This year, I binged all eight seasons of Outlander in a span of 5 weeks while living in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates during the war in our backyard.

At a time when the world around me felt unsettling, uncertain, unpredictable, and, at times, frighteningly close, Outlander became the most welcome distraction and mental escape I could have ever asked for. 

At its core, Outlander follows Claire, a former World War II combat nurse on a second honeymoon with her husband, Frank, in Scotland in 1945. While looking for flowers, Claire mysteriously passes through an ancient stone circle and is thrown more than 200 years into the past, where she becomes entangled with the Highland clans, the Jacobite era, and a charming Scotsman named Jamie Fraser.

For five weeks, I completely disappeared into another world watching this show: 18th century Scotland, the Highlands, the Jacobite era, the characters, the history, the landscapes, the love story, all of it. It gave my mind somewhere else to go when I desperately needed it. As dramatic as it may sound to say that a television series healed me, in a strange way, it really did.

It made me think about the resilience of my celtic ancestors and what they endured. It made me put myself in Claire’s position: what would I do hypothetically if that happened to me? It made me relate to Jamie and his unwavering Catholic faith, and having a sense of humor especially among constant life challenges. It made me think of Frank as a historian and learn more about how history is meant to be studied and learned from. It made me reflect… A LOT. 

So naturally, after finally listening to everyone who told me to watch it, and finishing all eight seasons in the span of about five weeks, I started Diana Gabaldon’s first Outlander novel almost immediately.

People always say that books are typically better than the motion pictures, whether that is a movie or a television series… and I tend to believe that to be true, but if I have said it once, I’ve said it a million times – the Outlander show is a work of art, but the books are legitimate masterpieces. As I write this, I am 150 pages into book 6 of the 9 (soon to be 10) book series, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, having read thousands of pages since June given my obsession with the books. 

The book order is as follows:

Main Outlander novels

  1. Outlander (1991)
  2. Dragonfly in Amber (1992)
  3. Voyager (1994)
  4. Drums of Autumn (1997)
  5. The Fiery Cross (2001)
  6. A Breath of Snow and Ashes (2005)
  7. An Echo in the Bone (2009)
  8. Written in My Own Heart’s Blood (2014)
  9. Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone (2021)
  10. A Blessing for a Warrior Going Out  (forthcoming, and intended to be the final major Jamie-and-Claire novel) 

Outlander novellas and short fiction

These are the main shorter stories that fill gaps in the larger universe:

  • Virgins — young Jamie and Ian Murray in France before Outlander
  • A Fugitive Green — Hal Grey and Minnie
  • A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows — what happened to Roger MacKenzie’s parents
  • The Space Between — Michael Murray, Joan MacKimmie, the Comte St. Germain and Mother Hildegarde
  • The Custom of the Army — Lord John Grey
  • A Plague of Zombies — Lord John in Jamaica
  • Besieged — Lord John in Jamaica/Cuba

All seven are collected together in Seven Stones to Stand or Fall, so if you want the easiest way to read the novellas, that one book gets you all seven.

Lord John Grey novels

These are technically part of the larger Outlander universe rather than an unrelated spinoff, and most occur during the long period in Voyager when Claire and Jamie are separated. 

  1. Lord John and the Private Matter
  2. Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade
  3. The Scottish Prisoner — especially relevant because Jamie is a major character

Lord John shorter stories / novellas

  • Lord John and the Hellfire Club
  • Lord John and the Succubus
  • Lord John and the Haunted Soldier
  • The Custom of the Army
  • A Plague of Zombies
  • Besieged

For further information, excerpts, etc, can be found on Diana Gabaldon’s website: DIANAGABALDON.COM

The original first book, Outlander, was first published in the United States in 1991, but Diana Gabaldon actually began writing it in 1988. The incredible part is that she had absolutely no intention of becoming the author of a massive historical fiction/romantasy/sci fi/uncategorical series when she started. She has said repeatedly that she began the novel simply to teach herself how to write one. She had already written nonfiction professionally and worked as a university professor and research scientist, but she wanted to know whether she could write a novel. Her solution was basically: the only way to learn how to write a book is to write one. She intended it to be a private practice exercise that no one would ever see.

