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Calling Outlander a time travel romance is like calling a Dove Bar ice cream on a stick. Mere labels can’t possibly prepare you for the totally engrossing and sensual experience of either one. If you are ready for 850 pages packed with action, sex, life and death, then take the plunge. But then be prepared to read the sequels; there are three currently but at least two more are reportedly in the works.
Claire Randall is celebrating a reunion in Britain with her husband Frank after serving as a combat nurse in World War II. While on a trip to a tourist attraction – an ancient stone circle known as Craigh na Dun – she is suddenly sucked back in time to war-torn Scotland in 1743. She is befriended by a group of Scottish outlaws who are suspicious of her dress and speech. Though they assume she is a British spy, they warm slightly to her when she saves the life of their young comrade, Jamie, an escapee from a barbaric prison.
Claire is eventually sought after by the cruel and twisted captain of the British garrison. In order to protect her, the Scots decide that she must marry Jamie. By this time she has spent some time with the group, and while she has come to admire Jamie’s courage and honor, she is not thrilled with the idea of marrying him, especially when he is five years younger than she is and she is still married to Frank somewhere back in her own time. But eventually she and Jamie grow to have a love that is stronger than her marriage bond, a love that is so intense and passionate that the two are prepared to lay down their lives for each other – and they very nearly do.
Gabaldon doesn’t spent a lot of time with the “fish out of water” side of time travel. Claire has experience with tough situations from her campaigns as a war nurse, and she quickly adapts to her new surroundings, treating the wounded as best she can under the primitive conditions. She is a solid, resourceful heroine, whose guilt about betraying Frank gives way to her overwhelming love for Jamie.
Ah, Jamie. I think I might be unfaithful for him too. Of all of the heroes I’ve encountered in my many years of reading, he would have to make the top ten, maybe the top five. The man takes physical punishment for a young girl in the clan so that she won’t have to be embarrassed. He rescues Claire almost single-handedly from being burnt at the stake when she is accused of witchcraft. He starts out as a virgin but manages to teach Claire a thing or two about making love. He can swear a blue streak but he can also be poetic and philosophical. Okay, he’s a little bloodthirsty too, but that’s a product of his time.
The author writes with great energy for a book of this considerable size, jumping from adventure to adventure with barely a breath in between. There’s a certainly level of Braveheart-style violence, and some politically incorrect behavior on Jamie’s part, but if you can get past that you will be swept away by the passion and intensity between Claire and Jamie. By the time Claire almost literally rescues Jamie’s soul the reader is almost exhausted by the sheer emotion of it all. Their relationship develops, matures and is tested, but it never wavers.
I must admit that several friends, whose book opinions I respect, have told me they didn’t like Outlander or had trouble getting through it. It is not a light-hearted read, for sure. There’s a very high body count, and some brutal torture scenes. But for me all of that was outweighed by the epic-style adventure and truly satisfying romance that made the novel a “Dove Bar” experience.
Gabaldon followed this novel up with Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager and Drums of Autumn. All of them are enjoyable (and of similarly impressive length) but none approach the sheer drama and passion of Outlander.
Readers should also be aware that the Happily Ever After in Outlander is tenuous at best, and a lot of questions are left unanswered. Fortunately, Gabaldon followed this novel up with Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, and Drums of Autumn. All of them are enjoyable (although Dragonfly ends with more tears than anything else) but none approach the sheer drama and passion of Outlander.
Grade: A
Book Type: Time Travel Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 14/03/18
Publication Date: 1992
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Over the years, AAR has had many a guest reviewer. If we don't know the name of the reviewer, we've placed their reviews under this generic name.
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The first three of this series are my favourite. I’ve reread them several times. Once they got to Colonial America however, my interest waned.
I also feel Ms. Gabaldon for all her talents has gone to the Jamie and Claire well too many times. She’s working on her 9th book in this never ending saga and has said there will be a 10th. I gave up at book 7 and if I live long enough for the final book in the series to come out, I’ll likely borrow it from the library only to see how she explains Jamie’s ghost from the first book Outlander.
Ms. Gabaldon has a rabid and large fan base who believe her every word is gold and this may have turned her head enough to keep churning out the tomes. Or it may be the wealth, especially after the TV series brought a whole new readership. Or she just can’t give up Jamie and Claire who must be like old friends of long standing to their author by now. She’s become a phenomenon and likely her so-called editors just rubber stamp everything at this point when they should have been slashing a lot of excess verbiage (and repetitive assaults along with Claire’s incessant doctoring to mention a couple of my bugaboos).
That said, the first book Outlander can be read as a stand alone and should be because it IS unique and marvelous. Its immediate sequels Dragonfly in Amber and Voyager are also worthwhile. After the Frasers are lodged in colonial America though, the stuffing of detail around repetitive plot becomes obvious and wearisome causing dropouts like me. The sexual chemistry between Jamie and Claire that powered the first few books starts to fade along with their hair color and arthritic joints cease to be very romantic. Ms. Gabaldon has stayed too long at the fair and the pennants are drooping but who’s to say her nay?
