Double Review: Outlander & Dragonfly in Amber

Over the past couple of months, I've been buying and listening to the eAudiobooks of the Outlander series with the hopes of finally catching up on this group of books that is known for its rather intimidatingly huge volumes. I made it to book seven several years ago, but I've decided to re-read the series by listening to the books and figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and do a double review of the first two books that kick off this amazing series. 

Narrator: Davina Porter narrates this series, and it took me a bit to get used to her narration. She does a bang-up job for most of it, but I felt her voice sounded too old for Claire initially and her pronunciation of some words, including Laoghaire, was off and distracting at times.

Here are my thoughts about the first two books in this fantastically popular historical fiction series:

*****

Outlander

(Run Time: 32.5 hours)

By far, my favourite book of the series. Readers are immediately transported to 18th century Scotland and are set on a fantastic adventure that follows 20th century Claire Randall who suddenly travels back to 18th century Scotland where she meets James Fraser, a Highland Scot with a price on his head. This book has everything you could want to kick start an epic series - adventure, intrigue, Scottish history, a complicated love triangle and swoon-worthy couple with amazing chemistry and some scenes that aren't for the faint of heart. 

In this first book (despite the audiobook's almost 33 hours length), Gabaldon keeps her well-known loquacious storytelling fairly in check and I found this to be a compelling listen as I got reacquainted with where this amazing series began. Epic in its scale and storytelling, this book will grab you and pull you in - you won't be able to stop at book one.

Dragonfly in Amber

(Run Time: 39 hours)

This second book was a bit of a letdown when I first read it years ago in my pre-blog days, but I ended up liking this second book more this time around. It takes a bit to get going because we initially spend a lot of time in the 20th century when we all want to be back in the 18th century, am I right? 

There are some big plot points that happen in this book, and I liked the different locations (France, Lallybroch), meeting wee Fergus and how Gabaldon shows some weaknesses in Claire and Jamie's relationship. But while I understand why she did it, I didn't love how fast Gabaldon aged the main couple.

Admittedly, it was a slower go with the politics of the time dragging down the story, but this being my third time reading this book, knowing that there was a doozy of a cliff-hanger coming up helped me get through the slow parts. I quickly downloaded the audiobook for Voyager and I'm currently about one-quarter of the way through.

*****

Overall, I have a bit of love/frustrated relationship with this series. I adore the concept, the characters and how Gabaldon immerses her readers in her story. BUT (this is a big but), her story often becomes overly complicated and lost in secondary plots leaving me regularly wondering 'Is this part important to the main plot or is she off on a tangent again?'. That can make for a frustrating read but my love of Claire and Jamie and their passionate, complex, and enduring love story override this author's fascination with overly describing scenes and adding in tertiary plots that simply make these books longer and less succinct than they could be. 

I plan to listen to the audiobooks of books 1-7 to play catch up so I can finally read the last few books in the series. Wish me luck!

My Rating - Outlander: 5 stars

My Rating - Dragonfly in Amber: 3.5 stars

Author: Diana Gabaldon

Genre: Historical Fiction

Series: Outlander books 1 & 2

Narrator: Davina Porter

Type and Source: eAudiobook from Audible.ca (unabridged)

Publisher: Recorded Books 

First Published in print: 1991 and 1992

Book Descriptions from GoodReads:

Outlander - The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient 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.

Dragonfly in Amber - From the author of Outlander... a magnificent epic that once again sweeps us back in time to the drama and passion of 18th-century Scotland...

For twenty years Claire Randall has kept her secrets. But now she is returning with her grown daughter to Scotland's majestic mist-shrouded hills. Here Claire plans to reveal a truth as stunning as the events that gave it birth: about the mystery of an ancient circle of standing stones ...about a love that transcends the boundaries of time ...and about James Fraser, a Scottish warrior whose gallantry once drew a young Claire from the security of her century to the dangers of his.

Now a legacy of blood and desire will test her beautiful copper-haired daughter, Brianna, as Claire's spellbinding journey of self-discovery continues in the intrigue-ridden Paris court of Charles Stuart ...in a race to thwart a doomed Highlands uprising ...and in a desperate fight to save both the child and the man she loves.