Dragonfly in Amber - Book 2 in the Outlander series - begins 20 years after Claire's return to her own century. Claire now feels she must reveal the truth she has concealed for those two decades, her daughter's lifetime. In recounting the story to her daughter and a friend, Claire resumes the tale of her 18th century adventures where the first volume left off. In presenting this second volume, the author has continued the same high-quality writing and vivid storytelling which characterized the first book.

The dramatic and compelling tale culminating immediately prior to the battle of Culloden in 1745-46 is a gripping page-turner that I found difficult to lay aside at the beginning, and near the end, turning those pages and finishing the book took priority over sleep. The historical elements of the Outlander saga thus far lend interest and drama to the tale as well as being intensely researched to bring elements of realism into the saga which prevent its being too incredible for belief.

Highly recommended for adult readers. This review is published simultaneously on Amazon.com, Dragonviews and LibraryThing. ( )

Very good book. Jamie and Claire try to stop the Young Pretender from gaining steam in his cause to take the throne. Efforts to no avail as the Battle of Culloden happens and Jamie and Claire have their own marriage problems regardless. ( )

I really enjoyed sinking into the second novel in this series and look forward to getting my hands on the third. Diana Gabaldon knows how to tell a story! ( )

Perhaps not as great as the first in the series, but engrossing nonetheless. If I (a graduate student with no time to read) manage to make my way through a 900+ page book in a mere couple of weeks, it must be good. ( )

This book was that oddest of things: a boring page-turner. The pace was sort of hypnotic, in that it kept me going, but I didn't really care what happened to anyone. Certainly not the heroine, who has evolved from being a colorless cypher in the first book to being a colorless cypher who is an irritatingly obvious placeholder for the author/reader. If I wanted to believe that a hot Scotsman was obsessed with me, I would google-image Gerard Butler and use the power of my brain; when I read a book, I tend to be in search of, y'know, characters. And our heroine is nothing of the kind.

Almost a thousand pages of first-person narrative and all we learn about our narrator is: a) she gives off a major whiff of self-righteousness and self-satisfaction; b) every man she meets lusts after her; and c) the hero periodically needs to monologue for pages about how much he loves and desires and worships her, to which she tends to respond complacently with a bland, "I love you too," or some such. On no occasion, even when she has just almost gotten him killed, does she consider herself less than deserving of this worship, or even seem particularly grateful for it: she unthinkingly accepts it as the way things should be. We also never get any evidence of this amazingness our seven-foot-tall*-shoulders-wider-than-a-longbow-blindingly-handsome Scotsman sees in her. She just deserves his adoration! You'll have to take Gabaldon's word for it.

And it is still true in this book, as in its prequel, that if you meet a gay man you know he is all kinds of evil. The one flash of developed personality we see in our heroine is when she starts talking about "perverts". Thanks, Diana, for providing your readers with the perfect way to insert ourselves into a kilt-related fantasy, as long as we don't mind being a smug homophobe in said fantasy. Uh... I mind.

(And yet, believe it or not, I have already started the third book. Partially it's because I own it and the Because It Is There principle is strong with me, but partially because, well, sometimes I will eat an entire bag of Starbursts, and this is sort of the same idea.)

*Okay, fine, he's only six four.