An Echo in the Bone (Outlander)

by Diana Gabaldon

Book Overview

This description may be from another edition of this product. Readers have been waiting with bated breath for the seventh volume in bestselling author Gabaldon's epic Outlander saga--a masterpiece of historical fiction featuring Jamie and Claire, from one of the...

Customer Reviews

I liked this book. I loved the story line of it all but I had to do some doctoring to the book like tape 50+ pages because it kept coming out and tape the covers front and back because it was falling apart. I wont be buying an ex library book from here anymore but I will be purchasing books from this website.

...counted as another wonderful creation by Diana Gabaldon

I, like many others, had waited eagerly for the release of this newest edition to the Outlander series. I am not disappointed....at all. Quite the contrary. I fell obsessed with this series after reading Outlander, thankfully 12 years after its initial publication. I say thankfully because after finishing the first novel, I would have had a heart attack if I couldn't jump on the subway and head to the closest barnes and noble immediately, to get books 2,3, and 4. The end of 'Echo in the Bone' has rekindled that frantic need to get to the next book. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait.....anxious and curious for another few years. It is true what some reviewers have said, that other story lines have taken away the resolute devotion to Jaime and Claire that the first 3 novels had, but I'm not mad at Diana...it actually opens up many other gripping story lines within the series. This author is so talented that I trust her to do justice to the other characters, and can't wait to hear what will happen to them all. After all, it was she who created Jaime and Claire, and I'm sure she has it in her to weave more magic. I don't think it bad when a novel leaves you with bated breath, screaming to know what will happen next. It's called great drama. This book has it. Read it. Now.

Love's Body (caution: spoilers)

I loved this book, though the reader should know that if s/he hasn't read the Lord John series, the impact of some of the scenes will diminish. That said, Echo is a tour-de-force of planning, poignancy, and theme. I was delighted by the mixed timelines running through most of the novel. Knowing that eventually the main characters would collide, I kept wondering how Gabaldon was going to get them all synchronized--it added suspense to the novel, especially when a group would divert from the course I thought was going to lead to a meeting. Gabaldon's writing is particularly strong when she sets the themes for the sections. They start subtly, but eventually the reader is given striking pictures--of Lord John, say, at Christmas standing alone in the face of a gale crossing the English Channel while his step-son is thinking of him half a world away in Quebec listening to the convent Christmas bells and finally going down to pray. The most moving theme is saved for the end of the novel: the protection of the body, whether it is Jamie protecting the body of Simon Fraser as he transports it to Scotland, whether the theme is explored in the wasting of Ian's physical self and the marriage of Jamie and Claire, whether it is the marriage Lord John offers Claire to protect her from arrest and the way they use their bodies to protect them from complete separation from Jamie, or whether it is Young Ian's acceptance of non-violence when he puts himself between Bug and Rachel. And finally, at the climax, Lord John's body is used literally as a barrier to protect Jamie from arrest, from death, yet also as a symbol of the separation of William from his former concept of self. The ending becomes unified, not disjointed yet with more than enough left for us to wait eagerly for her next book in the series. Though, yes, there are continuity errors and some odd remarks (why would Claire urge Jamie's wine merchant nephew to move to Spain or Portugal to avoid the risks of the Terror when she should know that Spain will end up torn apart in the Peninsular Wars and Portugal will similarly experience ruin a couple decades later?), this is another brilliant entry in the series, one which deserves re-reading and savoring.