Diana Gabaldon has absolutely done it again. I have now read the entire series two times and loved it even more the second time around. The characters are briliantly written and the story is breathtaking. Throughout the series, I have laughed, cried, screamed, thown the book at the wall, mourned and dreamed about the story. Yes, this book leaves you on several cliffhangers, and I personally cannot wait for book No. 8 in order to find out what happens to all my favorite characters.

This is the seventh book in the Outlander series, consisting of historical adventure laced with romance and time travel, one which I had eagerly awaited and was not disappointed as the stories within unfolded. Each time I pick up any book of the series it is like seeing old friends after a long absence to catch up on past news.

There were several secondary characters to make their reappearance: Lord John Grey (whom I particularly enjoy reading about despite his predilections); Ian Murray (Jamie's nephew) and his wolf-dog, Rollo; Fergus Fraser (Jamie's adopted son from France); William Ellesmere (Ransom) (Jamie's illegitimate son and stepson of Lord John Grey); Harold Grey (Lord John's brother); Archie Bug; Jem and Mandy MacKenzie (children of Brianna and Roger MacKenzie); Jenny Fraser Murray (Jamie's sister) and her husband Ian Murray; Laoghaire Fraser and her daughters (Jamie's ex-wife-complicated with a history); and William Buccleigh MacKenzie.

Several new delightful characters were introduced: Denzell Hunter, a physician, and his sister, Rachel, Quakers; Henry Grey (Harold Grey's son); and not so delightful, Robert Cameron,

Historical figures Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea), Benedict Arnold, Benjamin Franklin,and Major John André made brief appearances.

Jamie Fraser, Jacobite, laird and 18th century Scotsman, has decided his participation in the American rebellion for independence is best suited with his printing press, and with Claire returns to Scotland to get it. Their journey is fraught with pirates, privateers, sidelined to assist the American rebels at Fort Ticonderaga before continuing across the Atlantic to Edinburgh.

There are love triangles, battle scenes, vengeance, comeuppance, reconciliation, deceptions, surgical procedures, visits to Quebec City, secrets, conspiracies, confessions, betrayal, greed, and surprise marriages between unlikely partners. The thoroughly researched historical medical descriptions and in-depth look into the early days of the Colonies with their desire for independence from British rule have kept me well entertained.

Ms Gabaldon has provided several cliffhangers plus a particularly excellent twist at the end to keep readers anxiously awaiting the next in the series.

There are multiple POVs meshed in with the numerous subplots, but were relatively easy to keep up with. This is a book that could be read on its own as hints from the past are included as explanations throughout. Many of the preceding books are not true stand alone books. I had begun with the third book, Voyageur, on the recommendation from a friend to read the passages about sailing, and once I was finished it I went out and bought the first book. I haven't looked back since.

all her books in this series is fantastic

I couldn't wait for this book to come out and was so disappointed. It was a chore to finish it. There are too many stories happening within the story. It was so confusing. There is a lot of jumping around between plot lines. Just when you get the jist of what's going on, something else is thrown in there. just way too much happening. I'd like to return and get my money back.

I am a big fan of the outlander series so you can imagine how excited I was when I picked up An echo in the bone. I couldn't wait to buy it and start reading it and I tell you this book took me FOREVER to finish.

I don't know what it was with this book that I didn't like; it was just too long with too many details . I only started getting into it after 200 pages in. It took forever for the action to start.

But because I am a fan of the series I was patient of course since I have invested interest in the characters and the story and I did enjoy it but not as much as I did with the other 6 books.

I even saw a woman on the train who approached me while I was reading the book and said: " I love the series I read all six books but I am having a hard time getting into this one so I put it aside and started reading something else" I told her that it did take me a while to get into it.

Also the ending I felt it was left with too many loose ends, I understand that Diana wants to write the 8th book but come on, at least tie some of those loose ends!

All in all I think loyal fans will read it because you have to have read the previous six books to enjoy this one.

I have read every book in this series and I found this one to prattle on , about endless dribble. Of the 814 pages the book did not start to get somewhat interesting till 472 page . Then there was very little of Jamie's ususal banter and way too much about William Yawn . It had little to no suspense and I frequently found my self skimming this book. It ususally take me a week to read Diana's book's this one took me several months .

Claire and Jamie carry on with life now that Brianna and Roger are back to their time. They are all trying to figure out the direction of their lives now. Jamie and Claire are headed to Scotland to pick up Jamie's printing press, while Brianna and Roger are trying to fit back into the world in 1980. No one's path is easy.

