My Irish Eyes are Smiling When Scottish Kilts are Flying!: A writer’s review of the first five books of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander, Dragonfly In Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross)

Flashplot: Let’s make this clear from the start: these books are mammoth. Micro-summarizing them successfully is impossible. Instead I’ll merely explain the general premise and move on to the review. 

Claire Beauchamp walks though a Scottish stone circle in her own time, just after WWII, and finds herself transported to the same place only two-hundred years earlier. In a plot to keep her alive and out of the hands of a suspicious British Captain, her rescuers marry her off to a Scottish rebel Jamie Fraser. At first Claire’s biggest concern is that she is already married to a man from her own time, whom she wants desperately to return to. Soon, though, she’s fallen for her new husband and has become entangled with his complicated and dangerous past, present, and future. 

The books do some time-jumping as they follow the cast of characters across different centuries and countries. They also do some genre bending as they work in elements of romance, history, magical realism, and adventure.

As a reader: There’s a reason I find myself reviewing all five of these books at once: I read them so fast, one after the other, that I actually couldn’t tell you where one ended and the next began. The characters, plot, and setting were equally enticing to me. Claire is strong, yet not brash. Jaime is everything a girl wants in an alpha-male of a romance book—pig-headed and overbearing on the outside, while sensitive and compassionate on the inside. Did I mention he’s also hot and wearing a kilt most of the time? Yum. Add to that plots with plenty of twists, well-researched historical details, and enough humor to balance out the darker moments, and I was hooked for the long haul.

As a writer: My one complaint is that it is indeed a verra, verra long haul. (I downloaded the seven book bundle on my kindle and it comes in at 7125 pages!) Gabaldon admits she wrote book one, Outlander, as a writing exercise, with no concern over length. In the 90’s apparently publishing such a debut novel was possible; today it would be unheard of, even as good as this story was. I’m not a proponent of strict word counts just for the sake of word counts, but these books are definitely an example of works where a good editor helping to trim the fat would have benefitted everyone. Beyond book one the biggest problem for me was that there was too much rehashing of events from prior books. Different people share varying philosophies on this, but my view is, if you’re going to write a series, write a series. Assume readers have read the previous works. If they haven’t and want to know more, they’ll go back. Don’t punish loyal readers by bogging down the plot. That said, I loved the stories enough to learn to skim some—careful, of course, to stop whenever that kilt came off!

Bottom line: If you like romance with a heavy dose of action and history and you have the time or will make the time for book that’s a little wordy, and a little unique, but really entertaining, than this series is worth picking up!

History Revamped: A Writer’s Review of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

Flashplot: Anyone who’s made it through high school history knows the basics of Lincoln’s difficult life. Now take every tragedy, every death, and every accomplishment and attribute it to vampires. This is Seth Grahame-Smith’s work in a nutshell.

As a reader: Though my ridiculously simplified plot summary might make this piece sound utterly unbelievable to the point of being humorous, I assure you it’s not. Grahame-Smith weaves a dark and twisted fictional tale into the history American readers are familiar with in a way that makes it easy to suspend one’s disbelief long enough to get lost in the novel. The story is cleverly crafted in that sense. It took tremendous imagination to twist facts into fantasy. However, despite the numerous tragedies Lincoln faces, I still found him a difficult character emphasize with. My favorite characters were those of the author’s creating; it was in the scenes with Henry where Grahame-Smith’s characterization shined. I also found the pacing of the novel slowed in parts due to what I saw as Grahame-Smith’s desire to work in more of the history than what was needed to pull along the fictional tale he was telling. Finally, I loved the opening of the book with the modern-day setting and character, who is introduced as our story-teller. It was this slide into the fantasy world that allows readers to face and then dismiss their own disbelief, so the fact that the book never really returns to this character and his interactions with Henry is terribly frustrating and disappointing. Though I loved the last line of the book, I really wanted a quick epilogue to return to the present day and the book’s narrator.

