Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

(Note: I have "read" all of the Outlander and Lord John novels and shorts, but as audiobooks. I may sometimes incorrectly spell names phonetically, because I've never seen them written!) This is a collection of sizable short stories by Diana Gabaldon, the author of the Outlander universe of 18th century historical fantasy (time travel) fiction. You can only call it a universe because of the detail with which she's treated the characters and times she's written so extensively about intertwine (mostly!) gracefully as the books have gone on. If you are looking at this book, I hope you are all caught up in your reading on both the Frasers and the Greys, otherwise you might find there are some gaps in the history here. These four stories appeared in anthologies first (Down These Strange Streets, Warriors, Songs of Love and Death, and The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination) and it's possible you may have already read them, just not together in this collection. In another odd twist, half of these shorts are Lord John's, the other half are Fraser related - well, once removed... Mackenzie and Murray, really. I think that Gabaldon is possibly making an effort to remind readers that the stories from both of these great series are really a continuation of the same saga. If you haven't read these yet, because they appeared in anthologies first, then this might be what you were waiting for. THE CUSTOM OF THE ARMY - Lord John wakes up after a crazy night at a party to find his perplexed brother, the duke, waving angry letters at him. Some kind of wild party, too; the letters are from a poet's angry father, the angry brother of a lady the poet wrote about, the lady herself, and a summons to appear at the court martial of an old friend. In Canada. Right. So, John arrives across the ocean in time to take place in the historic battle at the Plains of Abraham in a story that takes place after Brotherhood of the Blade and sets the stage for the events in The Scottish Prisoner. This is a recommended read if you have read, or plan to read Prisoner, and contains events and characters mentioned during An Echo in the Bone, set to reappear again in My Heart's Own Blood, the next Outlander novel. LORD JOHN AND THE PLAGUE OF ZOMBIES - Prior to becoming the Governor of Jamaica in Voyager, third book in the Outlander series, Lord John first arrives on the island to restore order amid rumors of a voodoo fueled uprising. Everybody is on edge and superstitious, and once someone turns up dead, John has to seek advice from Claire's old frienemy, Geillis Duncan, and expose what's really going on before the unrest completely goes out of control. This story takes place shortly after The Scottish Prisoner. THE SPACE BETWEEN - Joan, Jaime Fraser's daughter by marriage, all but vanishes from the Outlander series after she helps negotiate her mother's divorce settlement with her stepfather. She wanted to become a nun, and takes a ship to France to do exactly that. But her traveling companion is Jaime's nephew, widowed wineseller Michael Murray, who is returning home from Lallybroch. I'm thinking you can guess her life does not work out quite as she planned. These events would have taken place "off stage" during Echo. A LEAF ON THE WIND OF ALL HALLOWS - This neat little story reaches back into the future-past of one of the main Outlander series characters, Roger Mackenzie. A descendant of 'witch' Geillis Duncan, and son in law to Jamie Fraser, Roger has appeared in just about all of the Fraser series of books, starting as a child in Outlander. This story takes place in WWII and treats us to a visit with Roger's parents, and Claire's first husband, Frank Randall. It also takes the previous vague accounts of pilot Jerry Mackenzie's death between the teeth and runs with it to an unexpected place. Because *any* descendant of a time traveler can pass through the stones! I expect these events to dovetail into events taking place in the upcoming Outlander novel, Written in My Own Heart's Blood. These four stories can possibly stand on their own, but taken out of context will feel incomplete. They pick up loose threads in the main two series of books and attempts to weave them into the main saga, adding to the intricacy of the overall tale. As Gabaldon goes on, more of this interweaving takes place between books. If you have not yet read these, I think they will take on a new significance with the release of My Heart's Own Blood later in 2013.