I can understand how some people did not like this as much as the rest. This book goes from Claire, Jamie, Roger and Brianna as the main focal point to add Lord John and William. The later two being a little dry in the beginning. Have faith that it does weave an excellent tail in the end. The cliffhanger ending is killing me. There were so many people left in the balance I will be worried and pondering the outcome till the next book.

Unlike most people who want the books to remain just about Claire and Jamie, I like that we see more of the secondary characters. The other storey lines are about the people that Claire and Jamie care about most and who directly affect the couple.

I love the Outlander series but DG is getting more long-winded with every novel. This book was supposed to be the final installment for Jaimie and Clare, yet once again, Diana has left readers hanging for the next 3 or 4 years in order to get an actual ending to the story (if that!). Her first book, Outlander, was a complete story in and of itself, the shortest and the most popular -- why can't she do the same thing with her other books? It would seem to me that once an author has created a great formula, she should continue to follow that formula. I'm getting tired of reading for hours only to come to an unsatisfactory ending where I must wait for another book to complete the story line. I don't know if I'll buy the next book -- I'm getting tired of being disappointed with the hanging endings and long-winded details.

Amazing book, the whole series is fantastic! You know there is going to be another one! I can't wait to find out when it's coming out ... a Must read !!!

It's amazing how much leeway you will allow an author, if you feel loyal and have invested your time and money in their books over many years: typos, inconsistencies, implausible story lines etc.

That said, I think as others do that Diana Gabaldon is running out of steam, and has decided to please her publisher, with the revenue that entails, instead of caring about her fans and readers.

The time frame between books is getting longer, making it difficult to resume the story. I had to go back and read the last chapter of Breath... to understand the beginning of Echo..

Time and time again she leaves the reader hanging, in her lastest installment. According to her explanations on another site; YES, Archie Bug is dead. How hard would it have been to state that "Arch is dead", after William shot his pistol in the printing shop storefront room.

Diana Gabaldon's attitude and reply to that, is that the outcome was obvious.... what? in a series where nothing is predictable, and where characters come and go unexpectedly?

I also feel that the Lord John storyline was redundant and irritating, discussing his previous battles for instance, namely the Quebec one with Wolfe. Oh! but wait, Diana is publishing another book about that very topic...(coincidence?) in the other series.

I feel manipulated and very disapointed with this author. I understand that publishing houses want to make as much money as possible, when they have a bestselling author to market. The longer they wait, the more hardcovers they sell, that the anticipation is so great, readers will jump in with their cash and high expectations.

But there are limits to how much readers will allow themselves to be used, you can see the beginning of a backlash now, especially in the USA.

Life being what it is, who knows if Gabaldon will be able to publish the last installment of this series in 3 or 4 years. It would not be the first time. It's happened with other authors, where at the end of a span of 20 years, they were not able to complete their series, for whatever reason.

In the meantime we can console ourselves with her other series and projects in the works for 2010, 2011 and 2012. Right?

NO, the next Gabaldon book I might buy will be a greatly reduced 2nd hand paperback...

Lisa-Marie, Alberta

You wait for a new book to come out and this one was a mess from start to finish.
The ending left one hanging more than any other book and I for one am not sure if a next book would be written that I would buy it. At present I think not.
This book was fragmented with far too many new characters that if left out would have given more room for the main characters. At the end, they left every main character hanging and not together. I am still in shock at this betrayal from the author.
My ending:
Clair and Jamie when they come back to Scotland, stay in Scotland. Separated from Brianna and Rodger and grandchildren by 200 years. Clair and Jamie would decided to go through the stones and reunite with Brianna and Rodger and the grandchildren. End of Story, no more books for Diana Gabaldon has lost her edge and style in this book.

I started this book with great expectations. I love the other six books in the series, and was really excited about book seven. I was very disappointed. The first issue I have is with the various time periods. Obviously Bree and Roger are in the present, so you'd expect some jumping between the past (with Claire and Jamie) and the present, but the beginning of the book does a lot of jumping between time periods in the past, too, which got very confusing. Also, there seemed to be too many points of view. The story was told from Claire's perspective, Jamie, Ian, William (Jamie's son), Lord John, Bree and Roger. This also created a somewhat confusing and hard to follow story line (or, more precisely, lines) at times. There were some memorable and poignant parts to the story, too, but it just wasn't as good as I'd hoped.

