Voyager - Outlander #3

From the author of the breathtaking bestsellers Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber, the extraordinary saga continues.

Their passionate encounter happened long ago by whatever measurement Claire Randall took. Two decades before, she had traveled back in time and into the arms of a gallant eighteenth-century Scot named Jamie Fraser. Then she returned to her own century to bear his child, believing him dead in the tragic battle of Culloden. Yet his memory has never lessened its hold on her... and her body still cries out for him in her dreams.

Then Claire discovers that Jamie survived. Torn between returning to him and staying with their daughter in her own era, Claire must choose her destiny. And as time and space come full circle, she must find the courage to face the passion and pain awaiting her...the deadly intrigues raging in a divided Scotland... and the daring voyage into the dark unknown that can reunite or forever doom her timeless love.

Content Warning

*** Spice Warning

Genres

• Historical Fiction

• Historical Romance

• Fantasy

• Time Travel

• Adult Fiction

• Scotland

870 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1993

My Verdict

Voyager, the third book in the Outlander Series, begins in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden in 1746, and follows Jamie through that day and the difficult years afterward. As we see what happens from Jamie's perspective, we shift back and forth to 1968 as Claire, Brianna and Roger Wakefield track Jamie through the historical record. Claire also flashes back to critical bits of her life in Boston married to Frank Randall, raising her daughter Brianna, and balancing family life with her new and demanding medical career. This is at times confusing.

While the focus of the first book was love and the focus of the second was marriage, this book focuses on identity. In fact, the first half of Voyager is about Jamie and Claire searching for their core identity as individuals. Who is Claire Randall without Jamie Fraser? A compassionate and gifted physician, a devoted mother, a unhappy wife with an unfaithful husband. Who is Jamie Fraser without Claire Randall? An outcast in society, a prisoner who is also a leader of men, a political activist who has lost nearly everything that ever mattered to him.

I won't say much about this but the print shop reunion scene is 🔥. It was definitely my favorite scene in this book.

The second half of Voyager veers in a completely different direction – a long sea voyage followed by strange happenings in the West Indies, pirates, voodoo, shipwrecks. It is almost impossible to discuss the second part without spoilers, but I can say that I got stuck at times in the portion of the novel. It was quite a bit of the stuff that I don't generally enjoy reading. I don't know if this was Gabaldon trying to give Jamie and Claire a new backdrop for a fresh start but I didn't love it. This is the part of this book that makes this one my least favorite of the series so far. I still give it 4 stars, though.