Ahira's Hangar

Diana Gabaldon has a series of books that mix together fantasy (time travel) with healthy helpings of historical fiction and romance.

The books are:
Outlander
Dragonfly in Amber
Voyager
The Fiery Cross
The Drums of Autumn
A Breath of Snow and Ashes

And a related book about one of the characters, callled Lord John and the Private Matter.

There is also the Outlander Companion.

In Outlander we meet a couple who has spent the WW2 years apart. Claire spent the war as a battle field nurse for Britain. Her husband Frank Randall, usually a history professor, spent it doing secret work for the British government. They have travelled to Scotland to reconnect with each other at the end of the war.

Claire walks into a circle of standing stones and is gated back to the past...to Scotland in 1743. And it is a Scotland in turmoil, occupied by the British, with revolt fermenting, and only a year or so to Bonnie Prince Charlie and Culloden.

So begins a journey through the Highlands of Scotland and now, in the second book, through France.

So far (I have read the first book and part of the second) - Gabaldon has set her story in three decades - the 1740's, the 1940's, and the 1960's, with interludes in Scotland in all three decades, and France in the 1740's in Paris. She has handled all three decades, and both countries very well.

I particularly enjoy the way Claire tries to bring more modern medical techniques to the 1740's. People do not seem to be able to figure out if she is a gifted physician or a witch!!!! ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
<i>Edited by: Duchess of Malfi at: 10/3/06 9:48 am
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I am on the third book now, Voyager.

In the second book we are briefly introduced to someone who becomes very important in the second book. Also, the fate of a major character is sort of left hanging after Culloden. The third book really fills you in on what happens to him.

Lord John Grey is one of the most (if not the most) positive portrayal of a gay man I have run across in a fantasy book. You do not realize what a good character he is until that third book. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
<i>Edited by: Duchess of Malfi at: 10/9/06 11:08 am
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I have finished up Voyager. It solved many of the mysteries from the first two books. It also expanded the settings. Now, as well as spanning decades and ceturies. these books are also spanning oceans and contintents! ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Following Voyager, I have read the next two books, and am nearly done with the last current book in the series, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (according the the author's website, there will be one or two more books in the series, which she has not even begun wroting yet, as she has been working on some Lord John stories and some contemporary mysteries).

These latter books all deal with the adventures of the frasers in the mountain wilderness of North Carolina. This last book deals quite heavily with the arrival of the American Revolution.

The Lord John books are mysteries set in the 1700's, starring one of the recurrent characters from the Outlander books, Lord John Grey.

I am glad to be reading A Breath of Snow and Ashes. It has long been the fattest book in my huge TBR pile. <i></i>

Another series that is near the top of my 'to check out' pile. I will get to them one day.

Yes luci recommended this to Cail and I and my Scotch blood tells me I MUST read it--and the series.

I suppose that I should warn both of you, that given the times and places in the story (many of them ripped by war) that there is violence, sex, and sexual violence, including torture and rape... Just in case those elements might be particularly off-putting.

I saw on Amazon today that Gabaldon has not one, but two Lord John Gray books coming out this year. One will be out in August, the other in the fall.

Just read the first 1 and 1/2 pages. man she has a way of sucking you in real quick!!! Don't go telling anyone I picked it out of the "Romance" section!

I'm midway through Voyager, and may I just say I am already in love with L-rd John Grey. I can't wait to read the novels that feature him now. I had read one short story that featured him in the past, and based on that I was already drawn to the character, but having gotten to know him a little better in the beginning of this book, I would say he ranks right up there with Jamie.

Such a difference from Black Jack Randall...

Just found out that a new Outlander novel, called An Echo in the Bone is due out in the fall of 2009. It has been a long time since one was released, so I am pretty geeked up about it.