I've waited three months to be able to post about this book for Book Club! Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon, won the RITA Award in 1992. The RITA Award recognizes outstanding published romance novels and novellas.
I discovered Diana Gabaldon at the National Book Festival in DC. The 7th book in the Outlander series had just been published and my mother-in-law's friend, Kay, was a fan. Gabaldon was an amusing speaker and I figured, why not? I'll give them a try. Plus, if I like them, that was seven gigantic books to read! And the books are BIG. Outlander, at 850 pages, is the smallest one!
Anyway, I LOVE this series. I love the story, I love the characters, I love the writing. It's sort of a crazy premise, but Gabaldon is a magician. She weaves in the magic of standing circle stones with the reality of 18th century day-to-day life in all its ickiness into a love story that is really just breathtaking. Some of it is horrifyingly graphic. The rape scene in Girl with a Dragon Tattoo is nothing compared to the descriptions of torture in this book. But it's not gratuitous. Everything makes sense. The detail is incredible and Gabaldon's background doesn't really indicate that she would be good at writing a historical romance novel - she has degrees in zoology, ecology, and marine biology!
Outlander is so popular, Gabaldon started a spinoff series about one of the supporting characters, Lord John Grey. I'm starting to read those now. Totally different feel - much more political and full of shadowy intrigue.
Though I saw Gabaldon at the Book Festival, I still have not read her books. Since I've heard so many positive comments about her series, I guess I'll try the first one!
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