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A Breath Of Snow And Ashes – Diana Gabaldon
Book on CD narrated by Davina Porter
3***

Book six in a time-travel series I swore I’d never read, but have become strangely addicted to.

This one is heavy on the history of the years leading up to the American colonies declaring independence from Britain. Jamie and Claire find themselves smack dab in the middle of the uprising and having to carefully manage to avoid completely alienating either of the opposing factions. They have some hard decisions to make and find themselves in multiple dangerous situations.

Gabaldon hardly lets the reader rest and enjoy the love between these two central characters. There are beatings, rapes, arrests, near lynchings, fires, blizzards, and mayhem a plenty. Steven Bonnet, that nasty but charming pirate, can’t seem to keep away. Claire continues her medical experiments – inventing ether and perfecting her penicillin injections (love that she uses rattlesnake fangs as her needles!).

The younger generation have a lot to contend with. Ian is grieving the loss of his Mohawk wife. Fergus needs to find a way to provide for his growing family. And the many new settlers on Fraser’s Ridge need help organizing their new lives in this wild and unpredictable country.

Breanna and Roger play a significant role in this episode and I found Bree just a tiny bit less irritating. Though for the life of me I can’t understand how that woman hasn’t gotten herself into more trouble given her inability to hold her tongue and her penchant for talking about things that don’t exist yet (and won’t for a couple of centuries), and trying to invent “modern” conveniences (Indoor plumbing? Repeating rifles?) Roger is almost as bad, carving cars for the children to play with!

I marvel at the detail that Gabaldon manages to include in these books, and am interested to learn more of 18th century life. That being said, how many times does she have to tells us how everyone smells “of sweat and of horse”?

I’ve gotten way ahead of the TV series, so I think I’m going to give the series a rest for at least a year … if I can stay away …

Davina Porter is nothing short of perfection in her performance of the audiobook. I love the way she voices the various characters. She brings out both Bonnet’s charm and oily nastiness; makes Claire both vulnerable and iron-strong; and helps the listener fell the pain of Ian’s loss.




LINK to my review

I am not a "time-traveler" either and yet this series hooked me too. I seldom re-read and never listen to audio-but I am thinking audio may be the path to refreshing my memory before the next book comes out. Nice review!

I want to get to this one sometime this year! It is the last one that I own in paperback and then I think I will switch to Porter's audiobooks.

I loved and hated this book. I think I ended up giving it 5 stars because I was so fully engaged the whole (long!) time.

The research she does is so detailed. It's amazing. I really loved the descriptions of the work they were doing. I love Claire's medical work and experiments, Roger's career change, Bree's inventions, and Jamie's leadership, Indian relations, trading, etc. I love the politics, and the issues leading up to the war.

I know that exciting things are coming up in the next book, but I've put it off for a long time. I'll need to get caught up in time for her next book.

I think certain acts/themes were repeated way too many times. I like that her husband calls her style "one damned thing after another" (or something like that). Don't get me started on Steven Bonnet. If he miraculously appears in the next book, I'm tossing it out! down on the floor! For at least a week 10 minutes.

Davina Porter is incredibly good. This series is the main reason I joined audible a few years back. My library didn't have any large prints or CDs of her later books, and one audible credit is a real bargain considering the length of each book.

NancyJ wrote: "Davina Porter is incredibly good. This series is the main reason I joined audible a few years back. My library did..."

Ditto ... broke down and joined audible last summer because Fiery Cross was up "next" and couldn't get the audio through my library (just 1 copy and a hold list of 20+ ... S*I*G*H)

NancyJ wrote: "I loved and hated this book. I think I ended up giving it 5 stars because I was so fully engaged the whole (long!) time.

The research she does is so detailed. It's amazing. I really loved the des..."

I understand the love/hate. This book and the cliffhanger at the end of the next book had me ready to burn Gabaldon in effigy. Fortunately she redeemed herself, and my interest in the series, with Written in My Own Heart's Blood. I just wish she'd get on with the next one!