"The Outlander Saga continues... If you didn't love Jamie Fraser before - you will now!"

The fifth book in the Outlander Series is finally here. Diana Gabaldon's saga of Jamie and Claire Fraser continues in THE FIERY CROSS. We find Claire and Jamie, their daughter Briana, son-in-law Roger, and other family members in North Carolina in 1770.

Gabaldon's writing is comparable to a winery producing rare and richly textured magnums for our reading pleasure. The primary and most important ingredient in every epic is the strength and depth of love between Jamie and Claire. Each vintage the author produces is a spectacular, complex, and satisfying read. Those who have read the previous four books in the Outlander series will revel in sharing the lives of Jamie and Claire again.

However, unlike a wine, THE FIERY CROSS is not as satisfying unless you have read the previous books. So I exhort you to dash to your favorite bookstore and purchase OUTLANDER, DRAGONFLY IN AMBER, VOYAGER, and DRUMS OF AUTUMN. You will be unable to put the books down and when you pick up FIERY CROSS you will sigh with pleasure as the epic continues. Diana Gabaldon's characters are so finely developed and consistently drawn, the reader will become intimately involved in their lives and invested in the outcome of their day to day activities.

Jamie Fraser is The Icon of Manhood. He is no longer the dashing young hero we met in Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber. Still romantic, intelligent, strong, loyal, honorable, and brave, Jamie has matured, as has his love for Claire. If you didn't love James Fraser before, you will when you read the last line of this book.

THE DRUMS OF AUTUMN ended as Briana agreed to marry Roger during The Gathering of Clans. THE FIERY CROSS begins on the last day of this same event. Briana and Roger wed but Jamie's Aunt Jocasta's marriage to Duncan is thwarted and delayed.

The repercussions of Scotland's bid for freedom and the disastrous battle of Culloden twenty-five years earlier are felt at Jocasta's wedding. A murder, lost gold, and the villainous Stephen Bonnet are all in attendance. Jamie searches for Bonnet planning redress for the sins against his family.

Time travelers Claire, Briana, and Roger have told Jamie of the American Revolution to come. The Fraser's must navigate the politics of colonial America in order to keep their land and family safe. Jamie finds himself a Colonel leading a militia in support of the Governor and Crown along with Roger. A battle with the Regulators finds Roger pitted against his ancestor, the son of the witch Geillis Duncan and Douglal MacKenzie

Against this backdrop, the majority of THE FIERY CROSS focuses on the everyday activities that constitute life in the 1770's. We are privy to the details and realities of healthcare, housekeeping, child-care, contraception, hunting, and basic survival. Claire's calling as a healer continues as she seeks to practice medicine and develop penicillin to treat her family and patients.

We are privy to the enduring constancy of love between Jamie and Claire. Roger and Briana grapple with the challenges of adapting to marriage. We also see Roger try to find his place as the son-in-law of Jamie Fraser. Unlike Jamie, Roger is not a warrior or natural leader yet he courageously faces and surmounts numerous challenges.

THE FIERY CROSS by Diana Gabaldon is not as fast paced as her previous offerings. Richly textured characters and the theme of enduring love make reading this installment a must for fans of the Outlander series.

Reviewed by Andrea Geist
Posted November 19, 2001

The year is 1771. The American War of Independence is fast approaching. And it seems that Jamie Fraser and his wife, Claire, and their beloved family are fated to be in the thick of things once again.

Summary

2001 Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award Winner - Best Historical Novel

The year is 1771, and war is coming. Jamie Fraser's wife tells him so. Little as he wishes to, he must believe it, for hers is a gift of dreadful prophecy — a time-traveler's certain knowledge. Born in the year of Our Lord 1918, Claire Randall served England as a nurse on the battlefields of World War II, and in the aftermath of peace found fresh conflicts when she walked through a cleftstone on the Scottish Highlands and found herself an outlander, an English lady in a place where no lady should be, in a time — 1743 — when the only English in Scotland were the officers and men of King George's army. Now wife, mother, and surgeon, Claire is still an outlander, out of place, and out of time, but now, by choice, linked by love to her only anchor — Jamie Fraser. Her unique view of the future has brought him both danger and deliverance in the past; her knowledge of the oncoming revolution is a flickering torch that may light his way through the perilous years ahead — or ignite a conflagration that will leave their lives in ashes....