I finished reading the last Diana Gabaldon book, “Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone“, yesterday. At this point, it holds the title for my least favorite book in the Outlander series. This is a bitter pill to swallow, since I’ve loved the series for nearly 20 years now.
My first complaint is the bloat. There’s a lot that is pointless. It’s not to the level of George R. R. Martin’s ridiculous level of detail, nor is it as moistly romantic as Jean Auel’s Earth’s Children series. However, it certainly doesn’t help things. Someone on Reddit described a lot of the plot as “side quests”, and that’s exactly how it felt. Gabaldon has said her editors aren’t “violent” with her books. Perhaps this might be time to change that.
Second, and more problematic, is how the reader is tossed right into the series without the benefit of any exposition. I understand it’s a series, and I go into them armed with the knowledge there’s going to be prior events that happened in the story line alluded to in the current book. Unfortunately, the Outlander series is designed to be read as one long roll of paper, 9+ chapters, with only one beginning and one end.
I had the misfortune of coming into the series with the fifth book and that was incredibly confusing for about the first quarter of the book. I can’t imagine coming in now as someone who may have – like me almost 20 years ago – picked up a random book because the title or the teaser on the back looked interesting. There were way too many points where I felt like I probably should have read the last three books again before this one. I don’t feel like that’s something that should happen with books I’ve read three times already. I have less trouble following Martin’s insane cast of ASOIAF characters or the plot of House of Leaves.
Additionally, Gabaldon seems to be building the Outlander equivalent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Readers at this point are almost required to read multiple “rolls” to understand everything that’s happening in the story line. There are nine books in the main series at this point, and pretty much an equal number of stories published about “side” characters. I feel like as readers, we’re almost expected to have read all of the other stories by the time Bees was released.
Now, I will admit that I said that about both of the last two books with their releases, but subsequent readings have softened my opinions somewhat. Time will tell.
