Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon is the fourth in the time travelling historical fiction series following our protagonists Claire and Jamie Fraser as they attempt to start a new life in the American Colonies. Weighing in at nearly 900 pages, or 44 hrs and 54 mins of audiobook, this is a real behemoth of a book. It’s also the book on my shelf that’s taken me the longest to read. GoodReads tells me that I finished the previous book in the series, Voyager, back in April 2015, and I started Drums of Autumn around that time. This means that Drums of Autumn has taken me almost a year to finish. I read it in chunks. I would read a large section – usually when the Outlander TV series piqued my interest again – and then struggle to continue and put it aside for other books. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it; I simply struggled to maintain my interest to read 800+ pages over a short period. What I liked The characters. I love the characters in the book, particularly Claire and Jamie and their unconventional romance. Gabaldon has said that she wanted to show a mature relationship…
The next few weeks are relatively quiet in terms of upcoming book releases about which I’m excited. I’m thinking therefore that this could be a good opportunity to catch up on my TBR pile, specifically in terms of catching up with series with which I have fallen behind. Generally, I like variety in my reading so it’s unusual for me to marathon a whole series, even if I enjoy it immensely. So, without further ado, here are some of the series I really should catch up on. (NB, these are series which are not necessarily complete, but for which I’ve not read up to the latest published book.) It goes without saying that I’m up to date on Game of Thrones and am eagerly awaiting Winds of Winter. The Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne. This series is about an ancient Druid, Atticus O’Sullivan and his Irish Wolfhound, Oberon, who live in modern times. Each of the novels – currently seven, with an eighth due out next year – is relatively self contained, and tells of a new adventure, but builds up the world of the Druid and its inhabitants. I have listened to books one to three, and this…
This week I have been continuing with Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series which I’m reading as a mixture of Kindle ebook and Audible audiobook. Have I mentioned before how much I love Whispersync for Voice? The ability to switch between the two media without having to worry about finding your place is pure awesomeness. Anyway, I digress. I finished Outlander this week and have moved onto Dragonfly in Amber. I have to say, my rereading of the series is enhanced by the Starz series. When reading about Claire and Jamie’s adventures it’s great to be able to imagine Catriona Balfe and the deliciously edible Sam Heughan in the roles. It might even be able to get me past that point in Voyager where I lost interest in the series. This week I’m back on nightshift for a week to cover a coworker’s vacation. I fully expect to spend my time monitoring servers in the company of Jamie, Claire and the others of Clans Fraser and McKenzie. In other news, I’ll be going on blog hiatus for the month of November, so this will be my last entry for a while. I have decided to take part in NaNoWriMo. For those of…
This week I have been reading shorter books so I feel I have been making excellent progress compared to the epic fantasy behemoths I’ve been reading lately. I finished the cutesy contemporary romance Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. I will be doing a full review next week, so I won’t say too much now. I have also been dipping in and out of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander. OK, at 640 pages or 33 hours audiobook, that’s not exactly short… I’ve been listening mainly to Davina Porter’s excellent audiobook narration. As I am Scottish born, I appreciate her rendition of the Scots accent. I was reading the series, but I became stuck in the middle of book three. The major TV adaption by Starz has inspired me to start rereading. I’ll probably just keep dipping in and out rather than reading it in a block. Since I’m talking about the series, I would just like to say how much I’m enjoying it. We in Canada are a couple of weeks behind our US cousins. I knew the series was in safe hands with Ronald D. Moore who helmed the wonderful Battlestar Galactica. He is very skilled at creating worlds…
With the movie coming out soon, I decided it was time to pick up James Dashner’s The Maze Runner. I wasn’t too sure if I would enjoy it so I picked it up in eBook from the library. [book-info] I’m glad I didn’t purchase it because I found it was not really my cup of tea. It reminded me in some ways of Lost – more questions being asked than answered. It was particularly frustrating when characters refused to share information when it would have been in the interest of the larger group to have done so. The worldbuilding was otherwise excellent and there is no fault I could point to in the writing. It just didn’t appeal to me personally, and I am unlikely to be continuing with the rest of the series. I gave The Maze Runner three stars out of five. One of the TV series I’m looking forward to most this year is Starz adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander. For those of you unfamiliar with this book, it’s about a WWII nurse, Claire Beauchamp, who finds herself transported back in time to 18th century Scotland and falls in love with a handsome red-haired Scot, Jamie…