Voyager Book Discussion, Chapters 8-10
Hi all! It’s your pal cabochonruby speaking, with this week’s Voyager Book Discussion post!
ADMIN NOTE: @cabochonruby sent me these questions late Friday night. I was going to post them this weekend but chaos erupted in the fandom and I didn’t have time to start the discussion until this (Monday) evening. To shorten this post I moved the plot summary and questions pertaining for Chapter 7 to a separate post (see POST). Therefore there will be two threads to this discussion. I look forward to hearing people’s responses to these questions. Thanks cabochonruby for putting this together!
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PLOT SUMMARY
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CHAPTER 8 - HONOR’S PRISONER begins in 1755 and introduces a new POV character — Lord John Grey, previously known to series readers by his middle name, William. John is taking over governorship of Ardsmuir prison, having been sent there following his involvement in a scandal in London. John is not pleased to learn that James Fraser, the man who humilated him as a teenager the night before the battle of Prestonpans, is one of his prisoners.
Jamie, meanwhile, has become ersatz “laird” of the prisoners — known to them as “MacDubh,” serving as their leader and advocate.
CHAPTER 9 - THE WANDERER
When a man named Duncan Kerr arrives in the nearby village raving about a cache of gold and speaking an incoherent mixture of English, Gaelic and French, John realizes he has to seek the cooperation of Jamie, the only person nearby who speaks all three languages and stands no chance of benefitting from the gold, should it exist. Jamie is disinclined to acquiesce to John’s request — until John promises he’ll strike off Jamie’s irons.
Jamie goes with John to the village and speaks with Duncan, who is dying. Jamie translates Duncan’s words for John, but they don’t seem to make any sense. Three days after they return to the prison, Jamie escapes while the prisoners are out cutting peat. John leads his men on a search of the surrounding areas. Within a couple of days, Jamie appears in front of John as John is taking a dump, and Jamie is recaptured.
CHAPTER 10 - THE WHITE WITCH’S CURSE
John decides that the only way he stands a chance of learning why Jamie chose to escape and what he did while he was gone is to take the soft approach, and do what his predecessor Harry Quarry had done — invite Jamie to dine with him.
Jamie resumes his weekly custom of joining the prison governor for dinner, where he and John eat, discuss literature and play chess, as well as negotiate improvements to prison policy and conditions. Weeks of conversation reveal nothing about Jamie’s sojourn in the moors, so John replaces the carrot with a stick, and threatens to send dragoons to Lallybroch if Jamie doesn’t confess. Jamie tells John that he had to go see if the “white witch” Duncan spoke about was his wife, and that he found nothing in that regard. He did, however, find a box of treasure — coins and gems — which he flung into the sea in the despair of knowing that his wife was gone forever. As proof, he gives John a raw sapphire that he, Jamie, had swallowed. He swears on his honor that the treasure was not the Frenchman’s Gold, and that it now “belongs to the sea.”
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DISCUSSION
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This section is important because it (re)introduces a character who will have a profound impact on the Outlander universe — Lord John William Grey. In this reread, I noticed something about John’s POV. It’s similar to Claire’s POV in book one, because we are once again getting to know Jamie through the eyes of someone who is falling in love with him. This is a new iteration of Jamie — Prison Jamie, a.k.a. MacDubh. Ardsmuir and the people Jamie encounters there impact his and Claire’s life for years to come – in this book and in decades to come.
Here are some jumping-off points for response to these chapters.
- What do you think of John’s introduction here? Do you remember how you reacted to the introduction of John Grey as a POV character the first time you read the book?
- We see how Jamie is perceived by the English as different from his fellow prisoners due to his status as a “gentleman.” How does this serve to protect Jamie? What does this tell us about British colonial systems of domination?
- How do you think Jamie and John match up in their dinnertime battle of wills/wit? Is it a fair fight?
- In what ways are Jamie and John similar? Different? (Other than the obvious sexual orientation)
- What kinds of thoughts and feelings did you have when reading about the daily life of the prisoners?