Bonny Braes and Banks

[bibliogramma]

Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon

I have no idea why I waited so long to read this book. I'd heard about this great series about a woman from modern times (well, post-WWII, anyway) who is magically transported two hundred years into the past, where, despite having a nice husband in her own time, she falls in love - somewhat unwillingly - with another nice man in the past, and gets all mixed up in the events preceding the battle of Culloden.

But for some reason I just didn't get around to reading it until recently - and now I find that I must go out and buy about half-a-dozen sequels, because the first book was every bit as good as everyone has been telling me it was.

Outlander begins with one of the lead characters, Claire Randall, an English nurse, on a second honeymoon in Scotland. There's some discussion of the role her husband's ancestor, a Captain John Randall, played in the bloody hisory of the Jacobite Risings - the long attempt by the Highland Scots to return the house of Stuart to the throne of England and Scotland following deposition of James II in 1688, which was finally crushed in 1746 at the Battle of Culloden. (I should digress here to note that I myself am part Scot, part Welsh, and all Celt, and as far as the history of the time is concerned, my sympathies are all with the Scots and not the slightest with the Sassenach.)

While in Scotland, Claire discovers that there is a standing circle near where they are staying, where some of the local women still worship in the "old ways." When she explores the circle herself, she finds herself drawn back to 1745, where she finds herself caught up in the politics of the clans, the cause of the Jacobites, the invading Sassenach - one of whom is her husband's ancestor, and eventually a bold Scotsman named Jamie Fraser who wins her heart.

It's fascinating historical fiction wrapped up in a time-travelling frame, with all the complications that entails, it's a refreshing romance between two people who become friends and partners as well as lovers, and it's - most welcome of all - a story of an intelligent, resourceful, courageous and tough woman who survives and thrives despite being thrown out of her own time and all that she knows and understands.

Comments

[sausconys-books.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what I like too, which is why I tend to like romantic SFF much more than the romance genre itself. I like a romantic sub-plot, but I also like a relationship between equals and I don't find that much in romance. Also, SFF is much more open to "unconventional" relationships. I'm also sick of the alpha jerk hero, the too stupid to live heroine, and so many other romance cliches. Most of the romance novels I love feature beta heroes, scarred or disabled heroes, smart heroines, and even sexually inexperience heroes because I'm also sick of the "Duke of Slut."

I think there's still a lot of the icky reaction and girl cooties. A lot of the criticism I've read of authors like Asaro and Bujold stems from their romantic elements. People are embarrassed that a "romance novel" won the Nebula, even though it was written by a Harvard educated chemical physicist. And there's a lot of prudish reaction to Bujold's new book precisely because it features a female character discovering a healthy sexuality with her husband! I've even seen arguments online that science fiction belongs to men and women should stop reading and writing it, especially since they are polluting the waters with their sappy romance elements. There was also a blog post somewhere about why science fiction sales have fallen. The theory was that since more women read and buy books and there's so little SF out there that appeals to women, they are instead flocking to paranormal romance because that gives them what they want.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

There was also a blog post somewhere about why science fiction sales have fallen. The theory was that since more women read and buy books and there's so little SF out there that appeals to women, they are instead flocking to paranormal romance because that gives them what they want.

I think I read that post, or one of its siblings. ;-)

There has always been a core of little boy geeks (of all ages) who don't want girl cooties anywhere near their slide rules and spaceships, especially if the girl who's dripping those cooties can use the slide rule and fly the space ship just as well as the little geek boy. Look up Justine Larbalestier's great feminist history of SF, Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction - there's some wonderful stuff from the early days where all the boy geeks are writing letters to the editor about keeping SF pure and manly.

If science fiction book sales are falling because a significant proportion of women readers would rather read material that has the characters having relationships that are written in interesting, smart and sexy ways - which is happening in a lot of fantasy and paranormal romance texts - then maybe the answer is to write science fiction that includes the characters having relationships that are written in interesting, smart and sexy ways.