Outlander question

I was barely able to finish it.

The crazy thing is I attempted to read this book three times and couldn't get into it. But then I listened to it on audio books and fell in love! I've read all the books now and watch the tv series. It's one of my all time favorite series now. But more than most other books I've read your either a die hard fan or you really disliked it or didn't finish it. (less)
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Is all of that in the 1st book?

If you mean is everything in the tv series so far from the first book then yes it is. I'm not sure but I think each season of the TV series is a different book

Unfortunatley the UK is not airing outlander as of yet. No Stacey I meant Jamie's raping & beating of Claire is that in the 1st book, I could only skim through the book as I could not get into it at all. I cannot for the life of me get into books that are written in the first person. I am hoping that when the UK finally get Outlander tv series it airs better than it reads!

Ep 4 & not hooked yet!

It's slow starting

Stick with it

I cannot praise the books for the 'romance' in it (it sure is no Woodiwiss), nor for it's historical value. The facts might be correct, but I feel Gabaldon could have done more with the time traveller aspect. One thing which bothered me a lot was that Claire did not let people benefit much from her 'superior' knowledge in medicine by way of education (cfr one of the posts above concerning water &soap).
She does not want Jaime to exact revenge on Randall because it would interfere with her future, but she does not stop to think about what her trying to stop Culloden from happening could mean in the long run: other battles, more prolonged rivalry and cruelty ... It wouldn't have bothered me if she had thought about it and discarded the notion of not interfering.
Also Jaime's total lack of curiosity about the future is incomprehensible IMO.
Still, I plan to continue reading as I still find it a nice enough read.

Yes... lol

Just watched Ep 8 and finally the action get's going. I've been quite bored up till now, The Wedding ep bored me to tears so slow.

Was just wondering if you guys in the US understand all the Scottish talk?

I also could not read Outlander BUT I enjoyed it and the other books in the series very much as audiobooks (I'm currently on Drums in Autumn.)

The narrator, Davina Porter, is fantastic. She brought the books to life for me. Dragonfly in Amber is one of my favorite listening experiences of all times. I think you do need to listen to the first book before you read the second.

Thankfully we all have different tastes, I myself hate spy stories and thrillers and who done its, so there is room for this book out there along with all these genres. I loved it, every sentence, and enjoyed the TV series as well, and I wouldn't count myself undersexed or afraid for my husband to see me nude Mari! Maybe you are comparing the story with modern thinking and not as the rip roaring adventure it has turned out to be.
So you don't like it, read something else, there are plenty to choose from!

No you are not the only one! I didn't like it either. Lousy stereotypical tropes, Rapes, beating, convoluted plot. And worst of all, I didn't care about any of the charachters. Icky.

My biggest issue with the series and TV show is the lengths some folks go to argue about its supposed accuracy. It's a story, and a pretty far-out one at that. The book series overall is so disappointing; with each successive novel I became less and less interested until today I couldn't give a jot about what happens to them. I read Outlander back in the 90s - ran across it in the library and it looked uniquely interesting back then. Dragonfly in Amber was also pretty good to me back then, but Voyager and then all successive books just went into the realm of blergh. I'm an historian, so I think the anachronisms in the earlier two books were outweighed by the characters and storyline. Remember, this was the 90s so please forgive me a bit of a descent into fantasy at that time. By the time I was reading the 3rd and 4th books the anachronisms and other ludicrously implausible activities of the characters farrrrrrr outweighed any joy the characters and story might have had for me. I made it through the 5th book, just barely, back when it was published in 2001-2002. After that I promised I wouldn't touch any other Gabaldon books. They are just too ridiculous.
My daughter is enamoured of the Starz series. I refused to watch it for as long as I could. I have watched a few episodes and the male characters are pretty wonderful actors; I have few issues with the men's costuming. I love Catriona Balfe as an actress; tbqh she is a better Claire than Diana Gabaldon wrote. But the women's costuming - ugh, beyond ridiculous. I just can't. No. I know it will only get worse the longer the series airs because Gabaldon herself couldn't find her way out of a costume history book if her life depended on it. The costuming is fantasy. That would be fine if people would let it be just that.
As a textile historian, my opinion is that the books - and the tv series - are just another lame attempt to modernize history. It wasn't like this. It's a fantasy, and not a very good one, at that. Jamie Fraser might be some women's dream-come-true, and Sam Heughan is lovely, but - the guy is just a dream. That's all. He never happened, and he couldn't have happened.
People should remember the series premise is based on trips through standing stones, and suspend their belief accordingly, instead of trying to convince other people this is at all relevant to any study of history.

