The story of Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon, follows the story of Claire, an unfortunate wartime nurse who is pulled back in time and dropped into a violent world of Scottish rebels and English soldiers during the Jacobite Uprising (or shortly before it). There, she meets the handsome Jamie, who saves her life and is a bit of an outcast. The overall plot progresses in a relatively predictable fashion towards the pairing of Claire and Jamie as a couple, as they deal with the threats of the time period.
The plot of Outlander is fresh and enjoyable, and the pacing is good. Each character is unique and generally relatable, or appropriately villainous, as is the case with Jonathan Randall; the despicable antagonist comes across as vile and evil without being an over-the-top caricature. My enjoyment of this book was quite thorough, and in the end, I was left with only two complaints.
First, Jamie’s personality felt somewhat inconsistent, as he seems to swing between over-protectiveness and demanding brutishness. This oddity is most apparent in the sex scenes, where he goes from constantly fawning over Claire, worrying that he’s going to hurt her, to in another scene where he doesn’t seem to care at all about the idea of sexually assaulting her. My other complaint centres around the story length. Outlander is very long. Perhaps this choice allows the reader to immerse themselves in the setting, but it also begins to feel excessive. In the middle of the book, many of the scenes feel like mandatory insertions, as if the main character was running down a checklist of every conceivable situation that might be foreign to her. Most of them could have been removed, and the plot nor the character development would not have suffered. In particular, there is a scene near the end of the book involving a wolf that I found to be entirely superfluous.
Regardless of my opinions on these matters, Outlander is an excellent book and well worth the read, and more than anything, it inspired an interesting shift in my perspective. At its core, this is a romance novel, and yet it deals heavily with elements from other genres, such as time travel and magic from science fiction and fantasy. When combined with the fact that romance is the most successful genre (by a wide margin), it inspires me as an aspiring author. Considering that most of my unwritten novels possess a romantic element, I could transform them into romance novels without affecting the overall plot, thus opening many doors to reaching a wider audience.
I enjoyed Outlander as an audiobook from Audible, narrated by Davina Porter. Throughout her reading, Davina performs an incredible range of voices and characters, both male and female. Her consistency with her characters, and her ability to give each of them a unique tone and quality, directly contributed to my enjoyment of this story. Truly exceptional.
