Product Description

The magnificent saga continues....

It began in Scotland, at an ancient stone circle. There, a doorway, open to a select few, leads into the past—or the grave. Claire Randall survived the extraordinary passage, not once but twice. Her first trip swept her into the arms of Jamie Fraser, an eighteenth-century Scot whose love for her became legend—a tale of tragic passion that ended with her return to the present to bear his child. Her second journey, two decades later, brought them together again in frontier America. But Claire had left someone behind in the twentieth century. Their daughter, Brianna....

Now Brianna has made a disturbing discovery that sends her to the stone circle and a terrifying leap into the unknown. In search of her mother and the father she has never met, she is risking her own future to try to change history...and to save their lives. But as Brianna plunges into an uncharted wilderness, a heartbreaking encounter may strand her forever in the past...or root her in the place she should be, where her heart and soul belong....

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14677 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-01
• Released on: 1997-11-10
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 1088 pages

Amazon.com
Set in pre-Revolutionary War America, readers finally have the much awaited fourth book in what will probably become a six book series (The Outlander series). The talented Diana Gabaldon continues Claire and Jamie's romantic love affair, and introduces Brianna and Roger's story. Eight hundred pages, and several wonderful new characters later, we wonder why we were waiting for a conclusion. It'll be a long wait for book five, so I recommend you go back and reread Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, and Voyager to keep yourself sane.

From Publishers Weekly
Gabaldon has few rivals in writing exciting?and hefty?historical romances. The fourth in a series of linked sagas (Outlander; Dragonfly in Amber; Voyager), her new epic has a delicious premise. Claire Randall, the post-WWII bride of historian Frank Randall, steps through a skew in the Scottish stone circle Craigh na Dun and lands in Revolutionary America and the arms of Highlander Jamie Fraser?putting a new spin on the notion of a two-timing woman. Bold and bawdy, but a believing Catholic, Claire struggles to live a rich and moral life?or, rather, rich and moral lives?under these extraordinary circumstances. Claire's adventures in 18th-century Charleston alternate with equally engaging chapters devoted to her 20th-century daughter, Brianna. Raised as Frank Randall's child, Bree discovers that Jamie Fraser is her real sire. She takes off on a harrowing, confrontational quest through time and space with her suitor, Roger Wakefield, in hot pursuit. Gabaldon's range is impressive, whether she's evoking the rawness of colonial America, the cozy clutter of a modern Scottish parsonage, the lusts of the body or the yearnings of the spirit. Her legion of fans will love diving into this ocean of romance. Major ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club featured alternates; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Fourth in a series (e.g., Outlander, LJ 7/91), with at least two more titles planned, this novel continues Gabaldon's successful time travel/romance saga. Set mostly in the years 1767-1770 but with some scenes in the "present" (the late 1960s), this fantasy features 20th-century Englishwoman Claire and her 18th-century Scottish husband, Jamie, who struggle to set up a home in the wilds of the American South. Their grown daughter, Brianna, comes from the present to seek her parents and is followed by her would-be lover, Roger. In a work that will be eagerly sought by readers of her previous novels, Gabaldon continues to explore the themes of love, marriage, and family through time. Though reading the entire series would be best, first-time readers can generally follow with a minimum of confusion. Sites on the World Wide Web already have chapters and discussion areas for this book, so be prepared. Gabaldon truly delivers.
Rebecca Sturm Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Historical Adventure...I Love It
Diana Gabaldon is an amazing story teller. I really enjoyed this the fourth installment in the Outlander series.

I don't know what I could say about this book that someone hasn't already said. I will add my two cents and say that I like the character Brianna. I think that it's important to put into perspective that she comes from a time when people aren't considered adults at the ripe old age of seventeen. And she has been given a lot to deal with in a short period of time, she seems a bit impulsive and immature but she's twenty two years old...

I enjoyed the love story between Brianna and Rodger and the adventures in Drums were just as exciting as all the others.

I am hooked! I will be reading ALL of the books in the series! It's wonderful escapist adventure with a fabulous background in historical fiction.

If anyone knows if there are more books coming out after Snow and Ashes will you let me know...I read in The Outlandish Companion that Gabaldon was going to publish a prequel to Outlander and I tried to find out more but couldn't.

The Time Shifting Clan Grows
A little scattered, with multiple shifting narratives, this fourth installment is still enjoyable for those who have been smitten with the Scottish Highlander Jamie and his time shifting wife Claire. I actually didn't find the book boring like some reviewers have, I just found it repetitious. Where the arrival of some characters from the earlier books are welcome and fun (Lord John for example) there is a recycled element to the book that left me wanting less of Brianna and her betrothed Roger, and more of Jamie and Claire. Once again she employs a pretty generic and stock villain who left me wondering is somebody always going to be raped in these stories?And while the first three books had some pretty terrific climaxes, this kind of peters out with a whimper. Still, the fact that this woman can clock a book in a over a thousand pages and still make it hard to put down, any quibbles feel pretty minor.

Time Out
Jamie and Claire establish a settlement deep in the North Carolina mountains far from the winds of change which has racked their lives. But the DRUMS OF AUTUMN concerns their daughter Brianna and the man who loves her enough to travel through time, Roger.
Neither of the second generation are strong enough to compete with the power of Jamie and Claire Fraizer. Time outs stop a story in its tracks and this installment in the series is no exception. If the reader is familiar with the story and has read the previous books then it is an acceptable read. But as a stand alone the title does not have enough substance to sustain it.
Nash Black, author of WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and SINS OF THE FATHERS.