn’t have been covered in one book. For two books it’s been: THE REVOLUTION IS COMING THINGS ARE HAPPENING. But nothing *actually* happens until the end of this book.
All the books have had backbones except these two. Outlander had Jamie and Claire meeting in 1740s Scotland, and Claire’s journey to decide to stay in the past. Dragonfly had them trying to stop the Rising in France and learning to be a married couple. Voyager was them finding their way back to each other after so long apart, and Brianna learning the truth and coming to terms with her family’s past. And Drums of Autumn had all those threads coming together, so that they’re finally all settled together on Fraser’s Ridge in North Carolina. Fiery Cross and A Breath of Snow and Ashes was basically, “Hey the Revolution is coming! No, really it is! We promise! Just bear with me a sec!” "Oh, and also, life in these times was dangerous and men will rape you." And meanwhile, all the characters were mostly stuck in one place for two VERY long books (more if you count all the time on Fraser's Ridge in Drums of Autumn). It was claustrophobic, and she would have done better skipping those years or fast forwarding through them, I think, rather than wading through them. Domestic bliss is nice for the characters, not so nice for readers. And neither is manufactured drama (which after a while, all that repetitive peril starts to feel like).
Anyway, I’ve heard the next two books are pretty good, and the Revolution HAS started. There are emotional conflicts involved for all the Frasers, now that Jamie’s son is on the other side, and the McKenzies are back in the future.
It might be a while before I actually dive in, though. I’m not a masochist. -
A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander #6), Diana Gabaldon
A Breath of Snow and Ashes is the sixth book in the Outlander series of novels by Diana Gabaldon. Centered on time travelling 20th century doctor Claire Randall and her 18th century Scottish Highlander warrior husband Jamie Fraser, the books contain elements of historical fiction, romance, adventure and science fiction/fantasy.
Claire is the wife of Jamie Fraser, her 18th century husband, and facing the politics and turmoil of the forthcoming American Revolution. The preceding novel, The Fiery Cross, concluded with political unrest in the colonies beginning to boil over and the Fraser's trying to peacefully live on their isolated homestead in the foothills of North Carolina. Jamie is suddenly faced with walking between the fires of loyalty to the oath he swore to the British crown and following his hope for freedom in the new world.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز هفدهم ماه مارس سال 2018 میلادی
عنوان: بیگانه (غریبه): کتاب ششم: نفس برف و خاکستر؛ نویسنده: دایانا گبلدون؛
کلر، با همسر سده هیجدهمی خویش جیمی فریزر، با سیاست و آشفتگیهای انقلاب آینده ی آمریکایی روبرو شده است. رمان پیشین «صلیب آتشین»، با ناآرامیهای سیاسی، در مستعمره ها آغاز، و «جیمی فریزر» تلاش کرد، تا به طور مسالمت آمیز، در خانه های دور افتاده ی خود، در کوهپایه های «کارولینای شمالی» زندگی کند؛ «جیمی» ناگهان، با گام زدن میان وفاداری به سوگندی، که به تاج انگلستان خورده، و امید وی برای رسیدن به آزادی در دنیای تازه، روبرو شده است. و ...؛ ا. شربیانی -
I think that this just may be my favourite book out if the series so far with the exception of book one. Something about it just drew me in and sunk it’s hooks into me and I found myself falling in love with these characters all over again. Because that’s really what this series is about, the characters. Sure the setting and the history is great but what really packs the punch is the characters and how much you become attached to them and to care for them. This book really reinforced for me, it renewed my love for these characters and I couldn’t have enjoyed it more!
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“We’re here because I loved you, more than the life that was mine. Because I believed you loved me the same way.”
DG played with my emotions masterfully. I loved it and I hated it. I laughed and I cried. It was perfection!
To read my reviews of previous books, click on pic:
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It has been forever since I dove into an outlander book and after diving into this one... I can gladly say that I actually enjoyed this one.
