Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (with sound clips)

A Month of Romance Audio Favorites Selection

Narrated by Davina Porter

Writing a review of the audio version of Outlander is somewhat intimidating. You have never met a more passionate and devoted following of a fictional work as the Outlanders in various forms and forums, tweeting and posting hourly in the virtual social media outlets. The recent announcement that there is an upcoming Starz series this summer based on these famous books, has fanned what were various campfires into one huge conflagration of dedicated and vocal fans. Fortunately, I love the books and am in awe of Davina Porter, so hopefully I can escape being tied to a stake (as our heroine Claire was in one portion of Outlander). But I digress.

As many have noted, Outlander is the first book in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, and the books defy genre classification. In fact, in many different bookstores, they may be alternately classified as Fiction, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Romance, or even sometimes Science Fiction.This is a bit easier to understand, when you consider that Diana has diverse degrees in science (zoology, biology, and ecology) and began writing for an audience with Donald Duck comic books and one of the first Science Software magazines. Her passion for writing evolved from a description, on Compuserve, of what it felt like to be pregnant and evolved into what is now known as Outlander (that particular description becomes part of that first book).  As she herself explains it,

Well, I happened to see a Dr. Who rerun in a weak-minded moment, and was taken by a minor character—a young Scotsman from 1745, who appeared in his kilt. ”Well, that’s fetching,” I said. “Yeah, why not? Scotland, eighteenth century.” So that’s where I began, knowing nothing about Scotland or the eighteenth century, with no plot, no outline, no characters—nothing but the rather vague images conjured up by a man in a kilt (which is, of course, a very powerful and compelling image).

Told in first person, Outlander introduces us to Claire Beauchamp Randall, a nurse in post World War II, who has been reunited in 1946 Scotland with her husband, Frank Randall, after months of separation. In the midst of this second honeymoon, Claire is suddenly transported through standing stones to a time 203 years in the past to the Scottish Highlands of 1743, where she is faced with a band of hostile British soldiers (one of which is the spitting image of her husband, Frank) only to be rescued/kidnapped by a group of Highlanders on their way back to Castle Leoch and the Clan Mackenzie. Claire is swept into the saddle of a young Jamie Fraser, who has a deep shoulder wound, and she displays the resourceful, caring, and quick-witted skills that so charm us throughout the entire series.

As Claire struggles in her separation from her husband, her gradual acceptance of the life in the past and her respect and admiration for the Highlanders and one brave young man in particular, we watch her grow and thrive as she adapts. Part of her development is the growing attraction to Jamie Fraser, who has his own demons (and scars) to overcome. If you are active in social media, at some point or another, you are likely to see Jamie Fraser on every list or blog vote for “all-time best romantic hero”, “sexiest Highlander” or “thoughtful alpha male”. In fact, in filming the upcoming Starz TV miniseries, writers on the series are known to affectionately call the heroically human Jamie “the King of Men”.

Outlander is the audiobook that started my addiction to this medium. I was transitioning to a job with a long commute and I wanted to try audiobooks to fill the time – something lengthy that would keep my interest. I had read and loved Outlander, and wanted to refresh my memory on the details and was initially a little intimidated by the 33-hour length. I later joined many other listeners who only felt sorry it was over and eagerly went to find Davina Porter’s reading of the remaining books in the series. I found (in an online library) the unabridged Davina Porter narration and honestly didn’t know until I started listening to other audiobooks how unparalleled her performance was; with Davina you get a rich and nuanced artistry for every single character. Within the first chapter you understand Claire’s pragmatic and yet wry approach to life; she exhibits the confidence of a woman with combat nurse experience and is, therefore, able to stand on her own in two different eras, a unique female protagonist.

“I’m afraid that my wife picked up a number of colorful expressions from the Yanks and such, Frank offered, with a nervous smile.
True, I said, gritting my teeth as I wrapped a water-soaked napkin about my hand. Men tend to be very colorful when you’re picking shrapnel out of them.”

When Davina started layering in her male characterizations, they were so believable (and sexy) that I had a hard time believing that they had been voiced by one person, let alone a woman. Strangely enough, when Starz cast Jamie Fraser, there were some dismayed comments online that he didn’t sound enough like Davina Porter’s Jamie! Between Diana’s humorous and tender evolution of the relationship, and Davina’s spot-on accents, the relationship between Claire and Jamie is one that remains with you as exhibited in the following sound clips:

Davina and Diana’s long-term audio partnership has resulted in tight quality-control, ensuring that the following seven books are consistently performed. In one interview, Davina talks about how important and painstaking her preparation is, especially for larger books; she describes carefully selecting a crotchety voice for a character in one of Gabaldon’s books, only to find towards the end of the book a small description that said character exhibited “warm, bell-tones”, forcing Davina to go back and rerecord. Her meticulous research and variety of voices have won her multiple awards. And for Jamie Fraser, she has stated that it comes in handy having a husband, Gus, who is also a native-born Scot to get that murmuring of “Sassenach” perfectly right.

Victoria

Narration:  A+

Book Content:  A+

Steam Factor:  Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence:  Escalated fighting

Genre:  Historical Romance

Publisher:  Recorded Books