Saturday, January 1, 2011

"Outlander", by Diana Gabaldon ***** <-- Five Stars

Here is my review of this excellent book:

I have been spending the New Year Holiday time reading books. I'm using my kindle, and enjoy it of course, though wish it had more functionality like an iPad, but not the bulk. It would be nice to have more than just books. I'm reading "Outlander". Well, I finished #1, and just the other day bought #2, otherwise known as "Dragonfly in Amber". And I must say these are the best books I have read in a long time (historical fiction, books, that is). Very very good!

They have everything: sex, death, love, religion, family, pregnancy, FOOD!, intrigue, swordplay, witchburnings, history, fompiness, buggery, torture, sex, horseback riding, skullduggery, seasickness, time travel, chauvanism, chivalry, deceipt, adultery, intrigue, mystery, assassination, filth, medicine, emprisonment, homosexuality, romance, humour, Scotland, traditions, male-female conflict, and on and on ad infinitum.

You laugh, cry, feel anger, stress, relief, and go through the entire gamut of emotions, and back again. Just like Bilbo, "There and back again", or Alice, "through the looking glass" (and back?) I highly recommend getting it. It is not "fantasy" as it takes place in real historic scotland (France in #2) which makes you kind of forget where you are when you close the book for the night. It leaves you blinking and looking at a calendar to remind yourself you are in 2011, not 1744.

It's good! If you haven't yet read it, or if you have a new kindle and wonder what might be a good book to read (hint hint), then I recommend this book. But be careful! It is pretty much impossible to stop at the first book, because those damn sneaky publishers put in a chapter to the second book and it hooks you! Damn them! Even though the story finishes in the first, I really loved the way everything was described, and how the main character, Claire, expresses everything with her modern 1946 English expressions and perspective when viewing the Scottish Highlands of 1744.

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