The Fiery Cross: A Novel

Diana Gabaldon

Oct 2002 · Outlander Book 5 · Sold by Dell

About this ebook

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The fifth book in Diana Gabaldon’s acclaimed Outlander saga, the basis for the Starz original series.

“A grand adventure written on a canvas that probes the heart, weighs the soul and measures the human spirit across [centuries].”—CNN
 
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.

Ratings and reviews

I mostly liked the others, but this meandering mess of a book found new ways to bore & irritate me. Really, the spiral began toward the end of "Drums", where we find that Bree is far more insufferable than she is compelling, then endure a contrived "Big Misunderstanding" drama, in which Jamie beats & enslaves Roger, rescues him upon realizing his error, then somehow still finds the gall to scorn him. The husk of that leaden plot drags itself into "Cross", where it only plods on aimlessly, at a glacial pace.

Mike Andrews hits the nail on the head. Things are *starting* to get untenable. Honestly, when Claire & Jamie shipwrecked in America, I thought, "Good lord, are these people ever going to be normal?" Gabaldon alludes to that in Book 5, but now she's making us regret the thought with all the dragged out side stories. I'm trying to read this for the FIFTH time (I keep forgetting to finish it before my ebook lending period ends at the library) and today I was wondering how many pages have to be devoted to minor characters present at Jocasta Cameron's wedding? I can't even keep all those characters straight, I just have to take Gabaldon's word that we've met them before. I want to finish this so I can get on to the other books and see what else happens, but I've gotta say - this book is my least favorite. Re-starting this book in the middle, I couldn't remember what I had read (four times) before so I doubt it would matter if I just skipped the rest of the book.

There were parts where I thought the author repeated herself too much, sometimes using the same words in adjacent sentences or paragraphs, but I also was overcome with emotion at her description of Roger's hanging and eventual recovery and many other brilliant passages. I laughed out loud at Moses and the 10 suggestions.

About the author

Diana Gabaldon is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the wildly popular Outlander novels—Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voy­ager, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (for which she won a Quill Award and the Corine International Book Prize), An Echo in the Bone, Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, and Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone—as well as the related Lord John Grey books, Lord John and the Private Matter, Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade, Lord John and the Hand of Devils, and The Scottish Prisoner; a collection of novellas, Seven Stones to Stand or Fall; three works of nonfiction, “I Give You My Body . . .” and The Outlandish Com­panion, Volumes 1 and 2; the Outlander graphic novel The Exile; and The Official Outlander Coloring Book. She lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with her husband.