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Drums Of Autumn (Outlander, Book 4)

Drums Of Autumn (Outlander, Book 4)

byDiana Gabaldon
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Top positive review

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Sheila M
5.0 out of 5 starsOutlander Comes to America
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2018
FINAL DECISION: I ended up enjoying the story of Claire and Jamie establishing themselves in the American colonies. This feels like a transitional book getting all the characters in the right place and time, but I enjoyed the personal stories of Claire and Jamie and Brianna and Roger.

THE STORY: This book begins after the events of VOYAGER. Jamie and Claire have ended up in the colonies and begin building a new life together there as the settlers begin to have conflicts with the native inhabitants. In the future, Brianna has to deal with the loss of her mother. She and Roger also rekindle their romance but the discovery of a clipping announcing the death of Jamie and Claire due to a house fire forces Brianna and Roger to make a decision.

OPINION: While this book is filled, as all Outlander books, with various adventures, what attracted me most to this book was the personal relationship between Claire and Jamie. Here, the two are building a life together for the first time. The boring, daily details of life -- cooking, cleaning, preparing the land -- are what the two have to deal with (punctuated by various adventures). For the first time, the two have to learn to live together after so many years apart. This book feels like a settled and romantic couple which I really loved. In the daily living, true love is shown. And for the first time, there is no question that Jamie and Claire will be together throughout the book.

What I really didn't expect was how much I would love the story of Brianna and Roger. With Claire and Jamie on a less extreme emotional path, the torch of young love is passed to Brianna and Roger. I ended up loving both of these characters and I look forward to seeing their relationship develop.

As the series has progressed, I've become more acquainted with the historical events which form the pillars of the stories where these characters exist and with each book, I have enjoyed the historical parts more. Perhaps because we have moved into more familiar territory for me, I found the historical events and tidbits here fascinating.

As with all the books in this series, parts of the story are resolved and then parts are left for future books.

WORTH MENTIONING: The book depicts a graphic rape.

CONNECTED BOOKS: DRUMS OF AUTUMN is the fourth book in the OUTLANDER series. The book assumes knowledge from the previous books and therefore the books should be read in order.

STAR RATING: I give this book 4.5 stars.
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Top critical review

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Diane J. Destefano
3.0 out of 5 starsA little too slow and tedious for my taste.
Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2016
I have been readying all of the books and also watched the Star's serious so I got through this book but I do not think it was one of the best. These book are meant to be part of a series but also supposed to be able to stand alone. If this is the first book I picked up, I would not have read another. It was too slow and got into too much detail about the activities of daily living. I did find a lot of that interesting from a historical point of view but it got rather tedious and would have preferred more fast paced adventure like in the first two books. I am now on the next book and it a lot better. I will continue to read the series because I love all of the characters so much. If you are reading the series, I would recommend that you read this book just so you know what is going on but if you are going to read just this one, don't bother.
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From the United States

Diane J. Destefano
3.0 out of 5 stars A little too slow and tedious for my taste.
Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2016
Verified Purchase
I have been readying all of the books and also watched the Star's serious so I got through this book but I do not think it was one of the best. These book are meant to be part of a series but also supposed to be able to stand alone. If this is the first book I picked up, I would not have read another. It was too slow and got into too much detail about the activities of daily living. I did find a lot of that interesting from a historical point of view but it got rather tedious and would have preferred more fast paced adventure like in the first two books. I am now on the next book and it a lot better. I will continue to read the series because I love all of the characters so much. If you are reading the series, I would recommend that you read this book just so you know what is going on but if you are going to read just this one, don't bother.
34 people found this helpful
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David Mischel
3.0 out of 5 stars Never thought I'd ever say that: Does NOT do the series justice
Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2020
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This is the first time every that I have found the screen version of a book way more appealing, contextualized, and moving than the book. Never in my life have I ever felt like this. It has happened that I have liked movies/series AS much as the book on which they were based, but like most readers, I feel that nothing can compare to the character building and depth one can get from a book. Not. The. Case. Here.

Back-story: I watched the first 3 seasons of Outlander on Netflix. I was sucked in and got invested in the main two characters. Season 3 ends with Claire and Jamie making it to the U. S. Content wise, this book starts roughly at the same point where season 3 ends. (I am not signing up for yet another paid network, just to watch one show, no way.) I was looking forward to continuing the story on paper.

