The Scottish Prisoner
12 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
I distinctly remember the first time I read Outlander. I didn’t feel well, it was snowing, and a box of books had arrived from the book club. Outlander was one I picked at complete random, even the cover small and difficult to make out in the advert. The book revealed itself to have a clock upon it, though. A clock with a broken crystal. A string of pearls, a red plaid, and wilting roses. I wasn’t quite sure what awaited me. “Scottish time travel romance” surely oversimplifies the entire book and the series which follows. While it’s certainly that, it’s more, too, with some of the most enjoyable characters I’ve ever run across in fiction.
Gabaldon took one of those characters, Lord John Grey, and gave him his own series. I tried to read those books but they didn’t capture me the way the Outlander books did. Until The Scottish Prisoner. The title made it clear, at least to me, that this book would likely involve one Jamie Fraser, a main character of the Outlander books. Not only was I right, I was happy to discover it covers a stretch of time we’ve seen only a little of, when his wife Claire has gone back to her own time and Jamie is prisoner at Helwater. (Read through Voyager, before you read this book.)
I’ve seen plenty of people complaining that Jamie takes this book over, that it’s more his story than it is Lord John’s (and well, look at the title!), but for me, I felt it was a good balance. It was wonderful to see these two finding a way to work together that didn’t involve them killing each other. The other thread of story exposed here is Jamie’s developing relationship with William, the son he cannot wholly claim as his own. Watching Jamie with toddler William was a treat, especially when Jamie learns he does (and can) love William as his own, even if in secret.
William has come of age in future Outlander novels, and the next volume (Written in My Heart’s Own Blood) should contain more of his story. It will also cover more of the Claire/Jamie/John doings, as An Echo in the Bone took that whole triangle to an unexpected (for me) place. This book fills a great gap and includes teasers from the next Outlander novel. It was an unexpected treat that I could not put down.