I read it 100% because of all of the attention it was getting.
I'm not a huge romance reader, and I usually shy away from "time travel" books - but historical fiction is my favorite.
I gave it 3 stars. Enjoyed it for what it was, but I am by no means rushing to read the other books in the series.

I agree with most of the comments here. Im not finished yet because its been such a sllw read. I couldnt figue out why I was having issues with it untill I read some of your posts. I dont mind the violence nessesarily ( Im a huge ASOIAF fan) but framing it in the context of romantic and "for your own good" nonsense is awful. I dont like Jamie or Claire. Gelis was interesting, but then that plot line just dropped. That was the most disappointing part because she had a chance to explore the magic and time travel stuff and then, nope. No mention of it again ever. Claire doesnt even think much about it. Ugh

I have tried the OUTLANDER series several times and have not been able to get through it. Abut to gruesome for me.

I don't dislike it. It's just not my cup of tea!

Jamie, practically perfect in every way. He's physically and morally perfect, the object of desire of straight women and gay men. It is a hefty volume that could have been whittled down by half to make it to tedious. Hyperbole is not excellent writing. As it is it’s best used to cure insomnia.

I've tried on two separate occasions to become a major fan of "Outlander" novels. I have the first four novels, but I have yet to read Books 2-4. It's just . . . I don't know. There is something about Gabaldon's writing style that turns me off. And I cannot put my finger on it. It's one thing to read melodrama. But it's another to read a book that pretends it's more than a melodrama and ends up drifting to a romance novel. It's one thing if a novel is a mixture of one or two genres. It's another when it becomes an unwieldy mixture of more than two.

And I'm so sick of the "Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ" oath. Actress Caitriona Balfe doesn't handle it very well. She doesn't exactly have a memorable voice, if you know what I mean.

You're not the only one. I thought the first book was cheesy and boring when it wasn't sexist and trite. The only interesting characters were Dougal and Geillis - and they were decidedly secondary. I hear the series is better, but am honestly not willing to give it a try, as I hated the book so much. I still haven't completely forgiven the friend who constantly recommended this piece of trash to me for over a decade, lol.

I'm not a OUTLANDER series liker either. The books are 20 or so hours long. And I don't have the patience for that long of a book.

I've read all of the books - twice! The first time was 20 years ago, and then she lost me with The Fiery Whatever. But I picked it up again and held my nose when I heard they were making it into a TV series.

I am a writer myself (full disclosure.) I really don't like her writing, for a few reasons. She had kind of a good idea. She can write well, when she has the discipline, but she's all over the place. She creates characters and then just dumps them. It's like she indulges herself with "the idea of the day" and goes off into the weeds, dragging the reader along. In her later books, I found myself skipping entire chapters, and wondering why she didn't have a talented editor. Ego?

Another aspect of her writing that bothers me is her obvious misandry. She seems to delight in torturing men or casting them as twisted individuals.

I tried watching the series and enjoyed the first few episodes (I know this is a little off topic, but apparently she has a lot of control over the production) but then I became disgusted, just as I had with the books. This began as a romance novel, and devolved into something horrendous. What happened to the love?

So, ultimately, I felt somewhat used as a reader. I kept hoping she was going to fulfill the potential she showed early on, but it all dissipated into, in my mind, just playing with herself.

I spend a lot of time in Scotland, know the history, and have many dear friends there. She just skims the surface.

I'm not one to leave bad reviews, preferring to let writers find their own ways, but this disturbs me, because it's just pop literature, haphazard, and receives too much recognition.

I got through it, It was Ok. Expected much more, since the TV show is popular. I don't plan on reading the other books in the series.

Oh boy, I am so glad I am not the only one. I tried to read the book many years ago, but it was so drawn out and did not capture me, i stopped. Then with the TV series, i was tempted to do it again, but recalled the 'boring bits' of the author. So while commuting to work I listen to the book. And I can say, I can't stand Claire. she is selfish, without any regards for rules. She endangers constantly others. Yes, I understand, she is in th past and it is culture shock, but seriously, she of all people should understand the past better than anyone. I was hoping to gleam more interesting parts to the story, something to fill in the gaps in the series, but I am thinking, that the TV series is pretty much the highlight reel of the book.

