Outlander by Diana Gabaldon Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Outlander
Book Review: A MUST READ
Summary: 5 Stars
What can I say? It was terrific. I've worn out my paperback reading the story over and over. I never get tired of it! The writing, the love story, the history, the interesting characters; it's a powerful book that you won't soon forget. The rest of the series is just as great. Read them all!Book Review: A Man's Perspective - Formulaic, Graphic, but still Good
Summary: 3 Stars
My wife suggested I read this book as I am an avid student of history, and a sci-fi buff.
The story is indeed very good. The writing pulls you in, and the author does a good job of transporting you back in time. Most of the details she provides about 18th century Scotland are accurate. It's clear she has done her research very well. What started to grate on me however, were the all too formulaic romance elements.
Take a happily married woman, whose relationship is strained. Put her in a situation where she just "has to" cheat due to a forced marriage and it's requirements of consummation. Furthermore, the hero/husband Jamie is handsome, tall, muscular, AND a virgin to boot. *sigh* What woman hasn't dreamed about a beautiful man that never learned to be a selfish lover?
Once married, the sex is frequent, graphic, and sometimes unbelievably absurd. This only hastens the reader to lose all sympathy for Claire. It takes Claire VERY little time to progress from grief stricken over her lost love and life, to downright wanton with her new husband of convenience. The author plies you throughout by expressing Claire's feelings of loss and regret, against her growing feelings for Jamie. However, her actions with Jamie blatantly contradict the feelings she supposedly has for her real husband. The lady doth protest too little, methinks.
Also, the last time I saw homoeroticism this graphic was in some of Anne Rice's novels under the A. N. Roquelaure nom de plume. It leaves me wondering if homosexuality isn't another element of female fantasy as this book pushes all the other buttons very deftly, but slams this button home with abandon.
A good book, but the otherwise great story is damaged a great deal by the overabundance of graphic sex.
Book Review: A Monstrosity
Summary: 1 Stars
Nearly three years ago, I endeavored to read this novel at the behest of my sister, who had raved that it was the first installment of an excellent series. And nearly six months ago, I finally finished the wretched thing.
I wouldn't normally have wasted my time on such a monstrous atrocity, but in this case I was determined to trudge through it - if only for the simple pleasure of being able to righteously blast it with the authority of someone who's suffered through the entirety. (Yes, I do have an odd stubborn streak).
What happened was that I had taken it to keep at work at my 2nd job, wherein I'd put in approximately one night shift every two weeks, to read there on my breaks. Yet I soon found that even the task of turning to it once every two weeks was sometimes an imposition far too great to endure. To remedy this irksome dilemma, I always made sure to bring another book with me to which I could turn. This went on for years.
In any case and not without a lot of pain and suffering did I finally manage to be done with it. So I'll get on now with my review:
Highly touted as a time-travel historical romance, OUTLANDER chronicles the trials and tribulations of Claire Randall: a young wife who, while on Scottish Highland holiday to rekindle her relationship with her husband at the end of WWII, stumbles upon some kind of time warp near some standing stones and gets conventionally sucked back in time to the Year of Our Lord 1743.
Once there, she gets taken in by a clan of Highlanders who, in order to protect her from the English - specifically, a sadistic colonel bearing not only the same last name, but also a striking resemblance to the husband she'd left behind - marry her off to one of their own: the novel's proclaimed hero, Jamie Fraser.
Indeed, there are so many things wrong with this book, and so little room here to list them, that I'm almost at a loss on how to proceed. I'll start by saying that the writing is bland and commonplace at its best; and the dialogue, rampantly inconsistent in both theory and form, does manage to be consistent in at least one respect: its deft ability to grate on one's nerves.
Furthermore, Claire is a heroine with very few redeeming qualities. Though I guess she's pretty, and has an acquired knack for healing from her work as a trauma nurse during the war. She's also in possession of a disdainfully shallow disposition. Here was a reasonably happily married woman who apparently had little qualm in the undertaking of a polygamous marriage. She then proceeded to carry on like some hyena in heat with the dim-witted brute she'd shamelessly attached herself to.
Now as for the hero, I must say that Jamie Fraser has got to be the most repulsive ingrate ever to grace the pages of literature (and I use the term "literature" very loosely here, mind you) - a wife-beating, blubbering simpleton who, with all the heinous injuries and humiliations he'd had to endure throughout this story, really should have been put out of his misery, not to mention the reader's, quite early on.
Overall, I really must say that I did manage to derive some little inklings of pleasure in the reading of this - there were parts and passages so blatantly bad that I could not help but be highly amused - actually found myself chuckling aloud a few times, at two or three o'clock in the morning, variously over the years it took to read this. Therefore, I have to hand this novel 1.5 stars. I merely rounded it down due to my own vast disappointment.
Book Review: A Pleasant Suprise!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read many of the reviews and must say I agree with most of them. These books are GREAT! My friend gave me the first one and I fell in love with it.
I also agree with the people that wrote to say the extremely graphic ending to the 1st book was to much. But other than that I was thrilled to learn there were more books to the series.
I am now almost done with A Dragonfly in Amber and have ordered the other 3 books on line. I hope they are as good.
Did someone say she was writing a sixth? Sweet!!!
Hope you enjoy them as much as we did!!!!!
Book Review: A True Epic
Summary: 5 Stars
My first experience with Claire and Jamie was overhearing my coworkers copy of Fiery Cross on CD while at work. I didn't hear all of but enough to know that I wanted to read the others. A few months later I picked up Outlander. Being a busy college student I didn't have time to read much, but I somehow managed to find the time to finish the book. I spent the next few months trying to squeeze out every minute I could to finish the rest of the books.
Now, two years later I picked it up again. I finished it in one week. I LOVE this book. Diana Gabaldon accomplishes something that I only have experienced in fantasy epics. She has invented characters and a world that feel as real as the one we live in. Claire and Jamie have real human flaws. They are both stuborn to a fault but they also love each other beyond reason. Gabaladon also fleshes out her minor characters. Her portrayal of Frank was so well done that you felt everything Claire felt for him even if his part of the story was over in 100 pages.
Many classify this as a Romance Novel. That is just plain wrong. It is an historical fiction novel with just enough romance in it to be satisfying. The romance and sex scenes are never overdone like Jean Auel and some other historical fiction writers. The adventure, as over the top as some of it is, never seems wrong or misplaced.
If you are the type of person who likes completely engulfed in a story this is the book for you.