Two words: Jamie Fraser (actually five words: James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser). These two words sum up the absolutely best reason to read the “Outlander” series by Diana Gabaldon. Jamie is headstrong, arrogant, stubborn, pig-head (all the best qualities in a man) and, above all, loyal and completely devoted to his wife, Claire and his daughter, Brianna. Throw in the fact that he is (as described in the book) not at all hard to look at and Diana Gabaldon has pretty much summed up the man of your dreams.
“Outlander” is marketed as a novel about “time travel” but it becomes so much more than that. It’s a romance, it’s a historical novel, it’s science fiction (the whole time travel thing), it’s a novel about love, loss and faith but most of all it’s a great read.
Claire, a World War II nurse, travels through time (by way of a Scottish stone circle) from 1945 to 1743, shortly before the Jacobite Rising. Once she arrives in 1743, she falls in with a Scottish clan who are on a clandestine mission to steal cattle from a rival clan. Circumstances require her to marry Jamie Frasier, a much younger man who is destined for an English prison if Clair does not become his English bride. Needless to say, Claire (who is married to an English professor in 1945) and Jamie come to love each other deeply. They have various (sometimes comical and sometime very touching) adventures while they try to change history and avoid the inevitable slaughter of many Scottish soldiers at the Battle of Culloden. Despite Jamie and Claire’s intervention, the uprising commences and Claire if forced (by Jamie) to return to her own time through the “standing stones” to save herself and their unborn child.
“Outlander” is followed by five other volumes of the story with two more due to complete the series. Each volume advances the story and introduces other characters such as Jamie and Claire’s daughter Brianna, her husband Roger and chronicle the families relocation to North Carolina where they become embroiled (naturally) in the early events leading to the American Revolution.
As other reviews have mentioned, don’t be intimidated by the size of these novels – once you start reading them, you can’t put them down. They are entertaining and enlightening as well as some of the best written “new” fiction I have ever read. But don’t take my word for it, pick up a copy of “Outlander” and get started….
