I have been told to read this book many, many times, and it was on my list forever, but I never seemed to get my hands on a copy…unless I have one somewhere in the two bookcases that currently house most of (ignoring spillover) my to-be-read pile. So when the 20th Anniversary came around and Random House gave LibraryThing a stack of the rerelease for the Early Reader program, I figured it was fate. And fate shined on me, because I won a copy.

This book is long. Not as long as the books in the Song of Fire and Ice series, but that’s cutting hairs since it weighs in at 850 pages not including the special extras at the end. However, the advantage of an Early Reader is that there’s a commitment involved. I keep my promises, so I swallowed the intimidation factor and dove in.

I believe I surfaced periodically, because I got a few things done in the 10 days it took to read Outlander, but I know that my reading time was stretched as much as possible, including cutting into those hours that my head belongs on the pillow.

This book is wonderful. The characters have depth, the history is tense and fascinating, the sex scenes are well written, the book is complex… Seriously, this book reminds me of reading Jean Auel back when I was in my teens. The voice is matter-of-fact without the “oh wow would you look at that” sense some time travel books have. Claire is perturbed, but she adapts and accepts rather than stumbling about with her mouth open.

I can understand why it was so hard to place, genre wise. Besides the moment of time travel, and occasional thoughts, it’s largely a historical, but at the same time Claire is a modernish (from 1945) army nurse so she knows things she shouldn’t and acts on that knowledge. At the same time there are things she does not know that she should for the time she finds herself in, during the time of Bonnie Prince Charlie. It’s a love story, but one that is not all hearts and flowers. It’s a political analysis, and it’s a tale of emotional and spiritual growth all wrapped in one.

Basically, the book falls in many genres and contains many elements, but they’re all wrapped around a gripping tale where you’re not always on Claire’s side, even though her actions are exactly appropriate for a woman of her own time and position. You face things that are so wrong in a modern context, but make sense in the book’s timeframe. And you learn things about yourself as well as the characters based on how you react to the events that occur. It’s powerful and intense.

Outlander takes Claire and Jamie through conflicts, dangers, the dark side of humanity, and complications due to Claire’s arrival from the future, something she manages to keep hidden even from the man she loves for the longest time. It delves into the political and social aspects of that period of Scottish history, the brutality of that time, especially with the British, but it also is a tale of a woman out of time who finds herself in more ways than one as she adapts to circumstances and makes choices that affect not just her and those close to her but the very fabric of time.

Not only have I already recommended Outlander to several people, but I plan to pick up the rest of the series for my own enjoyment. Like Song of Fire and Ice, the length is no longer an issue, though apparently making sure I don’t start reading right before a major deadline is one :).

So, how about you? Have you read Outlander? What did you think?