As a writer: There is no doubt that the author of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter did his homework. Grahame-Smith does a wonderful job of writing in a voice that matches what readers would expect that of Lincoln to sound like. He also did a nice job of writing from his “own” voice. (He is supposedly the writer who meets with Henry at the start of novel tasked with telling Lincoln’s tale.) What started to bother me, both as a writer and a reader, as the novel progresses, is the frequency with which he slips in and out of these two narrations. Lincoln’s parts are supposed to be pulled from his diaries or letters, which is interesting, except when one scene or event is told with numerous excerpts interrupted constantly with the outside narration being used to fill in the gaps. It got to be too choppy and had me wondering if perhaps the writer was taking the easy way out by slipping into his own voice when Lincoln’s would have been a harder but more fluent choice. The only other flaw in an otherwise well-written piece was Lincoln’s character development. Obviously Grahame-Smith was challenged by developing a character who was rooted in a real historical figure. Given how interesting the author’s own characters were, I feel he would have been better served by allowing himself the freedom to re-envision Lincoln entirely without worrying so much about the constraints of reality.

Bottom line: As a fantasy fanatic, a writer of vampire books, and a lover of history I enjoyed Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. I’m not sure it’d hold the attention of readers without these passions, but it is certainly a unique and entertaining view of our nation’s past!

August Review: Despite Some Hang-ups, a Good Read

The Hangman’s Daughter 
by Oliver Pötzsch (Author) and Lee Chadeayne (translator)

Flashplot: Set in 1650’s Germany, this historical fiction mystery tells the tale of a small town which is rocked by a series of odd events. Children are turning up dead, marked with the ‘witches mark’ and the town leaders want a swift execution in order to prevent the hysteria and ruin that befell the town after similar events decades ago. They’re not too concerned with who swings, so long as it quiets the townspeople. Lucky for the accused midwife, the town executioner Jakob Kuisl, his daughter Magdalena, and the young physician Simon Fronwiesser set out to find the real culprits.

As a reader: The opening line of the novel reads, “October 12 was a good day for a killing.” It’s hard not to be hooked by a line like that. The rest of the prologue was paced well and created immediate compassion for the main character, the young son of the hangman. With emotions tied to this young boy, I was a little miffed to realize the rest of the book takes place thirty-five years later, with the scared child now the surly hangman. That said, I was soon hooked again by the main characters, the town, which has character of its own, and by the action that unfolds relatively quickly. The first third of the book balances plot, description of the historical setting, and character development of the book’s many characters.

Then things get a little hung-up. (Sorry, I never pass up a pun!) The middle third of the book slows down considerably. The events of plot and the clues unfolding seem to be a bit redundant. The story’s point of view changes characters frequently, which is fine, except when readers have to hear different characters come to the same conclusions. Since the story was rich and had a great many characters, perhaps the author thought this was needed. In most cases, though, I felt the reader should have been given the benefit of the doubt to keep track of clues and characters in exchange for a faster-paced plot.

By the end, Pötzsch picks up the pace again and the story moves along well as the main characters begin to unravel the mystery. Though parts of the end could be predicted along the way, there was enough unexpected material to provide a very satisfactory ending.

As a writer: Perhaps it’s because of the anti-prologue propaganda that agents drill into writers’ heads, but I wasn’t a fan of the prologue in this instance. It was important backstory about Jakob, backstory that helps the reader be sympathetic to him early on­–perhaps too early on. Most readers like a flawed protagonist. Pötzsch should have trusted that his readers, due to his strong writing, would connect with Jakob even before this glimpse into his past. It would have been just as interesting and perhaps more appreciated a little further into the story.

Other than the prologue and the pacing problem in the middle of the book, this was a terrific mystery. I’m always in awe of good historical fiction writers for the way they weave historical facts into their plots in such unobtrusive ways. Pötzsch did this masterfully, so that when I reached the end I was thrilled to see there was a postscript that explained what was researched and what was purely his fantasy. I also liked the descriptions in the book, which were often unique and felt like part of the plot as opposed to mere window dressing. I’m sure some of the credit for this belongs to the translator, Chadeayne, for his ability to make even the figurative language seem fluent and meaningful in its translated form.

Bottom line: A good book for history lovers and mystery lovers, so long as you’re a little patient. With my soft spot for gruff, yet lovable guys, I downloaded the sequel as soon as I finished.