Voyager by Diana Gabaldon

So, onward with my Outlander-themed re-reads! Keep in mind that this is the third in the series - if you haven’t read the first two, it could be pretty spoiler-y.

Also, I own three out of those four covers above… all but the last one, which I believe is the British edition. The plain green is what you find in stores now, but a small part of me really likes the campy old-school covers. This is what happens when I absolutely fall in love with a series though – I will collect has many different copies / editions of the book as possible.

The first time I read Voyager, I didn’t like it. The second time I read it, I realized that I actually did like it, and wasn’t sure what the deal was with past-Sarah that didn’t enjoy it very much. And now on my third time reading it, I have to agree that it actually is one of the best in the series… it’s at least as awesome as books 1 & 2.

So at the end of Dragonfly in Amber, Claire, Brianna, and Roger (in 1968) realize that Jamie didn’t die at Culloden like they all thought that he did. The first 1/4 of the book contains them all doing further research, to find out if he was still alive – if they could find proof that he was alive roughly 200 years ago, then Claire might be able to travel back through the stones again to him.

That’s all the information that the back of the book really gives you… so don’t read any farther if you don’t want to know what Claire’s decision was.

Now seriously, you didn’t think this book would be almost 1100 pages long if Claire decided not to go back through the stones, did you? Claire makes the decision to go back and try to find Jamie, so she goes through the stones again and comes out in 1766. Jamie and Claire’s being reunited is one of the best things ever – even though this is my third time reading the series, that part of the book totally makes me cry. The reason I think that I didn’t originally like this book that much is because from the moment they’re reunited, the book gets very hectic. I felt like they never got to take a couple weeks to just catch up and be together. But now I’m all about the fast pace of the book. There’s definitely lots of plot, intrigue, and action. Hell, there are PIRATES! Of course that’s exciting.

Basically someone dear to Jamie is kidnapped, so Claire and Jamie travel all over the bloody place on a rescue mission. This gets really, really interesting since Jamie is so sea-sick, and almost all of the traveling is on ships. But their adventure also answers some questions that they had, ties off some mysteries / problems, and sets up the next book beautifully.

Some other perks of this book? I love seeing all the different ways in which Jamie and Claire have changed since they’ve been apart. I love seeing grown-up Fergus. And this book finally clarifies exactly how tall Jamie is – he’s 6′ 4″. I remember debating with the honeyman a while back about how tall Jamie was, so I was excited when I came across that passage.

Anyways, this is a great book in the series. Jamie and Claire are just the best. (I actually miss them when I’m not reading these books.) And despite was Amazon says, it is not the “concluson of a trilogy”. There are four more books out, and more to come. I’m already really itching to go re-read the fourth book now, Drums of Autumn, so expect that in the next month or so.

Sarah Says: 5 stars