A Breath of Snow and Ashes still has your favorite couple, Jamie and Claire. Or maybe your least favorite? Who knows! Now I know I've had my fair share of ups and downs with these books and this couple but once they got to North Carolina - I was in. Now this is about the american revolution and how it is in full swing baby!
Reading about how Jamie and Claire were apart of that was pretty interesting. They both have to make pretty tough and interesting decisions in this book. Especially with knowing about what's actually going to happen and how they can change the future. Then there's the whole loyalty thing that comes into play. Besides those two, there's Brianna and Roger who also deal with some crazy shit. I do love the romance and chemistry between Jamie and Claire more though - sorry, not sorry.
Now I'm not going to name every character in this book because we meet a lot. There's too many to talk about or keep track of. In the end, I did enjoy this book. I wouldn't necessarily say it's my favorite out of the whole series because 1) that would be a lie and 2) that would be outlander - duh! -
This review can also be found at
Carole's Random Life in Books.
I almost feel like Claire and Jamie are family. We have been through a lot together over the years and it seems like things never really get any easier do they? This was my first time through this book and I went ahead and did the audio instead of reading the paper version. This was a really long audio. Too long if I am being honest. I love Jamie, Claire, Brianna, Roger, and the whole gang but I was really ready to move on to something else by the time I finished this audio. Don't get me wrong this story is really good and I am glad that I listened to it but it almost exhausted me at a point.
These books are a little different than what you would normally read. I always tell people that most books deal with a certain problem and have a definite story arc. Books in the Outlander series are very character driven and they don't focus on any particular plot point. It is really just all of the things that happen during this period in Jamie, Claire, Brianna, and Roger's lives. You do need to read this series in order because things from previous books do tend to pop up from time to time.
So much happens in this book. Like I said, Jamie and Claire feel almost like family so when bad things happen to them, I really tend to feel it. Bad things do happen in this book. Things that made me want to cry, things that made me laugh, and things that made me mad. I do really like how Jamie and Claire's love for each other never wavers and even now that they are older, they still have a very healthy sex life.
Davina Porter does a fabulous job in narrating this book. The voices and accents that she uses for all of the main characters have remained very consistent over the course of the series. I find it amazing how well she handles the male voices. Her Jamie is just perfection. I like how much emotion really shows in her voice as she reads this story. I am able to listen to her voice for hours at a time without ever tiring of it.
I would highly recommend this series to others. This is a series that I plan to revisit from time to time because the characters are so wonderful and the writing is so well done. I will be continuing with this series in the near future.
Initial Thoughts
I did enjoy this story. So much happens in this book. As much as I liked the story, it seemed to go on forever. With the audio time listed as 57 hours and 46 minutes, I do almost feel like I deserve some award for paying attention to anything for that long. -
I breathed a sigh of relief by the end of the book. I hadn’t continued the series after Book 5, which I finished in 2002. But I got hooked on the Tv series, so once the show had caught up to where I left off, I decided I should continue the books. Wish I hadn’t- too verbose, too much unnecessary detail and too much lack of interest on my part. It was a good enough escapist read, but it just seemed more of the same. I think I’ll just happily continue watching the show and forget about the books- it’s not often I say that, but I am with this one. In contrast to the book, I thought I would keep my review short and sweet!
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I enjoyed it so much that I read it and then listened to it again as an audiobook! It may have been because I had forgotten I had finished the book. At times when I’ve read a long book, I will take a break and read a few shorter ones before starting another in the series. This was the case with this book, although, I truly thought I hadn't finished it.
I started listening and realized that I had already read that part. I would skip ahead a chapter and listen more. The thing is, I was just really enjoying listening to the reader, hearing the correct pronunciations, and getting sucked back into the story that I ended up re-listening to the majority of the story.