Well, I cannot wait for seasons 4 and 5 to be made available on Netflix again. Had I started off with this book, never would I have been compelled to watch the show or continue reading. The story is of course super interesting. Time-travel romance, adventure mixed with some history, Scotch whiskey nostalgia etc. The attention, almost obsession to detail doesn't bother me too much in and of itself. It's just too much compared to the lack of character development. So much detail about agri life in the pre-revolutionary American South...Pretty sure I know how to set traps and build a homestead...have absolutely no clue what the characters are feeling and why. Their thoughts are explored, to be sure, but their feelings hardly ever are. This really annoys the heck out of me. The love story between Roger and Briana is so generic and flat, for example, it makes absolutely no sense that one would like drop their lives and put themselves in dire danger to follow the other to the 18th century. Some events are also extremely difficult to swallow, they honestly ring like soap opera scenarios. Yes, I know, for someone who's fast to buy into the time-traveling plot, that's rich. But, no, please believe me. I don't want to spoil the story, but the events around Jamie's big mistake/misunderstanding are seriously wacky. Nobody, I say nobody would get themselves into this mess, and I am talking about all parties involved. The events around Lord Gray's head injury (you'll see) also make no sense. That stuff would never happen, it should never happen, and there is no good reason (in the character's head) on which they are grounded.

Jamie and Claire's characters are kind of annoying in this book too. Maybe they always had been in the book, I don't know. But in the series they were pretty cool characters, despite their personal weaknesses or faults. For example, let me give something away here. When Jamie first sees his daughter, forget first the fact that he has just urinated (why on earth would the author wanna contextualize this first meeting on this?), the first thing that comes out of his mouth is "You're huge?" I mean I know the author likes to hammer in the "Brianna so tall" concept constantly, but really? That's what world-traveled, best one-liner, soft-hearted Jamie Fraser would say?

Last, the love scenes. Those I run fast by them. I just can't with the over-literaturization of sex. Like, it is laughable at one point. It becomes way too forced and corny.

Why three stars? Cause again, the skeleton of the story IS good and interesting. The fantasy is there. The history too. But the characters? No.
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Hmmm...
Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2020
Verified Purchase
I'm still enjoying the series, but see a downward trend in the writing. It became noticeable in Book 3 and was very noticeable in Book 4. I wonder if the success of the books had taken off at that point, putting pressure on both Ms. Gabaldon and the publisher to "crank" the books out faster?

The writing remains beautiful in some places, but there were HUGE mistakes in characterization on occasion...

SPOILER ALERT! READ NO FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOKS!

The most egregious of these mischaracterizations came when Jamie attacked Bree both verbally and physically. Ms. Gabaldon tried to characterize this as Jamie's attempt to make a point, but prior to this Ms. Gabaldon had portrayed Jamie as overly protective of Bree--a father who loved and adored his daughter and would do anything to keep her safe. And now, just to make a point, he physically acosts her? Not only was that shockingly ridiculous, it was totally unbelievable. 99.9% of the human beings on this planet would NEVER behave like that, and the .1% who might, are not people you respect--and prior to this Jamie was someone we could respect. So no, Ms. Gabaldon no, no, no--huge mistake.

And this wasn't the first time I've experienced mischaracterizations in the series. There were other times when characters didn't behave like real human beings, and this invariably took me out of the books. I also continue to see a troubling trend of violence against women--especially sexual violence of the FIFTY SHADES variety. Even more troubling, Ms. Gabaldon seems to portray Claire as somehow enjoying it. There may be women who like being degraded in that way, but I certainly wouldn't make my heroine one of them. It not only demeans her in the eyes of readers, it also sends the wrong message to women everywhere.

On the plus side, I have been pleased to see fewer gratuitive and exploitative sex scenes in the last two books. The love between Jamie and Claire remains the most appealing part of the series, and I'm glad to see Ms. Gabaldon showing some restraint in the portrayal of that love. I know sex sells books, but it demeans storytelling. Ms. Gabaldon has obviously worked very hard to create a wonderful series of books that are worthy of your time, and I hate seeing her cave to publishers who simply care about their bottom line.

Anyway, all of that aside, the series remains one of my favorites and I will move on to the next book with high expectations.
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rosyjosie
3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed
Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2022
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It could have been 200 pages shorter and been a better book. I started zipping through pages to get past long descriptions of things. Didn’t care for Brianna or her physical description. All I pictured was a manly huge woman with a long nose. Thought the relationship with Jamie was creepy. A grown woman meets her biological dad and all the touching and simpering over each other was weird. Claire has become too subservient in this book. I think this is the last in the series I’ll read.
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peachnmario
3.0 out of 5 stars Really 3-1/2 stars
Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2014
Verified Purchase
This is a tough one to review, because I so love Jamie and Claire's story, Gabaldon's meticulous attention to historical accuracy and detail, and her vividly sensual, often lyrical, writing style. There are many, many surprising plot twists and brilliantly executed scenes throughout the book, and Ms. Gabaldon does a fine job of tying up loose ends and answering lingering questions while creating new ones.

