Okay, let's move on to Outlander. I have been told to read this book by several different people. Some of them were close friends, some of them were complete strangers, so I stopped by a Half Price Books. I went searching in the fiction section, then I went searching in the fantasy section, then I looked in the dreaded romance section. There it was. I can't, however, ignore so many recommendations, so I bought it.
I think there is something wrong with the gravity in this house because I could not put that book down.
Let's just do a brief synopsis:
This is the story of Claire Beauchamp, a 1940's woman visiting Scotland with her husband. On one of her outings, she is fantastically transported about 200 years in the past. She is briefly "taken into the custody" of the English, and then she is captured by Highlanders. This is the story of Claire Beauchamp and her time among the Highlanders. That's about as deep as I'm willing to go on this synopsis. This is currently a 7 book series with a whole lot more than just those 7 books in print, and more coming.
Let's jump to the review:
There are several things about this book that I really enjoyed. Yes, this book has it's romantic elements, but I have problems with them. I'll get to that in a minute. The things that I really liked about this book were Gabaldon's details about the plants and herbs and herbal medicine. As a lover of most things plant, it spurred my interest even further, and it even inspired me a bit! Also, having lived in Scotland in the past, it really made me miss it. I can hear the accents in my head, and I can smell the heather in the mist. Speaking of accents, I think the accent was well written, but verra clear. It is how I would write an understandable Scottish accent. Writing a thicker accent would be a lot more difficult. Not to mention the use of idiom is almost absent. It does the job really well though.
Okay, let's talk about the relationships. I'm not overly fond of the relationships in this book. I mean, there are a few that I really like, but for the most part, I feel like a little communication would go a long way. Also, there are several sex scenes in this book. Most are between the main character and her love interest. I'll not tip toe around anything. Most readers would read those scenes and not think much of it, but there are a few that would be considered rape. It's not as bad as I make it sound, but the awareness is the most important part. It may seem all romantic and all that nonsense, but no means no. All that aside, the way she writes the sex scenes is fairly modest.
Different topic, the landscapes... oh the landscapes. I miss Scotland. I miss the Highlands. I would love to live in a world before electricity. Imagine the night sky... so bright. Imagine the smells, so pure and unpolluted. I wish I could experience it just once. I would love to see the sunset clearly without the haze of a dirty atmosphere.
Overall, I would recommend this book. There is enough of a romance element that I could see that it could be a romance, but it's 850 pages, and maybe 2% of that is romance. I would like to read the other ones, but I'm afraid that some of them won't take place in Scotland. I could live without the characters, but I want more of the botany and the landscapes and the history and the architecture. I want more of this world.