Audio-Bibliophiles discussion

My apologies for this being late.

Please discuss Diana Gabaldon's book, Outlander, here.

I have allocated three months for this book. My reasons are two-fold:

1. I was late in getting this discussion thread up. Sorry. Life got in the way;
2. It's a very big book!!

That's OK Zara, thanks so much for moderating the group (it's a lot of work, I know!)

Are we allowed to discuss the book as we go, or should we wait until we've finished the whole thing?

Briar Rose wrote: "That's OK Zara, thanks so much for moderating the group (it's a lot of work, I know!)

Are we allowed to discuss the book as we go, or should we wait until we've finished the whole thing?"

By all means discuss as you go. Sometimes you just ahve to share something before you loose it.

I ended up sucking this down in less than a week. I really enjoyed it, and am eager to see the Starz show now... although, I must admit I'm just not generally a fan of historical romance. It's not a failing of the book that I gave it only 4♥'s, but rather, my own preferences.

Although, I really need to learn to NOT listen to the free preview of the next book, because the first chapter of the next book almost altered my rating of the first. Jimminy Cricket, it was a doozy.

The narration by Davina Porter was excellent. On the book I had mixed feelings. Some things were quite clever, she would insert something that seemed irrelevant but turned out to be important later on. Other things were just too odd or coincidental. (I'm not referring to the time travel, I'm fine with that.) The individual episodes were suspenseful and kept my interest but it still took me a while to get through.

I asked myself why Gabaldon chose to use the time travel theme, rather than having Claire be an Englishwoman, or Scotswoman of Jamie's time. I think there are a couple of reasons. One is that because things are new to her and she has to figure them out, it gives the author a way to explain them to the readers as well. She generally does that well, not giving "info dumps" or lectures. Also there has to be something keeping the hero and heroine apart for a while. It could be their families (as in Romeo and Juliet) or class (as in Cinderella/Pretty Woman) or misunderstandings (Pride and Prejudice). Being from different eras is a new wrinkle.

I must admit that Jamie is not my type, although I can see why readers adore him. I prefer the sophisticated city man, like Lord Peter Wimsey

I'll post more about specific parts of the book when people have had a chance to get into it.

Curious on people's reactions to Claire's 'modern-ish times' husband. I'm not sure if it's a British thing or what, but I just got the overall feeling of 'cold fish'. It was really difficult, even now after finishing the book to keep the '1900's' husband separate and not have the character tainted by his ancestor.

And boy do I loathe the ancestor.

I think it said that Claire and Frank married rather hurriedly because of the war, and barely saw each other for years, so they don't have the built-up intimacy. Plus that British thing is there, not showing feelings, and Frank is a professor, a brainy guy, rather than any kind of hunk.

I think the ancestor being so absolutely horrible is a weak spot in the book, too melodramatic. I won't go into later parts of the book but near the beginning Claire meets him twice where he attacks her violently. It would have been much more interesting if he had acted helpful first. He could have said he wanted to assist her as a fellow English citizen and charmed her (especially since he looked like her husband, though he wouldn't know that). Then there would have been a surprise when he revealed his true colors. Also it's as if he is the only British officer in the area, it's always Randall who shows up everywhere!

Can you tell me please, why you don't have the audio book version of the cover on display? It's not hard to get one from the librarians

Now that I know Davina Porter is the narrator, I may have to listen to the books, but after the Game of Thrones books and Dark Tower books of Stephen King and maybe a try at the Lord of the Rings' trilogy, too. LOL.