The Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

I've been talking (lecturing?) to lot of people about romantic literature lately, so I though I should probably write about The Outlander, first book in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, that I finished listening some time ago. I admit, I'm easy. When the word "time-travel" came up in the description of the book, I was sold - when choosing audiobooks I'm pretty lax, I choose books I wouldn't normally bother to read because they are easier to digest in the audio format.

The Outlander is a story about Claire Randall who is on holiday with her husband Frank in Scotland after the second wold war, and who mysteriously gets transported back in time to the 17th century. And that's pretty much all there is about time travel in this book - it's really a historical romance novel where the main character being from another time serves as good excuse for explaining things in much more detail. Not that there's anything wrong with historical romance novels - and this one is pretty good. Claire gets entangled with clan MacKenzie's internal politics while on the run from Frank's ancestor, the evil English captain Randall, and is forced to marry a young Jamie Frazer (who also happens to be on the run from captain Randall). The book goes on with a very leisurely pace stopping for atmospheric moments like assisting a horse giving birth - and generally Gabaldon spends a lot of time describing things and people and feelings.

It's all quite pleasant, you really start caring about Claire and Jamie and their budding relationship. The only thing that really bothered me about the book (that will make me reconsider continuing on with the series) is the portrayal of captain Randall. Gabaldon obviously wanted to create an evil super-villain with a twist - captain Randall looks and sounds like Claire's husband in the 20th century, but personality-wise is nothing like him. This captain Randall is power-hungry, evil and sadistic - but to make him as "unnatural" as possible, Gabaldon also made him gay. So, he's impotent in the face of women, except if he can inflict pain on them and tries to rape Claire - but he really lusts after Jamie and will stop at nothing to get him. I found the fact that Randall is gay insulting and much more disturbing than anything else sadistic Randall did (and let me tell you there was no shortage of his perverted actions).

Otherwise, Gabaldon write well. The story is not gripping, and had sometimes days before returning back to the story, but it's easy despite all the blood and gore, and sex scenes are pleasant and tasteful. I really like the descriptions of Scottish country-life, even if it's probably a bit gilded over, and characters were good. Davina Porter who narrated the unabridged 20+ hour whopper was very good with Scottish accents and characterization. Would I recommend it? Well, not wholeheartedly. It's pleasant enough, but the evil gay thing just didn't resonate with me.

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