Diana does such a wonderful job with worldbuilding and character development. She truly transports you to another time and place. I enjoy historical fiction as a genre and just love her take on it. Her descriptions of settings, characters, and daily lives are so very easy to visualize and believe, while also providing historical context of the time. The book is filled with lovable characters' daily lives, choices they mull over, battles, injuries, romance, and people's resourcefulness living in remote areas.
I was a huge fan of the books after reading the first in the series. While I really enjoy reading these books, I think I may be a convert to listening to the audiobooks. Hearing this story took the pleasure of the book up a whole level. For those diehard readers, I would challenge you to give this book a listen and see if you agree!
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Breath of Snow and Ashes - Ex
Gabaldon, Diana - 6th in series
The year is 1772, and on the eve of the American Revolution, the long fuse of rebellion has already been lit. Men lie dead in the streets of Boston, and in the backwoods of North Carolina, isolated cabins burn in the forest.
With chaos brewing, the governor calls upon Jamie Fraser to unite the backcountry and safeguard the colony for King and Crown. But from his wife Jamie knows that three years hence the shot heard round the world will be fired, and the result will be independence — with those loyal to the King either dead or in exile. And there is also the matter of a tiny clipping from The Wilmington Gazette, dated 1776, which reports Jamie’s death, along with his kin. For once, he hopes, his time-traveling family may be wrong about the future.
The only thing I can say is "FANTASTIC." Happily, Gabaldon is saying there will be two more books to the series. This is one I wouldn't mind seeing go on, and on, and on..... -
So I slogged through all 6000 some-odd pages of this and I truly hate myself because I actually want to read the next one when (if?) it comes out. I think the next story she set up is more interesting.
I guess I understand the appeal of these books. She tells a "ripping yarn" even though it takes her waaaaaaaaaaay too long to get there. Her characters are memorable. She has interesting details (albeit far too many of them.)
Far from great writing, but it's a good page turner and I must say I had fun laughing at the supposedly erotic passages, and her obsession with people's asses. -
To be continued...
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Whew. That was more than a marathon. What the Olympic sport where they ski and shoot stuff? This book is like that but add in finding a needle in a haystack, cutting gum from your hair, trying to remove blood stains from every item of clothing you wear every day for 6 months, participating in a spelling bee in a language you don't speak, and running for president in a country on another planet. Whew.
There is a lot going on here. SO MUCH GOING ON HERE. I've sort of learned to love Roger more, but , yeah, no, really not so much. He's still kind of a lazy, entitled dick. I've certainly loved Brianna more. What a doer. That lady can't be stopped. Jaime. Claire. I love the both of you to the ends of your crazy hairs. Jem. You need to grow up. The BUGS! O.M.G. I'm destroyed. Malva. I cry for you Malva. I LOVE YOU MALVA! (bonus, my mother's first name is Melva, named after an uncle Melvin, gross, yeah? she hates it too. but now Malva is Melva and Melva is Malva for me. Uma meet Oprah, Oprah meet Uma)
On to my re-read of book 8. I'll probably watch the whole freaking first half of the Starz season tonight. Well, not really, it's getting late, but, *sigh* I love this series and for all its faults it's a wonderful series about the love and loyalty and courage and power of family. -
This book is only for people who enjoy the characters and the America they inhabit. It is a series of incidents following familiar themes of kidnapping and rescue, disaster and salvation, sickness and carefully recaptured health, accusation and jail. Secrets are discovered and shared, there's sex scenes and a rape scene as another Fraser family member takes their improbable turn again as victim (what are the chances that three members of a family would be raped, one twice?)Finally,a decision is made that splits the family...
The author appears to fully expect to continue the series but after reading of Jamie and Claire at advanced age I had to go and skim the first book to reminsce and pity the characters for losing so much of their youth together to vicious circumstance. -
4.5/5 💝💞
Llega un punto, tras leer seis libros, donde cualquier cosa que digas sobre una saga se convierte en Spoiler. Solo dire que es una de las sagas mas adictivas y maravillosas que he leido nunca.
