Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Drums of Autumn
    Drums of Autumn
    Drums of Autumn
    Audiobook44 hours

    Drums of Autumn

    Written by Diana Gabaldon

    Narrated by Davina Porter

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Diana Gabaldon’s fans will be delighted to find Jamie and Claire as spirited and endearing as ever in this fourth installment of this magnificent saga. Romance, history, and time travel blend once again as the couple builds a new life together in the wilderness of pre–Revolutionary America.

    Twice Claire has used an ancient stone circle to travel back to the 18th century.

    The first time she found love with a Scottish warrior but had to return to the 1940s to save their unborn child. The second time, twenty years later, she reunited with her lost love but had to leave behind the daughter that he would never see. Now Brianna, from her 1960s vantage point, has found a disturbing
    obituary and will risk everything in an attempt to change history.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateOct 24, 2014
    ISBN9781436138086
    Drums of Autumn
    Author

    Diana Gabaldon

    DIANA GABALDON is the author of the award-winning, #1 New York Times best-selling Outlander novels, described by Salon magazine as “the smartest historical sci-fi adventure-romance story ever written by a science Ph.D.” She serves as co-producer and advisor for the Starz network Outlander series based on her novels.

    More audiobooks from Diana Gabaldon

    Related to Drums of Autumn

    Titles in the series (17)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Historical Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Dashing Warrior

      Apr 1, 2020

      A Dashing Warrior
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      Cricket League

      Sep 1, 2020

      Cricket League
      7 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Sep 1, 2022

      1. Here there’s no rainy season.Sun scalds my forehead,yet the pool is empty. Beside it,a toppled table, its glass surface shattered.The asphalt is too hot for bare feet. 2. Far away: white hillocksand white dunes under a deepblue sky. Swirling winds

      5 min read

    • Article

      Maybe It Won’t Be That Bad

      Dec 9, 2019

      Maybe It Won’t Be That Bad
      4 min read

    • Article

      La Otra Historia

      Jun 30, 2022

      La Otra Historia
      14 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems by Phillip B. Williams

      Dec 15, 2017

      The masters are yet dead. Wanting to be human,I tried to rewrite The Waste Land. The canon’s reachcasts ruinous light. The masters’ pens breachthis page where, above, my own hand spectates. Babylonrisen, exorcism in reverse, whose nature upended now?

      6 min read

    • Article

      Excerpts From The Works Of The 2024 Whiting Award Winners

      Apr 10, 2024

      The 2024 Whiting Award winners were announced Wednesday night. Below are excerpts from their work.

      19 min read

    • Article

      Eating My Words

      Nov 15, 2021

      Eating My Words
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Art Of Secretion

      May 5, 2022

      The Art Of Secretion
      8 min read

    • Article

      It Had To Be Stew

      May 22, 2022

      It Had To Be Stew
      4 min read

    • Article

      It’s Come to This

      Sep 1, 2021

      It’s Come to This
      16 min read

    • Article

      Perfect Prose II

      May 15, 2020

      Perfect Prose II
      4 min read

    • Article

      Iran

      May 5, 2022

      When I saw the bush, I could hardly contain my delight. It rose from the grainy sweep of sand before me like a towering will-o’-thewisp, part-fern, part-wishful phantasm. Shade pooled from its roots in delicious, wasteful abandon. Could it be real? F

      3 min read

    • Article

      Marta

      Oct 15, 2019

      Marta
      4 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Nov 1, 2020

      The American linden sways nonplussed by the storm,a bounce here, a shimmy there, just shaking like musicleft over from the night’s end wafting into the avenues before sleep.I remember once walking down Clinton Street, and singingthat line returning,

      4 min read

    • Article

      Learning To Walk

      Oct 28, 2019

      Learning To Walk
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Sound Of Music

      Apr 3, 2020

      The Sound Of Music
      5 min read

    • Article

      Life In The past Lane

      Aug 27, 2021

      Life In The past Lane
      5 min read

    • Article

      Slag

      Oct 20, 2021

      Slag
      10 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      May 1, 2022

