Diana Gabladon: Outlander

• Publisher: Delta (August 10, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385319959

The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon - when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach - an "outlander" - in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord...1743.
Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life...and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives. 

 I have a soft spot for Celtic things, so when I discovered this series in a bookstore a while back, I was intrigued of course. At the time six or seven had been written (which is to say that she has only written one since and it is not yet published). I've had the first sitting on my bookshelf for a time waiting to be read, but have only just gotten around to reading it this week, and I must say I greatly enjoyed the read. I do, however, have some criticisms.
It is quite obvious that Gabaldon was a first time author when she wrote Outlander. There are times when she makes leaps without explaining where they're going - a character will suddenly speak without the reader ever knowing when they appeared, but Claire is not surprised at their sudden appearance, so the author clearly intended that Claire saw when they arrived but did not find it pertinent to tell the reader. She is also occasionally heavy-handed with her suspense. For example, she tells us that she has finished a certain sentence to another character and proceeds to quote that sentence, but is suddenly cut off. We only receive the rest of the sentence chapters later. Her thoughts make jumps that she doesn't put on paper, though again, not through intent. She is not a bad writer, simply a noob, if one might put it indelicately. I hope her writing will improve with practice.
 Her characters were well-fleshed out for all that. I could really relate to Claire and Jamie was not at all what I was expecting, but lovable all the same. If you're expecting a bodice-ripping sort of Highlander, you're going to be sorely disappointed, but what you get is, in my opinion, much better. He actually has a personality that isn't pissed off all the time or overbearing with his woman (well, not for the most part). The supporting characters are entertaining, at times despicable, and most of the time somewhat likeable even when they're being devious.
 This is not a book for the faint of heart, furthermore. There are some pretty graphic scenes that I am frankly not entirely sure had to be there. A lot of things that I did not expect to find in either a plain fiction book about the Scottish Highlands or a romance-fiction. I will say again that I am not certain what those events added to the plot other than make it traumatizing. Unless it has some greater importance in later books, I think it was unnecessary overall. If you read it and don't know what I'm talking about, that's probably because you can't read. I won't spoil it for those of you who can.
 Overall: A-
 The book was well-put together for the most part, although there was frequent meandering, a lot of filler scenes that did nothing to further the plot but added somewhat to characterization, and the end could have been cut shorter by a lot. For a freshman effort, it was actually impressively coherent for all that, and her characterizations really were stellar.