Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone: A Novel (Outlander)

I'm a huge fan of this author and series, and have been waiting for this book for years. I have reread the previous ones dozens of times.I'm surprised and quite disappointed by this entry.I have come to love the wild round of kidnappings, shipwrecks, witchcraft trials, betrayals, gunshot wounds, and good intentions leading to life-threatening outcomes that swirl around Claire and Jaime.Time travel, action, drama, snappy dialogue, rich historical detail, war, sardonic humor, a grand romance- these books have been packed with crazy, juicy goodness.This book is a complete anomaly. It reads flat and feels phoned-in. Almost nothing happens in the first 2/3, which consists mainly of sentimental musings on daily life and child-rearing.The narrative is annoyingly diffused as we follow 6-8 different groups wandering around on side quests and- well- musing about the nature of family and child-rearing.The last 1/3 has a little action that feels forced and almost apologetic.I read this series because I love Claire and Jaime, Brianna and Roger (well, Brianna anyways), Fergus, Young Ian, Jenny, Lord John, William, etc.That has been quite enough people to follow in the past- but in this one, for some reason, Gabaldon dilutes the storyline even further by dragging in random minor characters from previous novels, who are dusted off and given waaaay too much space.Why are they given almost as much "screen time" as Claire and Jaime? No one is reading this series because we care about what eventually happens to a character that was in a novel two books ago for 4 pages.Adding insult to injury is that I get the sense we're actually supposed to care about some of the pretty annoying ones, such as Amaranth, Frances, Agnes, and Elspeth. They're not real villains, just unlikeable, poorly written, and not compelling.I am extremely surprised this bland, tedious novel came from Diana Gabaldon's pen, but there does seem to be a pattern. Authors whose books become popular TV shows or movies take time off, advising or producing or whatever, and for some reason the next book is usually terrible or simply never appears.J.K. Rowling, Kerry Fisher, George R.R. Martin, Patrick Rothfuss, et. al.I'm glad they get the recognition and the coins, but it's a real pity for the fans. We deserved better after such a long wait.

****Spoilers****Jamie and Claire's family story....No. Saw much less of them, and more of inconsequential new characters. I kept waiting for the ending from MOBY's cliffhanger to resolve itself with William and Jamie developing a relationship. I kept waiting.... and waiting, 900 pages. But we were left with another William Cliffhanger!If it weren't so much time between books it wouldn't be so bad. But 7 years + how many ever it is till next book. So maybe 14 years to wait on double cliffhanger..........Since I am 70 years old I could very well never read the last book. Guess her target audience is young people.I loved the other books but sorry to say this one was a terrible letdown for me.

I was already incredibly disappointed by the 50% mark of this book. The writer just seems content to allow the plot to ramble on , at times in an incredibly confusing fashion. She doesn't seem sure where the book is meant to go. The main focuses seems to be on constructing prose on the most mundane things imaginable.For a book of over 900 pages, very little happens in this latest installment. By the 80% mark it was disappointingly clear that very little would come of it. For a book years (YEARS!) In the making I truly thought there would have been more storyline to the actual , well story.Rumor has it there will be a tenth book( hopefully while I'm still young enough and in control of my mental facilities to read it). Hopefully, the focus can be on wrapping up the various plots to a reasonable satisfaction.

This is one of the better ones. It seems like author Gabaldon is consolidating the threads in her extensive threads somewhat, perhaps in preparation for the final volume: Bree & Roger and the kids have returned from the future; and William is still wandering about around the Colonies on various errands and adventures, so Jamie and Claire's extended family is at least in the same century again. Claire comes into her full power as a healer. Jamie gets into trouble and has to fight again toward the end; but apart from that, most of the action centers on the younger generations: the adventures and familial struggles of William, Ian, Roger & Bree, young Fanny, etc.What I didn't particularly enjoy: Sorry, but I did not care for the character of little Mandy; I found her quite annoying. (I've always enjoyed Jem's antics from the time he was a baby). I didn't like Amaranthus either. And William's tendency to only connect with Jamie when he desperately needs help to save somebody's life - though that tendency makes sense in terms of plot and characterization.I quite enjoyed the delineation of Bree's relationship with William; and how their connection turns out to be critical to a certain development of one of William's dormant skills that leads to a very important discovery...There is one scene, between Ian's former Mohawk wife 'Emily' and Ian & Rachel & baby Oggy & Emily's oldest son that almost made me cry, it was so good and beautiful.And the White Sow has survived!This is one I am going to reread and savor.

