Diana Gabaldon’s acclaimed Outlander series blends rich historical fiction with riveting adventure and a truly epic love story. Now, with this convenient eight-volume eBook bundle, discover the novels that have won Gabaldon millions of fans and introduced readers to the brilliant Claire Randall and valiant Highlander Jamie Fraser.
The year is 1946. Claire Randall is a British ex-combat nurse on a postwar second honeymoon with her husband in the Scottish Highlands. Walking alone one afternoon, she passes through a circle of standing stones and is hurled back in time to a Scotland simmering with war in the year of our Lord 1743. Catapulted into an intrigue of rival clans and rising armies that threatens her life, she’s obliged to wed James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, as the only way to survive. Thus begins a series of unrivaled storytelling that has become a modern classic. This bundle includes:
OUTLANDER DRAGONFLY IN AMBER VOYAGER DRUMS OF AUTUMN THE FIERY CROSS A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES AN ECHO IN THE BONE THE CUSTOM OF THE ARMY (E-NOVELLA)
Diana Jean Gabaldon Watkins grew up in Flagstaff, Arizona and is of Hispanic and English descent (with a dash of Native American and Sephardic Jew). She has earned three degrees: a B.S. in Zoology, a M.S. in Marine Biology, and a Ph.D in Ecology, plus an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Glasgow, for services to Scottish Literature.
Over the last few weeks, I have read the 8 books of Diana Gabaldon's books for the 3rd times since they first came out.
Again, I could not put them down.
Having seen the first 8 episode of the Outlander books #1 on iTunes, I told myself I was trying to keep caught up since I had read them over such a number of years.
Besides that th, I was able to so much more admire the research, the vocabulary and the imagination that this author had to have had to accomplish this series.
How DOES one even write a book - I am at a loss!
I am in awe.
(...and I learned a volume of new vocabulary words)
Once you get your head around the small part with the time travel, the story and the writing is phenomenal. She is so well researched in her history, her medical knowledge and the lives and beliefs of the times that she draws you in so that you forget it is a time travel fiction. Her descriptive use of language makes you feel you actually know these people. I have actually read the series twice and several other of the latter half of the series 3 times.
This series is amazing. Diana Gabaldon is amazing. How she ties all these books together, creating a story that you feel you are part of. Bringing back memories that happened in other books and tying them into the current book. I truly love the series and can't seem to let it go. Reading and re-reading the main series and the Lord John Grey series and the smaller novellas and additional books, which answers questions from the main series.
Great author, great story. Loved this series. There are too many graphic sexual situations for my liking. I just skip over those for the most part. Love that these are time travel and historical fiction novels!! At least that is how I would describe then. The love story is good, just too sexy!!
I started reading the series last summer after the T.V. series season 2 of Outlander had finished in July 2016. I have since read all of the books and bought the set and have read six and now currently reading Echo in the Bone. I also purchased both Outlandish Companion one and two as resources for all thing Outlander.
Truly love this series and have since the first was published in the early 90s. While the series on Starz attempts an adequate representation of the books, only by reading them can you fully understand the relationships between the characters.
‘People disappear all the time. Ask any policeman. Better yet, ask a journalist. Disappearances are bread-and-butter to journalists.
Young girls run away from home. Young children stray from their parents and are never seen again. Housewives reach the end or their tether and take the grocery money and a taxi to the station. International financiers change their names and vanish into the smoke of imported cigars.
Many of the lost will be found, eventually, dead or alive. Disappearances, after all, have explanations.
Usually……’
In 1946, after World War II, a young Englishwoman named Claire Beauchamp Randall goes to the Scottish Highlands on a second honeymoon with her husband, Frank.
As a war nurse and an army grunt, the two have been detached for six years, and have set aside this time to resume their future.
But one day Claire goes out walking by herself, and comes across a loop of standing stones, which are common across this part of the country, and is sucked through a time portal to 1743.
The first person she meets is Jack Randall, Frank’s ancestor—a vicious bisexual deprave.
While trying to run away from him, Claire falls into the hands of a gang of Highland Scots, who are also trying to avoid Black Jack Randall to escape political harassment.
To avoid being handed over to this common enemy, Claire is obliged to marry one of the young clansmen: Jamie Fraser, a loyal Jacobite who, in a romantic surprise twist, is a virgin.
He’s also a conventional kilt guy taught that the way to a great marriage is to keep his woman in order, an assertion that does not work at winning the love of a 20th century, self-determining woman.
Claire finds herself trying to get away from Castle Leoch and her Scottish captors, trying to evade being recaptured by Captain Randall, needing to find the way back to Frank — and falling in love with Jamie, who is rapidly proving he’s got her back whenever she clashes with the culture, notwithstanding the fact he has no idea where she came from or who she actually is.
Does she in actuality want to walk away from this love to go home?
Gabaldon has spent twenty-one years and eight books providing famished fans with the response.
This sequence is every bit worth your time and endeavour.
If you love history, and the detailed description of it, then you will be glad reading this series. I salute Diana for this. Truly remarkable...No wonder this series made into a movie right?
