The Fiery Cross (Outlander, #5)

by Diana Gabaldon

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The fifth book in Diana Gabaldon’s acclaimed Outlander saga, the basis for the Starz original series.

“A grand adventure written on a canvas that probes the heart, weighs the soul and measures the human spirit across [centuries].”—CNN
 
The year is 1771, and war is coming. Jamie Fraser’s wife tells him so. Little as he wishes to, he must believe it, for hers is a gift of dreadful prophecy—a time-traveler’s certain knowledge.

Born in the year of Our Lord 1918, Claire Randall served England as a nurse on the battlefields of World War II, and in the aftermath of peace found fresh conflicts when she walked through a cleftstone on the Scottish Highlands and found herself an outlander, an English lady in a place where no lady should be, in a time—1743—when the only English in Scotland were the officers and men of King George’s army.

Now wife, mother, and surgeon, Claire is still an outlander, out of place, and out of time, but now, by choice, linked by love to her only anchor—Jamie Fraser. Her unique view of the future has brought him both danger and deliverance in the past; her knowledge of the oncoming revolution is a flickering torch that may light his way through the perilous years ahead—or ignite a conflagration that will leave their lives in ashes.

• ISBN10: 0440221668
• ISBN13: 9780440221661
• Publish Date: 30 August 2005 (first published 6 November 2001)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Random House Inc
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 1472
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780440221661

Reviews

[Angie]

Proceed With Caution:

This book contains blood, violence, death, murder, abuse, mentions of rape, slavery, and a hanging.

The Basics:

The Fiery Cross picks up right where Drums of Autumn left off, so be sure to read that one first, along with the rest of the earlier books. Brianna and Roger are about to get married (for real this time), but of course, they cannot just be left in wedded bliss. As always, this is an epic story with lots of happenings. If you're not already invested in these characters, you're probably not going to find it interesting.

My Thoughts:

The Fiery Cross started off slow, as to be expected, but it's one very long day. And I mean long. I was just reading and reading and reading when suddenly it hit me that it's still the same day! Did we need to know every single micro-event leading up to the wedding? Probably not, but that's what we get. It does pick up a bit from there, so don't despair.

While I did enjoy The Fiery Cross overall, it felt like a string of random life events rather than one cohesive story. It was almost as if the author had a timeline of miscellaneous events and just stuck them all here. There's a wedding, then back home for a bit, Claire does some healing, her and Jamie set out and do some crazy stuff, back home for a bit, meeting with the Natives, Brianna and Roger are going through it, and just lots of randomness.

There's a murder mystery at Jocasta's wedding which was dragged on for quite a bit. Then it isn't solved and completely dropped until the very end of the book. I know that investigations took much longer in this time, but I was interested and wanted to know what the heck was going on, only to get moved on to the next set of random events. The Fiery Cross took me forever to read because it didn't flow. The entire book was like this: pulling me in, only to switch to something boring.

While the novel as a whole was pretty up and down, I loved the ending! It was back to the Sci-Fi elements and was sooo interesting! I need to know more! If all, or at least a good chunk, of The Fiery Cross had been like that, it probably would have been my favorite of the series thus far. I do hope these findings are focused on in the next book!

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

4.5★ Audiobook⎮With the end of the year closing in and the fact that I am currently eight books behind in my listening challenge, a 55-hour novel was the absolute last thing I needed to be sucked into… And yet, here I am. I began Fiery Cross last month and had fully intended to make it last possibly until the end of the year, or at least until the beginning of the next season of the show. I nearly made it to that one, so I do deserve a little credit, I guess. I wasn’t necessarily speeding through Fiery Cross, however. It was more like I was reveling in it, taking a natural pace.

With it having been several months since I last visited this series, Fiery Cross seemed to renew my interest in Diana Gabaldon and the series. I got absolutely lost in Fiery Cross. Objectively speaking, I don’t think it was the best of the series that I’ve heard so far, but it may still be my favorite, judging by pure enjoyment.

