Rating: 
Summary: Loved It!
Review: This book was everything I expected it to be. I laughed, I cried, I enjoyed every minute, and I was sorry that it went by so fast. It seems a long wait until the next book, but it's always worth it!The Fiery Cross is the fifth book in a series, not the first and not the last. It is rich in detail, sparkling in wit, but more than that, it allows the reader to really become involved with the story and it's characters. This book is a continuation of Jamie and Claire's story, and sets the stage for the final book. Expect lots of loose ends! For those looking for instant gratification; move on. For those looking for literary gratification; start with Outlander and work your way up. And buy in hardback, or you'll wear the covers off!
Rating: 
Summary: I'm halfway through, and it is SOOOO boring!
Review: I am the biggest fan of Gabaldon and was so excited to get this book. Oh boy, oh boy, is it a snoozer! The writing is good, and the detail is great. However, there is such a thing as WAY too much detail. I even skipped over and read the end, and it wasn't any better! You know how Gabaldon always says that she writes in bits and pieces and then somehow glues it all together? It really shows in this book. Long, descriptive passages with very little action makes for a very, very slow, almost nonexistent story. It's as though she goes from one extremely detailed sequence to another with really NOTHING happening in the story. Where is the action? The romance? The time travel? The visits from characters in previous novels? The tying-together of storylines across the novels? Alas, it is gone. It is as though it is nearly a thousand pages of descriptive, nauseatingly boring detail in preparation for future novels. (...)
Rating: 
Summary: Quiet and internal, a good change of pace
Review: "The Fiery Cross" is a different kind of book than the previous four before it. It is a more quiet and internal story--a good change of pace from the sometimes frenetic events of the other books.
I appreciated the change of pace and the quality time I got to spend with the characters to know them better. While all the drama is exciting, the day to day events in a life are more telling and at times more interesting. It was nice to not think--"When are these guys going to a breather?" In our own lives it is hard to keep up that amount of constant drama and tension without breaking. I'm glad that the author recognized that. My one criticism of the book--the reason why there are four and not five stars--is that I found the first 150 pages of the book to be unnecessarily slow and the many characters introduced then were hard to distinguish. Midway through is when the book really hits its stride--I wish it had come sooner. I really liked the way the author had different characters' points of view be the foundation of the chapters. I was always excited to see whose mind we would be in next. "The Fiery Cross" is a transition book and is in place to set up the characters and the events of book six. For what it was, I liked it and would recommend it. I was sad to be done reading it and I am very much looking forward to the next one! (hopefully it arrives before 2004!) Lastly, I would recommend re-reading the last fifty pages of "Drums of Autumn" or its summary in "The Outlandish Companion" before you start "The Fiery Cross." I found that to be a great reference/help while I was in the first 150 pages.
Rating: 
Summary: OK, but....
Review: Ever since I stumbled across CrossStitch (I live in the UK) by accident a few years ago, I have been addicted to the series. I have read the books so often I know exactly what happens, who everyone is etc. I'd noticed, that a bit like Star Trek films, it was the odd numbered books - CrossStitch and Voyager - which were the best, and was hoping this would follow through from the relative disappointment of Drums of Autumn. As I don't particularly like the character of Brianna - though Roger is OK - I disliked the emphasis on her character. There have been some comments that the book should have been edited more heavily, and I would have to agree with this. While I love Diana Gabaldon's style of writing, the first half of the book was, in comparison with for example CrossStitch, tedium. The book was redeemed by the second half of the book, which turned from being merely a description of life in Carolina at the time - it was hard at times to distinguish Claire's unique outlook on life being from the future - to an eventful tale. Ironically enough, this happened with Jocasta's tale of what had happened her back in Scotland. Maybe the only way up is to return to Scotland, but from what I know of the books to come, this is extremely unlikely.
This book will undoubtedly do very well, riding on the reputation of the better books before it, though if regarded on its own merits it wouldn't deserve it. I read in one of the other comments that this book was so long that it had to be split into two books, and as this book picked up so much in the second half, this augurs well for the next book. I will have to say though that I will not be as eager to read it as I was to read this one
Rating: 
Summary: She should have stopped after three
Review: Three is the lucky number, she should have kept to three books. The first two were fantastically written and have been read several times over. The third was good. But the fourth and fifth? Forget it. Don't even bother unless it's to check the book out of the library. It's not even worth a late charge fee at the library. The author had a good thing going and has gone the way of the Rocky IV and Terminator 4 movies. She should have stopped after the first three. If you are looking to interact with wonderful, sexy Jamie again, don't pick up the newest book, go back and read Outlander. Ms. Gabaldon, respectfully, please start a new book with new characters and let us readers imagine the rest of Jamie and Claire's life together ourselves.
