Confusing but still worthy

A Breath of Snow and Ashes
Diana Gabaldon
Dell Publishing Company (2008)
Mass Market Paperback, 1456 pages
Rated 4 stars of 5 possible

A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon is book six of the Outlander series. Like the earlier volumes in the series, A Breath of Snow and Ashes takes up the story of Jamie and Claire where the previous novel ended. Also like most novels, this one has it's high points and some not so high points. While clearly not the best of the series, this book is still much better than book 5, and a worthy segment of the epic. The characters are very realistic and interestingly flawed, yet some of the situations were downright confusing.

Potential spoiler follows for those who have not read this novel, however the spoiler is necessary to explain the confusion.

At one point, Brianna is at the home of Jamie's aunt, and then, suddenly she is a captive on board a ship belonging to one of one of the villains of the epic. This part of the tale makes little sense, as does her rescue which comes later. While a captive, Brianna bribes a prostitute to carry a message to Jamie, which is eventually delivered as promised... but, before that message is delivered, Jamie clearly knows what has happened already. How does he know? This, too, is unexplained...

Recommended for the author's fans, as well as to readers who like their historical fiction with a little romance, a little science fiction, and and lots of details... However, to get the most from this book, you really should read those that were published prior to this volume.

Book 1: Outlander
Book 2: Dragonfly in Amber
Book 3: Voyager
Book 4: Drums of Autumn
Book 5: The Fiery Cross

This review is being simultaneously posted on Dragon Views, LibraryThing, Amazon.com and any other site on which the revewer decides is appropriate.  Note also that no compensation, financial or otherwise, was received for posting this review.