With RingCon approaching fast, it is time to introduce the “Outlander” world. With almost all the main male actors of the series and author Diana Gabaldon herself attending RingCon, Outlander is the thing this year.
Outlander is so much more than a TV series though. I read the books by Diana Gabaldon 15 years ago and was thrilled and fascinated. Outlander was released in 1991, with the 8th book of the series caminge out in 2014. And those novels managed to keep readers as entranced now as we (or at least I) were for more than 20 years now.
“Outlander” tells the story of a young woman. After World War II, Claire and her husband Frank go on vacation to the Scottish Highlands. The Craigh na Dunn, a magical circle of stones, accidentally catapults Claire 200 years back in time. 18th century Scotland holds a lot of adventures and surprises for Claire. Add to that the charm of historical events – which were decently researched by the author – a fresh love, dirty intrigues, politics, a sizzling hot Highlander (Jamie Fraser), fresh love and a good bit of classy erotic and you get everything a fantasy lover’s heart could long for. I won’t tell too much about the story here – you should read or watch them for yourself.
At first I was hesitant to watch the show. It is rare that a movie or TV series can live up to the literary original. I did however, and I do not regret a single second of watching Outlander. The adaption is very close to the first book, there’s a great love of detail, a really gorgeous cast and very, very powerful images. I was surprised how close the main actors, Sam Heughan (Jamie Fraser) and Caitriona Balfe (Claire), got to my own imagining of the characters. Season 1 was a really great watch and Season 2 is already in the making and will be released in 2016, even though a fixed date has not been announced yet.
If you are not already infected with the Outlander virus I highly recommend buying the books and watching the series.
