Voyager Cheat Sheet

VOYAGER CHAPTER BREAKDOWN:

PART ONE: BATTLE, AND THE LOVES OF MEN:

These short three chapters are only 4% of the book, and they include Claire’s memories of being home with the infant Brianna while missing Jamie, and the modern-day (1968) research of trying to find what happened to Jamie. But of course, we’ve already covered a lot of that in episode 213.

PART TWO: LALLYBROCH:

This section includes: Jamie living as a hermit in the cave for seven years (and Fergus losing the hand); Jenny giving birth to the child (and having to pretend it was stillborn when the British troops arrive and Jamie is hiding with the infant in the closet); and Jamie’s decision to surrender himself to the British, risking prison in order to keep his family safe.

PART THREE: WHEN I AM THY CAPTIVE:

Includes: Jamie’s time in prison, the confession of Duncan Kerr and Jamie’s escape to look for the lost treasure; there’s a one-page chapter at the end in which Roger tells Brianna that he has found out what happened to Jamie.

PART FOUR: THE LAKE DISTRICT:

Includes: The whole Geneva Dunsany episode, Jamie fathering Willie and killing Geneva’s husband in defense of the infant. This takes us through 1758. It includes the chapter at the end where Claire is riding on the boat with Roger on Loch Ness and deciding to go back.

PART FIVE: YOU CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN:

In which Claire, well, goes home again to Boston to settle her affairs. It includes the flashback to the night Frank died, and the discovery of the cave body with Joe Abernathy. Back in Scotland, Roger finds the deed of Sasine, which of course we have already done (ep 213). And then Claire going through the stones.

PART SIX: EDINBURGH:

This is 27% of the way through the book, but it is where the real-time story (not backstory) really starts. It includes Claire and Jamie reuniting;  Claire showing him the pictures of Brianna; the introduction of Mr. Willoughby; intro to the whorehouse; the stuff about being a rum smuggler; the introduction of Ian Junior; the first mention of the “Edinburgh Fiend”; Ian Junior setting the print shop on fire and fearing that he has killed the exciseman; and of course the introduction of the Reverend Campbell and his crazy sister, followed by the Smugglers’ Moon episode of trying to trick the excisemen and complete the smuggling of the rum. This section leaves off 43% of the way through the book, so it’s seriously about 144 pages long.

PART SEVEN: HOME AGAIN:

Includes all of the stuff with Jenny and Ian back at Lallybroch, plus the revelation of Jamie’s marriage to Laoghaire and her two daughters, including Fergus being in love with one of them. Also: the scene where we re-meet Ned Gowan, the lawyer, and the revelation that Jamie is going to owe a lot of money to Laoghaire as part of the divorce settlement, thus leading to the late-night excursion to get the fortune on Silkies’ Island and Ian Junior’s kidnapping, which happens about 50% of the way through the book.

PART EIGHT: ON THE WATER:

Including Jared (in France) identifying the boat which kidnapped Ian as La Bruja (The Witch), and offering them the use of the Artemis to follow it to the East Indies; Fergus showing up with Marsali; meeting the staff of the boat, including the crotchety cook Murphy (the closest thing to a Murtagh we get in this one, I’m afraid); the business about wondering which of the Scottish sailors might be Jamie’s betrayer; the hunting of the shark, in which Willoughby captures the seagull; Mr. Willoughby’s backstory; the Porpoise—the British Man-O-War— led by young Captain Leonard, kidnapping Claire and forcing her to be doctor on their typhoid-plagued ship; Claire meeting Lord John Grey, on his way to be the new governor of Jamaica; Claire escaping to the island of Hispaniola where she meets Lawrence Stern and the priest, Father Fogden; Claire reuniting with the temporarily beached Artemis (sans Jamie); Jamie sneaking onto the Porpoise to rescue Claire and fearing her dead when he hears she went overboard, but subsequently feigning a French persona to lead a troop of French soldiers to the beach and reuniting with Claire; and finally Fergus and Marsali being “officially” married by the bat-brained Father (and Fergus taking Jamie’s surname in a particularly sweet moment).

PART NINE: WORLDS UNKNOWN:

The final section includes: The Artemis taking on the cargo of bat guana in order to A: make some pocket money and B: complete the illusion that they’re a trade ship; Claire inadvertently buying a one-armed slave (Temeraire- The Bold One); the first mention of “Mrs. Abernathy of Rose Hall, Jamaica,” who may or may not know something about the kidnapped Ian; the fabulously dramatic scene in which Jamie must crawl into the pyre of burned slave corpses to see if Ian is among them; the pirates invading the Artemis, leading to Claire’s slashed-open arm and Willoughby having to stitch her up (sans anesthesia), and later the great Turtle Soup “drunken fellatio” scene in which Claire admits she helped an elderly patient kill himself and probably would have had to leave her post at the hospital even if she hadn’t gone back to Jamie;  meeting Ishmael, the slave who dived off the Bruja and trades information about Ian for his freedom (taking Temeraire with him); the party at the Governor’s Mansion in which the following happens: Jamie and Lord John Grey are reunited, a woman is murdered and Willoughby is suspected (and later flees), and Claire learns from Grey that Jamie fathered the child, Willie; the first visit to Rose Hall in which our heroes learn that Mrs. Abernathy is no other than Geillis Duncan (alive!) and that she definitely knows more than she’s saying about Young Ian;  the revelation that the Reverend Campbell is the Edinburgh Fiend, and his death; the revelation that Willoughby is the one who betrayed Jamie and his departure; the whole crazy scene where the reverend’s sister Margaret is being used by Ishmael and his men as a medium to the dead after they kill the alligator; the rescue of Ian Junior; the sea chase with the Porpoise into the mouth of a hurricane which eventually shipwrecks the Porpoise and nearly kills Claire a couple times; and then, oh yeah, Jamie and Claire swimming for a distant shore only to learn that they’re in Georgia!