With Outlander, Diana Gabaldon changed the face of romance novels. Not only did she make time travel and Scotland THE trends in romance, she created this entire rich world and set her characters loose. If you have come to appreciate the world building in romance - you owe much of that enjoyment to Gabaldon.
In this first opening book, readers meet Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall. Jaime is an 17th century Scot on the run from the English. Claire is a 20th century British Nurse. When Claire falls back in time while wandering through a ring of standing stones, she ends up in the Scottish highlands on the eve of the Jacobite rebellion. While the story is just great - perfect plotting, great pace, and deeply engrossing - the best part of this book is the dialog, the characters, writing, and the world building details. Claire and Jamie do not just fall in love - there is a slow build up while Claire tries to get back home and keep her true identity a secret. Jamie is a character for the ages and he and Claire develop over the entire series (Dragonfly in amber, Voyager, Drums of autumn, Fiery cross, Breath of snow and ashes, and at least two more books are forthcoming). Readers learn a great deal about 17th century medicine, Scottish history, and then in the other books, about life in the French royal court, and the beginnings of the American revolution. Gabaldon's writing is lush and dripping without being slow or over the top. She crafts really great scenes that stay with you (such as Claire's talk with Jenny about potatoes or Jamie riding into Claire's witch trial). While the story is very very violent in places, it is still an amazing set of books - and while some are better than others - as a whole the series is a gift to readers. If you like this, then try Knight Errant or The Religion for other books that are as engrossing, large scale, and have that same sense of hefty but fun epic to them.
In this first opening book, readers meet Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall. Jaime is an 17th century Scot on the run from the English. Claire is a 20th century British Nurse. When Claire falls back in time while wandering through a ring of standing stones, she ends up in the Scottish highlands on the eve of the Jacobite rebellion. While the story is just great - perfect plotting, great pace, and deeply engrossing - the best part of this book is the dialog, the characters, writing, and the world building details. Claire and Jamie do not just fall in love - there is a slow build up while Claire tries to get back home and keep her true identity a secret. Jamie is a character for the ages and he and Claire develop over the entire series (Dragonfly in amber, Voyager, Drums of autumn, Fiery cross, Breath of snow and ashes, and at least two more books are forthcoming). Readers learn a great deal about 17th century medicine, Scottish history, and then in the other books, about life in the French royal court, and the beginnings of the American revolution. Gabaldon's writing is lush and dripping without being slow or over the top. She crafts really great scenes that stay with you (such as Claire's talk with Jenny about potatoes or Jamie riding into Claire's witch trial). While the story is very very violent in places, it is still an amazing set of books - and while some are better than others - as a whole the series is a gift to readers. If you like this, then try Knight Errant or The Religion for other books that are as engrossing, large scale, and have that same sense of hefty but fun epic to them.
