Rating: 
Summary: time to go...
Review: ...back thru the stones. this had to be the most boring/irritating book in the series. where was the plot?? mildly interesting characters came and went, small hints of plots peaked through... and then faded into exhausting detail about -- gosh, i can't even remember. i slogged through it anyway -- in the last 100 pages things began to develope into a vaguely plot-like situation, but, alas, it was too little, too late. could there be a more annoying character than brianna? and if i read one more word about claire's hair "floating about her like a cloud" i am going to scream. hopefully wimpy roger will take the perpetually lactating brianna and son jemmy (and his dirty clout) back through the stones. the saddest thing about this book is that you really do stop caring about the characters, and just wish they would go away.
Rating: 
Summary: A Book to Be Savoured Slowly
Review: I really liked this book. I did, however, realize that it's pace was much slower after the first chapter or so, but I savoured every minute that I spent with it. Jaime and Claire are "now" about the same age as my husband and myself and I enjoyed the many parallels that I discovered between their relationship and our own. I found it wonderful to have an author portray a loving, passionate relationship between people in their fifties and at the same time keep it realistic. I also loved learning more about the day to day life of the 1700's. How can I truly appreciate what Claire, Brianna and Roger gave up when they left the twentieth century without all the rich details that Ms Gabaldon provides the reader. I also enjoyed the development of Briana's and Roger's characters. He became more of an outdoorsman, a pioneer in order to survive, and she became more domestic. Yet Briana was also portrayed as extremely intelligent (I'd forgotten that she went to MIT)and artistic (I admire anyone who can paint or draw and it actually looks like the subject). I fell in love with little Jemmy and wish that I could know what he will be like when he grows up. Will he ever travel to the future? The novel did not advance the story very far of what eventually happens to the Frasers, but I did not expect it to. Perhaps that is why I was not disappointed. I savoured it like I would a pot of rich, thick stew, devouring it in portions, relishing what I'd read for awhile then coming back to replenish my soul with more. I hated for the book to end. The book was well worth what I paid for it. Now the hard part will be waiting for the next one.
Rating: 
Summary: A Huge Step Forward for Di
Review: While The Fiery Cross isn't quite the page-turner that the other books in the series were, it is a huge step forward for Diana Gabaldon. In her newest novel, she resists using trite sexual scenes which caused her other books to be thrown in with the mass of romance novels cluttering book stores around the country. Instead, Gabaldon sticks to her strong suits, decriptive passages and character evolution. ....There are quite a lot of descriptions of breastfeeding which could have been cut out, but all in all Gabaldon continues to write well. There are lots of questions remaining to be answered, but Gabaldon needs to have such open endings to continue her hugely successful series. In time, people will see this book as Gabaldon's first real step toward literature and not merely romance.
Rating:
Summary: Plodding, not pleasing
Review: I have truly enjoyed the four Outlander series book that preceeded The Fiery Cross. This latest book is a tedious disappointment. It is in dire need of an editor to trim perhaps half of the 1000 pages. The book lacks heart, and it sadly seems as if the author has merely gone through the motions, rather than being animated by her wonderful characters.
Rating:
Summary: Diana Fires It Up
Review: I have just finished reading the book. It is an awesome story
that is equal if not better than her other 4 stories that she has
written. To me, heer writing is on the same level as Francis Parkman...who wrote "Montcalm and Wolfe"..."The Oregon Trail"..
and Allan Eckert who has written extensively about Tecumseh. One is non-fiction...the other is fiction. In the same vein, "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo, and "The Three Mousketeers" along with "The Count Of Monte Cristo" by Alexander Dumas comes to my mind. Jamie...Claire...Bonnet...Brianna...The Indians.....Culloden....what makes her writing, besides the medical aspect(being an R.N. makes it that much more fascinating)
is that she has succeeded in making history function in a viable
believable form, that sticks in your memory...long after you are
finished with the chapter. It doesn't matter if you have visited
the parts which you read....you visit them with here characters.
You hear the horse clopping like in "Madame Bovary" as the wagon
is going through the townstreets. You smell the various odours of
human...animal...or wastes....Like Auel with her stories one become so attached to the storyline scenerio...that when you have
to put the book down because of somebody or something vying for
your attention...it's a shock to your system to realize that you
have just time-traveled via a gem. I really enjoyed the book..
I recommend wholeheartedly from a literature point of view and
a historical point of view.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't make it to page 100....
Review: It's been said already. I loved the others and got ready to be mesmerized and then plodded through nearly 100 pages - one chapter a night because I was bored to tears. Sorry - the saga is well over for me.
Rating: 
Summary: Too long, not much happens.
Review: What a disappointment! Most of this book was written about tedious daily life. The flashes of interesting action are few and far between. It was all I could do to finish the book. And worse, despite the length of this book, not much is resolved or even tied in well! More happened in one chapter in the Outlander than in this entire book. After so many pages, I feel I have learned little more than I knew from the last book, and have only more questions or loose ends. It is annoying. Also, the method of writing it from not only Claire and Brianna's point of view, but also from Roger's, was choppy and not interesting to me. Save your time and money, and have someone sum it up, or mark the few interesting passages for you to read.
Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected, but still good...
Review: I recently picked up "Outlander", the first book in the series, of course. It totally had me hooked. I read that one in only a couple of days and finished the next three in a matter of weeks. And like many other reviewers here, I thought that this was a little lacking in comparison. When the book is actually focused on Jamie and Claire, it is great. The characters we love are still there, and still up to their adventures. But, I agree that entirely too much time is spent on Bree, Roger, and Jemmy. Bree is in mommy mode most of the time, unless it's when she is it know it all mode. Roger is made out to be a big baby who can't do anything for himself. Jem, face it, is a baby and doesn't do anything, but we are still informed of it.I know it sounds like nothing but complaints, but it is still a good book. Now all together, for once, on Fraser's Ridge, life for the Fraser family goes on and it's a story no loyal reader wants to miss.
Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: Since I mostly read for enjoyment, I don't like to criticize a book. Whatever it's faults, I usually just go along with it for the fun. But this book--well, I'm not quite half way through it and don't know how much further I can make myself go with this trivia. I'm writing this review when I would normally be reading; I didn't want to read the book, so I came back here to complain. What, should I carry on? Can somebody assure me that the trivia will be justified in the pages to come? Will I think it was all worth the trouble?
Elinore
Rating: 
Summary: Thank God--I thought it was only me
Review: Like scores of other readers I waited anxiously for this 5th installment. Outlander was really the best IMHO, but I've not been too disappointed with any of the subsequent books in the series. However--- I have only read 50 pages of this book and have ignored it for days now! I thought there was something wrong with me--I've never experienced such a lack of interest with any other book in Gabaldon's series. I gave this review 3 stars only because hope springs eternal and I pray the book will get better as I read. I guess I'll attempt to finish reading it, but it seems like a laborious project at present. Zzzzzzzzzz----
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