Voyager

By: Diana Gabaldon
Due to a vicious sinus infection I spent the last week in bed. Subsequently I was able to blast through Voyager, the third book in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. I liked this book a great deal more than Dragonfly in Amber. There were more locations and we didn't spend too long in one place, which prevented the stall-outs I found in the previous novel. The action centers around a treasure and a kidnapping. We jump from Scotland of the '60's to Scotland of the 18th Century, America, France, and finally the 18th century West Indies, giving things a very Pirate's of the Caribbean feel.
The characters have aged 20 years in this episode and we see more action from a few minor characters from the previous books. In particular there is a huge twist at the end which I did not see coming. Thing's tied up nicely and I found this plot to be much more intricate and better structured than the previous novels. I think the idea of a historical novel is great, but it's possible that structuring your story around specific events can be limiting. For instance DIA takes us up to the Battle of Culloden. This can't really happen until the end of the novel so the expanse before is used to build the political intrigue of the Jacobite uprising. Problem is, it was not very intriguing, it felt very forced. In Voyager the plot is driven by the character's attempt to resolve conflict in a historical setting. Not to participate in history itself. And yes, there were editing problems once again. This time the work suffered from an overuse of unreferenced pronouns and a few grammatical errors.
All in all, the series is still compelling and I'm moving on to the next book Drums of Autumn. I only hope it's as good as it's predecessor.