"Outlander" novels

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Arzosah
Posts: 6317
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:20 pm

"Outlander" novels

Post by Arzosah »

Okay, yep, they're novels. They're very well written, though the style and sequence of events are both a bit breathless, but they're really good.

There are two elements in particular that I think are very interesting in terms of preparedness: the first is the medical stuff. Claire is a WWII nurse when she gets pulled in to the stone circle that somehow enables time travel - to avoid too many spoilers, lets say she has further modern qualifications, but when she's back in the 18th century she learns from many practitioners there, as well as doing some teaching. Her herbal skills, and her use of alcohol, vinegar, and distilled water, as well as her fairly well documented attempts to reproduce penicillin, are powerfully used within the books.

The other element is the slow descent into the formal Declaration of Independence in 1776, and how things varied and shifted both before and after that date. I knew that the War went on till 1783 in historical terms, but I'd never thought much about the prior growth of political violence.

I suppose I'd thought of it in terms of the French Revolution, which is spitting distance away, and although there were grumblings and discontents for many years, I don't *think* there was much in the way of overt violence, comparatively speaking. Of course, in France they were at the heart of a centralised state, and America was a colony being carved out of primeval forest, very different situations.

Really interesting set of books, though :)
daylen
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon May 28, 2012 12:12 pm
Location: Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Re: "Outlander" novels

Post by daylen »

That's interesting. Are the books better than the TV show? I enjoyed the first couple of episodes, possibly even the first series, but thought it went downhill afterwards.
Arzosah
Posts: 6317
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:20 pm

Re: "Outlander" novels

Post by Arzosah »

I don't know, to be honest - somehow, I ended up only watching 2 episodes of the first season, I'm not quite sure why. The novels are loooong ... very detailed in what they do cover, with a huge cast of characters. I'm thinking that the tv programmes probably cover very little of the stories the books tell.