The major problem with Drums of Autumn is Gabaldon's rather indulgent tendency to stretch out her characters' emotional (and sometimes physical) suffering with descriptive stretches that are on the one hand beautifully written, but on the other tediously long and lacking in substantial action or story advancement. There are also some soap-opera-like missed opportunities and misunderstandings, resulting from poor communication and stupid decisions, that made me want to smack some common sense into a few of the characters! That kind of protracted angst tends to strike me as a device purposely contrived to extend the length of the novel, but at 800+ pages, it isn't as if it would have been too short without it. After a while I found myself mentally screaming, "Come on, people, start acting like the grown-ups you are, stop assuming you know what is best for everyone else, and start TALKING to each other!!"

That caveat aside, when there IS action and story, and there is plenty, it is in turns gripping, heart-stopping, terrifying, surprising, heart-breaking, horrifying, and hilarious.
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Heather N.
3.0 out of 5 stars A little long, but I still enjoyed it.
Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2011
Verified Purchase
I just discovered Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" series a couple of months ago and was eager to continue following Jamie and Claire Frasier as they create a new life for themselves in America. I do agree with other reviewers who say this is the weakest of the series so far and that a little more editing could have made for a shorter read without jeopardizing the story.

One of the things I do enjoy about these books is how Gabaldon destroys relationships and invites us to witness how they are repaired. Terrible things happen to these people, and while you might begin to wonder how much pain they can endure, you can't help but admire their perseverance and devotion to one another in the end.

My only gripe is that Gabaldon seems to have created an unbelievably small world for her characters in which they cross paths with their own ancestors or those of people they know. In this book it served to pose the question of whether one character's visit to the past helped facilitate his own birth in the future, and while I do enjoy these "Quantum Leap" hypotheses, the circumstances under which these chance meetings occur (and recur) become too coincidental to be thoroughly believable.

I am still looking forward to following the Frasiers and MacKenzies through the rest of their lives together, but for now I'll be taking a much-needed break with some lighter fare.
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Lulu36345
3.0 out of 5 stars I like the outlander series
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2015
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I like the outlander series, but to honest I sometimes have to leave it and come back to it later. It sometimes becomes to much for me to handle. When I read a book I truly take on each of the characters, and in the outlander series Claire and Jamie never catch a break. In most series you will have two main characters, and the following books will be off shoots of some of the secondary characters. However, in the outlander series Jamie and Claire remain active throughout. It's just hard to imagine so much happening to the same people and that they:
A. Survive
B, that they don't resent each other for all the trouble that they each bring to the table.
In this book Jamie's and Claire's daughter becomes a main character, but in this book just because Brianna becomes a main character doesn't mean that Jamie and Claire take a back seat. I am not going to buy Book 5 just because I need these characters to find some peace and happiness.
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars The drums are still beating
Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2013
Verified Purchase
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I am shamelessly in love with the story of Claire & Jamie Fraser. This book certainly takes us beyond the central love narrative and inserts now the perils of time travel for Bree & Rodger. On one hand, I've read reviews that suggest Bree' s character is rather dull, if not seemingly "stupid." I disagree. I truly enjoyed--if not relished--the interactions between Bree and her father. my only complaint with Gabaldon' s writing style is that she wastes words. I often find myself skipping page after page for the mere realization that some things ARE predictable. I will certainly, keep reading the series, but I feel as though the long, drawn out scenes are almost too much to bear! I keep wishing I was as entranced with the story as much as I.was ion book one. Oh, and some plot twists are so ridiculous they get on my nerves. Otherwise, I know I would've scored this book higher than a three out of five stars.
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Alysse Ratta
3.0 out of 5 stars Quality writing but doesn't captivate as much as the first couple
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2019
Verified Purchase
I enjoy the writing style a lot. She is good at delivering wonderfully descriptive scenes as if you are really there. She also doesn't dumb down her text, which is a quality I always look for. But, the themes in this book were a little lackluster, as if she's trying to come up with a good plot and sub-plot. I loved the first two; the graphic detail, nail-biting suspense, sex scenes, and really intimate knowledge of the highlands, Gaelic, and the time period in general. This book didn't quite live up to the previous. Still deciding if I should keep going to book 5 or quit while I'm ahead.
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Annemarie Troutman
3.0 out of 5 stars This is the least impressive of the Outlander series so ...
Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2015
Verified Purchase
This is the least impressive of the Outlander series so far for me. While it held many of the attractive features of the other books- historical perspective, likeable characters, twists and turns in the plot, it degenerated into soap opera at times. Gabaldon tries to depict a stereotypical "modern" woman in Brianna - and in so doing has exaggerated her personality characteristics to the point of melodrama. No young woman of the 60s would identify with her or her reaction to situations! She acts as a petulant teenager rather than an adult woman - I found her histrionics distasteful and nauseating. She doesn't have the self-reflection that makes Claire so appealing. I couldn't wait for the book to end in fact - in the hope she has grown up and got her act together by the next volume.
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