Rating:
Summary: Anxiously Awaited
Review: I have been waiting for The Fiery Cross's release for over a year. I even re-read the previous books so I could be fresh for this newest edition. I was very disappointed. Ms. Gabaldon rambles as she has never rambled before. Her characters did not mature at all and there are too many loose ends. The action is tedious and while I generally enjoy the amount of detail employed in these books, enough is enough! It has taken me several weeks to finish Fiery Cross - when it only took a couple of days for each of the other ones. I agree with some of the other reviewers that the editors need to be less condescending to Ms. Gabaldon and rein her writing in a bit. Hopefully, we'll be back on track with the next novel.
Rating:
Summary: So Verra Disappointing
Review: This book is not like the first 4 books at all. The first 160 pages describe the same day. I plugged through them just out of curiosity if someone could actually extend one day through 900 pages. Thankfully she did not. But it did not get any better, either. The whole book described about 2 years. We still are not close to the Revolutionary War. I do not know if it is her problem, or her editors, but it was a mistake to publish this book. I know many people were eagerly awaiting it, perhaps there was pressure. It is highly descriptive (which is fine if it was a stand alone book, but it is at the end of an ADVENTURE series, so the
S L O W
plot was excruciating). No surprises. Skip this book if you are reading the series, or check it out from the library. Save your money. I think that she is having a hard time, what with this and the Outlandish Companion. I just don't understand. At least I'm not going to be anxiously awaiting the next book for the next 5 years. I'll re-read the first 4 and pretend it's over. I'd rather have loose ends than not care about the characters anymore. PS- I also must add my vote for her to stop describing the weaning of children. Come on. That is only intereting once.
Rating:
Summary: Is There an Editor in the House??
Review: What a disappointment! I thought that the first three in the series (Outlander, Dragonfly & Voyager) were well-written and innovative fiction, and Drums was fair-to-middling. Unfortunately, Fiery Cross is a saggy, baggy mass of largely extraneous details on life in 18th century North America, with some familiar characters tossed in. I sure am glad I read a library copy, and didn't pay for it. I'll probably read the next one, hoping that in the meantime Ms. Gabaldon will stop with the self-indulgent, unedited prose, and accept the advice (and pruning) of competent editors. Delacorte should be ashamed of themselves for letting this one loose on the public in this state.
Rating:
Summary: If you rip a bodice, the breasts shouldn't be leaking....
Review: I waited too long for this book to be published for it to be such a torture to read--2 weeks and I'm only 50% finished--still waiting to be amazed. I loved all the other books...the action, the romance, the history, the supernatural, and mostly the ESCAPE it gave me from the periodic tedium of modern daily life. After reading most of TFC, I have accepted that it won't help me escape anything. Her use of language and setting is good, as usual. It's even nice that elements of family and parental reality creep into the book. It's truly sad that they overwhelm it. I have friends I can talk to if I want to hear about dripping breasts, spotted bodices, infant excretia, menopause, and other happy topics. I can go to work to hear people whine or drone on endlessly over things about which I could care less. Gabaldon books should whisk us away from such things! I expect something different from her: More adventure presented in a well-organized and forward-moving plot (not a 900 pg medical lecture on a variety of bodily fluids), characters you can really love...Jamie... or really hate...Jack Randall...(not the dreadful Bree, Roger, and Jemmy --all overdue for an excellent adventure to a time far away from the next book's setting). Honestly, I don't know why Claire just doesn't pack up all her gems and sneak out to the stones on the next fire feast to escape her own mundane existence. Perhaps she would like some engrossing novels to read that could fuel her fantasies and imagination after a long day of watching mold grow in the woods? Bet she knows how the rest of us feel now! (...)
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous
Review: Diana Gabaldon is up to the standard she set with her first romantic time-travel novel, OUTLANDER, with her fifth and newest, THE FIERY CROSS. A truly amazing and talented storyteller with a deft hand at characterization, color and humor, she is my favorite author; and doesn't disappoint with this, her fifth book about Claire and Jamie Fraser. Sequels so often disappoint--VOYAGER, her third in the series, was in no way up to the spellbinding standard of OUTLANDER and her second book, DRAGONFLY IN AMBER. DRUMS OF AUTUMN, the fourth in the series, while better than VOYAGER, also fell a bit short. THE FIERY CROSS, after a static opening which takes 167 pages to cover two days in which nothing much happens, despite wonderful characterization and human insights, picks up speed and excitement with the start of Part Two. Since the book is almost a thousand pages, it's a "can't put it down" [or don't want to] ride after that. No one should let the early part of the book make them set it aside, as I was almost tempted to do; the rest is worth it. My wish is that Diana Gabaldon will, when she finishes this series, create a fresh new set of characters in a historical setting--time travel even better--as fascinating as Claire and Jamie and their brood. There are never enough good time travel novels out there, and none as good as Diana Gabaldon's. Sara in California
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