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The Genre-Busting Appeal of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander
You may have heard whispered talk around the water cooler this week about the relative sexiness of the Scottish brogue. That’s because our long national nightmare is finally over: Outlander has made its midseason return on Starz, and it welcomed us back with quite a romp.
If there’s a perfect time to jump on the Outlander bandwagon, now is that time. But once you start watching the series, it’s a good bet these fleeting episodes won’t be enough to sate your appetite. For that, you must go to Diana Gabaldon’s hefty source material. With eight doorstop novels following the time-hopping adventures of Claire Randall, along with some spinoff stories, the Outlander universe is massive. There’s a lot to love, in more ways than one, largely because Gabaldon’s series has cross-genre appeal. Science fiction, fantasy, romance, historical fiction—Outlander has it all.
Science Fiction and Fantasy
When a WWII nurse on her second honeymoon gets sucked back to the 18th-century highlands via a ring of magical standing stones, things are about to get fantastical in here. At the same time, Claire Randall spends most of her time with head and heart divided between her two lives, so it’s her emotional struggle that drives the story. In that way, Outlander is the very best combination of science fiction and fantasy: a work that uses magic and time travel as a device, not its central plot element. Because the rest of Claire’s story is so rooted in reality and historical detail, the elements of the unreal seem all the more plausible. However counterintuitive it sounds, believability is the key to creating a truly great escapist fantasy.
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Historical Fiction
The reason it all feels so real? Gabaldon’s extensively researched, meticulously detailed historical narrative. The reason Claire found herself in this bewitched Scottish area in the first place was her husband, Frank, an obsessively erudite historian with a family tree that spreads its roots there. Frank’s historical interest may be a launching point for the story, but through the course of eight novels—and counting—you’ll be treated to a breathtaking curriculum of Scotland’s history, culture, and customs. Even with all its attention to detail, however, Gabaldon steers clear of being didactic. The story never feels like a lecture; instead, it’s the most immersive field trip you never took.
Romance
But, of course, what’s a 700-page book without ample amounts of steamy, centuries-spanning romance? Jamie Fraser, the tartaned-stud muffin who makes Claire’s predicament all the more seductive, is so hot and bothersome that I just canna. Between all the talk of a Jacobite uprising and stories of bawdy lassies lie some of the most sweeping scenes of romance any genre could offer. The love story between Jamie and Claire is not simple or clean; in fact, it can be quite troublesome, with the attitudes of two disparate eras barreling toward each other. But what is never in doubt is the passion they feel—and the passion with which you’ll keep flipping the pages.
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