No doubt diehard fans will have a great time with this book (and I did enjoy it) but I was very disappointed after such a long wait. There were so many separate plot lines in the book that it felt like there was no real arc or climax to Claire and Jamie’s story. I think it’s a thing that happens with authors when a series becomes a smash hit and the balance of power shifts away from the editors and lies totally with the writer – It happened with Harry Potter and the Game of Thrones books - Harry Potter books kept getting longer because they were stuffed with self indulgent detail that was not necessary for the story, and on GoT so many additional plots crept in and were given so much page time that they diluted the time and attention from the main storylines and characters. I do love the other characters Gabaldon has created, but constantly leaving Jamie and Claire to deal with the others at the same level of detail, and having to create endless coincidences (you can suspend disbelief once or twice, but too often becomes tiresome) to link the many sub plots to the main characters, distracts from enjoying Claire and Jamie’s story which didn’t progress much at all and was the weakest part of this book. Personally I think it would have been better for the author to stick with Lord John and Hal’s story in the separate series and give us a whole lot less of Bree and Roger apart from the aspects of their story that add to Jamie and Claire’s story. No wonder each book takes so long to write when the author is writing 3 novels worth of characters at the same time and trying to string them all together. I’ll be really disappointed if the series ends with a book like this.

I wrote a previous review on this a few days ago asking when the story starts and I was then at chapter 47. Over 60 chapters later some traction was finally gained and things actually started to happen. This book is very, very well written and the attention to detail is incredible (a staple in any of this author’s works) but there’s an awful lot of it for the very small amount the overall story arcs of anyone or anything seems to be moved forward. Detailed descriptions of clothing or cooking or the comparatively primitive domestic set ups are not needed more than once or twice through the book, not every other chapter. The reader knows where we are and what we signed up for, please stop drilling it home every chance that arises. I did like that the characters are flawed and not perfect all the time and the language used very effectively demonstrates the attitudes and feel of the time period and thankfully does not bow to using the more politically correct and sensitive language of the current climate. It’s important to remember how things were and just why it was so wrong and must never be supported again and this is done remarkably well and with a deft and light touch throughout. I will get the next in series just because I have to know how it ends but I must admit to being ready to bid farewell to the characters and the story to be over with this book. I have both the audio and kindle version of the book but won’t be revisiting the world of Jamie & Claire for sometime as I’ve been left surprisingly uninterested in their journey through this particular book and need a break. I have absolutely no issue with the massive cast of characters at all, in fact I’ll say that they were needed to shore up the story as it unfolded because precious little of importance really seems to happen to Claire and Jamie. Again, very well written but a good three quarters of the book could have been sloughed away and had very little impact on the end result as it stands.

I was greatly anticipating the ninth book in the series yet sadly found myself bored at times with the feeling I had read some of the plotlines in earlier books. The ending came as no surprise - I will not include a spoiler but it was obvious the two characters had to meet again one, predictably, needing the help of the other. Perhaps the final book will tie up all the loose ends and provide a decent resolution for these incredible characters. I just hope the author has enough interest to see the saga finished.

I impatiently waited for this to come to print and now we begin the wait again for what I believe will be the final installment. Sigh. The nature of reading for me is to become deeply absorbed into the created world so much so that you laugh with them, cry with them, feel the joy and grief and everything in between. Diana Gabaldon is a master at it. I had to take breaks while reads to try to settle from the wealth of emotions this storytelling evoked and yet at the same time needed to know what came next. This series started out life I believe as a creating of cross stitch and without doubt all the threads are coming together. A wonderful book I'm sorry to have finished.

First off, thank you to the negative reviewers. I was holding off buying the book, thinking I'd put it on my Christmas wish list. But reading those reviews, especially the one that said that characters other than J&C were give a lot of 'screen time', I knew that the book would be everything I was hoping for and so I got the Kindle version for instant access.As with all her books, DG employs a very different style in this one from previous ones. I'd say it is almost a study in how to reminisce in writing. Each time it happens, it is done in a slightly different way and because of it, I did not feel it becoming repetitive.One of my favourite aspects of her writing is DG's incredible ability to nail observations of family interactions and this one had tons of it. My own favourites are Bree and William's relations with the world and I was thrilled to see them both more than once :)As I am not that big on battles, I was glad that whilst of course there are some, they did not totally dominate the book.Occasionally, Diana's modus operandum of writing stories in parts, not necessarily in the order they appear in, means that a character isn't reacting quite as I would expect given their encounter with something in a previous chapter, however, as I find each chapter almost readable as a standalone story, this does not detract from my overall enjoyment of the books.All in all, loved it. Can't wait to see what happens next!