An Echo in the Bone - Diana Gabaldon

For those of you who have not yet jumped on the Outlander bandwagon, I can do nothing other than take your hands and plead with you.  Just read the first one.  It's sci-fi!  And historical fiction!  And the sweetest damned romance you will ever read.

For those of you who are fully riding shot-gun with me on this and who get nervous every time a new one comes out because Gabaldon can't POSSIBLY retain that level of awesome through a seventh 700 p. + brick, DO NOT FEAR!  Jamie has your back.

When we last left Jamie and Claire, they had been burnt out of the Big House and Roger and Brianna had gone back forwards in time because their daughter was sick and needed SCIENCE!  I think.  I more or less pieced this all together from the 'remember when' clues Gabaldon fed me, because wikipedia failed me terribly and my long-term memory is full of moths.

I refuse to sum up all 800 pages of Echo for you.  Suffice it to say that Jamie and Claire are alternately chased and stabbed and shot at and threatened and forced asea with Jamie getting terribly and hilariously seasick and then them both being CAPTURED BY PIRATES *agog* and Dr. Claire sets bones and amputates limbs and performs a complicated abdominal surgery with ANESTHESIA even though it doesn't exist yet but she INVENTS it and Jamie somehow ends up in charge of a small army.  Which is all very much business as usual.

Right, and Jamie and Claire (despite now being in their 50s [but both still very strapping, because Claire {being of the 20th century} understands things about nutrition]) doooo it, and they do it often, and it is hot.  And anyone talking about these books is likely to mention this, and that might lead people to believe that Outlander is nothing but sexy times.  But it's like when the cheese sauce for the broccoli is so good and you totally had a roast and some potatoes and this torte thing for dessert that had I think raspberries but SERIOUSLY, WHERE CAN I GET MORE OF THAT CHEESE SAUCE?

Also there is a Quakeress, and she is fiesty and I am amused.  Who does not love the occasional Quakeress spit-fire?

And the writing is completely sans flaws.  Some books are engrossing but the writing is dumb and we will not name names but we will look in the general direction of the Tudors and call it a day.  Echo has all the ACTION and DRAMA and SCANDAL and then some seriously witty reparte.  Also, Benedict Arnold shows up and says hi.

And, ok, maybe some people will say the plot drags, because there is no clear Thing We Are Trying To Solve.  Me, I do not mind this.  I would hang out with Jamie and Claire (and to a lesser extent, Brianna and Roger [and alright, Young Ian and William {who I totally forgot existed} and the Quakeress and even Lord John]) while they did their laundry and brewed gin.  And then were ambushed by Indians, because that's how they roll.  So the first 700 pages are ambly and good, and then in the last 100 some Shit Goes Down.  I do not joke, your heart will be in your mouth and you will die of the anxiety and I kind of wish she'd squanched the first 700 pages into maybe 400 and then stretched the last 100 into three times that but then also I would not have died so hard.

But I cannot complain, unless it's about there being not enough Jamie, but not since the first book has there been anywhere near enough Jamie.  That aside, it was everything I wanted and more.

9 caterpillars.

Also, I would like to formally make out with RandomHouse for sending this my way.  ALSO, while trawling for cover images I discovered that you can WIN a copy from RH if you live in Canada.  If there's a similar contest from the .com version, then I suck at finding things.