Cheap Outlander (Book) (DIANA GABALDON) Price

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Customer Reviews of Outlander

When it first came out, the romance community said, "No, not a true romance," the sci-fi community looked askance. Well, people, it's a great novel. Actually, it's great five novels, with Gabaldon working on her sixth.

I admire this series so much. Yes, it's stirring and page-turning, romantic and sensual, as other enthusiastic reviewers have noted here. Yes, it will keep you awake. Even more than that, however, it contains elements that display Gabaldon's excellent storyteller skills.

Take, for example, Claire's talents as a nurse/healer -- which give her value in 18th century Europe, and also adapt and change as she learns how to use plants, or attempts cures she's only observed or read of. Her struggle to heal those around her is one that most women and all mothers can understand and applaud. Gabaldon has graduate degrees in scientific fields, and it shows.

What shows, too, is her insistence on dealing with questions of morals and ethics. Her main characters use their religious faith (many are Catholic) and experience to help them maneuver through moral minefields. There are no actions, no feelings, without consequences. That includes the love Jamie and Claire have for each other.

People do love in these books. They also get hurt. There is suffering, there is intense, shocking pain. Jealousy, envy, lust . . . the pain of lost love, of love unrequited, of love transformed to contempt.

But there is also redemption. Claire, Jamie, those surrounding them, search for ways to connect and ways to resolve conflicts within themselves. How to make amends, how to apologize, how to heal. While many reviewers have commented on Claire and Jamie's sexual avidity, they've failed to note that passion itself can heal. That Gabaldon knows enough of life, of men and women, to be able to write of physical love's healing power is enormously welcome.

I can hardly wait for Diana Gabaldon's next book.

A lovely surprise
I normally don't read romance novels, but Outlander's premise --a Englishwoman who accidently timetravels from the 1940s to the 1700s-- drew me in. The book turned out to be a lovely surprise. Heroine Claire is not the traditional blushing virgin. Here's no-nonesense military nurse in her late twenties with a talent for cursing and getting into trouble. Claire's married to an older man, Frank, but the war has given them little time together and they are eager to start a family. Their second honeymoon in Scotland is interrupted when Claire's trip to an ancient stone circle propels her into the past. Half of the novel concerns Claire's attempts to get back to her own time and Frank. But she soon falls in love with Jamie, a brave Scottish Highlander with a price on his head. But Jamie doesn't quite fit the mold of a romance novel hero either. He's a 23 year old virgin, spends much of the book badly injured, and Claire saves him more often then he rescues her.

Outlander has so many great elements, well-drawn characters, battles, political intrigue, science fiction/fantasy, a witch trial, a sadistic villian, and of course, a moving love story. I highly recommend it.

This book is a bodice-ripper romance
I had heard wonderful things about it, and for the first couple of hundred pages, really enjoyed it. But let's face it, this is a historical romance -- great if that's what you like. I learned that I really don't like historical romances any better than I like romance novels. I quit reading about halfway through -- the book just went on and on, and after a while, the novelty of the device (time travel) seemed to have lost interest for the author, because we were totally imbedded in the earlier time period.

If you love romances, this will probably be just your cup of tea. If you don't normally read romance novels, be warned.