Claire Randall has just ended her tenure as a WWII nurse and is on a second honeymoon of sorts with her husband, Frank, in Scotland, when a stone circle whisks her back in time to the 18th century, a budding war between England and Scotland, and a love that makes her question where exactly she belongs in the world.
Almost everyone I have spoken to has fallen in love with this book and immediately dashed out to buy the sequels. It’s a bit strange to be the one person not so affected by it. I liked it, don’t get me wrong – I do enjoy romance occasionally and that is what this book is. It just wasn’t unique, except in its unnecessary length. Certainly unnecessary – there are plenty of scenes which are completely superfluous to the novel’s plot and purpose. It just keeps going and going. Moreover, Claire forgives him far too easily for certain transgressions around the middle, and I found the ending scenes extremely disturbing and at times, again, implausible. Their reactions never felt natural, much less how Claire completely forgets her husband of several years after mere weeks in the company of Jamie Fraser.
I did enjoy the book, though. After a while, I started to believe that there was actually something between Jamie and Claire, and for all my resistance to some of their behaviors, sometimes you do just know that a person is right for you. I don’t understand why so many women of the world are in love with Jamie, though, as I certainly wouldn’t leave my fiance for him.
As far as the time travel aspect is concerned, I did my best to ignore the fact that it was simply impossible unless the worlds existed in parallel – a certain person’s death date changes, which makes it completely impossible that they exist in the same world, unless the issue comes up in later books.
Despite my criticism, I did like the book and I actually have Dragonfly in Amber sitting in my Amazon cart, used for $4. What can I say? I did like it, and all the reviews promise that number 2 is heavier on the historical fiction. I tend to prefer that, so I think I will give it a try. I don’t know if I want to embroil myself in the series, so I haven’t ordered it yet, but it’s certainly a temptation.
I tried to listen to Outlander on audio and couldn’t get in to it. I plan on trying to actually read it one of these days.
I think it would really, really drag if you listened to it, although I’m sure the audio version is abridged. I’d definitely recommend giving it a try in book form!