Customer Reviews

Drums of Autumn

5 star:		(167)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Last november, I trusted a friend's recommendation and starting reading the 'Outlander series' from Diana Gabaldon. I quickly became addicted to the series, especially "Drums of Autumn". I would read it whenever I had a spare moment. If you loved the first novel, "Outlander", you will love this one as well! Between the two, I don't know which one I enjoyed more. I recommend that you read the series in the order they came out before reading this one. Enjoy!

Caution: These books are addictive!

This isn't the best book of the series. The first 500 pages were terrible. After that, I liked it more and more. Brianna and Roger aren't developed, they don't get to my heart like Claire and Jamie do. I almost don't care what happens to them. They're even stupid sometimes. Also, I don't like the predictability. This book was my least favorite in the series by far. I don't how you guys can rate this, "This is the best book I ever read". Read Gone with the Wind and then let us know how you feel about this one. There aren't enough historical references for me here at all. At least Outlander was well researched. This book could've taken place at anytime and we wouldn't have noticed. The story starts to get worn out and tired after awhile. In Outlander, it was gripping, something was happening every single page. This was a bore....Sorry, Diana. I hope the next one is a winner! And you know I'll be reading it anyway...

Who wrote this book???? It is interesting to see that I am not alone in my disappointment. As others have said, the first three books in this series are fantastic. In fact, they are probably among the most entertaining books I have ever read. Gabaldon has an airtight writing style that is easy to follow, and yet doesn't insult the reader's intelligence. Her plots are fantastic as she twists a virtually seamless storyline between past and 'present'. The first three books of this series are overflowing with mind-blowing adventure and plenty of detail.

My question is... WHAT HAPPENED?

Picking up Drums of Autumn after having read its predecessors is a gargantuan let-down. You expect a riveting frolic of a read and get 'Walden' instead. How could an author who fueled the break-neck, gut-wrenching speed of her plots with things like murder, vicious animal attacks, necromancy, male rape, ancient Celtic religion, piracy, voodoo, abduction, war, torture....how could this same author give us the 'horror' of pulled back muscles and expect us to be content? After the Parisian underworld and the Scottish Highlands, the backwoods of the colonial US ain't cuttin' it, so to speak. Gabaldon gave time travel a realistic feel in her first three books, yet in Drums of Autumn you feel there should be a baggage check behind one of the megaliths, since the whole process is demystified, first by Brianna's sojourn to the 18th century, and then by Roger,who, hot on Brianna's heels, decides to jump in too. Almost everything about this book falls short of the mark, ESPECIALLY when you know what a fantastic tale Gabaldon can write.

To be fair, I have to say certain parts were interesting. The depiction of the hardships of plantation life in the rural South were captivating. The bear attack was graphic, vivid, and a glimmer of the old Gabaldon adventure I love. Claire's method of debriding Roger's gangrenous wound also hearkened back to the style of the other books. Brianna and Roger's courtship at the Scots festival was very convincingly and tenderly written,without being sappy. Unfortunately, after the aforementioned courtship scenes, all we here about Brianna is how tall she is, and how red her hair is, and we are reminded of this ad nauseam. Very little character development...just tall/statuesque/towering/intimidating/impressive with red/flaming/auburn/copper/sun-lit/firey hair/tresses/locks/mane. Pick a permutation.
It is an interesting concept, having Jamie and Claire age with the series, but does that mean we have to forget about nail-biting entertainment? I hope Gabaldon returns to her old style. I will buy her next book, but since I was burnt on this one, I will wait for the paperback. Drums of Autumn, hardcover, was an enormous and expensive disappointment.

Claire Randall was first introduced in Diana Gabaldon's now classic time travel historical-romance novel "Outlander." Claire accidentally traveled from Scotland in 1945 to Scotland in 1743 by traveling through standing stones at Craigh na Dun (reminiscent of Stonehenge). There she met Jamie Fraser, was forced by circumstance to marry him, and became pregnant with his baby. She had a husband in each century, passion in only one.

Each successive book ("Dragonfly in Amber" and "Voyager") has continued to tell of the love affair of Jamie and Claire set against the backdrop of battles in histories past. Now in the fourth novel of the breathtaking best selling series, "Drums of Autumn," things take a bit of a different direction.