      —after Gerrit van Honthorst’s “Samson and Delilah,” c. 1621 They’ve made a monster of me, marring my namefor eternity. I’m not Delilah,but Laila. I loved him. Each night, in bed, after our bodies became one body, he would succumb to sleep, resting hi

      3 min read

    • Article

      Hello, Grim Reaper

      Dec 15, 2021

      She was a babe. A fully paid-up, card-carrying babe. There was absolutely no doubt about it, and she was heading straight for me. She was almost sprinting towards me across the recently reimagined lobby of Claridge’s. She looked up, her scarlet-anoin

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Drums of Autumn

    4.5/5

    380 ratings43 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Guilty pleasure starting to wear a bit thin as Gabaldon's fresh ideas continue to keep the story interesting but her prose becomes a bit wearying.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This fourth book in the outlander series finds Claire and Jamie livining in the American colonies. Again, the historical detail and action were both wonderful, but what I really enjoyed was in finding out more about their daughter Brianna and her love interest Roger. Spanning 2 different eras, the story was very engaging. As with the previous books, I found it a bit long and bogged down in places, but still an enjoyable read. I will be eager to continue the saga with book 5.
    • 5/5
      Not the same as series 4 in outlander I enjoyed this better.
    • 5/5
      great book! great characters and lots of action! even romance!
    • 5/5
      Loved it . the voice and accent changes are great
    • 5/5
      Beautiful and picturesque as always. This series never disappoints!!
    • 3/5
      I'm not a prude but the part where they they are about to bury the friend and she starts talking about Jamie's nips and "a fierce blind coupling amid crushed grass and raw earth" made me angry and disgusted.
      They are literally next to a day old dead body of a dear friend while foaming at the mouth for each other..
      Get your stuff together people..
      I could understand if they were in there teens or 20s but they're pushing 50..
    • 5/5
      I absolutely love Davina Porter, but the plot in this book seems kind of choppy. I’m always left wondering if I accidentally skipped ahead of missed something because the scene was cut off seemingly unfinished…
    • 5/5
      What a wonderful book there is so much detail.About what the characters are thinking compared to the program. Good literature.
    • 5/5
      Great narrator and wonderful story as were the previous books in the series
    • 4/5
      Another great story about Jamie and Claire. There are some slow parts, but overall I enjoyed the book very much.
    • 5/5
      I cannot for the life of me understand how an author can be as excellent as Diana Gabaldon.I came upon her books in a used book store by a customer very familiar with this series. I never ever ever have been disappointed that I have chosen to read this series. While the Kindle books are expensive, her books are well worth it for the thickness of the books. Lastly, as I have stated many many times, "I DO NOT believe in reincarnation". I have read a lot of romance however, I cry sometimes because I feel like I miss home. I am African America raised in DC and am very very proud of my heritage. Yet, deep inside I have a longing for Scotland. Don't know where the pull is coming from but as I said, "I feel homesick" for a people and a country that I have never known. Always brings me to tears.Dachaigh mo chridhe.....maybe.
    • 5/5
      Another superior book by Diana Gabaldon. "Drums of Autumn" kept me enthralled the whole time. She truly knows how to tell a story. If you start reading the Outlander series you will not be disappointed.
    • 4/5
      Series review: Fascinating and mostly very readable series even if it gets a little bit soap opera like at times. Rich with historical detail and description.
    • 4/5
      The 4th book in a historical romance series about a woman from the 20th century who is transported to the 18th century. Claire and her scottish husband now find themselves in the American colonies. The history is so well written and fascinating. The love story so full of passion. But thies book falls short of how good the first two are. The 3rd was pretty good, but this one is just ok. I'm just not so into American history as I am into Scottish history. Still worth reading.
    • 3/5
      The narrator was excellent, but the book itself was too long to listen to on this platform. For any other books of this series, I’ll turn to a hard copy so I can skip over long descriptions, look back to refresh my memory of reintroduced characters, and reread sections that I didn’t fully comprehend.
    • 5/5
      Wat can you possibly say about one of the most wonderful series written. Remarkable storyline, wonderfully rich caricatures, fabulous detail - I LOVE THIS SERIES!