P.D: Necesito dias con mas horas... 😤😁 ... no llego.. no llego. -
Gabaldon's epic romantic fantasy series continues with yet another lengthy tome, with this sixth installment set in North Carolina during 1773-76 with the American Revolution imminent.
Whilst the turmoil of the period plays a big role during this installment, it's the smaller stakes of the series regulars that help make this another memorable outing in the series.
From kidnappings, imprisonment and assault - Gabaldon certainly knows how to put her characters through the worst possible situations!
The fact that the various incidents were dealt with rather swiftly made this part of the series feel more episodic.
I was expecting those events to take up quite a large chunks of the plot, the quick resolutions certainly helped when tackling what is easily the longest book that I've ever read.
Admittedly it took nearly 2 weeks to finish - but I was always keen to get back to the story at every opportunity.
You certainly go on a journey with Claire, Jamie, Brianna and Roger. I like where they find themselves at the end of this novels conclusion, I've already ordered the next one and can't wait to tackle that soon... -
The mind boggles at just how much history Gabaldon has written into this novel. While the Outlander series may seem to some as an over-written tome for Jamie Fraser hysterics, the dearth of American history enfolded is quite amazing. I have much admiration for the author. A hearty 4.5★ -
To quote a dear friend of mine, Diana is back on track with this one!
The 6th in the Outlander series started off a bit slow for me, but I was able to get sucked in once again. There is lots of romance and lots of drama on Fraser's Ridge as Jamie, Claire, family, and friends prepare themselves for the upcoming Revolutionary War.
And damn Diana for making me like Brianna after me being so annoyed with her in Fiery Cross. I am impressed when writers can turn your opinion around regarding characters. -
"But-oh God! Did she tell ye how it happened?" -Jamie Fraser
"Yes. I'll tell you the gory details later." -Claire Fraser
That little snippet of dialogue pretty much sums up this entire book. IT WAS FREAKING AWESOME! I admit that I really was starting to lose interest in this series after
The Fiery Cross because it was just so boring, but this one really made up for it in SPADES. Oh, the drama! The scandal! The gossip! The sex scenes were better! The dialogue and jokes were better! At times, I felt like I was watching a Saturday Night Live sketch. At other times, I teared up at how touching the interaction of the Fraser/MacKenzie family is and how much they stuck together. And there was a lot of action scenes...and a lot of the story was told from the differing POVs of Claire, Jamie, Bree and Roger. It wasn't JUST The Diary of Claire Fraser...today, I planted lettuce, tomorrow I will clean my surgery, etc. It was really great and there are so many things that you never see coming. So many times in this book I was like, OMG did that just happen!? And it was REALLY cool to read the beginning of the Revolutionary War from the perspective of people who had only read about it in history books. I don't know. This one is my favorite after
Outlander and
Dragonfly in Amber, no question. I haven't been so wrapped up and engrossed in the world of Jamie and Claire since I read
Voyager. And I am shocked because I had heard that book 6 was really really long and slow and boring, but damn if I didn't tear through it in less than four days. I couldn't even put it down for a break! Written so well...humorous and touching dialogue...have I mentioned the drama? It was like watching the Jerry Springer show in Diana Gabaldon's words set against the Revolutionary War time in North Carolina. I cried...oh, I cried! And I laughed so hard at times. Just look at my tags on this book and you can see how poor Jamie would be so scandalized by what was happening on his Ridge!
I. Loved. It. If you are iffy about continuing on with the series after the slow pace of
Drums of Autumn and
The Fiery Cross, just do what I did...chalk up
The Fiery Cross to this: Then just regard
The Fiery Cross as necessary research and background reading for the rest of the series. I do have to say that
Well done, Mrs. Gabaldon...WELL DONE! I will be starting
An Echo in the Bone tomorrow and then I'll be able to finally be in the boat with all of the other Outlander fans breathlessly awaiting the release of the eighth book.
