An Echo in the Bone is the seventh and most recent in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. At this point all I can usefully say is that we’re finally into the thick of the American Revolution; I find Gabaldon’s war plots less interesting than the rest of her books; and every single damn plot thread in the book ends on a cliffhanger—including at least one for which the cliffhanger is completely and utterly unnecessary.
Oh, and the continuity error from last time is explained, and it might almost be theoretically possible that the series is coming to a close. (Though the author says on her website (5 February 2010) that she doesn’t know if the next book is the last.)
The lady can write a tale, I have to give her her due. It’s a real skill to handle multi-hundred pages, multi-threaded plot epics, and to do it with style and panache (I imagine I have more tolerance for the war threads than you do, though).
That said, I do think the end of _Echo_ managed to step firmly into “you’ve got to be kidding me” territory…it’s a fine line between “this would be a really shockingly kewl cliff-hanger” and “abort! abort! too far! the audience is rolling its eyes!”, and I think she tiptoed (or leapt, depending on one’s tolerance for this stuff) onto the wrong side of the line. Particularly with the whole (rot13)Ybeq Wbua naq Pynver guvax Wnzvr vf qrnq, naq…naq urer’f guvf frzv-cynhfvoyr ernfba gurl unir gb trg uvgpurq…bu, naq ybbx, nabgure pbybenoyr engvbanyvmngvba sbe gurz qbva’ gur anfgl va n qehaxra, tevrs-vaqhprq unmr…naq ogj, jr nyy xarj Wnzvr jnfa’g ernyyl qrnq, evtug?
I mean, each link can be justified on its own, but the cumulative effect…not so much.
Which is not to say, I’m not still looking forward to seeing how she untangles the threads and unhangs the cliffs. (V zrna, p’zba, pevgvpvfz nfvqr, ubj pna lbh abg ybir Ybeq Wbua gb Wnzvr: “V unir unq pneany xabjyrqtr bs lbhe jvsr” “Bu, nlr, jul’f gung?” (cnencuenfrq, bs pbhefr))
Like I said, lady can tell a story….
Trent, yeah. And I love Lord John.
For me the egregious bit was (ROT13) abg gryyvat hf vs Jvyyvr uvg jub ur jnf nvzvat ng, orpnhfr, frevbhfyl, jul abg?