This series was recommended to me in 1995, and I hated it, tried to read it a dozen time since that time and I failed to get into it. It was recommended to me over and over again, and I just rejected the premise as bizarre and the story telling weak. Then in 2015 I picked it up again, bored and desperate, and I found it in a box I was packing. Suddenly it clicked. Oh believe you, me, it isn't great literature but it is total estrogen fueled brain candy and it has a very distinct formula that, as a writer, I envied. I have subsequently watched the tv programme ( I also hate television and don't own one) and liked the adaptation, again, it tickles my guilty pleasure and need for romantic drivel. If we don't over intellectualise the premise its decent writing, and well researched and makes more of an effort to be authentic than many fantasy cum romantic shite on the market. It triggered a genre for christ's sake. Give Gabaldon her due, she struck a cord with a host of female readers, one, as a writer, I am grateful for. I'd read her over that Grey shite any day but its unfair to put cherries next to crab apples ...

Soooo glad I'm not alone. I generally breeze through books fairly quickly, but I have been trying to get through this book for A MONTH. I will pick it up and read several pages, then get extremely bored. It's like 90% of the content is unnecessary. Is there even a plot?? Claire doesn't even seem to care most of the time, or the least bit curious about her situation. The middle of the book was GREAT when she was accused of being a witch and I thought holy shit this book is actually going somewhere!! And then of course maybe 30 pages after that it fell back into the same. boring. pace. Great idea, seems like a decent story overall, but it is just so poorly executed I don't even think I can finish the 1st book and I have 73 pages left. I simply do not care about what happens to the characters at all.

I was thinking about this again after having a discussion about the horrors of 50 Shades. The problem is I can't recall specifics, as I read this book years back -- but I remember really enjoying it, up til the later sex scenes. I loved the concept and several tropes, and it grabbed me fast and held me, so I managed to read far faster than some other books. But I just remember something about the later sex scenes feeling... gross. And uncomfortable. I don't remember why, and I'm sure part of it was because I was younger (well -- 19ish, I'm a late bloomer in terms of the NSFW world) and my exposure to sex scenes back then was mostly fan fiction (which, honestly, is usually better written then half the crap I read in published works now).

But I distinctly remember going to my mom, who also read the book, and asking her if this is was what "loving sex" was like, because if it was, I wanted NO PART.

I'd like to revisit these scenes again with the knowledge and experience I have now, but I always see and hear so much praise for the sex in this series -- while I was left feeling extremely put off rather than turned on.

Well, I'm reading through all of these posts in an attempt to find my tribe of "People Who Don't Like Outlander."

I watched the show up to the wedding episode, then stopped and tried reading the book. I have since abandoned it, for many of the aforementioned reasons. I teach literature (Faulkner, Ishiguro, Orwell, Shakespeare, etc.) which has probably ruined me for reading authors like Gabaldon.

BUT, I really just wanted some fun time-traveling romance ~ some dessert reading, if you will. Reading this book is not fun, though.

Maybe I'll just finish watching season one.

Clearly, you are not alone in your hatred. One of my biggest peeves was that it was clear she had done SOME historical research, and so her setting was fine. In Scotland, at least. Gabaldon didn't exhibit any knowledge about 1940s Britain (I would know, I'm a historian), but really it was that her ideas about the sexuality of rapists was WAY off base, and so the sections of the book that were supposed to be so powerful were undermined by not being believable. Good concept wasted on a bad story, that's what I can't stand.

This is my third time trying to get through the first book. I don't know what it is but I am bored to tears. The core of the story is wonderful so I'm content with skimming and still feeling satisfied. But DG...I've read countless interviews of her being snarky and unkind to her fans. That is a total turn off to me. Instead of being grateful that she had so many fans, she is unkind and impolite. I just can't get past the author's nasty personality. I can see her beady little eyes glaring at her PC while writing and I'm honestly turned off by her.

I started this book against my instincts because not one but two friends that I regard as cool and intelligent just love both books and series.....I got thus far... ella dawson says it better than I could but this was very much my reaction on reading "the belt scene " I could not possibly/ would not want to read ANY more of this ! It disturbs me that anyone can see this as a romance. This is a man who takes pleasure in physical violence ! this is not romantic at all. I am now happily reading some Tove Jansson !
https://elladawson.com/2015/04/05/i-w...

I'm so glad to find this thread as I've heard over and over again how wonderful this series is. I started reading Outlander three times, but didn't like it. The beginning is promising, with the challenge of the couple meeting again after the war. Would they still love each other? Would they still know and understand each other after so long apart? Her original time travelling experience is well written, and I was fascinated to find out more about the links between the time she came from and the one she went to.

And then it just all went wrong.

The story became just one sex scene after another. There wasn't enough plot in between to make it worth following. I feel the need to say I'm not a prude and have read plenty of good sex scenes! I personally objected to the brutality of some of the sex in this book, mind you. But what I objected to more was the author's assumption that if you cram enough sex into a book you don't have to bother to write any of the rest of it very well.

