Rating: 
Summary: Not Disappointed
Review: This is this book in a nutshell...
Most importantly, you do not have to re-read the other books in order to understand this one. Diana does a good job of reminding us of who everyone is. Although, I bet if I had re-read the 4th book, I would have enjoyed this one even more.
The first approx 200 or so pages take place on one day. Tedious to get through but some mysteries (like the Jamie/Jack Randall headstones) are solved so it is bearable. Get through that part of the book and you are homefree! It starts to get better and then about midway through the book, BAM! BAM! BAM! Surprises and action abound! I really liked the book and although lots of stuff from the first 4 books were cleared up, it left me with more mysteries to be solved-BIG mysteries. I sort of felt I was being manipulated...the whole book being a set up for the final book. But, Diana is such a great writer that I don't really care if I am being manipulated or not. This book let us get to know Roger better. Aunt Jocasta was a big part. It was really worth reading and I can't wait for the next one.
Rating: 
Summary: Long Awaited, Too Quickly Read
Review: Try as I might, I just could not read this fifth book in the ongoing saga of Claire, Jamie, Brianna and Roger slowly. It was well worth the wait, as most of Diana Gabaldon's fans will agree. The action just continued from one page to the next, with insights into each of the characters that made them come even more alive to me than they already were (if that's possible). And the ending was even better - but I'm not here to spoil it for anyone - you'll have to read it for yourself. Unfortunately, now I will have to wait once again for Diana to get the next book to the publisher. An excellent way to escape from the real world - the household chores and even the TV will have to wait!
Rating: 
Summary: A Prelude to Book Six?
Review: I absolutely love the Outlander Series. And I will buy Book Six because I have the entire set in hardback. However....The Fiery Cross was pointless, even as a prelude to Book Six. Gabaldon should have jumped straight into the American Revolution, I kept waiting. This book has no plot and the numerous minor storylines it does have are not necessary. If any of them needed to be told to set the stage for the American Revolution, it could have been done in a few pages, not more than 900. Stephen Bonnet is boring and uninteresting and far too much time has been devoted to exacting revenge on him. His story certainly isn't interesting enough to carry all the way through the Fiery Cross and I assume into Book Six since it apparently isn't over YET. I hate to write a bad review on this because this is my favorite series and the one I recommend to everybody. It doesn't seem Gabaldon was into the book either since she never developed a plot.
Rating: 
Summary: A Really Long wait, for this?
Review: I'm glad to see that I'm not the ONLY one who thought the first 300+ pages were snoozers! I was disappointed to have to slog thru " today at camp my butt was cold" and "Today I made penicillin","today the cat jumped on my head". The high drama of those pages being a double tonsilectomy. Also the main characters are taking a diffenate shift towards each others traits, Jamie getting all soft & emotional,Claire turning into the inigmatic fighter. HELLO, this is not the characters we bought the 1st four book based on.Better to have waited to combine the last book of the series with this "tome"into 1 Great book and called it quits as a winning series,instead of petering off into mediocrity, one dull book marking time 'til the last. If the writer really no longer "cares" about the characters she writes about, then finish their "lives",wrap it up cleanly and move on. Example:Ian, beloved nephew of Jamie,who was traded to the Indians as a life exchange,returns after years of exile, Everyone is happy to see him,big feast served,No mention of his life among the Mohawks,his wife & baby,why he came back,is he staying..Zilch,Nada.,guess nephews return all the time there after being hostage to the Indians.See what I mean? Please, Don't kill the characters and us with boredom. I will reread the first 4 and enjoy them, but there is nothing about this book worth the time to reread it. If you want to collect the series,buy the Firey Cross,stick it in the bookcase, and reread the first four slowly til the final book is written,you won't have missed much. Maybe Diana needs to reread her first books to get the feel of her characters back,the emotional interplay between Jamie Claire was superficial at best,not the same SPARK that made you believe She'd risk the dangers of time travel or He, death, for the love of Claire My deepest sympathy to Diana for a story half told.
Rating:
Summary: So disappointed
Review: I could not wait for the next book in the Outlander series. Boy was I disappointed. This reads like a very bad romance novel.I sure hope her next one will be in tune with the original style of the series.
Rating:
Summary: Continuation of Jamie and Claire
Review: To all the lovers of Diana Gabaldon this book is great!!! If you loved Jamie and Claire through all the other books you will love this one. I have been on the waiting list for this book since July. It takes off where it left off, with Jamie and Claire in America. It goes through the hardships , and leads to the American revolution. I haven't finished the book yet , but it is a treasure. I love her books so much that I keep them stored away to read again someday. You also read about Brianna , Roger her husband and son Jemmy. Buy this book!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Worth the read!
