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!
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely not one of her best efforts
Review: Please allow me to preface this review with the fact that I immensely enjoyed Outlander and Voyager, having re-read them several times. The Fiery Cross, however, is simply a much-too-long diary of daily life in the 1770's. Indeed, the first 200 pages are allotted to just one day, culminating in the less-than-inspiring wedding of Brianna and Roger. As one previous review states, the book closely resembles a Farmer's Almanac rather than a work of fiction. There is no tangible story line with neither passion (both the physical and emotional were flat), nor action, as have occurred in her previous books in the series. Only until page 953 (of a 979 page book) does the story become interesting with the return of Ian and his diary of a previous time traveller. Hopefully book six will be more interesting; I honestly believe one could skip The Fiery Cross and be up-to-date with whatever transpires in the next book. On average, I read 3-4 books (300+ pages) per week; I began the Fiery Cross on November 9th and just now finished it today, 11/25/01. The reason for this long duration is that I kept putting it down for lack of interest. Bottom line: if you simply must read this book now (in lieu of waiting for the paperback edition to be published), then check it out from a library or by a used copy
Rating:
Summary: I was so disappointed I cried.
Review: I was caught up in the magic of Jaime and Clair. The first 4 novels moved me through all the ranges of human emotion. I couln't sleep for days because I could not put them down. I waited impatiently for this 5th novel which I find flat, long winded and quite boring. What happen to the passion and fast paced excitement? The only events covered in detail are the battles and they are colorless as well. I miss the passion.
Rating:
Summary: The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon
Review: I just finished this book. I loved the first 3 volumes, the fourth became more confused, the secondary caracteres do no have any dimensions, one still loves Jaimie and Claire but the excitment is lacking in the fifth volume and from the hints in this volume one expects a final great fire which will end the Frasers and MacKenzies of the new world as we now know the date of the death of Claire and Jaimie and the fact that they did not leave any descendents.
Is Diana preparing a great surprise for us? I hope so . I would hate to end this "en queue de Poisson".
icihiboo.
Rating:
Summary: Where Was the Plot?
Review: Having read all of the previous books in this series, I was utterly disappointed with this latest effort. There was no plot, none of the excitement or adventure with which the other books held us captivated. It seemed as if this book was simply used to answer a few questions left from the earlier books and yet never did answer the one repeated in The Fiery Cross. (Who cares who Jemmy's father was?) It was worth reading simply because we care so much for the characters we grew to love in the previuos 4 novels. The Fiery Cross does not stand on it's own or live up to our great expectations. I hope the last in the series is better- I for one, would wait longer for a well planned novel.
Rating:
Summary: Not up to par
Review: I just finished the Fiery Cross, and am pretty disappointed. I loved all the other books in the Outlander series, because they had thorough character development, inventive plots, and engaging story pace.The Fiery Cross unfortunately lacks all three of these characteristics. Nothing new is revealed about the characters. Brianna is strictly a mommy in this book - I wish I had kept a running tally of the number of times she is described (in *excruciating* detail) breastfeeding, because whatever it is, it's about 100 times too many. Jemmy's day-to-day activities are also described in excruciating detail, which is also boring, because his only activities are: sleeping, crying, pooping...and getting breastfed!!!! Roger, Jamie, and Claire are their usual selves. Aside from Roger, they don't really go through any transforming or pivotal personal experiences. There is very little actual plot to the book. The book ends years before the Revolution starts. There are only three real stories: Brianna's wedding, a skirmish between the Governor and the Regulators, and the reappearance of an old villian. Things start to get a little more interesting during the last 100 pages, but the book ends before these more engaging details can be explored. I went to a book signing where Diana said that it was going to take her another two books besides this one to get to the Revolution. If she had not dawdled so long in beating us over the head with the plotless domestic activites of Fraser's Ridge, she could be there within this book, or possibly the next. You could axe about 600 pages of this book without any detriment to the storyline or characters. Lastly, the pace in this book just stinks. In contrast, I could not put down any of the last four books. When I discovered them, I'd stay up late nights because I didn't want to tear myself from the story. I didn't really care when I finished the Fiery Cross - if the story had engaged me as much as the last four, I would have read it in a quarter of the time it took me. I suspect this owes to the fact that Diana said she writes lots of little pieces of stories and strings them together. It is *really* obvious here. The chapters are fairly self-contained and very short, almost like this was a magazine serial that was published all together. I'm still really hoping that the next book will put us back on track. Onward to the Revolution!
Rating:
Summary: Not sure I can finish this one...
Review: I thought it was just me that found this fifth volume to be disappointing, and then I read the reviews listed below. I am only on page 200 and something, and frankly, I am not chomping at the bit to go on. It is lying on the floor by my bed, and I am reading other books before it. I never did that with the other books. I love Outlander, Voyager, etc., and have read them over and over again. This one, I doubt I will want to finish, but feel obliged out of loyalty to Clare and Jamie. I think Diana Gabaldon may have run out of steam, and with so many different types of narrative in The Fiery Cross, it is very annoying. Why can't it just be Clare? We have to deal with four different people -- Clare, Jamie, Roger and Brianna as narrator. And as other people have mentioned -- too much about breasts and breast-feeding and too damn long to cover one day! It's like she really didn't have any plot in mind when she wrote this book and as other people said, it's a "filler" between Drumns of Autumn and the final book. I sincerely hope that Diana reads these reviews and takes them into consideration when she is crafting her final Clare and Jamie novel.
Rating:
Summary: If you are a Gabaldon fan, you will remain one.
Review: This book definately met my expectations. Having read all four previous books in the series I was anticipating the rich prose, the detailed interpersonal relationships and the masterful intrigues that beset Claire and Jamie and their family. To the naysayers I have one thing to say - life goes on. Scotland is a great setting for a rousing romantic romp but there is much, much more to these characters and Ms. Gabaldon. Through the travels of Claire and Jamie we can get a very real sense of life as it must have been in the mid 1700's for immigrants who either chose or were forced to choose relocation to the Colonies and the challenges they faced when they got here. This one was worth the wait and I will be among the first in line for the next book in the series. I just hope I wont have to wait so long!
Rating: 
Summary: The calm before the storm
Review: In this, the 5th book of what has come to be known as The Outlander series, Diana Gabaldon gives the reader a sense of impending disaster. Although nothing horrendous befalls our cast of characters, the book is apocalyptic, nevertheless, with a growing sense of foreboding as the start of The War of Indenpendence looms closer. This doesn't mean that your emotions won't be wrenched. They will. From laughter to heartache, the author manages to evoke them all in the extreme. The Fiery Cross is, at its heart, a string of short stories based in Fraser's Ridge, North Carolina and in the surrounding areas. It brings back the main cast of characters, adds new faces and reunites some of long-lost favorites. We watch as new generations of Frasers evolve and grow, and as Jamie and Claire deal with middle-age. Questions are answered, but yet more are raised. Some threads are tidied up, yet some are left dangling. While some readers have said this is the weakest book, I feel the opposite. I feel the author is setting the reader up for what may be the most explosive volume of this series, when the next installment is released. One note of caution: If you're reading this book without the benefit of the previous 4, you will have a rough time understanding the complete back history. One might want to pick up a copy of The Outlandish Companion, as a refresher or for a quick summary of what has transpired before.
| 