A secondary character in "Dragonfly in Amber" and "Voyager," Claire and Jamie's daughter Brianna finally gets to take center stage along with her parents. Roger, a character who was a child in the novel "Outlander" has now grown up and also gets a turn in the limelight.

In "Voyager," Claire, Roger and Brianna discover that James Fraser was still alive and had survived the battle of Cullodun, where he was thought to have died. Claire, desperate for Jamie and the love that once flowed between them, leaves her daughter and once again goes through the standing stones at Craigh na Dun to be with him again, leaving Brianna in Roger's loving care.
Now, in "Drums of Autumn," Roger and Brianna make a startling discovery. Roger and Brianna find an old news clipping which tells of Claire's and Jamie's premature deaths in a house fire in pre-Revolutionary, frontier America. Brianna makes the decision to go to the stone circle to try and go back in time to change the course of history and save her parents.

Brianna does not, however, tell Roger of her plans. When Roger discovers what she has done he follows her through the stones, and begins his search through time and space to protect and love her.

Once the two reunite in the 18th century, can they hope to save Brianna's parents and, at the same time, foster and formalize the love between them? Only time will tell; however, their time may be running out...

Reading a book by Diana Gabaldon is a huge undertaking, "Drums of Autumn" being no exception. Each book runs just over one thousand pages and each is a big longer than the last book. I can't hope to cover every element of style and prose in just over five hundred words. There is no way I could even begin to cover everything that happened in "Drums of Autumn" without the review being twelve pages long.

I can tell you this: "Drums of Autumn" is absolutely breath taking. I fell in love with "Outlander" but found "Dragonfly in Amber" to be more of the same, as if "Outlander" and "Dragonfly in Amber" should really have been one long novel. "Voyager" was an amazing book about family, but "Drums of Autumn" takes that theme one step further and looks at bonds, family or otherwise. It has all the things that make great fiction: Love, romance, battles, sex, time travel, adventure, evil villains, pain and suffering, wars and predictions. This is one hell of a book and it folded itself around me until I was finished.

Every time I read a Gabaldon novel, "Drums of Autumn" especially, I am in awe of her. How does one woman manage to write such amazing epic stories full of the emotion of the human heart?

To read a novel by Diana Gabaldon is to go on a voyage. Each time I open a book by Diana Gabaldon, I know I am in for a treat, an adventure and storytelling at it's best and brightest. I'm going to have to rip through "The Fiery Cross" so I can find out what happens in the newest Outlander novel, "A Breath of Snow and Ashes" to be published in late September.

I can hardly wait.

I didn't enjoy dragonfly in amber as much as the first 2 books. this was NOT because it was uninteresting or poorly written but because I found myself distracted by curiosity about what was going to happen to Brianna and Roger. I was thrilled with drums of autumn! i think it is the best installment since outlander. happy reading!

Great book, well packaged & timely delivery! Thanks!

It is dated February 2002. With no doubt the best of intentions, Beverley has managed to give away the entire plot!! Why has this review been given 14 helpful votes?!! I do not understand.

I love the Outlander series and I devoured this book as quickly as the others. But, for the first time, I felt that the story was running out of steam. The novel introduces the time travel thing again, this time it is Roger and Brianna who make the leap into the Eighteenth Century to hunt for Jamie and Claire. This is where the book was a real cliffhanger as the reader cannot wait to read the reunion between Jamie and Brianna.

It then stumbles for the last third waiting for its resolution. I will not say why since anyone who has not read the book would kill me! I think it is right that the focus has now moved on to Brianna and Roger but their love story has not been as well fleshed out as that of Jamie and Claire. However, if you love the Outlander books, you are not gonna care a hoot - you will love this and will not be able to put it down until it is over.

Like many others I waited impatiently for the next installment in this series. When it finally came out I was a little bit disappointed. There's a lot of action in the book, but I thought much of it was rather improbable (but, then again, isn't time travel improbable?).
I'm still a fan, and will wait impatiently for the next book, but I did enjoy the first four books more than "The Fiery Cross."
I just hope we don't have to wait as long for the next installment!!