Seven Stones to Stand or Fall: A Collection of Outlander Fiction Paperback – August 7, 2018

I couldn’t put it down! Each story in this book brought me closer to my favorite Outlander characters, Lord John and Jamie Fraser.

I !oved reading these pieces because I now have the back stories of lots of the characters in the series! I just finished reading this book and now have an overwhelming urge to read the entire series from scratch!

Several outtakes and side stories from the Outlander universe fill in the blanks of the main story told through the existing 8 books of the main series as well as serving to round out the story of several secondary characters.I’d already purchased and read several of the novellas and short stories included in this anthology but of the ones that were new to me, I enjoyed “A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows” the most which tells the heartbreaking story of what really happened to Roger’s parents. Less enjoyed, “Besieged” focuses on Lord John’s attempts to save some family members that leads to his unwanted entanglement in a siege of Havana after leaving his post in Jamaica. While I love LJ’s character and liked meeting his mother and other family members, this story moved a bit too slowly for my taste. Finally, “The Space Between” tells of a magical interaction between the Compte St. Germaine and Master Raymond, characters you’ll only be familiar with if you’ve read the main series. Of the three, this story is the most fantasy based and provides some opening for one or more of these characters as well as a couple of others, to return to the main story line.Bottom line: Diana Gabaldon just can’t write anything “bad” but that’s not to say that some stories aren’t more enjoyable than others. Custom of the Army and Virgins are arguably the best entries in this anthology but like the ones mentioned above, are more enjoyable if you’ve read the main series.

I haven’t read this one yet, I’ve read all eight outlander books so far, I just finished number eight last night and it was awesome but leaves you hanging on a few situations so I am very anxiously awaiting book number 10, Go Tell The Bees I’m Gone that is coming out in October of this year. Diana Gabaldon is a wonderful writer, staying very true to all history. I need to find out exactly where this book comes in for me to read, I want to make sure that I read each and everyone in order. I can hardly wait, to dive in and Diana Gabaldon able to draw you, feeling like you’re right there, you can see and hear everything so clearly. She makes you feel everything the characters do, you laugh out loud, you get embarrassed, you get very angry and you actually cry. Outlander It’s such a beautiful love story, one that needed to told. All of Diana Gabaldon‘s books, are truly wonderful she’s an exceptional writer who is truly gifted.

I have to admit that I hadn't read beyond the 'Big, Enormous Books' (BEBs) of the main series, but I was looking for a something to take me away from the present horrors in the world and escape to past, fictional ones! I love the Outlander series and finding that Diana Gabaldon (DG) has written a good deal more was a relief. I know that some people were disappointed that most of the stories in this collection had been previously published in other collections and, of course, had read them all, but she does say that in her 'Introduction: A Chronology of the Outlander Series' which, by the way, is an excellent summary of all these stories, novellas, and the novels she's written as expansions of events mentioned in the BEBs that she couldn't follow at the time (or her publishers said would make the BEBs even more unwieldy). I hadn't read any of the Lord John novels, so this book spurred me on to read them all, in order, with the tales in this new collection. I did make one change in the order in my own reading and that was to read the final story, 'Beseiged', directly after 'A Plague of Zombies' for continuity, and finished with 'A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows' reversing it with 'The Space Between' because I like chronological order (though the 'A Leaf...' may work better following on the heals of the BEB, 'Written in My Own Heart's Blood' if one were reading the BEBs along with the rest as laid out in the Introduction by DG). If you enjoy DG's 'voice', all these stories, including the 'never before published' ones, retain it beautifully. I hope she keeps writing, forever! :)

Having read every book written, this is one that is a must read. So very well done.