Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
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Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
P.S. I can't wait for the next book to come out on Sept. 22 An Echo In Bone (in case anyone was wondering what it was called).
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"Amazon Review
In Outlander, a 600-page time-travel romance, strong-willed and sensual Claire Randall leads a double life with a husband in one century, and a lover in another. Torn between fidelity and desire, she struggles to understand the pure intent of her heart. But don't let the number of pages and the Scottish dialect scare you. It's one of the fastest reads you'll have in your library.
While on her second honeymoon in the British Isles, Claire touches a boulder that hurls her back in time to the forbidden Castle Leoch with the MacKenzie clan. Not understanding the forces that brought her there, she becomes ensnared in life-threatening situations with a Scots warrior named James Fraser. But it isn't all spies and drudgery that she must endure. For amid her new surroundings and the terrors she faces, she is lured into love and passion like she's never known before.
"I was lame and sore in every muscle when I woke next morning. I shuffled to the privy closet, then to the wash basin. My innards felt like churned butter. It felt as though I had been beaten with a blunt object, I reflected, then thought that that was very near the truth. The blunt object in question was visible as I came back to bed, looking now relatively harmless. Its possessor [Jamie] woke as I sat next to him, and examined me with something that looked very much like male smugness."
Gabaldon creates characters that you'll remember, laugh with, cry with, and cheer for long after you've finished the book. --Candy Paape
From Publishers Weekly
Absorbing and heartwarming, this first novel lavishly evokes the land and lore of Scotland, quickening both with realistic characters and a feisty, likable heroine. English nurse Claire Beauchamp Randall and husband Frank take a second honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands in 1945. When Claire walks through a cleft stone in an ancient henge, she's somehow transported to 1743. She encounters Frank's evil ancestor, British captain Jonathan "Black Jack" Randall, and is adopted by another clan. Claire nurses young soldier James Fraser, a gallant, merry redhead, and the two begin a romance, seeing each other through many perilous, swashbuckling adventures involving Black Jack. Scenes of the Highlanders' daily life blend poignant emotions with Scottish wit and humor. Eventually Sassenach (outlander) Claire finds a chance to return to 1945, and must choose between distant memories of Frank and her happy, uncomplicated existence with Jamie. Claire's resourcefulness and intelligent sensitivity make the love-conquers-all, happily-ever-after ending seem a just reward. Doubleday Book Club main selection, Literary Guild alternate.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc."
I hope this was helpful to anyone that was interested in the first book or the series!
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One more thing - if you do in fact live in the UK, and you've never been to Culloden, please please please visit that battlefield after you've read the first book. It is so enchanting, especially if you go early in the morning and the fog is still sitting on top of the field ...
So, get a nice cup of tea, maybe a biscuit or two, and sit back and prepare to be completely enveloped into a fantastic world of passion, anger, war and history. Each book gets better and better until you get to the 5th one and it has to end ... but I won't spoil anything for you
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The characters are great, and I really enjoy all the historical facts she puts into the story. I was in Edinburgh Scotland a couple of years ago and I visited Hollyrood Palace and found it really neat because I'd read so much about it in her books. Definately one of my favourite series.
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I was without cable and internet recently for a period of time. I dug out and reread all of the Outlander series. They are just as good with the re-reading. Her writing, attention to detail and plot development really do get better and better as she goes along.
Two reasons that I picked up the series again:
1. The long-awaited next installment is finally out. I
2. Starz Television, owned by Sony is developing the series for TV. They are currently shooting the adaptation first book in Scotland, and I believe the show will debut later in the year. My understanding is that they plan to do one book per season, but considering that some of the books are over 1400 pages long, that may or may not be a bit ambitious.
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ebook, 784 pages.
Read from February 04 to March 20, 2014.
After many recommendations, I finally got around to finishing Outlander. Unfortunately to all the major fans out there, I can't say I'm raving about this book. I wouldn't say that I liked this book but I didn't fully dislike it either, hence the neutral rating. There was so much about this book that didn't make sense to me or that I could relate to. I remember as a teenager listening to my Mom talking so fondly about this book but when I asked to read it (at the ripe old age of sixteen) and she wouldn't let me. She feared the content would be too graphic and that the I might be traumatized by the amount of sexual and abusive violence or something. Needless to say, I am glad that I didn't read this book as a teenager or I may have been severely horrified. With that also being said, I may have also appreciated the romance a bit more with my naïve teenage brain.
The premise of the story focuses on Claire, a nurse living in the 20th century who is separated from her husband and everything she knows and is somehow (and this was never fully described or given reason for in the book) magically transported to 17th century Scotland. You would think that this plot, the transportation, why she was sent back in time and the emotional turmoil something like this would cause on Claire would be the focal point of the book right? Well, it isn't. Along comes Jamie, an extremely handsome, strapping, young (younger than her), fiery and red-headed Scottish solider who crosses paths with Claire when he is injured and requires the use of her healing skills. He saves her from a cruel Englishman suspecting her to be a spy (who is also a direct descendant of her husband back in the 20th century) and brings her back to a castle where the two of them are cared for under another Scottish family.
Both Jamie and Claire hit it off right away and what ends up happening is that they are forced to marry in order to protect both of their skins from the English. Now you would think that would be a pretty tense scene, right? I mean Claire is already married but in a different time and she has told no one of how she came to be in Scotland, but the scene only vaguely touches on her tiny bit of turmoil before skipping to the consummation of their marriage. The rest of the book, well, it was pretty much just one sex scene after another with a loosely based plot to keep the characters moving. So the continuous sex scenes on top of sappy romance really got to me. Don't get me wrong, sex is awesome! I just wanted more details about the plot and for the writing to really get to the raw difficult choices and struggles that Claire had to make. She makes cheating on her husband seem like the easiest thing in the world by justifying that he technically hadn't been born yet. I also don't feel that she tried all that hard to attempt to get back home. She seemed pretty dandy in the 17th century and really didn't question her position as much as I would imagine someone in her shoes to be. To make matters even sillier, Jamie was a virgin before he married Claire. Seriously? Where is the realism in that? A good looking Scottish man in the 17th century a virgin?! That's ridiculous. What made Jamie even more unrealistic was how soft and in-tune he was with his own feelings as well as Claire's emotions and feelings. I can't see that a warrior of his status, regardless of his temper, got to where he was by being in-tune with his feelings and those of women, and especially by being a virgin.
There was a lot of sexual violence in this book. Surprisingly, the worst of it happened to Jamie in the end and Claire pretty much remained untouched, despite some of the situations she was in. As a reader, this content didn't bother me so much, but I could see how it could be pretty disturbing to some readers. To add to the violence, Jamie also took at least three-major beatings by the end of the book. Yup, three.
All of these silly details really show to me that this book was written by an older married woman, for older married women who would rather be swept up in romance they can't have instead of reading a captivating plot full of psychological turmoil and realism. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing. I read books to escape too, just not romantically (maybe erotically haha). Many writers make good money writing romances and the popularity of this book says enough in and of it's self, it just didn't work for me. It makes me a bit sad as I see so much potential for this book. The author has some good ideas, very likeable (even if unrealistic and shallow) characters and reasonably decent writing. It's just too long, too vague on the emotion and details of the plot and too romantic. Sorry Diana, I won't be reading any more of your work.
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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