Outlander
by Diana Gabaldon
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Book Reviews of Outlander
Book Review: Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series
Summary: 5 Stars
I absolutely loved this book! I couldn't put it down and read it into the night far longer than I should have on a couple of occasions. The story goes that Claire Randall is a battlefield nurse in the 1940s and is married to Frank Randall. When they decide to go on a second honeymoon to Scotland after seven years of marriage, the plot gets really interesting. Claire decides to take a walk to pick some wildflowers (she enjoys studying plant life) and ends up walking through a mini-stonehenge and is thrown back in time to the 1700s in Scotland. What proceeds is 500 or so pages of her trying to get back to her "own time". She is captured on a number of occasions first by the Scots and then by the rading English soldiers. She has a quick wit and a foul mouth, something people in the 1700s are certainly not used to hearing from a woman. And which I enjoyed the most, I think.
I was told that if I could get through the first hundred pages or so, then the book flows more smoothly (it's really more like the first 75 or 80 pages). If you can get through the genealogical research her husband conducts and the Scottish village interactions to the part where she goes back in time, it gets really good.
One part of the book I struggled with was the Scottish Highland brogue, and their way of speaking. It took me most of the book to get a rhythm when I read their language.
I was conflicted over two parts of the book- one, after Claire is stuck and cannot get back to the 1940s and realizes the English soldiers are on her tail and are planning on accusing her of being a spy, she relents to being married to a Scotsman, Jamie Fraser. Now, he's hot, strong, and a really good fighter. But, he largely sees women as property, basically because that's his culture and how he was raised. You can't necessarily blame him for that, he lives nearly 200 years in the past. However, when Claire attempts to return to the stonehenge and to her home, she is captured by the English and though Jamie and his men bravely risk their necks to save hers, he still punishes her, by beating her with his belt on her back. She fights him off and still he essentially whips her. He says she was rebellious and didn't listen to what he told her to do and risked all their lives in the process. So, I guess if you take it in the context of the time period and where they are and how they lived then, it was an acceptable practice. It was just hard to swallow for my feminist mindset.
The second part I struggled with was the ending- one of the characters is brutally and repeatedly raped by an English soldier. It was like a train wreck; I wanted to look away but just had to keep reading to find out the ending. Everything turns out okay, the person survives and the bad guy gets killed, but its a gruesome scene. Not for the faint of heart, I guess.
Still a great read! If you love historical novels with romance added in, this one is definitely for you! It's chock full of great characters and great action as well. It's a must read!
Book Review: One of the Best Time Travelers I have Read....
Summary: 5 Stars
I am slow in reading this series, it being 11 years since its release, but am sucked in like the rest and become addicted to the characters and plot. Written in first person, it felt like looking through the eyes of the main character, time-traveler and WWII combat nurse Claire Randall. Ms. Gabaldon makes everything so real and believable that I was starting to think that maybe it would be possible to travel back in time as she did.No elaborate thrills or magic spells to convince us the reader, Claire is propelled from 1945 back to 1743 by way of a circle of stones on one of the British Isles; when she and her husband go on a second honeymoon. She is attracted by the stones and innocently touches a boulder in amazement at their structure and finds herself laying facedown in the woods with distant screaming and swords clanging.
She is now a Sassenach- an "Outlander" stuck in war torn Scotland. Almost being captured and completely confused, she is rescued from a man she strangely knows in the future who wants to bring her to London for being a spy, by some rough members of Clan MacKenzie.
Riding all night, she sees she is being brought to Castle Leoch, the same castle she and her husband spent their honeymoon in 1945! But now it looks different. Old. Gray. Devoid of laughter and fun. It's inhabited by the clan and the clan is readying for war. She is thrust into lairds, spies and politics of the time. Claire soon realizes with shock and horror that she is in the past and she is also horrifed that Clan MacKenzie wants her to marry their gallant young Scots warrior Jamie Fraser.