    • 4/5
      Claire and Jamie make their new life on a mountain in North Carolina, Fraser's Ridge. Brianna and Roger both discover a notice that implies Jamie and Claire will die in 1776. Brianna decides to go back in time to find her mother and Roger follows her. Stephen Bonnet, a condemned man escapes the gallows and Jamie does not turn him in. The Frasers will live to regret it. The Frasers have encounters with local Native tribes and villages, both good and bad, sometimes with unexpected results. While this wasn't my favourite of the series, it does set it up for the remainder of the series. We get to know a new couple, Brianna and Roger as well as get to see Jamie become acquainted with his daughter.
    • 4/5
      Well, this one was compelling. Some things I loved, some things I was like... reallyyyy....... mainly IAN WHAT NOOOOO COME BACK. but overall, enjoyed. It dragged a bit in the beginning; it really took me until at least 250 pages to get back into it, but when it started moving, the pages flew by. I still think I have enjoyed Voyager the most so far, but we shall see where book 5 takes me.
    • 5/5
      Another captivating link in the Fraser chain. Drums of Autumn takes the reader deep into the wilderness of North Carolina--an especially gratifying choice of setting considering that I now rest my head there. It was delightful for me to say aloud, "Hey! I know where they are!"; this delight was matched only by the instances of furious passion, gut-retching detail, and indelible love. It is difficult for me to say hardly anything of the book without giving all of its secrets away, so I will only say this: read it.
    • 5/5
      Another wonderful story. I absolutely love Diana Gabaldon's telling of the love shared between Jamie and Claire. This story was no exception. There were times I was so excited to know what was about to happen that I found myself skimming parts. I was so happy that Brianna and Roger were able to go back in time and meet Jamie and reunite with Claire. This is a truly remarkable series. I only wish I could read faster. I am going to get started on the next one right now!
    • 5/5
      Outstanding, as usual. Gabaldon has a way of bringing her characters and her world to life like no other author does.
    • 5/5
      Diana Gabaldon was the start of my love for books with characters that travel through time (and personally I think her novels are the best of them). Of course this book in the Outlander series was no disappointment. Drums of Autumn continues with Brianna's story, her relationship with Roger, and also her own trip back in time.
    • 3/5
      I absolutely love the Outlander series. The story is fantastic, but the recording has many places where it skips forward and backwards and I think I missed a big portion of the book.
    • 4/5
      Things have calmed down a *little* bit in the Fraser lives, but this was still a very good book. I like how the story is progressing. My only problem is that I find myself skimming things like Indian folktales ... but that's my problem, not a problem with the book. My eyes always glaze over when I hit stuff like that.
    • 4/5
      Jamie and Claire lives now in America They have some lands in the middle of wilderness and they’re ready to settle to “normal” married life. The local Indians are relatively peaceful and Jamie’s nephew Ian becomes good friend with them.In the 20th century Brianna is trying to find what happens to his parents. She’s also coming closer to Roger Wakefield, who helped Claire to trace Jamie. When Brianna finds old newspaper article about her parents she decides to go through the stones without telling Roger. When Roger finds out she has left, he’s determined to find her.Yet another godd book by Gabaldon! I enjoyed it but still thought it to be the weakest book in the serie so far. But that doesn’t mean it was bad! I just found Roger so utterly boring. And there were too many pages from his point of view. He seemed more interesting in the future time.I liked to see how Brianna and Jamie got to know each other and their relationship grow. AndI liked how well she get along with John Grey. But I didn’t understand how John could be so uninterested about his wife’s death. The one thing I could have lived without was Brianna getting raped. I just didn’t see the point of it...
    • 4/5
