The Fiery Cross, Outlander book 5

The Fiery Cross, Diana Gabaldon

It didn't take me quite this long to read book 5, but sometimes it felt like forever. Still, I've found a moment to write about this one.

If you don't know about Outlander, it's hard to describe. It is a mix of historical fiction, war, romance, fantasy/sci-fi, and ladyporn. Each novel is really long. There is a LOT going on in this story, and Gabaldon does a fine job of weaving a very intricate tale.

Back when I read A Book That Scares Me, I mentioned an incident with my friend. I'd been reading the first three installments of the Outlander series and I told her that, frankly, I was tired of all the rape. So I was going to take a break and pick up a new series. Unfortunately, it was the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series, so *spoiler alert* more rape.

Well, when I came back to book 5, really the books are good but you can't just plow through the whole series, I told the same friend that I was starting it. I said something about how the title sounded like something about the Klan not clans (in fact there is a book about the history of the KKK with the same title) but wasn't. Well ... there aren't any white sheets involved, but it does lay the historical groundwork for what would become the white supremacy group we all love to hate.

The story- how many ways can colonists barely escape death? That could be the subtitle of this one. Fortunately for pre-Revolutionary mountaineers, Claire has brought her modern medical expertise back and is brewing some form of penicillin, making luxurious soap, and birthin' babies all over the Carolinas. At least no one kills a bear with a knife in this one.

I don't want to give it all away, but just as I was about to shelf Cross and turn to something else, BOOM! She tries to kill one of the main characters! You know when Jamie and Claire are going to die (or do we?), but there are children and grandchildren and tenants that are still a mystery. And let me say, it isn't an accidental misfire. Dude is hung as a prisoner of war. Well, that got my attention and I dove right back in.

This is not the kind of series where you can pick up any. You need to start at the beginning (a very good place to start). If you're like me, you'll start googling historical events you never learned in school, like the Jacobite rebellion. And, honestly, one thing I enjoy about the series now that they are in the Carolinas is that I'm familiar with the places and the names. If that's your thing, too, then keep at the series. If not, I can probably summarize seven bazillion pages for you over a cup of coffee.

The Fiery Cross runs along my other Outlander recommendations of four Marias.

Chapter 31: A Book With a Love Triangle

Drums of Autumn, Diana Gabaldon

I have a love-hate relationship with the Outlander series. Years ago, I was at a Mommies Network event and someone handed me a copy of Outlander that she had won. She had a whole box of them and knew I like to read. It sat on the shelf until a night of insomnia and no new books. I'm still not sure whether I should be thanking that woman or sticking pins in a voodoo doll. For now, I'm going with thanks.

Drums is the fourth installment of the preposterous tale of Claire Randall-Fraser, a war-time nurse who stepped through a gap in stones and ended up in the middle of the Jacobite Rebellion. After cheating death time and again, she goes back through the stones to spend time with her modern-day husband, Frank. When he dies, she goes back to her historical husband, Jamie. So two of the points of the triangle don't even exist in the same century. Confused yet?

In this episode, Jamie and Claire have been blown to the Colonies by a hurricane and are looking to start a homestead in North Carolina, where Jamie is technically not allowed to own land because of his involvement with the Rebellion. But rules of physics and man really just don't apply to these people. It's funny, I can suspend disbelief about time travel and many of their narrow escapes, but I found Jamie surviving a bear attack and killing it with his hands utterly ridiculous.

The first three books ended with a big cliffhanger. I quickly picked up the next to find out what was going to happen. I'm quite happy that I could stop at Drums, even though there is more story to be told. It was very satisfying to feel that I can pick up the next one when the mood strikes me, instead of needing to know right away.

So. What I loved about this book- North Carolina. I lived in this state longer than anywhere else in my life. It's beautiful, interesting, and home to some of the best people I have ever known. I loved reading about people for whom many places in the Tarheel State are named. (But go Devils! because I'm no UNC fan.) Imagining the colony from the point of view of the Scots who settled in the mountains, where there are still annual Highland Games, was fascinating and believable. There also isn't a whitewashing of relations with the Native Americans in the region. There's no kum-ba-yah scene where they share a meal in peace and decide to remain loyal friends. There's just a tenuous understanding between the lone settlers and the travelers through the lands.

What I don't love about this book/series. I've mentioned this before, but seriously everybody gets raped. Or almost gets raped. It's exhausting. It happens, yet again, in this one. Though not as graphic and repeated as earlier stories, I find myself wishing that Gabaldon would come up with some other type of danger for her characters.

With that warning, I do recommend the series to people. It's engrossing, entertaining, and a little bit of several genres- historical fiction, fantasy, romance. Plus, Starz produced it as a series and the theme song, a variation of The Skye Boat Song, is beautiful. My friend just bought a Mitsubishi Outlander, and every time I see it, I start singing.

I'll probably keep these books so I can lend them out to friends, but I doubt I'll read them again. Maybe. Drums is probably my second favorite of the four I have read, but this isn't the kind of series you can hop around. I'll give it three and half Marias.

Chapter 5: A Book Based on or Turned Into a TV Show

Pretty Little Liars, Sara Shepard

Confession time: PLL is one of my Netflix guilty pleasures. I won't even pretend to feel bad about it. It's a great show for many terrible reasons. But what about the books?

It's hard not to compare the page and screen versions. There's always discussion of time constraints and budgets and casting. So let's not bother. The show is popcorn worthy. If you want to know about the books, here's what I think.

I'd rather watch the show. The first book in the series is not a whole book. It's the beginning of a book. Unlike any other series I've ever read, there is no resolution at all. None. It's all a setup for the next book(s). I feel as ripped off by it as I did that extra season of Arrested Development. I invested my entertainment hours to a really long trailer for something else.

The writing? Not bad. The characters are pretty one-dimensional, which makes them great for a soap opera. There's nothing challenging or thought-provoking happening on the pages. Just chapter after chapter of teenage drama, mystery, and intrigue. It's easy to read, but if I didn't already watch the show, this first segment would not make me want to check out the next title. Still, I will probably read the rest of the series so I can do the aforementioned comparison.

Here's one thing, though. In this fictional elite suburb, the kids seem to be very worldly. Maybe I'm just not in touch with middle school these days (who am I kidding, I'm clearly not), but these kids are doing some pretty adult things. Not just the designer everything, but drinking, seducing older men. They seem to be exploring things at a much younger age than I remember. Maybe that's what makes them popular among the YA crowd- the escape from reality. Or maybe they are an indication of how times have changed. Either way, it doesn't always sit well with my prudish ideas. Most of the unsettling aspects have to do with men. So maybe it's my inner feminist cringing at all the exploitation of minors. I dunno. It won't stop me from reading or watching, but it does give me pause.

Anyway, that's about it. Not much material to think about, so not much to write about.