It's been almost four years since the last volume of Diana Gabaldon's genre-bending Outlander saga was published. With the appearance of A Breath of Snow and Ashes, fans will slip back into the story with ease.

As we rejoin time-traveling surgeon Claire Fraser and her hunky red-haired husband Jamie, it is 1773 in remote western North Carolina. They are living on the edge of civilization, on the edge of war and on the edge of a political predicament. Claire, her daughter Brianna and son-in-law Roger MacKenzie are all time-travelers from the 20th century. They know how the American Revolution will turn out, but to declare themselves on the winning side too soon could provoke a brutal response. As if that weren't enough, the Frasers and MacKenzies must also cope with armed Cherokee Indians, renegade militias, the King's soldiers, suspicious Presbyterians, mysterious pregnancies, not-quite-trustworthy relations and a homicidal pig.

This installment in the series is not about witches, pirates, magic or deadly battles. Larger-than-life elements are all here, but these are homier tales, full of Gabaldon's distinctive humor, astounding historical detail, and—of course—just a little bit of deviant sexuality. The most fulfilling development may be the demise of the Wuthering Heights problem, where you never care quite as much about the second generation as you did about the first. Brianna and Roger's marriage, while never as breathtakingly passionate as Claire and Jamie's, achieves a solidity that will allow them to make several crucial decisions. No spoilers, but a new calling, a shocking turn during an execution and a terrible choice are all in store.

I, for one, will be holding my breath for the next book. I hope that Lord John and his mysteries can wait for the answer to the ultimate question: what about that ghost outside Claire and Frank's guest house in Inverness in 1945?

Mary Neal Meador is an editorial designer who lives in Chicago. Copyright 2005 BookPage Reviews.

Anyone who has gotten this far in Gabaldon's popular "Outlander" saga knows to expect loads of steamy sex, kidnappings, medical miracles, and gritty period details. Breath 's 900-plus pages don't disappoint. With the threat of the American Revolution looming, 20th-century time traveler Claire Fraser and her 18th-century Scottish husband, Jamie, must finally choose sides and prepare for war. On the domestic front, Claire's and Jamie's daughter, Brianna, experiments with piping running water to their cabin while her husband, Roger, contemplates ordainment as a minister. But what about that newspaper clipping that says Claire and Jamie die in a house fire? Knowledge of the future clearly goes only so far. Enemies both old and new add to the continuing drama of the Fraser family's survival in the hinterlands of North Carolina. Gabaldon's enjoyable formula works, even if it's taken five previous novels and a few thousand pages to get to the year 1776. Essential for every fiction collection. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/05.]--Laurel Bliss, Princeton Univ. Lib., NJ