An Echo in the Bone: A Novel (Outlander) (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Diana Gabaldon:
“Riveting. Gabaldon has a true storyteller’s voice.”
— The Globe and Mail --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Diana Gabaldon’s brilliant storytelling has captivated millions of readers in her bestselling and award-winning Outlander saga. Now, in An Echo in the Bone, the enormously anticipated seventh volume, Gabaldon continues the extraordinary story of the eighteenth-century Scotsman Jamie Fraser and his twentieth-century time-traveling wife, Claire Randall.

Jamie Fraser, former Jacobite and reluctant rebel, is already certain of three things about the American rebellion: The Americans will win, fighting on the side of victory is no guarantee of survival, and he’d rather die than have to face his illegitimate son–a young lieutenant in the British army–across the barrel of a gun.

Claire Randall knows that the Americans will win, too, but not what the ultimate price may be. That price won’t include Jamie’s life or his happiness, though–not if she has anything to say about it.

Meanwhile, in the relative safety of the twentieth century, Jamie and Claire’s daughter, Brianna, and her husband, Roger MacKenzie, have resettled in a historic Scottish home where, across a chasm of two centuries, the unfolding drama of Brianna’s parents’ story comes to life through Claire’s letters. The fragile pages reveal Claire’s love for battle-scarred Jamie Fraser and their flight from North Carolina to the high seas, where they encounter privateers and ocean battles–as Brianna and Roger search for clues not only to Claire’s fate but to their own. Because the future of the MacKenzie family in the Highlands is mysteriously, irrevocably, and intimately entwined with life and death in war-torn colonial America.

With stunning cameos of historical characters from Benedict Arnold to Benjamin Franklin, An Echo in the Bone is a soaring masterpiece of imagination, insight, character, and adventure–a novel that echoes in the mind long after the last page is turned.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 832 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press; First edition, as stated edition (September 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385342454
• ISBN-13: 978-0385342452
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (298 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #103 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 7 in The Outlander Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

162 of 172 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I don't know whether to give this book one star or five!, September 28, 2009

By	C. C. Carnes (Salem, NH) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

OMG! I just got to the end of the book... I can't say I finished the book, I'll just say that I got to the end of it.

Loose ends are loose ends, but Diana.... what is this about? I read this on my e-reader and I kept paging back and forth, trying to find the rest of it, thinking, "This can't be over. There's no ending!" It leaves far too many characters hanging with life or death situations, far too many conversations in mid-sentence. It's worse than a soap opera!

And let's talk continuity, here. Does she even have an editor? At the end of the last book, Jamie stood with John Grey, watching Brianna and William in the street. In this book, Jamie claims not to have set eyes on William since he was 12. There are about a half a dozen major continuity conflicts in this story that would have been really easy to fix, if anyone was paying attention.

Now I love Diana's characters and her writing and I get so wrapped up in her stories that it threatens the rest of my ability to function in life, but this ended so strangely that I'll be jarred and marred for days!

I enjoyed reading this book and I'll buy her next one, but I recommend that no one read this one until the next one is available. Leaving us hanging here, for possibly years until the next one comes out, is too upsetting.

SPOILER ALERT: THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS

93 of 100 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A little too much left hanging, but ...., September 24, 2009

By	C. Person - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I found the book a wee bit slow to get started, and a tiny bit choppy. But that's because the main character's lives have changed dramatically, and the whole *family* is no longer on *The Ridge*. But once I got into the flow of the story, I found myself reading faster and faster to find out what happened next, which means I'll have to go back and reread it to catch nuances.

But there were some story lines that left me thinking *why*? Why reintroduce a character and then not have that character have any more to do in the story ( I am not naming that character so as not to spoil it for others#.

Another reviewer mentioned why adding Lord John and William into the mix, and not just concentrating on Jamie & Claire's story. Well, then we'd only have half the book we have now, and probably half the total number of books to begin with if their lives aren't fleshed out. And once into the full series of book you want to know what's going on with the extended family, who was doing what with who. And Wlliam isn't just a nobody.

But as I read faster towards the end, I began to think that all the time & effort spent on the story around Ft Ticonderoga, while interesting, left the ending not as well fleshed out by comparison. As if the ending was rushed in the writing. I really felt there ought to have been another 200 pages to flesh out what was happening.

And then the ending. There are quite a few *cliff hangers* at the end. But. But, I am still hooked. And beg Ms Gabaldon to start the next #will it be the last?) book as soon as possible. Cause I need to know!

All told, I love The Outlander series. I love books that are this long and this interesting. That we get to see a love story and lives fleshed out as well as Ms Gabaldon does. Hopefully she will continue the great work.

67 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Oh the places you'll go!, September 25, 2009

By	D. Flair "D.Flair and Rebyj A." (nashville, tn United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

(Review by Rebyj)
Echo is VERY full of historical letters and info dumps to insert the fictional characters into the real events. When you get past that, Jamie and Claire's story, their whereabouts and how they get from point A to B gets confusing at times. The fast paced action and dangers got annoying to me early on.

That said, if you are a fan of the books then you will enjoy this addition of course. I did. The last 1/4 of the book makes up for the first 3/4 which hops around from character/ location/time period/ location/location/ location so much that I was hard pressed to keep up. The last 1/4 pretty much ties everything together but only to rip apart at the seams as we yet wait years for the next book.

Frustrating, irritating but OH so delicious. When Jamie and Claire are together, it's as lovely as the other books. When the book goes off to the other characters, Lord John Grey especially, it gets as dry and dusty as the Lord John Grey books do. He's rather a bore, even if he is heroic.

Roger and Brianna, WEAK storyline till the end. They just appear to read the bundle of letters from Claire that they found one at a time and they're just excrutiatingly detailed info dumps. At the end of the book however, their storyline picks up and is where the next book will likely start at.

A nice revisit to all these beloved characters. The author seems to fail at inciting the reader to care about the outcome of the battles with as much interest and passion as she wrote about Culloden in the earlier books.

I'd say all in all it's not as good as most of the other books simply because 500 pages of history could have been condensed and more familiar character story added.