Sunday, November 22, 2009

3. 10/20/09 A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon (980 pages)

An Introduction.
For starters, Karla, skip this entry, and the next, until you've finished. There will be spoilers.
Next, I'd rather not wait this long to write my reviews, but I'm having some irritating computer trouble and can't access the internet from my house. I'm working on it.
And finally, if you've never read a Gabaldon novel (976 pages, 980 pages & 820 pages for the last 3)- this is why I've been so slow lately. No worries. Now that I am fully caught up I will once again read at my normal lightning speed. Or at least faster than I have been.
Introduction concluded.

This is possibly my least favorite Outlander novel. The entire book is composed of a lot of subplots that aren't sub to any overarching plot. Its like 976 pages of really good filler material. I'm disturbed by the fact that EVERYONE is apparently sexually assaulted at some point or other, and it makes me nuts that the entire population of Fraser's Ridge is super ignorant and appallingly ungrateful. Seriously, people, he gave you that land FOR FREE. However, melodrama aside, there were several excellent standouts for me. Young Ian is always a treat, and getting more of his backstory was incredibly satisfying. Brianna insisting on talking to Willie feels like it was basically fan service, but really good fan service, if you know what I mean. The ending made me cry, but didn't feel wrong. Best of all, however, was Tom Christie. Diana Gabaldon has a real gift for giving minor characters real personlity and pathos, with very little screen time, and I think Tom is one of her best. Certainly the best in a while. He's so unlikeable, and yet the sacrifice he chooses to make at the end made me cry like the idea of Nicholas Sparks Cliffs Notes (if with considerably less horror). All in all I don't love this book as much as the others, but it wasn't painful to read or anything like that, and even the bits that upset me are still getting me to genuinely emotionally react, which usually makes any book worth a read.

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