Claire, just because someone is nice to you, doesn't mean they're a good person.
So while I was waiting for the resumption of my pretty-people-in-pretty-clothes guilty pleasure, I've been working my way through the rest of the series. Previously I've covered Drums of Autumn, Book 4; so here we continue with The Fiery Cross.
We pick up at the Scottish Gathering, where Brianna and Roger are to be married at the same time as Jamie's aunt Jocasta and Duncan Innes. Naturally, complications ensue. The priest is arrested, Jamie is charged with raising a militia, a slave at River Run takes a dose of laudanum and later crushed glass originally meant for Jocasta's intended, Jamie is faced with having to choose between being loyal to Governor Tryon (by whose hand Fraser's Ridge was granted) and knowing that the American Revolution is just around the corner and that he is already on the losing side. Somehow they must get through the Revolution with their land and families intact, and he struggles with how to prepare the Ridge for that. Stephen Bonnet reappears and so does Young Ian.
If it sounds like there is no overarcing plot, it's because there isn't. And I'm really not complaining when I say that. In fiction writing I feel like I'm often taught that the plot needs to follow a logical progression of "Protagonist makes a choice, therefore this happens, therefore this happens, therefore this happens". But a lot of what's happening in this book isn't necessarily a progression at all, and many pieces are unrelated to each other but relate back to things that happened in earlier books, and things that are happening in the time period that it takes place. This is not a plot that you can summarize neatly, in the way of "Frodo takes the magic ring to Mount Doom and destroys it". It much more resembles how a real life story might take place. I find this to be a really interesting tactic, and I like it enough that I want to file it away for my own future use.
It's really interesting when we're playing with time travel here as well. Any historical fiction taking place in the Americas just before the Revolutionary War, we as the reader know what's coming though the characters don't. In this case, the character's do know what's on the horizon--at least some of them do. It adds another dimension to their troubles of the time, having to prepare without letting on that they know anything at all. In addition, we--AND the characters--know the date that Claire and Jamie are supposed to die, but what we don't know is whether or not that can be changed. There's a level of uncertainty to it all that makes the time travel unsettling in a very effective way.
They must survive for quite a while, at least: the book leaves off in 1772 and there's still three more books to go!
Possibly the most heartbreaking moment in this book--and Galbadon excels at the heartbreaking--is when Roger is hanged. While he lives, the damage to his throat makes it questionable whether he will ever sing again. For a man so devoted to music to have lost it in this way, because of one big fat jerk who just happens to be his ancestor... yeah, that part will stick with me.
“Sometimes,' he whispered at last, 'sometimes, I dream I am singing, and I wake from it with my throat aching.'
He couldn't see her face, or the tears that prickled at the corners of her eyes.
'What do you sing?' she whispered back. She heard the shush of the linen pillow as he shook his head.
'No song I've ever heard, or know,' he said softly. 'But I know I'm singing it for you.”
“Blessed are those who eat greens, for they shall keep their teeth. Blessed are those who wash their hands after wiping their arses, for they shall not sicken. Blessed are those who boil water, for they shall be called saviors of mankind.”
Overall: 5 stars
More reviews: The Fiery Cross on Librarything (Average 4.12 stars)
The Fiery Cross on Goodreads (Average 4.25 stars)
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