Unlike many of Gabaldon's works, I found this book extremely difficult to get into - the story and characters were, for the first half of the book, disjointed and awkward to say the least. While I did enjoy and engage with the second half, I found myself completely mystified at the end of the story - it simply did not end well: too many questions unanswered (in preparation for her next "novel", likely?) - too many loose ends. If you are looking for a complete story, this is not it - certainly not a stand alone like many of the others in the series.

Diana Gabaldon has done it again! What a saga! Should be made into a movie or a series. But how would you get all the nuances of a book into that? Loved it!

I can only guess that there will be another book because there were so many BIG cliff hangers. Four story lines: Claire & Jamie, Brianna & Roger, Ian (Jamie's nephew) & William (Jamie's son). I think it was chapter 100, or somewhere around there...six kleenex chapter. Was looking for more of Jamie & Claire, but as always, excellent writing. Got totally sucked in once more and couldn't stop thinking about the book for days and days after being finished. Good thing my other books were lent out because I would have picked up Outlander and started at the beginning again. Thanks so much Diana Gabaldon! I'll be first on the list to buy the next in the series.

As a huge fan of Gabaldon's Outlander series I was a bit dissapointed with the lated addition to the series "An Echo in the Bone". I do love her writing but I almost feel as though she should have left the series finish with "Ashes in the Snow".

In the latest Outlander novel we encounter Bree and Roger who have returned to the 21st century through the stones and have established themselves in the old Lallybroch household.

Back in 1777 Scotland Jamie and Claire Fraser have been forced out of their house as a result of it being burned to the ground in the fire. To avoid being swept up in the tide of the revolution they decide to return to Scotland for a spell. Running adjacent to their story is the stories of Lord John Grey and his stepson William, who is also the illegitimate son of Jamie.

Although Gabaldon employs her considerable talents in making her characters come alive the plot line drags and doesnt spark with the same intensity of her previous novels.

The ending of the novel was inconclusive implying there will be another novel to finish off the story of this 814 page novel. After getting through eight-hundred and fourteen pages it was quite disapointing for there not to be any conclusion whatsever. I actually flipped through the remaining pages of Author's notes and Author Biography looking for the end of the story.

I love Gabaldon's book and I will buy this next novel but if you are not really a huge fan of hers to begin with I don't reccommend purchasing this book. If you liked Ashes in the Snow you are not missing anything new by not reading the latest addition to the series. You may be better off thinking the story ends with the conclusion of Ashes in the Snow. I definetly feel I would have been.

I have been eagerly waiting this book since finishing the last one in the series.
The novel started a little slow as the reader was reunited with the characters, and got used to Gabaldon's method of switching between the various characters.
But Gabaldon didn't disappoint. She picked up the action, adventure, romance, drama, and suspense that readers have come to expect from her. The last quarter was especially hard for me to put down.
I love the addition of Lord John to the regular cast. His time with Clarie was very "entertaining" (for lack of a better word) to read. As someone else mentioned, his last scene with Jamie was excellent. I had always liked John, but this novel made me love him too.
Gabaldon answered many questions that were raised in previous story lines, but left some big cliffhangers leaving readers desperately wanting more. (I'm dying to know what happens!)
My family laughed at the gasps and sighs that I let out while reading.
To me, Gabaldon proved once again why she is one of my favorite authors.Hopefully she can finish the next book in less than the three years I had to wait for this one.
[I so wish I had been well enough to go to her book signing. Maybe the 5th try (whenever she returns to Ottawa or Toronto) will be the charm for me to finally meet her.]

She is a great author who knows how to write and gives us a wonderful story.

Outlander( the first book in this series) is my favourite novel. I have enjoyed the rest of the series, but none of the books are quite as good as the first one in my opinion. However, I did enjoy Echo very much. I couldn't put it down! I thought though, that this one was the last one and so I kept staying up late and reading and reading to see what happened, and towards the last quarter of the book I began to be a bit worried that Ms.Gabaldon would tie it all up too quickly....... instead I finished it at 2am one night and let out a huge sigh that I'm now going to have to wait a few years before I find out what happens!!!! I really hope she's a fast writer!

This book was awesome. I could just picture everything as I read the book. I am so looking forward to the next book, but not looking forward to the end of this series. Keep up the great work Diana!!