Book Log 20/2015 - Diana Gabaldon: Outlander - Outlander #1

Outlander was originally published as Cross Stitch in the UK, but I bought it from Amazon as Outlander in ebook form. It's difficult to review this as a book because I confess I watched the firsat season on TV, courtesy of Amazon Prime, before reading the book, so first of all, the book was very close to the TV series, though, of course, that should be the other way round. I greatly enjoyed revisiting the story and perhaps getting a li8ttle more depth and explanation via the text.

The story is of Claire, a Second World War army nurse reunited with her husband, Frank Randall, shortly after the war's end. They are trying to reconnect after many years apart and they go to Scotland on a second honeymoon during which Frank does a little family history, learning, in particular, about his many times great-grandfather Black Jack Randall, a British redcoat captain stationed in Scotland with a reputation to match his name.

When Claire visits a ring of standing stones she finds herself whisked back two hundred years to the time of Black Jack Randall and the time very shortly before Culloden. Randall is the first person she meets, and not in a good way. Startled to find he's the spit of her husband in looks and then horrified to find he's nothing like Frank in temperament, she ends up falling in with a tough band of kilted highlanders. Taken first as an English spy, she proves her usefulness as a healer and finds herself drawn to James Fraser, an outlaw with a price on his head and history - very bad history - with Randall.

Claire and Jamie end up married as an expedient move to make her a Scot by marriage and therefore outside of Randall's immediate jurisdiction. Despite her feelings for Frank and her longing to return to her old life - if she can - she finds herself falling for Jamie, an exasperating, red-headed, stubborn-as-an-ox highlander whose bravery, honesty and sense of honour are amongst his redeeming features. He's not a twentieth century man, however, he's a product of his time, and Claire a product of hers. Clashes are inevitable. He's a soft heart, but a hard head, and his history with Randall is going to cause painful problems for both of them.

I'm not overly familiar with Scottish history, but this feels very well researched. There's a tiny bit of dialect, but only enought ot make it feel authentic. The writing style is beautifully transparent, letting you get on with the story. Nicely done considering this was Ms Gabaldon's first book.

No more spoilers because if you like rollicking historical adventure, more than a touch of romance (and sex) and a dollop of time-travel thrown in this is the perfect book for you. I apologise now to my friend Mary-Anne who told me to read it twenty years ago. I should have taken her advice. But now I have the pleasure of seven more books to look forward to. (And another in preparation, I understand.) Highly recommended. I just ordered the second book, Dragonfly in Amber.

Book Log 21/2015 - Georgette Heyer: An Infamous Army

This is almost more non-fiction than fiction. Ms Heyer delves into the social history immediately preceding the Battle of Waterloo, thunders through the battle itself and it's only in the aftermath that romance and history truly meet. It's a fictionalised and extremely well-researched account of Waterloo built around what seems to be a doomed romance between notorious widow, Lady Barbara Childe a heartbreaker at the centre of the social whirl in Brussels where the English have set up their own fashionable society while waiting for Wellington's army to arrive, and the very decent (and hugely forgiving) Colonel Charles Audley, one of Wellington's aides-de-camp.

I tend to read Heyer for a bit of light relief, not a history lesson, though I usually take her research for granted. This book had a huge cast of genuine historical characters - possibly rather more than I wanted to deal with, so all-in-all not my favourite Heyer, though I can understand why it's the book that she was most proud of writing.

On a secondary note - with no bearing on the quality of the story whatsoever - this particular cover bears absolutely no resemblance to any of the major characters in the story.

Time Out

I haven't been around LJ much for the last month or two because I'm flat out in the middle of editing Winterwood, which is the book after next, due in February 2016. This is the magic pirate book that was the one I actually made the first sale to DAW with but due to publishing schedules is the third book to be published.

The second book, Crossways, is due on 4th August - eep, just a couple of weeks away - and I just got my author copies. The cover is (once more) by Stephan Martiniere and I've done an analysis of why I love it here on my Wordpress blog: https://jaceybedford.wordpress.com/2015/07/16/book-cover-crossways/

In the meantime - apart from having my nose down to the keyboard, I spent a couple of days in London to attend the Science for Fiction Writers course, at Imperial College (organised by Dr Dave Clements who I met throiugh Milford). Some fascinating items delivered by top scientists in a way that wasn't too hard to follow for us non-scientists, though I'm still a bit boggled by the concept that time doies not exist and constantly retreat to the Douglas Adams lline of : Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so. I was fascinated by the account of Rosetta and the Philae Lander. I mean - landing something the size of a washing machine on a tiny rock zooming round space, after a ten year journey. Wow!

Since Imperial College is in South Kensington, just a spit from the museums, I also managed a trip to the Victoria and Albert to check out their Regency costume for the Winterwood book and a dash into the Science Museum to look at spacesuits.