Book review: Outlander
Outlander
By Diana Gabaldon
Every summer I try to pick some outrageously long book for my summer vacation – mostly, I’m sure, because somewhere in the dark recesses of my brain I feel like I’ll have more time to read.
Yeah right. As my non-reading family likes to tell me, vacation is for vacation, not reading. (shrug)
So anyway, this year I decided to tackle Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (which I did at least start on the penultimate day of my vacation, thank you very much). There are other Outlanders out there, but I’m sure they can’t be as good as this one. As the author’s website says, this book has “history, warfare, medicine, sex, violence, spirituality, honor, betrayal, vengeance, hope and despair, relationships, the building and destruction of families and societies, time travel, moral ambiguity, swords, herbs, horses, gambling (with cards, dice, and lives), voyages of daring, journeys of both body and soul…”
Or a little something for everyone, if you will.
The basic premise: Claire is a modern day Brit who is magically transported 200 years into the past, to Scotland just prior to the Jacobite rising. There she meets Jamie – a red-headed Scot, and together the two begin their adventures.
Thank you to all the 974 people (I counted) who recommended this book to me. It was worth every one of its 850 pages. Epic, yes, but definately not stuffy or boring.
Outlander just celebrated its 20th anniversary, so that could account for some of the renewed interest, but if you haven’t had a chance to read this one, I highly recommend it (me and 983 other people – a few more read it while we were chatting).
What else do you have to do? It’s too hot to be outside…
Happy reading…
Amanda
PS There are seven total books in this series – each as long as the last. So if you are looking for something to keep you safe in the air conditioning until, say, Christmas when it finally cools off, this is the series for you.
Themocracy
I love this series! I read one every November…I don’t want to read them all at once because I’ll be sad when I’m done!
I know…I can already see that I’ll miss Jamie and Claire when I’ve finished. I’ve only read the first one, but I’ve heard an ugly rumor about some cliffhangers. Hopefully, by the time I get to that point in the series (wherever it is), Gabaldon will have the next book out already. I’m so not good at waiting…