Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon

written in my own hearts blookNarrated by Davina Porter

Outlander series, Book 8

Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, or MOBY (as Gabaldon herself calls it) is another of Gabaldon’s Big Books – 848 pages in the hardcover version, which translates to 45 hours and 8 seconds on my Audible app. You are duly warned.

If you’re an Outlander fan, likely you’ve already got MOBY in your Audible queue if you are not yet a few hours in. Taking up where we were left in An Echo in the Bone, it’s now 1778 – or 1980 – depending on the storyline. In 1778, the young United States of America is busily throwing off the mantel of English monarchy, with loyalist civilians racing for cover while the rebels like George Washington and Benedict Arnold are making war. Jamie, believed dead in Echo because his ship went down, is back making his claim on his wife Claire, who had married Lord John Grey to be saved from being hanged as a traitor. Young Willie-now-William has just learned the truth of his biological father, and is none too happy, especially since he’s a prisoner of war and cannot even take out his frustration with fighting. Young Ian still believes his mum drowned with Uncle Jamie, and seeks solace in his love, Quaker Rachel, whose brother Denzel is wanting to marry the daughter of the Duke of Pardloe (who is also Lord John’s brother). Take that, Peyton Place! In 1980, at the end of Echo, we learned with a sigh of relief that Brianna and Roger’s son Jem was not forced into the past – but what about Roger and and his out-of-time ancestor Buck, who have already passed through the stones to find Jem?

The cliffhangers at the end of Echo abounded. As the series gains steam and page-count, the number of Important Secondary Characters has grown to scorecard proportions – if you are having trouble keeping up with the World Cup teams, this will boggle your mind. Time travelers and their ancestors and descendants are mounting up. I suggest you consider making your purchase a combo Kindle/Audible book so you can search Kindle for the pesky details as you listen! What time of year was it? How much time passed between this section and that? Whose POV are we in right now? I must have backtracked by 30 seconds more than a dozen times as I realized the POV had changed and I had no idea whose mind I was inhabiting; I went into my Kindle version more than once to double check details.

This is not to say it was overly confusing – but if you are not sitting and concentrating on the audiobook, 45 hours contains an enormous amount of detail to keep straight. If your mind strays to things like red lights and left turns while driving, you might miss a key phrase!

I was pleased that MOBY was an incredibly fascinating story even without the narrow plot twists and turns and non-stop heart-racing adventure of the original Outlander. While the story moved forward at a good clip, and there were many emotional moments, it felt more complete and upbeat and even perhaps a touch toned-down than Echo. The intimate scenes were not overly graphic and indeed mostly faded to black, like an old movie where the camera shot goes up into the air when the lovers start to kiss. The violence was mostly off-screen as well, although the medical scenes were incredibly graphic and wince-inducing. I don’t want to give away a single spoiler, but I needed my tissues more than once as heartbreaks occurred, and the ending was also emotional – but in a good way! When the narrator changed, and a man said The End, I was the heartbroken one, not wanting it to be over so soon!

Once again, Davina Porter was magic with Gabaldon’s world. Her narration skills are superb, with pacing and accents and such making it a true joy to listen to. She’s developed a clear voice for each character, and although I got lost in the POVs from time to time, once a character was speaking, I was always sure who it was. I have to say her American accents were not convincing (like Joe and Gail Abernathy as well as Brianna, Boston 1980), and her French accents and pronunciations seemed a little mushy*. But her British and Scots accents were all spot-on, and they were the bulk of the spoken word anyway. The one word I was surprised to hear her pronounce wrong was Samhain – this is a word whose actual pronunciation is the subject of great Internet controversy, but I think all agree that it is not pronounced like “salmon” (by which I mean “sammon”). These are all just small quibbles – the narration was wonderful!

(*Small rant: I just don’t think Fergus and Marsali’s children would have French accents. Yeah, stuff like this goes through my mind…)

Melinda


Narration: A

Book Content: A

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence: Escalated Fighting, and graphic medical procedures

Genre: Not Romance, but Time Travel and Historical Fiction come close…

Publisher: Recorded Books

 


Written in My Own Heart’s Blood
was offered to AudioGals by Recorded Books for a review, but not soon enough and I pre-ordered my own copies both of the Kindle and the Audible.com version!!

4 thoughts on “Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon

  1. Great summary and review; I totally agree with the ratings! I found it really helpful (but I am a huge fan) to read the book first and then listen to the audio. What I quickly noticed is that on the really pivotal, emotional scenes, I was much more drawn in and mirrored the emotion, listening to Davina’s rendering – this made all the difference in the world to my enjoyment of the overall story. I completely forgot that there was a narrator – I was focused on the stories and pulled in. And I never had problems differentiating characters (quite a challenge with this cast!); I was amazed at how she flowed seamlessly between Williams cultured tones and Frances’ (Fanny) tongue-tied speech – what a talent that woman has. For those of you that have trouble getting into the book (can’t imagine, but some people on Facebook have commented on this), I think your experience would e totally different on the audibook.

    Vic

    1. These are all good points – I do like to read the book first, but in this case I wanted to get ‘er done and reviewed, so I did not exactly do immersion, but I kept the kindle synced so I could rapidly find where I was when something seemed off. I also usually have a different book going on the kindle (app) but again, I just did MOBY non-stop from release-to-review this time!

  2. This was the first time I listened to the audiobook without having read the Gabaldon book first so I was a bit apprehensive about keeping up. As always I thoroughly enjoyed the entire listening experience as well as all the complexity of the story itself. I really wish the ending had been expanded a bit but I also understand letting us fill in “the rest of the story” as part of the attraction of the entire series. As far as the kids having French accents, I kind of thought it charming, thinking perhaps it reflected how much time they spent with their parents rather than outside influences such as school. I too give Davina Porter the highest marks for making us believe each voice and accent without taking away from the flow of the story. And, yes, I was in tears several times, the 45 hour listen!

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