Marrying Jamie will save her from the English that want her dead for spying but Claire is so confused and scared, she fights it. Fate steps in and she finds herself attracted to the young man and madly in love.
Torn between fidelity and desires she cannot understand, Claire finds her life and heart also torn between two worlds and two men...
The descriptions were so rich and detailed I still can't get the imagery out of my head. The sacrifices she makes and he makes will have you in tears. I was also pleased to see that Claire realized she was in love with two men and was confused and heartbroken at the same time. Too many books out there make it seem so easy and plain where her heart should be, but in this case, it isn't so easy or cut and dry. Truthfully, I liked Jamie better than her husband Frank and think he is a much better person all around. But I also feel for her and how she misses Frank.
The history was clear and the countryside of Scotland was so beautiful and written with such flair that it made me wish I could be there with her. Ms. Gabaldon's small details of smallpox shots and herbs made it seem even more real and I applaud her. Very original and with a heroine that keeps her head above all odds, this is a classic...
Book Review: Great at times but overshadowed by ridiculous plot turns
Summary: 3 Stars
At one point, I so really wanted to hail this book as a great novel, but after finishing it, I am disappointed to say that it's just ok. I tried to forgive the literary mistakes but towards the end, it was just too much. The novel starts out strong, but, like another reviewer said, the ending is weak and messy.
The good stuff:
The author has a knack for descriptions and expertly paints a historical portrait of 17th century Scotland that really makes you feel like you are there. The two main characters of the book are well developed. You really fall in love with the protagonist's flame. Gabaldon gives him qualities any woman would desire in a man, and his faults just make him feel all the more real. The author builds up the love story, and some of the sex scenes are quite erotic. At times the story is really enjoyable, adventurous and suspenseful.
The bad stuff:
The book is too long. The story just goes on and on seemingly forever, with so much violence and so many conflicts that, after a while, it tends to lose credibility. Some of the situations the protagonist Claire finds herself in are unlikely. After the millionth time she is rescued, it just gets to be silly. Eventually, the sex gets to be too much and some of it is just plain absurd. Rabbit-like sex following near death, sex on the point of death; it's just too much. Furthermore, the author makes two major mistakes in her writing which completely deter from the enjoyment of the story. One involves witchcraft and presents a situation in which the reader, knowing the same things as the protagonist, can see the situation coming a mile away whereas the protagonist does not. It just makes Claire seem stupid, which is contradictory to the way her character is originally presented. The second situation has to be the biggest cliche of all time. Two men fighting, the woman helplessly watching, and finally the villain sneaks up behind the woman, grabs her and threatens to kill her unless her lover stops fighting. I think I've seen this happen already in about a dozen movies. As a matter of fact, there are two instances in the book where the heroes have a clear shot of killing the villain but they fail to do so. From there on, the story goes downhill and climaxes in a hot mess involving wolves, cows and bear-men.
Overall, I suspect the book got a lot of high ratings because most of the readers are women in desperate need of some steamy excitement in their lives. However, I cannot give a book 5 stars with so many blatant shortcomings, adding to the fact that it most likely appeals to a select range in the population and not to a wide audience. I mean, come on people. This is not Tolstoy or Richard Adams or Tolkien. It's more like Twilight-series-quality work. So, weighing in all the good and bad, I would have to say this novel deserves 3 stars.
Book Review: Be warned!
Summary: 5 Stars
No small commitment this is! It appears to be book, and no little volume at that, however it is not a book-it is books. Roughly 7000 pages so far; might there be another? I'm still waiting for the last volume to arrive. I don't know what happens yet.
I loved it. I love the style, language and yes the length!! I am quite ill and so alas!, must often rely on excellent authors such as Diana Gabaldon for some adventures. This certainly has not always been the case and many years of teaching literature and working with a wide variety of people allows me to confidently reccomend this book, both for it's depth of characters, continuity of plot and often intriguing twists and turns. Keep a dictionary close you will need it and I appreciate that. If I wanted to finish a book and know nothing more than when I started I would stick to magazines. I've a perfectly handy dictionary on an Ipod that I keep close when reading. If you enjoy this I highly recommend Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael novels.
