I’ve debated about whether or not I should blog my way through this book. As you can see, I decided to do it. Why? Because I read reviews of the book on Barnesandnoble.com that would tell you most of the plot anway. (Scroll to the bottom of the page.)
This installment of the adventures of Claire, Jamie, et al., finds them in the years right before the American revolution. Because three members of the family are from the 1960s, they know what’s going to happen. It’s a common thread through this story, the question of: If you know what’s going to happen, can you act on things and change them for your benefit? Should you? And can history be changed at all?
Gabaldon’s second book in this series, Dragonfly in Amber, asked these questions about the 1747 Jacobite Rebellion. And Claire and Jamie’s meddling didn’t change history at all. The only thing they might have change may have been things that happened in the historical record anyway. Which leads one to think that, in Claire’s universe, time is linear, even if your experience of it isn’t. Basically, history meant for her to go back and affect the course of events.
In A Breath of Snow and Ashes, though, the war is the American Revolution. And the big question here is when to switch sides and join the colonists side. There is also a lot of other things happening–murder, mayhem, tarring and feathering, medical emergencies. Basically, the usual in Gabaldon’s books. The books have always been very episodic, with story arcs over the top of it all.
So far though, this is a fun book. Maybe not my favorite, but it’s up there on the list. I’ve very interested to see how it all turns out.