      Drums of Autumn is the fourth book in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. By this point, I wonder if there's a reason to write a true review of the fourth book in a series of thousand-page books. After all, no one's glancing at reviews to say, "I suppose I'll just dive in here and not read the first three, shall I?" People who make it through thousand-page books of historical fiction don't tend to jump around in a series, right? If you do, then stop it this instant.What I mean is that I feel like I'm not trying to sell anyone on these books by this time. You're either hooked or you're not, so a review becomes unnecessary... unless it's something intended to whet the appetites of expectant readers prior to the book's release? Or sway someone who once liked the books and then was disappointed? Well, rather than write a real review, I'm opting for a plot summary and then something that's more of a discussion of certain points. My assumption is that if you're reading this review, you've already read the book and might simply want to chat about it with someone. Or you're a friend who feels obliged to read my reviews because you love me or at least find me amusing from time to time... in which case, I apologize for the fact that this is the fourth book in this series that I've read about Scottish Highlanders, time travel, adventure and romance. This'll teach you for saying you always read my reviews.In Voyager, Claire and Jamie Fraser were reunited after twenty years (or two hundred years, depends how you look at it) of separation and now they're together for good (most likely). While rescuing Jamie's nephew Ian from pirates, they crossed the Atlantic to the Caribbean Islands and not only found Ian, but Claire ended up killing fellow time-traveler/accused witch, Gellis Duncan. Now Jamie and Claire (and everyone else they have in tow) are in the American colonies, trying to figure out just what to do with themselves. Settle down? Continue to travel? Return to Scotland? Claire's a bit terrified about that gravestone in Scotland with Jamie's name on it, but perhaps that's not the best indicator as to where their fate may lie. Rather than simply stay with Claire and Jamie in the eighteenth century, this book dips back to also pick up the "modern" time. Brianna (Jamie and Claire's daughter) and Roger (descendant of Jamie's uncle Dougal and the witch Gellis) might be mad for each other, but Roger is fairly insistent that if Brianna wants him, it has to be for life... and that means marriage. Brianna was a bit concerned about promising such a thing when they have years of obligations between them (her school, his work) and puts things off, thus keeping them on separate continents. So when Roger realizes that Brianna has gone missing (apparently leaving for Scotland without telling him), he no longer has any idea if Brianna wants him or not, as she's clearly gone into the stones to find her mother. Roger had failed to tell Brianna about a notice he found in a Colonial paper that announced the deaths of Jamie and Claire in 1776, so he knows that Brianna will eventually be headed to the Colonies once she finds out where they've gone. Thus, Roger dives into the stones to find Brianna, uncertain if she wants to be found and uncertain if they'll be able to make it back.So from this point on, I'll be bringing up some discussion points... which means there are spoilers. Just FYI.I suppose I see why it had to be America, given the time period, but I will, indeed, miss Scotland. After internal debate and external discussion, Jamie and Claire decide to take the governor up on his offer and settle in the Carolinas, attempting to build up a home for themselves and the opportunity for others to settle. It is, indeed, as though Jamie is creating his own lairdship here in the Americas, except he's insistent that it's not the same. There may not be generations backing up his claim, but Jamie is enough of a leader to command the same amount of allegiance. I suppose if need the drama, then at least we have the same structure we're used to... and we're not creating an isolated settlement where it's just a handful of people. (Of course, the pessimist in me believes that we're simply building up a good amount of characters so we can kill them off soon enough once we hit the Revolutionary War). In this book, there was the tempting offer of Jamie taking up the management of River Run, his aunt Jocasta's plantation, but here I appreciated the fact that Gabaldon knows her characters well (I suppose she ought to by now). Jocasta is quite a strong-willed character and Jamie would have to do things her way... and he's not one to take orders. Better to have him establish something that's his own... and allow us the historical glimpse into everything it takes to set up a settlement.One thing that I found to be a trifle irritating in this particular book is a trick that Gabaldon uses more often in this volume than in any other (aside from the fact that this was the whole structure of book two) -- she takes us right up to a scene that should be quite important... and then skips forward in time, only to return to this scene much later. I understand there's a desire to spread out the tension and her story structure rested on the need for us to not know the truth of things until it was necessary, but the repeated use of this was the really annoying bit. The two big examples of this are when Bree gets raped by Bonnet and when Jamie potentially kills Roger. (Side note: I'm nearly done with book five by the time I write this review and I have to say that poor Rogers gets the short end