The criticisms you will find here appear to be a direct result of being unable, or unwilling, to hang in there until plots are developed and characters stretched and balanced to the fullest. The most ridiculous criticism being reviewers who insist the main character could not and would not! have behaved the way she did while traveling through the books adventures. I despair of the current state of literature education in the American public schools! Creativity and imagination are sorely lacking in our sound byte culture.
So I suppose most of you 1-2 star reviewers in the same situation would, of course, run higgledy piggledy through the 18th century castigating anyone you encounter about their dreadful lack of modern amenities! Or perhaps you assume you would cross your legs and refuse to pee while demanding someone produce a proper flush toilet and some Charmin?! If so stick with the series because Ms. Gabaldon produces some interesting characters who do exactly that and it is not the least bit surprising how they fare. As for the tired cliches regarding the first homosexual encountered, please people do you seriously believe that being gay ensures that you will be the nicest, sweetest and most well adjusted person in the room? I rather think that is a stereotyping insult. It seems that it's okay for a heterosexual to be depraved. Again, keep reading and you will discover how nicely the author balances her "good and evil" characters, irregardless of their predilections, though certainly that would require reading more pages. Considering the approximately 7000 pages Ms. Gabaldon has devoted to her story I find many of these low reviews are as silly as glimpsing and apple tree in the distance and making profound judgements as to the quality of the fruit-not too mention deplorable comments regarding the unknown orchard keeper.
Book Review: Comically awful if you can make it through!
Summary: 1 Stars
This book is definitely polarizing. The story has potential, and perhaps with much more generous editing, it could be decent. It starts out quite promising, but after a few hundred pages of meandering story, I began to wonder when the time travel mythology would kick in. Well, it doesn't. I loved the potential of it, but details of her time travel are not explored. It seemed more a device to get a modern-era woman to the 1700s so she could be swept off her feet by this rugged man Jamie in his kilt. This book would be better off with more straightforward cover art - just show the brute shirtless male in a kilt with the submissive woman. It masquerades as something more, but sadly, it isn't.
While many of the supporting characters have some depth, the main character Claire seems shallow; I found it difficult to care about her as she doesn't seem to reflect on much more than her present circumstances. For example, the situation with her multiple husbands. She "forgets" her present era husband fairly quickly, a hundred pages could go by with barely a mention of his name. She seemed too readily agreeable to abandon her old life. The explanation for why she must marry Jamie seems even more implausible than time travel.
As for the violence, I felt it made sense historically that a husband from the 1700s would beat his wife for not obeying him. What is disheartening is Claire's total devotion to him regardless. Her husband has violent sex with her, numerous times, and it is supposed to be clear to the reader that it is acceptable since Claire can also behave violently and yell back at him. He also spanks her, not in a sexy way, and her response is to throw a fit. But then has sex with him again, later.
It's also disheartening that Jaime is viewed as some sort of perfect man. I was disappointed because the marital rape was not presented as such, instead being more of a temporary character flaw for Jamie. I felt it wasn't treated with the scrutiny and severity it deserved. Not only does he force his wife to have sex, we also get to read about his own rape and torture in copious detail.
The end of this book is a total trainwreck. If you make it this far, it's almost comical if you have a dark enough sense of humor. The torture rape of beloved Jamie by the guy who looks like Claire's husband because they are distantly related, the absurd scene where she fights off wolves, her own torture and captivity for witchcraft. It's like the author used a plot device meme and kept writing scene after scene to make the book heavy enough for a doorstop (where was the editor?) The wandering plot eventually tried to tie up the multitude of secondary character's loose ends, most of whom I had either entirely forgotton or no longer cared about. To each her own, but I call this one a hot mess.