While on her second honeymoon in the British Isles, Claire touches a boulder that hurls her back in time to the forbidden Castle Leoch with the MacKenzie clan. Not understanding the forces that brought her there, she becomes ensnared in life-threatening situations with a Scots warrior named James Fraser. But it isn't all spies and drudgery that she must endure. For amid her new surroundings and the terrors she faces, she is lured into love and passion like she's never known before.

I was lame and sore in every muscle when I woke next morning. I shuffled to the privy closet, then to the wash basin. My innards felt like churned butter. It felt as though I had been beaten with a blunt object, I reflected, then thought that that was very near the truth. The blunt object in question was visible as I came back to bed, looking now relatively harmless. Its possessor [Jamie] woke as I sat next to him, and examined me with something that looked very much like male smugness."

The epic tale begins when Claire Randall, a young combat nurse in World War II, moves to Scotland with her beloved husband to re-ignite their marriage interrupted by the war. Hiking one day, Claire accidentally passes through the stones of an ancient stone circle and wakes up to find herself in 16th century Scotland. Lost, alone, and confused (yet, determined), Claire's path crosses, and is inextricably linked to, a young Highland warrior, James Fraser. (The kind of man women want, and men want to BE.)The story that ensues would make Shakespeare proud--danger, suspense, passion, betrayal, true love, and tragedy. Gabaldon is a master story teller. She shrouds her fantasy in just enough reality as to completely seduce her readers.

The time-travel element as well as the romance, while unconventional for a "serious" historical novel, are handled brilliantly by Gabaldon. Not, for the faint of heart-- the author tackles themes of a violent and sexual nature. However, the story is so realistic and beautifully told, it doesn't come off as a ploy to shock readers. Well-crafted and meticulously researched, The Outlander is historical fiction at it's finest-but never this much fun! The hero and heroine come alive. You'll find yourself living and breathing in their world, anxiously devouring each chapter.

WARNING: have the next three books in the series handy. Once, you turn the last page of Outlander, you won't want to return to the 21st century. I couldn't get to the bookstore fast enough. And, Gabaldon does not disappoint...


The Ultimate Gabaldon Test   January 22, 2000
 78 out of 82 found this review helpful

I don't normally like books written in the first person. I *loved* "Outlander" (known as "Cross Stitch" in New Zealand). I read "Outlander" on the recommendation of a good friend and immediately fell in love with Jamie (as any living, breathing woman would).

The book is rich in history, romance, drama... It has the qualities of a true epic, easily rivalling such classics as "Gone With the Wind".

Claire Randall is the reader's guide into the story and throughout it's sequels. It's through her eyes that we are introduced to the way of life and harsh truths in those times. If you've never been to Scotland, you will be dying to go "Jamie Hunting" by the end of this book.

For new Gabaldon readers, Outlander is the one to start with. Do not even attempt to read any of the sequels first. Even though it is not crucial to read them in order, you will get the most enjoyment by doing so. The second and third books in the series are not nearly as good. It is only the enjoyment of reading about familiar characters that kept me going. Nevertheless, by the time you have read all four books, you will be hungering for more.

"Outlander" is the ultimate Gabaldon test. You will either hate it or love it. If you hate it, you won't read anything by Gabaldon ever again. If you love it, you won't be able to eat, drink or sleep until you have read the others.

I am happy to say that I definitely belong in the latter category.


A Monstrosity   December 3, 2005
 53 out of 100 found this review helpful

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.




What Do Women Really Want?   May 7, 2004
 49 out of 68 found this review helpful

The age old question may finally have been answered by this modern publishing pheneomenon. The "Outlandish" series (I am reviewing "Outlander," the first of the series) is beloved by thousands of women worldwide, who passionately overlook mediocre writing, aimless plot, wildly unrealistic situations (Claire killing a starving, 90-lb wolf with her bare hands made time travel look reasonable), unnatural character behavior (why are Jamie and Claire always laughing at the most sober moments?), contradictory themes (Claire admires Jamie's loyalty, loves Frank, but was hunky-dory after just a few days about boinking a total stranger; a stranger whom she then marries and promises her loyalty, but from whom she then tries to flee back home, before being captured...), etc. etc. Perhaps most amazing is their tolerance for the horribly violent, disgusting, and often homosexual masochism that is constant presence in this story.

So I ask myself, what could make women overlook these otherwise important issues.

Power, Love, Intimacy, Freedom. Claire realizes most of a woman's greatest desires. In Jamie, Gabaldon has created the perfect man; loving, loyal, intimacy seeking, powerful, considerate, subservient, and lightning rod for horrible pain! In addition, Claire suddenly develops the skills of a talented physician, friends appear out of nowhere, as do shelter, food, money and reasources. Its the perfect fantasy. And who wouldn't want to occasionally (frequently?) leave the old ball and chain (husband) behind for an extended (and optional - she can go back any time) roll in the hay with a great man!

Why one star? While I admire the publisher's audacity to sneak such brutal masochism into the popular press, and Gabaldon for coming up with such a wildly successful recipe, I found the book to be fundamentally insincere. I felt the main caracter, Claire, to be disloyal, superficial, self-serving, insensitive, and totally unworthy of Jamie and most of the other Scotts characters in the story. It seemed all the better qualities she looked for and needed in others, she never demonstrated herself. Intimacy and trust, perhaps closest to the core of the book's value to woman, Jamie bestows upon Claire in heaps, but she never really reciprocates. Disagree? How often did Claire profess her love to Jaime ("I love you.") unless it was in respose to his prior declaration of same. Never. Perhaps in this way Gabaldon achieves yet another of the things women want - finally turning the tables on men. Fair enough!