Outlander series (books 1-8)

Outlander series (books 1-8)                    by Diana Gabaldon                     Eight books (Incomplete)                     

Battlefield nurse Claire Randall is in Scotland on a second honeymoon after World War II, when she mysteriously travels back in time to 1743. Falling in with a band of Highlands clansmen, she soon runs afoul of the local British authorities and is forced to marry a young man named Jamie Fraser to gain the protection of the clan. Romance, suspense, action, adventure — this series has a bit of everything, and then some.

Let me tell you about the Outlander series. It’s epic. It starts in Scotland and travels to Paris and back to Scotland, then eventually to Colonial America. It brings new meaning to the word “sprawling” — it sprawls across hundreds of years, thousands of miles, thousands of pages. This is not a bad thing. At its best, it draws you in and takes you on an epic journey with its two main characters, Claire and Jamie, a couple so destined to be together that one of them travels through time to find the other. If you don’t love Claire and Jamie — and Claire and Jamie as a couple — by about the middle of the first book, stop reading. Don’t bother to continue. It’s not worth a hate read. The side characters are also fully realized and (mostly) delightful. The villain, British Army Captain Jack Randall, is so heinous that sometimes you might find yourself shouting at the pages. Also not a bad thing, to be that absorbed. I’d like to say the books are a quick read but I’m not sure that’s true — I read the first six in the series over two weeks during an extended period of unemployment and for the most part couldn’t put them down. But I’m not sure it was “quick” reading. It never felt like a chore, though. Which is interesting, because at its worst (books 5 and 6 spring to mind), the series is self-indulgently wordy and contains plot points that feel gratuitous even in the grander scheme of this series. But then books 7 (An Echo In The Bone) and 8 (Written In My Own Heart’s Blood) are so well-conceived and tightly written, it’s hard to believe that any previous volumes were less than perfection.

So my advice to you is this: Read Outlander with a view towards reading the whole series. But allow yourself the freedom to skim or skip books 5 (The Fiery Cross) and 6 (A Breath of Snow and Ashes) — find a detailed synopsis online if you find you can’t bear them. Books 7 and 8 will make it up to you, I swear. Take our ick factor warnings to heart — I’m dead serious with that. And finally, read these books on Kindle or other e-reader if you have one — they are heavy and will give you carpal tunnel if you don’t already have it.

Buy book one on Amazon                                                 Buy book one on Barnes & Noble

Individual book reviews and details for the Outlander series are here.