Product Description

Crossing the boundaries of genre with its unrivalled storytelling, Diana Gabaldon’s new novel is a gift both to her millions of loyal fans and to the lucky readers who have yet to discover her.

In the ten years since her extraordinary debut novel, Outlander, was published, beloved author Diana Gabaldon has entertained scores of readers with her heart-stirring stories and remarkable characters. The four volumes of her bestselling saga, featuring eighteenth-century Scotsman James Fraser and his twentieth-century, time-travelling wife, Claire Randall, boasts nearly 5 million copies in the U.S.

The story of Outlander begins just after the Second World War, when a British field nurse named Claire Randall walks through a cleft stone in the Scottish highlands and is transported back some two hundred years to 1743.

Here, now, is The Fiery Cross, the eagerly awaited fifth volume in this remarkable, award-winning series of historical novels. The year is 1771, and war is approaching. Jamie Fraser’s wife has told him so. Little as he wishes to, he must believe it, for hers is a gift of dreadful prophecy—a time-traveller’s certain knowledge. To break his oath to the Crown will brand him a traitor; to keep it is certain doom. Jamie Fraser stands in the shadow of the fiery cross—a standard that leads nowhere but to the bloody brink of war.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3183 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-30
• Released on: 2005-08-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 1456 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780440221661
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
The fiery cross, once used to summon Highland clans to war, now beckons readers to take up Diana Gabaldon's fifth installment in the Outlander series featuring the time-traveling Frasers. Historical fiction fans who have waited four long years since the publication of Drums of Autumn will thrill to Gabaldon's trademark detail and sensuality, both displayed liberally throughout the nearly 1,000 pages of The Fiery Cross. In this pre-Revolutionary War period, Claire Fraser and her husband, Jamie, have crossed oceans and centuries to build a life together in the bucolic beauty of North Carolina. But tensions both ancient and recent threaten not only Claire and James, but their daughter, Brianna, her new husband, Roger, and their infant son, Jemmy, as well as members of their clan. Gabaldon delivers on what she does best: poignant storylines, empathetic characters, meticulous detail, and searing passion. Savor every carefully chosen word, readers; it may be a long time until the next installment! --Alison Trinkle

From Library Journal
Get ready for Gabaldon. Starting in July, the publisher will set the stage for her latest by actively promoting her backlist titles featuring 18th-century Scotsman Jamie Fraser. In the new novel, Jamie learns from his 20th-century wife that the American Revolution is coming.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
The fifth epic tale in the world-wide bestselling series of novels featuring time travellers Claire and Jamie Fraser in which the setting is North Carolina in 1771 where the conflict between the rich colonial planters and the struggling back country pioneers is threatening to explode. Jamie is a man of property but Claire is known notoriously as a witch. And she knows that they must survive the dangers of the oncoming Revolution.

Customer Reviews

It's all in the details
I finished The Fiery Cross a couple of days ago, and while it's not my favorite of the series (nothing beats the first one), I enjoyed it thoroughly. Diana Gabaldon has taken us back once again to the eighteenth century and revealed it to us in glorious detail. I can't think of a better way to spend an afternoon than with Jamie and Claire Fraser. I also appreciated this book greatly as a further deepening of Roger and Brianna's story. In the previous books, Bree wasn't really an interesting character to me - but here her character is fleshed out considerably. Likewise Roger - although his character was well-developed before this book, he endures hardships here that test his self-image and strength of character. And of course, Claire and Jamie are the same wonderful characters as ever - you really see here how their love has developed over the years.

I understand the complaints of some that this book doesn't have a plot, that it moves too slowly, etc. Those are valid points to make - there's nothing really earth-shattering that happens in this installment, although you know that something (the Revolution) is looming just beyond the horizon. For me, though, the beauty of the book was in the details - the very fact that this is for the most part a book about everyday life. More than in any of the rest of the books, Diana revels in these details. While some may find all this detail "boring," it allows us to really understand what life was like in the past, and it fleshes out all of the characters immeasurably. I closed the book feeling satisfied and yet craving more - I can't wait to find out how the entire saga ends! The Fiery Cross is a book for true fans who love these characters.

Beautifully written
Before anyone is discouraged by the negative reviews here, I hope they will read this one.

I don't understand when someone says nothing happens in this book. Granted, the action is subtle in the form of politics and intrigue, however it is still there. We finally get to see the everyday life of these wonderful people as they try to find a place to call their own. They have spent so much of their lives running from one thing to another, not really having a home that this is refreshing. People adore these books because of Diana's amazing ability of bringing characters to life, yet bash this book for the same reasons. When you nurse and have small children, bodily functions are something you have to deal with. One of the most humourous sections is Roger and Bree dealing with potty training Jemmy.

There is plenty of action, political intrigue and drama. We travel with Jamie and the militia, find some new characters, deal with almost losing not just one but two of the major characters and see the return of another. Some loose ends are tied up (wondering about the Tory gold and just who was Otter Tooth?), some are still hanging and new ones pop up (who was that with Laoghaire in the arbor and what about Claire's nighttime visitor?). The action is there if you care to read it.

It's true this book was split in two, Ms. Gabaldon didn't get as far as she would have liked with it, but it is a wonderful book all the same. I finished it in 2 days and had to reread it almost immediately. It is a slower starting novel than previously, something like Dragonfly in Amber, but still filled with the characters I have grown to love. Read it, you won't be disappointed.

Only for the most diehard Outlander fans
Outlander was one of the most richly rewarding books that I've ever read, a wonderful blend of action, romance, history, wit and humanity, written with great intelligence. I felt that Gabaldon maintained this blend to a great extent through Dragonfly in Amber and Voyager, with their incredibly varied venues and characters. Even though I was somewhat disappointed with Drums of Autumn, which was much narrower in scope and venue than the previous books, I would still have recommended the series to anyone. Unfortunately, The Fiery Cross cannot be recommended to any but the most passionate Gabaldon fan. The story is lacking most of the qualities of the earlier books; all that is left are the main characters and several unrelated, minor plot lines that could justify a short novel (certainly not 1000 pages). The remainder of the book is filled with excruciating and repetitive (albeit generally well-written) detail about mundane aspects of the main characters lives over a very short and largely uneventful span of time.

One of the biggest disappointments that I had with this book was the lack of any interesting new characters. The previous books introduced lots of fascinating, richly-developed "side" characters -- Jack Randall, Colum and Dougal MacKenzie, Geillis Duncan, Jenny Fraser, John Grey, and many others -- while The Fiery Cross is a total failure in this regard (all significant characters have been introduced in the earlier books). All in all, this book does not add anything to the series, and can easily be ignored by all Outlander fans except those who are desperate to spend many boring hours with Claire and Jamie.