Rating: 
Summary: Outlander is Outstanding
Review: Diana Gabaldon's novel Outlander is best described as delightful and romantic journey through time. From the very first page the reader is drawn into Claire's world as she adjusts to circumstances that she cannot explain that have sent her 200 years back in time from 1945 to Scotland in the 1700's and to a time period and culture vastly different from the one she has known. She also must adjust to a forced marriage to a man she eventually comes to love and to dealing with a very sadistic ancestor of her 20th century husband's. Claire makes the most of her situation by using her skills to help those she encounters and to overcome the many obstacles that she faces.
Rating:
Summary: Swept away to Scotland
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Claire Beauchamp Randall is a wonderfully complex and independent woman thrown into a time when women had few rights. Jamie Fraser is the perfect counterpart to Claire and their relationship is one to be savored and enjoyed. I found myself unable to put this book down and when I did I found that I was unable to leave the story. It filled my thoughts and my dreams and I truly felt as if I was there with Claire and Jamie. It is romantic, sexy, filled with intrigue and mystery. I laughed and I cried and I gasped in horror. I was swept away.....
Rating: 
Summary: What's all the fuss?
Review: Who could miss the buzz about this series? Out of curiosity and because I'd been FIRMLY told by many that I would love it, I bought this book and tried to read it. It's very easy to put down and forget, but I kept trying to make it through, hoping that The Magic would soon set in and captivate me. (Besides, I have the second book waiting to be read.) What I wound up doing on page 625 is giving up and skipping through the rest of the book hoping that something would pop up to warrant me spending a few more hours with it.Drama is conflict, and the conflict in this book is finished 1/3 of the way through. I thought that another conflict would start, or perhaps build on the first, but it never did. The characters talk and talk and talk (usually about something that's happened in the past) and wander through their lives without seeming purpose. The character of Jamie is certainly interesting enough, but an interesting character is not enough to sustain a book, particularly one over 800 pages. The situation of time travel is handled well, but after the first third, it disappears as a plot device. The author certainly knows how to deliver vibrant description and dialect, but that isn't enough to sustain interest. I require a book to have a plot: that means conflict, motivations, goals. This book did not have these, at least not beyond the first third. I'm afraid I won't be reading that second book in the series.
Rating:
Summary: swept away
Review: With this first book in the series, Gabaldon takes the reader to a different place and time...literally! Her descriptive narratives and well researched material made my first foray into the genre of historical romance (although I hesitate to use that categorization) a wonderful one. Although my house, laundry, etc. suffered, I revelled in the splendor of this novel. Am I gushing? You bet, and deservedly so. I finished the first four books in a week and am looking forward to The Fiery Cross immensely.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm NOT Alone!
Review: Before buying this book, I breezed through several reviews and was intrigued. For the most part, the vast majority of the reviews were pretty favorable. After having read the book, I had to go back through the reviews more carefully to see if I was really alone in my dislike for the book. Without going into a literary critique, let me just say it's unbelievable to the point of ridiculous, it's not a romance -- no obvious love here -- it's more like vivid descriptions of mostly animal-like sex, and I didn't like any of the main characters. The author did seem to know her stuff historically, so it wasn't all bad. But when the Loch Ness Monster paid Claire a visit (and I just knew he would), I just had to say, like John Stossel, "Give me a break." I've read worse books. It was written well. But it's mediocre at best and definitely doesn't live up to the "it kept me up all night" hype. Buy it used or get the paperback if you must read it. Better yet, go to the library. In all honesty, I don't read a lot of romances because most are filled with vivid descriptions of sexual acts that I find to be unnecessary, believing that some things are just better left to the imagination. SO maybe it's not fair of me to write this review. But I do read a lot of different stuff and this was definitely NOT one of my favorite books. I'd only recommend you read it if you are really desperate (like at the beach with nothing better to do and no other book in sight).
Rating:
Summary: What an amazing book - leaves you wanting so much more
Review: I love this book. Diana is the greatest. She can't write the new books in this series fast enough and I certainly cannot read them fast enough. This is a romance/drama/historical novel/science fiction/fantasy novel all rolled into one. The characters of Jamie and Claire maybe the most romantic couple of all time next to Romeo and Juliet. There are at present (Jan. 2002) five books in this series and more are promised. I recommend that you read them all as soon as possible. Everyone that I have recommended these books to has loved them as much as I do and that never happens. Buy and enjoy! Diana please keep up the good work. We must have more!
Rating:
Summary: Outlander
Review: I absolutely loved this book!!! It is very descriptive, humorous, romantic, and historical. There are parts that will make you blush but they are not smutty. I have to say this is one of my all time favorite books. I have read Dragonfly in Amber and currently on Voyger and they are all wonderful!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Sadistic, Salacious, Un-Salvageable
Review: Gabaldon takes an interesting premise (time travel) and then all but ignores it in favor of seemingly endless sexual encounters and torture. Where are the ruminations and reactions of a twentieth century sensibility suddenly dropped into eighteenth century Scotland? Seldom seen or heard, let me tell you! I would not have finished this book but I was listening to it on tape during a long automobile trip. It became excruciating. Gabaldon's exhaustive research is certainly on display, as is her ability to describe sex and violence graphically. But she spends too much time on these while action scenes are few and far between (to clarify: she does manage to write violence without action -- it's called torture). Dialogue between our heroine and her Scottish warrior quickly becomes cloying and embarrassing. The heroine herself behaves incredibly stupidly, repeatedly walking into danger after being explicitly warned. In fact, one comes to actively dislike her. Gabaldon is a competent writer, able to convey some really interesting information, and she obviously has found a popular literary niche, but I'm not sure what it should be called -- historical romance action adventure? I think it is disingenuous to classify this novel as sci-fi/fantasy as the author uses the time travel aspect very little -- in fact, she seems to reference it only as a periodic afterthought. I do *not* recommend this book for anyone!
Rating:
Summary: Have editors gone extinct?
Review: This book sure could use one. The author essentially said in an interview, with rather a lot of confidence for a beginner, "Read three pages of my book and I'll bet you won't be able to put it down. If you do, I'll give you a dollar." I want my dollar.
Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary!
Review: Historian Diana Gabaldon shows her research, love of story telling, mysticism and magic in Outlander. The heroine Claire disappears from her post World War II reunion with her husband ... and finds herself in the same place, only 200 years earlier. The book is rich details and character development.
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