This could have been so much better. I did start to watch the TV version but turned it off after a few minutes, for all the same reasons. I genuinely don't know what people are seeing in this series that I'm clearly missing!

I just couldn’t take to ‘Outlander’. Scraped through the first book, gave up completely part way into the second. (After several efforts) This morning I started looking for others of like mind because a lot of people seem to love this series so much and I thought there was something wrong with me. So, does anyone have any authors they could recommend?

I am late to this party, but am so glad I am not alone. I actually read the first 4 books several years ago, but then lost interest or got busy. I picked them up again a few months ago with the intent to read them all through to the most recent book. But I just CANNOT get into these books. I actually enjoy the first book most of all and think that the author should have stopped there. But the subsequent books, I just lose interest in the storyline and the characters.

It's a shame, because I just love a good series that sucks you in and won't let go, and this is what everyone who reads these books promises. But something is just not there for me. I cannot put my finger on it, but oh well. There are so many other wonderful books for me to dive into. I will probably once and for all put these books down and never return to them.

I love this book and other books in the series. Everyone has their own opinion and I accepted it. People have different tastes. I found this book interesting in the story, historical events, relationships.. it's simply my cup of tea.

I found the first book SO ANNOYING that I couldn't finish it! The series was recommended to me by my adult stepdaughter, who listened to the book on tape during her long commutes to work. I've noticed some comments mention the audio version as being really good, so maybe that would have helped, but in the end, it's the writing that's a problem. I was spoiled at a young age by Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre -- which may be totally unfair to a contemporary American author -- but there you have it. To me, Outlander is just stinky cheese!

I have never done this before: halfway through the first Outlander book, I ripped the paperback in half and shredded it into the recycling container. I didn't even want to give it away for others to read. Yuck! Was told the series was really good and have just viewed Episode 1. Very pretty star with affected, shallow acting ability; creepy husband who turns into creepier ancestor. Lovely images. I think Episode one shows me everything interesting I remember from the book - which then became just dreadfully boring and rife with sex. Not my cup of tea. Happy I'm not the only one who is, um, unimipressed (by the way, I won't be watching any more episodes...) Tamara

I'm so glad I found this thread. Friends and relatives have been urging me for years to get me to read this series because I've read so much from and about this historical period . . . but I just can't stand the characters! You've liberated me!

lol I tried hard to like this story, but it is as ridiculous as when your wife/gf has a dream that you cheated on them and then blames you for it when she wakes up.
Woman who has a loving husband but is a wee bit unhappy, travels to past by accident, meets a nice looking fella, while at the same time sees a villian who looks like her actual husband so is justified in her infidelity. Even that aside, she comes back to real time and continues to blame her look-alike husband for what one of his ancestors did 200 years ago...... and also gets angry at him for not being happy with the situation..... like wtf?

I read a lot! I have seen books BUTCHERED by tv and film. I am a huge Stephen King fan and almost every one of his books that has been put on film has been ruined. Outlander is the exception to that. Because of the skillful handling by the production and writing staff, they have streamlined the books. Diana Gabaldon is the most long winded author I have ever read. Pages upon pages of detail. 7 freaking pages describing a wolf pack in Outlander. Her books would be a whole lot better if you cut out all the minutae and concentrated on story. A lot of sex? Not really. Unfortunately the show has a lot more and I think that is their only downside. But honestly, this is a rare case where the tv series is far better than the books.

You are definitely not the only one but my feelings are different. For me this is not just a book anymore. It is like I am part of their lives as a spectator living the lives with them. Therefore a well thought of plot is not important anymore. My life does not have a plot either, it ripples in every direction just like theirs. Its like reading a diary of someone you are very fond of. Just their thoughts, conversations, the way they change a diaper, pick flowers, handle day to day problems are great because the chemistry between the leads is great. No I do not like Brianna nor Roger either, nor do I like it very much that Briannas height is so emphasized all the time, like she is some sort of freak of nature. When reading the books I always imagined Brianna as Madame Maxime from Harry Potter only younger and with red hair. But now I can imagine Sophie Skelton as Brianna it did get a bit better. Its just a pity that that unequaled chemistry that Claire and Jamie have is not mirrored in Roger and Brianna. But although there are boring parts, somehow you cannot stop reading either. You just want to know, want to read on, be part of that life and world. The best book was number one but the best thing about number 1 is that it just does not stop with: "they lived happily ever after" but is followed up with the books that show us the ever after in all its aspects.

I am 76 and have read books all my life Ido not read just one or two types, I read I read many many types of books. and I have to say as far as fiction’s go I have enjoyed Outlander series very much.I would recommend it to any one, But it is good that we all have different taste in what we read. We all read books and like them an others would not touch with a ten foot pole. so to each their own..