Review: Another hit from Diana Gabaldon. Well, almost. I bought the book for Jamie and Claire and loved every minute of their romance, wit and struggle. Roger, Brianna and Jemmy are boring by themselves but interacting with Jaime and Claire it was bearable. Many interesting adventures in this one, especially the last 400 pages. This book is a hand-full, literally, but I will buy the next, just to keep up with the Frasers!
Rating:
Summary: It's all in the details
Review: I finished The Fiery Cross a couple of days ago, and while it's not my favorite of the series (nothing beats the first one), I enjoyed it thoroughly. Diana Gabaldon has taken us back once again to the eighteenth century and revealed it to us in glorious detail. I can't think of a better way to spend an afternoon than with Jamie and Claire Fraser. I also appreciated this book greatly as a further deepening of Roger and Brianna's story. In the previous books, Bree wasn't really an interesting character to me - but here her character is fleshed out considerably. Likewise Roger - although his character was well-developed before this book, he endures hardships here that test his self-image and strength of character. And of course, Claire and Jamie are the same wonderful characters as ever - you really see here how their love has developed over the years. I understand the complaints of some that this book doesn't have a plot, that it moves too slowly, etc. Those are valid points to make - there's nothing really earth-shattering that happens in this installment, although you know that something (the Revolution) is looming just beyond the horizon. For me, though, the beauty of the book was in the details - the very fact that this is for the most part a book about everyday life. More than in any of the rest of the books, Diana revels in these details. While some may find all this detail "boring," it allows us to really understand what life was like in the past, and it fleshes out all of the characters immeasurably. I closed the book feeling satisfied and yet craving more - I can't wait to find out how the entire saga ends! The Fiery Cross is a book for true fans who love these characters.
Rating:
Summary: Gabaldon misses the mark
Review: Overall a quite disappointing offering from a talented author. After trudging through the first 250 pages (which quite frankly should have been covered in a chapter), I found the book to be repetitious to the point of tediousness. I never again want to read about: blood (from anywhere), wombs, diapers (and their contents), Jemmy (especially the feeding of), milk-swollen breasts, sweat-soaked skin/clothes/hair AND the constant re-affirmations of the two couples feelings towards each other! Don't get me wrong, I admire Ms Gabaldon's writing ability and imagination but for the discerning reader who aspires to more than supermarket romance, the lengthy, blow-by-blow conversations, overly descriptive and overly detailed recounting of even the most minor events/conversations was more than irritating. As another reviewer mentioned, the book read like pieces of a quilt patched together to make a story, and therefore each chapter felt as if it had been individually over-worked.
All in all, the book could have benefited from some ruthless editing, a PLOT and some tightly controlled narrative.
C'mon Ms Gabaldon, you're capable of much better!
Rating:
Summary: Transitional
Review: I enjoyed _The Fiery Cross_. It is not as driving or as cohesive as the previous Outlander books, but it is worth reading, particularly if you are a fan of the series and plan to continue with it. If you are looking for _The Fiery Cross_ to be one epic story, as are the first three books, you will be disappointed. Essentially, the current volume is a series of novellas about the people of Fraser's Ridge, which serves to bridge, or begin to bridge, the gap between _The Drums of Autumn_ and the Revolutionary War. There are several throughlines, but they are quite minor and disappear for hundreds of pages at a time. Some of the incidents dealt with are what I would call relevant; some seem to be thrown in there simply to fill up time and space. All are interesting, though. Several loose ends from previous books are tied up. Several more are untied. One or two new characters are introduced, but mainly these are the stories of people the reader has come to know and love already. You really need this attachment to character to keep you going through the slow bits, so I wouldn't recommend anyone's starting the series here. Some of the slow bits -- especially the first 200 oages -- are VERY slow, indeed. As always, Gabaldon's writing is gorgeous and lush and her historical research is impeccable. She really has a talent for uncovering little known facts and weaving them into her story, and she has a flair for depicting the day to day like of a frontier homestead that makes it real. I actually liked this book better than _The Drums of Autumn_, though not as well as any of the first three. Though it isn't particularly exciting, _The Fiery Cross_ is a good transitional piece and does a fine job of setting up the next chapter -- which I hope we'll see sooner than four years from now!
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