But a lot of plot related things still nagged at me, particularly where Roger was concerned. Honestly, I can’t believe Gabaldon allowed him to survive this novel! I thought for sure she had it out for him. By about the 4th time that he practically asked for trouble, I almost had it out for him too. Fiery Cross definitely brought Roger down a few notches in my eyes. Not for any significant reasons, just mainly out of sheer annoyance and overexposure. It felt like half of the story was told from his perspective and I’m just sick of him, at this point.

And speaking of overexposure, Gabaldon’s breastfeeding kink was out in full force in Fiery Cross. I was counting the references, but I quickly lost count. Talk about overkill. Sheesh, woman. Try something else on for size.

But I’m so glad of Ian’s return. He and Rollo were favorites of mine in the past and I find him hilarious. Next to Jermaine, Ian is definitely the best comic relief. Although, there was a particularly hilarious scene in which Claire explains the nature of “sperms” to Jamie. That had me in stitches and it had better be in the show! I love the flashes of light-heartedness Gabaldon inserts to relieve the nearly constant tension.

Claire and Jamie were still the stars. I never get tired of those two. It’s funny how my adoration of them has grown since hearing the first book, which wasn’t the biggest hit with me, to be honest. But this is the kind of series that really grows on you. The more you get to know the characters and the setting(s), the more it becomes a part of you and vice versa. I have to keep reminding myself that this series is more historical fiction than science fiction, despite time travel being the catalyst for everything. I love science fiction and time travel, so greedy little me is always wanting more of it from Gabaldon and, graciously, she complied near the end of Fiery Cross. The return of Ian and the tantalizing bits of sci-fi mystery he brought with him are seriously making me itch for the next book. Even though starting it would most certainly mean sacrificing my goal of 100 audiobooks in 2018. But if an average book is 8 to 12 hours and this one was 55 hours, I should rightfully be able to count it as approximately 4.5 to 7 books, yes?

Narration review: You know, I’m really beginning to resent Davina Porter for ruining all other audiobook narration for me. I’ve been listening to her for so long (55 freaking hours) that I swear my own internal voice has taken on her cadence. That’s either creepy or awesome. I’m not sure which… My enjoyment of her narration should be argument enough for sacrificing my challenge and immediately going on to the next book. ♣︎

[rakesandrogues]

This was the hardest book in the series to get into so far. While I did enjoy it in some parts, I thought the book was really lacking a plot that carried it from beginning to the end. While this will not turn me away from reading the rest of the series, I'm truly hoping that the next book will be a lot more enjoyable.

[Vicki]

3.5 stars

[littleread1]

O_O

Good, bad, and ugly.

[elysium]

3.5 stars

The book starts where the last book ends. Jamie, Claire, Brianna, Roger and Jemmy are living in America and its few years before The American Revolutionary War. There is already unrest seen by people called the Regulators which leads to fighting, and Fraser’s are caught up in it.

While I liked this book it wasn’t as good as the previous ones. There wasn’t anything big happening, we just see them living their lives. There were parts that dragged on and for the first time I really felt that the book could have been lot shorter.

I loved seeing the relationship growing between Jamie and Roger. Jamie didn’t seem to have too high opinion of Roger in the last book and I’m happy to see that changing.
I still wish that we could have Fergus’s POV instead of Roger’s but I wouldn’t want to lose him though.

I loved the last surprise at the end but I really want to know what happened that lead to it!

[Linda]

This book was so exciting, but still settling as well. As my 'friends' are now really settled on Fraser's Ridge, and start to have a real community around them.
Jamie always gets caught up in politics, and can't help himself but to feel responsible for everybody else. And Claire is a lot like that as well.

[ibeforem]

This was another solid entry in this series, though I think this is the first one I’ve read that hasn’t reduced me to a blubbering mess at one point or another. However, the lack of extreme emotion doesn’t take anything away from the story. It seems that life has fallen into a sort of routine (if anything in Jamie and Claire’s lives could ever be considered “routine”), with the specter of the Revolutionary War looming in the distance. The return of a beloved character at the end is a nice touch and an old mystery is revealed.

I think the last paragraph really sums up the feeling of this entire series, so far.

“When the day shall come, that we do part,” he said softly, and turned to look at me, “if my last words are not ‘I love you’ — ye’ll ken it was because I didna have time.”