Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #163037 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 1200 pages

Customer Reviews

Leaves a bitter taste
Traditionally my reviews of Gabaldon books tend to be long, wordy affairs analysing in depth their plot, dramatic strengths and weaknesses, while interspersing my observations with colourful metaphors and amusing remarks. Not so in this case, partly because I'm aware of the inherent irony of using long reviews to criticise books for being longwinded, but mainly because every precious second of my life I waste thinking or talking about this God-awful book is time that I'll never be able to get back.

Yes, I've finally finished A Breath of Snow and Ashes. It took months of painful slogging, but it's done, and I never want to speak about it again. What? You want to hear about it? Oh, all right then, but frankly I don't know where to begin - I feel like a Capri Sun with all the juice sucked out of it. This book has simply drained me - intellectually, emotionally and physically.

Okay, breathe...

Right, it's 1773 and the fires of unrest and Revolution are springing up all across Colonial America. Claire, Jamie and co are still struggling to survive on Fraser's Ridge, while at the same time dealing with political intrigue, betrayal, war, violence, rape and kidnapping. As usual.

That's about as deep as I care to go with this one. If I was to try to accurately convey the full scale of this book's plot, I'd probably exceed the Amazon word limit four or five times over.

Part of the problem with ABOSAA is the ridiculous, melodramatic, self-indulgent, bloated and overwrought story it tries vainly to tell. The other part is the sheer mind-crushing depth with which it insists on describing every single thing that happens. This book is like a chronic incontinence sufferer that's just drunk several pints of beer - so full to bursting with tedious dialogue and descriptions that they leak out at every turn. Everything that was bad about The Fiery Cross is worse here. ABOSAA is like a beached whale literally suffocating under its own weight.

The main plot is turgid enough, but the irrelevant side stories slow things down further, reminding me of the awkwardly tacked-on side quests to be found lurking in most below-par Role Playing Games. I could be missing something, but I really don't understand why we're meant to care about the dozens of periphery characters that come and go in the course of this book.

It gets no better on the main character front either. Claire and Jamie, once vibrant and lively, are like stale digestive biscuits now - still edible but boring and hard to digest. And despite being well into her fifties, Claire seems to suffer none of the complaints that one might expect of a woman of that age. She's still hale and healthy as always, and apparently as physically fit as she was thirty years ago.

Roger continues to be Diana's insipid whipping boy, getting punished and humiliated at every step for having the temerity to actually exist. And Brianna is starting to remind me more and more of Princess Toadstool from Super Mario - an utterly useless brat whose miserable parasitic existence is only occasionally livened up by a good kidnapping drama.

ABOSAA is a pretty difficult book to review with any degree of impartiality - partly because I went into it with the kind of dread normally reserved for condemned prisoners walking the green mile, and partly because I'm beginning to suspect that all the things I dislike about it are the same things that most fans find appealing. Some people just like that kind of thing, I guess.

If you're one of those people... well, I suppose you'll already have bought, read and reread ABOSAA. If on the other hand, you like your stories focussed, exciting and compelling, you'd do well to run away from it very fast. And never look back.

New Gabaldon Fan
I have just finished reading the fifth book in the series,and am pyching myself up for the sixth. I have read on some forums that Claire believes jamie is unfaithful in this book and maybe fathered a child with Mavla. This has put me off reading ABOSAA, I don't want to spoil the image I have of Jamie and Claires relationship. Anyone care to enlighten me.

A Breath of Snow and Ashes
Another great read though i'm sad to be on the last book that is out for now. I've really enjoyed the journey of Claire and Jamie and am lothed to hurry and finish this book because that means i've then got to wait til the next one comes out.
They are books that will always grace my book shelves so that i can go back and read them again and again.
I reccommend whole heartily for people to give the series a go. They have given me many hours of joy and escape.