But being a hopeless romantic I am, I will be focused on the romance itself. Many reviewer hate that Claire betrayed his husband by being married to Jamie, but I do not begrudge her for it. I can understand. But if you do not like a heroine who love 2 men, then this series is not for you. Being one myself, I still able to enjoy this, though. Once again, I can understand, if I were to be put in Claire shoes, I possibly will do the same, well, maybe... Claire-Jamie love story is truly enjoyable to read, I found it makes me happy, light and I really love their banter. Their story covers many human/couples spectacles, and how they deal with that is interesting... So many wonderful feelings!! This series covers long span of Claire-Jamie life, so the series are LONG, the historical conflicts are LONG, so being lazy, for the later books (maybe book 4 or 5 and so on), I skip a lot, ha! I actually know this book from the TV series, so I cheat too, when I am being too lazy to read, I watch the TV, then go back to read ONLY the parts that is interest me, ha! These series also feature many characters aside from Claire-Jamie, some of them I like/love, some of them, not so much. But this is also add colors and richness to this series.
I give 4 starts to a very good book, but I give 5 to books that makes me want to reread it again just to feel all wonderful feelings inside. So for outlander series, I give 5! So try it, you might like it.
Outlander was one of those series I never expected to like. The plot seemed cheesy, contrived and very bodice-ripperesque. But after the first book I was immediately hooked. Claire herself, even when she finds herself out of time, possesses a steely resolve tempered with a kind and passionate heart while Jaime chivalrously goes to any lengths necessary to defense those he loves. The way these two find there way back to each other again and again, despite the centuries and dangers in between to carve out a home for themselves is marvelous. The characters that they meet and develop with along the way are just as important too. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Brianna and Rodger when they were first introduced but now I can’t imagine the series without them. To the contrary, I’ve loved Lord John Grey from the start and always smile when he pops into the story again. I think what makes this series so special though is the depth of detail it goes into. There’s big action and romance scenes to give the books thier own plot structure, but after the fourth book we also get a look at domestic life in Fraser’s ridge that makes us care even more about the characters after spending time with them in the day to day. The size of these books and the story they tell is one that will stick with me for a lifetime and one that will not be forgotten.
I read this series years ago before it became a TV series. (I have to mention that because it's the equivalent of "I liked it before it was cool".) Diana Gabaldon is one of my favorite authors. I feel a kinship to her, I suppose, because we both started our careers as far from writing fiction as possible, and somehow stumbled into it. Her writing style is absolutely beautiful, offering her readers no choice but to fall in love with the places, the culture, the era, and especially the characters. It's totally her fault I am now obsessed with Scotland. And Jamie Fraser.
If I could change one thing about this series, it would be that there seems to be an over-emphasis on rape/attempted rape. It seemed to me like everywhere Claire went, men were just waiting in the shadows to at least give it their best shot. Sorry to be glib, and I don't know the statistics of that era, but it seemed excessive to me.
I have now read the many of these books twice and all of them once. I originally started reading them as they were published in the nineties. In all fairness I began reading them because of a distant family collection. Read closely....the author and I shared a step grandfather (may he rest in peace) and my grandmother would send them to me as they came out in paperback. I loved the books they were a wonderful escape in some rough years. Fast forward, after many moves and drama I repurchased the series and still love them. I love historical fiction and have a particular fashion for anything Irish or Scottish. Yes, the books get a bit spicy but I love the characters and the story lines.
Beste Buchserie, die ich bisher gelesen habe. - Genre-übergreifend - starkes world-building - interessante geschichtliche Epoche - Hauptcharaktere, mit denen ich mich wirklich identifizieren kann - Endlich mal eine Geschichte einer liebevollen, leidenschaftlichen, langen Ehe, wo die Ehe positiv bei wegkommt - Religion wird nicht verächtlich gemacht; interessante theologische Gedankenspiele - unterschiedliche Settings: Wildes Schottland; Paris und Versaille; Seefahrer und Piraten; Pionier-Geschichten; Kriege usw... - manchmal etwas auschweifend
in een ruk deel 1 tm 9 uitgelezen. 170 uur verder 😅 Heerlijk om te lezen en in op te gaan in het verhaal, hoewel ik wel het gevoel heb dat de laatste delen geschreven zijn onder druk van de Outlander serie. En het zijn wel heel veel namen die mijn geheugen op enig moment niet meer aan kan 😉 Nu wachten op deel 10 en wachten op de serie op Netflix. En tijd voor andere boeken.
This is my second reading of the series. The story is well written and totally enjoyable. The author does nclude a lot of detail and I sometimes have to go back and re-read sections in a previous book.
I can't say enough about this series! It carried me off to other worlds. Character development is spectacular. I hated to have to leave the last volume. Diana, please!! More!
With this pandemic, finished reading the last 4 books of Gabaldon's Outlander Series. Worth reading, especially if you're watching the series on Netflix.
Goodreaders, I did it. I read this tale from beginning to end. It took months. I loved it, mostly. It has been quite a distraction from pandemic insanity.