I just finished up Diana Gabaldon’s book Lord John and the Hand of Devils. I enjoyed it. I’m not going to describe the books per se. There are a couple of good reviews by Jayne of Dear Author and Alex Beecroft at Speak Its Name, if you’re curious to read more details.
I am going to complain about the presence of Jamie Fraser in these Lord John books. I just want him to go away. (If you look at the reviews I link to above, you’ll see I’m not the only one.)
Okay, so basically it’s a bad case of unrequited love. I find unrequited love is not the funnest thing to read, but okay, that doesn’t mean it’s not a valid thing to write about. But it’s gone on through three full books now, and it is just enough. Luckily in this latest book, Jamie Fraser is not actually on the page, but every time Lord John hearkened back to Jamie, I was like oh, no, not again.
Now, that said, I’m going to make an exception for the final novella, “Lord John and the Haunted Soldier”. Why? Well, in this one story it actually makes sense to me. Lord John is recovering, emotionally and physically, from battle wounds. He’s shaky and vulnerable; and he writes a letter or letters to Jamie that he’ll never send. Because he is so vulnerable through most of this story, I can see Jamie being a safe “love”. Obviously Lord John loving men in 17th century England is not safe at all.
But for most of the books Lord John is very self-contained, self-aware and confident, and I tire of him yearning for Jamie. Not only that, I’m not even convinced. It feels wrong (to me); as if the author loves Jamie, so she forces her character to feel the same. I found it worst in Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade, where Lord John has a real connection with another man which was much more convincing.
Ah well. Obviously Gabaldon is doing something right, because I do adore Lord John and his world. I just hope he gets a better novel next time.