I fully understand Chrisreader’s comments because this was how I felt about the Poldark saga. It all ended very badly with the 12th book, Bella Poldark. I have always wondered whether Winston Graham actually wrote it because by the time it came out he was 90-ish and died very soon after. I know his son has been involved in the latest (gorgeous) BBC TV serialisation so perhaps when No 12 came out he saw it as a money spinner and so forth. For me, it was a real disappointment. However, with regard to Diana Gabaldon, it seems to me, purely from a critical POV, that she has done immensely more research and is a better quality writer. As I said above, I have spent many hours going off on tangents, researching this and that whilst reading the books. So far (I am reading A Breath of Snow and Ashes) she seems to have managed to develop the spin-off characters and the descendants much better than Graham did. I suppose time will tell as there has to be an ending somewhere, sometime! Jamie and Claire are already getting on in years but the storyline is keeping me entranced and interested and as I am not 25 but 68, I am finding Jamie even more attractive (he is now about 52) and I can empathise more with Claire (56). Thanks to Chrisreader for her thoughts. Slainte!
Don’t you hate it when a series just goes too far? That’s my worry with any series be it book, movie or TV. To keep things “interesting” at some point they have to mess everything up for the sake of drama. One thing I really admire about a lot (but not all) of British series or mini series is that they have a set limit and that’s it. When the story ends they don’t try to drum up another few years worth of drama (like Lost and some other shows).
I know what you mean about character’s ages in books. When I first read Outlander I think I was around Jamie’s age in that book, now I think I am somewhere around the older Claire’s in A Dragonfly In Amber or Voyager (maybe older). I remember as an (obnoxious) twenty something reading ADIA and thinking “Ugh, they are so OLD now even if they get together they are middle aged!” I’d like to back in time and smack myself younger self now. I think one reason I do go back to Kristen Ashley books despite all the rambling and crazy sauce is because she isn’t afraid to make a heroine or hero be 40 or close to it or even over 40 in a couple of cases. I need a break from teens and twenty somethings at times.
I also agree that Gabaldon is a very entertaining writer. My only complaint is I cannot bear so much sexual assault in all the books. I can take the shootings, separations, you name it but everyone needs to lay off assaulting the Fraser family for a bit. Thanks for the thoughts! I enjoyed the exchange very much.
I don’t know if there is anything left to say about this book that hasn’t been said over the years. I had the fortune of reading it way back when it was first released, long before I had internet and I didn’t know another soul who had read it. I was completely floored by it. I loved it, was traumatized by it and reread it over and over again. I had no idea it was a hit, thought it was another romance novel (as it was marketed as such at the time) and was shocked to find out a year or years later there was actually a sequel. I remember being quite miffed because after all they had been through, I liked where Gabaldon had left them and wanted to just leave them there.
My opinion probably hasn’t changed so much about that over the years. With each sequel I fell a little less in love with the books. It finally got to the point where I gave up reading them all together because such awful things kept happening to them and their family. It felt almost maschistic to continue and I was becoming calloused about the characters. I am the type of reader who wants some kind of resolution for my characters. Even if it is just to leave them alone at some point and let me imagine what does and doesn’t happen afterwards. This is obviously not the popular opinion, and I understand that people really adore the saga of it all. It reminds me a bit of the heyday of the mini-series on TV. I do follow the TV series off and on because it is so well done, but there are some things I find too painful to revisit, even on the screen.
I do think this book is really unique in that it made a red headed virgin hero popular, had an older, “wiser” and occasionally “profane” heroine, drew a lot of men into reading a series that was originally pitched (to Gabaldon’s apparent chagrin) as a historical romance, and it has the kind of legs that keep readers clamoring for sequel after sequel for literally decades. Lucky for her readers, Gabaldon is a much more prolific writer than her friend George R.R. Martin. I am looking forward to finally, someday, learning the answer to a mystery or two that started way back in Outlander.
I am a latecomer having first seen series one on TV here in the UK late last year thinking, well, I’ll give it a go but I don’t think it’s “my thing”. Well, I could not have been more wrong and I am now beginning the 6th book in the series and have just watched series 3 on DVD. I’ve always said I didn’t “do” time travel but that’s not the important thing here. These are lush, detailed, character-driven historical/contemporary novels glowing with immaculate and extensive historical research. They are simply incredible and I can’t honestly remember when I last enjoyed sitting down with a book of 1,412 pages (The Fiery Cross) safe in the knowledge that there was another one of the same size waiting in the TBR pile!! Many years ago someone gave me a copy of Dragonfly in Amber and said I would enjoy it but, of course, it made very little sense as a stand-alone and I abandoned it. The novels need to be read in order to understand what’s going on. I find myself spending hours researching on my tablet whilst reading them, looking up information on obscure battles, flora, fauna, geography, costume, etc. I have been so impressed by Diana Gabaldon’s gift for painting on a huge canvas with the tiniest of brush stroke detail. And, frankly, if you don’t fall in love with Jamie, you need your head examined. Or Claire, my husband would chime in!!
Oh, how I love this series but really, truly ADORE the audiobooks. It is truly hard to imagine anyone else than Davina Porter narrating these books. I actually think she ruined me for trying the television series.