I too didn't like this book at all. Nice to see others felt the same way. I got 300 pages in and couldn't take anymore. It was more of a Fifty Shades of Gray in Scotland, than anything. I don't think a good book needs sex on every other page to make it better. I love historical fiction, but this is not that. This is romance with a little time travel thrown in, Not for me.

My emotional reaction to the book Outlander was such that I decided not to keep it in my house, and not to pass it on to anyone else, because of the physical abuse in it. I tossed it in the trash.

I was quite happy to find this feed. I have read the entire series so far (through MOBY) and will most likely read the final books to the series. I have actually re-read the series; however, I found myself feeling some of the same dissatisfaction in the books that are voiced here. I love the concept and I could not agree more that the relationship between Claire and Jamie is a sort of estrogen-filled brain candy high. I love dense long books but with each succeeding book after the point at which they left Scotland, and when Claire was kidnapped on the Porpoise I found the capture/rescue/sex trope so very annoyingly formulaic. I find myself more and more just skimming through the overly-detailed narrative about each medical procedure, the war and battlefield history and the seemingly inconsequential stories of characters who do not advance the plot. Credit must be given to Gabaldon for she has most definitely succeeded in creating a book that has catapulted her and her characters to international fame and resulted in a mini-series that is so very popular.

That said, however, as a fan of the first 3 books, I find myself disappointed that she seems to be writing by the pound and filling the books with less and less actual plot and constantly repeating herself with the capture/release/sex formula and more narrative that I feel I just need to slog past so I can get to the plot. I think she is a better writer than this and has done the main characters an injustice by not deepening their story with more nuanced character development. Durrell's Alexandria Quartet is 1200 pages long and so dense with character interiority, that I can re-read it again and again and I just gain more insight into the characters. The Outlander series, while wonderful at one level, fail completely to do that and I wonder whether I will care what ultimately happens to Claire and Jamie by the end of the series of books simply because I don't want to slog through yet another two-dimensional formulaic romp thin on plot and character development just to get to the final chapter and mercifully be finished with the book. Had I not become so entranced with the first 3 books many years ago, I think I would have ditched out on this completely, but what little investment I have retained in the storyline revolves around how Claire and Jamie will be treated when Gabaldon finally writes the end of their story.

What this says about me, I do not know - since I care enough about these characters to want to know the end of their story - but am annoyed by each ensuing book and feel an increasing disappointment in what feels like a tedious repetition of the same formula. I have several friends who have also been reading the books who feel the same way I do. I suppose it is to Diana Gabaldon's credit that she has written two characters that have enough appeal to enough people that not only are there die-hard fans who love every word, new people coming to the book because of the series, new fans just loving the series, but people like me who have grown tired of the worn-out formula and yet we keep coming back for more - but also a wonderful site like this where people who genuinely don't like the books are talking about what they don't like about them and wondering "how did these books get so far" - I am a fan of the story, altho a fading one with each book, but I find almost all of the comments on this sight to be insightful and reflective of my own disappointment. I was glad to find it and glad to pipe in with my own opinion.

The writing was so bad, it took me 20 years to read the first book. Nevertheless, I persisted with some of the others because I really liked the story on Starz. I gave up after book 4 because the writing was really tedious. Too bad she did not have a better editor. Now, the series on Starz is getting tedious. Why? Because the books they are using are really bad.

Yep, you are ;)

Multiple things made this a wallbanger for me:
(1) - Adultery is never going to be a plot device that endears me to any character (and for those who say it can't be adultery because he husband wasn't even born yet...well, what if she had, in her present time, given birth - would it mean that she was not and had never been a mother?)
(2) - The whole beating thing - um, the author controls the story and can wrangle the plot any way he/she wants - this author wanted to write a scene with a man beating his supposed "beloved". I, myself, would never put those two together, regardless of the time period. His getting turned on at inflicting pain on his "beloved" just gives me the creeps
(3) - The beaten woman is perfectly OK with this. Yeah, yeah - she holds back on offering her forgiveness, but PUHLEEEEZE! Name me any self-respecting (relatively) modern woman who looooooooooves her abuser. Gag, blech...
(4) - The whole marital rape thing - again, can't square it away with the love part.
Whole damn thing makes me feel the need to shower off.

A book about sex (gay and straight) trying to disguise itself as both a time travel AND a historical fiction. I read it because it was on the GAR list. I was NOT impressed. Won’t be reading any more of them. Jordan’s Wheel of Time series is much better than this....