Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade (Lord John Grey Series) » (Reprint)

Are they histories? Fantasies? Science fiction? While it may be impossible to categorize the books Diana Gabaldon calls historical fantasias, it hardly matters to the author s huge and loyal fan base, all of whom are just eager to devour Gabaldon s richly detailed, complexly plotted, extravagantly romantic romps through time, space, and breathtaking landscapes.

From the exquisitely talented and award-winning author of the Outlander Saga come two additions to the oeuvre, both featuring Lord John Grey.

This dashing character first appeared in Gabaldon’s blockbuster, Voyager, and readers cheered him on in the New York Times bestselling Lord John and the Private Matter.

Diana Gabaldon takes readers back to eighteenth-century Britain as Lord John Grey pursues a deadly family secret as well as a clandestine love affair, set against the background of the Seven Years War.

Seventeen years earlier, Grey’s father, the Duke of Pardloe, shot himself, days before he was to be accused of being a Jacobite traitor. By raising a regiment to fight at Culloden, Grey’s elder brother has succeeded in redeeming the family name, aided by Grey, now a major in that regiment. But now, on the eve of the regiment’s move to Germany, comes a mysterious threat that throws the matter of the Duke’s death into stark new question, and brings the Grey brothers into fresh conflict with the past and each other.

From barracks and parade grounds to the battlefields of Prussia and the stony fells of the Lake District, Lord John’s struggle to find the truth leads him through danger and passion, ever deeper, toward the answer to the question at the centre of his soul–what is it that is most important to a man? Love, loyalty, family name? Self-respect, or honesty? Surviving both the battle of Krefeld and a searing personal betrayal, he returns to the Lake District to find the man who may hold the key to his quest: a Jacobite prisoner named Jamie Fraser. Here, Grey finds his truth and faces a final choice: between honour and life itself.

David Faucheux - Library Journal

Lord John Grey first appeared in New York Timesbest-selling author Gabaldon's ongoing, multivolume time travel/fantasy/romance "Outlander" series. In this work, it is 1758, and Lord John's widowed mother is about to remarry. He and his older brother, Hal, meet with the bridegroom and his stepson, Percy Wainwright. Lord John realizes he has met the stepson before at a homosexual brothel. Percy is interested in joining the army and is persuaded to buy into Lord John's regiment, as was common practice at that time. They are off to fight in Prussia as part of the Seven Years' War, a global conflict of which the French and Indian War was a small part. Lord John is wounded and returns to England, where he begins to suspect that a series of street attacks might be related to his father's questionable suicide. How Lord John remains mostly in the closet yet pursues his sexual and other interests in an impeccable 18th-century melodrama makes for "don't-want-to-stop" listening! Actor Jeff Woodman brings an experience of dialects and accents to this novel. The English shadings he employs can fool the American ear into believing he was born near London. Listeners will appreciate that each CD begins and ends with an announcement indicating the number of each CD in the book, so accidental mix-ups can be avoided. Recommended for libraries with historic mystery collections.