of the stick for quite a while to come.) By not coming out with information at the get-go, confusion is caused, and that's important for Gabaldon's storytelling structure. We need to not know if Bree slept with Bonnet, yet know that Lizzie suspects Roger of raping Bree. We need to not know if Jamie has killed Roger. We need the miscommunication (or lack of communication) for her story to do what she wants it to do... it's just that it gets to be a bit wearisome when everything in a thousand page book is based on this story structure. And it also tends to suggest that if Gabaldon can't jump between two centuries, then I suppose we can hardly stop her when she feels the itch to jump between a matter of days or months.By virtue of shifting the stories to focus a bit more on the drama between Roger and Bree (young and at the start of their romance), we do move away from Jamie and Claire, but only a bit. We have to give way a little, I suppose, or else the book would be even longer, but at least Gabaldon doesn't feel the need to focus on them entirely. After all, Jamie and Claire already have our hearts. Roger and Bree are good enough, but don't quite have the pull of Jamie and Claire. Perhaps it's to do with the fact that their romance doesn't have the same epic feel to it. Perhaps it's that neither one of them are as charismatic as Jamie or Claire. I often find myself frustrated on their behalves, for neither of them were born to the eighteenth century and so they both seem to be fish out of water, whereas at least Claire has Jamie... and her own practical focus that allows her to settle into this world without much fuss. There's also a sense of the tragic with them by the end of the book -- Bree pregnant and uncertain as to who could be the father; Roger bought back from the Indians at the expense of sacrificing young Ian; both Bree and Roger now stuck in the eighteenth century, for Bree won't leave Jemmy and Roger won't leave Bree. When it comes to villains, I suppose no one should have worried about a lack of them in the New World. Gabaldon does have a tendency to come up with some truly depraved folks. First it was Jonathan "Black Jack" Randall, who might be Frank Randall's ancestor and yet was a truly wicked sadist, consumed by his obsession for dominating Jamie. Then we had Gellie Duncan, who seemed to rise from the dead so that she might debauch and kill young boys in her witchy attempts to return to her own time. Now we have Stephen Bonnet, an Irish smuggler who repaid the Frasers kindness with robbery and then raped their daughter, potentially impregnating her. Of course, all of Gabaldon's villains seem to have another side to them (certainly Randall seemed all but forgiven in his grief-stricken descent) and the same is true of Bonnet, though not quite to the same degree -- yet. Bonnet actually does drag John Grey's body to safety from the fire that his associates set (even if it's at Bree's insistence)... and gives Bree the black diamond for the child's keeping. Of course, this can only end badly, as this all but assured that Bonnet will try to return for the child, who he believes to be his son. He'll have to end up dead in the end if Bree, Roger, and Jemmy are to remain an intact family. In the meantime, even if I wasn't always delighted with this novel, I'm well aware that I've fallen under Gabaldon's spell and will continue to devour her novels. I might need a break soon, though, and I'm a bit surprised I haven't overdosed already. That's testament to an excellent storyteller, I suppose.
    • 4/5
      This is the fourth book in the Outlander series and Claire and Jamie's new adventures are in the Americas. They travel with Ian Murray (Jamie's nephew) to North Carolina where they meet Jamie's Aunt Jocasta at River Run. Even though Aunt Jocasta wants to leave Jamie her estate, he prefers to settle at Fraser's Ridge which it is more secluded and something he can call his own . Of course, Claire and Jamie run into Indians and bears on the way and meet interesting characters as well. In addition to Claire and Jamie's story, Brianna (Claire and Jamie's daughter) and Roger Wakefield MacKenzie's (distant ancestor of Dougal MacKenzie and Gille Duncan) join the adventures by doing some time travel themselves. Brianna goes back on her own from the 1970's to the 1770's to warn Claire and Jamie about a historical fact she finds out and Roger finds out and follows her. I didn't give this book 5 stars because I thought the whole Jamie/Roger misunderstanding and the search for him took too long. However, that won't stop me from continuing on to the next in the series, The Fiery Cross.
    • 5/5
      What can one say about this book? I haven't the adequate words. What it us, is a continuation of s jolly good yarn. I love it.
    • 4/5
      It still baffles me how powerful a saga this series is. Gabaldon brilliantly weaves together the lives of Claire, Jamie, and their now adult daughter Brianna and her lovable other half Roger.