Diana chose historical fiction because, as a researcher, she figured it would be easier to look things up than to invent everything from scratch. Then, after watching an old episode of Doctor Who featuring a young Scottish character named Jamie McCrimmon in a kilt, she decided on eighteenth-century Scotland. That was essentially the beginning. She had no outline, no established characters, no plot and, by her own admission, knew virtually nothing about eighteenth-century Scotland.

Even the time travel element was not originally part of the plan. Gabaldon intended to write a straightforward historical novel. Then she began writing about Claire and found that Claire simply did not behave or speak like an eighteenth-century woman. Instead of forcing the character to fit the period, Gabaldon decided to make her a modern woman and figure out later how she had ended up there. The time travel followed.

Of all this, what amazes me most, though, is that Diana Gabaldon had NEVER even been to Scotland when she wrote Outlander. She researched the entire first novel through libraries and historical sources… before Google, smartphones… before you could pull up a video of the Highlands, virtually walk through a castle or find the answer to an obscure question about eighteenth-century Scottish life within seconds. Gabaldon was a trained researcher, and it shows on virtually every page. 

The weather, the landscape, the castles, the plants, the clothing, the food, the medicine, the politics, the clans, the customs and even the smallest pieces of everyday life like the SMELLS are written with such confidence and texture that you feel as if the author must have lived there. The world never feels like scenery placed behind the characters. Scotland itself becomes a character.

What has truly amazed me too is even her in-depth knowledge of pre-Vatican II Catholicism and how she incorporates it in the story among other religions, spiritual practices and cultures. I learned that this is a result of her being an actively practicing Roman Catholic, which explains A LOT, but it still wildly impressed me how detailed she got, even down to the catechism and the Latin prayers. 

Having watched the television series first, I obviously knew the major story before opening the first book, yet I never felt bored reading it. If anything, every single one of these novels in the series have made me appreciate the story more. There is so much texture that television simply cannot reproduce: Claire’s internal thoughts, Jamie’s humor, their conversations, the smaller moments between characters and the historical details make the world infinitely richer… even down to ancestral way of living with the tallow and lard soaps and beeswax candles!

I also love that Gabaldon refuses to make Outlander fit neatly into one genre. It is historical fiction, romance, adventure, war, medicine, politics, fantasy, sci fi, family drama and time travel all at once. Even she, herself, has joked about how impossible the book series is to categorize.

Thirty-five years after its 1991 publication, it has grown into an enormous literary universe driving incredible tourism to Scotland, and she was awarded a Scottish Thistle Award for her contribution to tourism in the country.

I absolutely loved Outlander, the history, humor, and the absurd amount of detail. What really hits home for me though is that the romance exists within a much bigger story about loyalty, survival, faith, family, politics and the strange ways history shapes individual lives.

But I think I love it even more because of when it found me. I originally entered this world because I needed an escape and it became much more than that. The television series gave me somewhere to disappear when I needed it most, and the books have allowed me to stay in that world a little longer.

As I said before: the TV series is a work of art, but the book series is a masterpiece.

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As for our safety in Abu Dhabi, UAE  – we are fine and have been doing well for a while now. Please don’t worry about us 🙂 but the series did help me tremendously during the uncertainty of it all. 

Since finishing the show, I have been fortunate enough to visit Scotland for a little less than a week this past summer (2026) and had the blessing of doing an Outlander tour, visiting many of the studio/filming locations including Lallybroch. You can read all about it here: https://megconnolly.com/2026/08/19/scotland/

I have also had the honor of befriending and meeting some cast and other staff members from the show, and you can tell it really is something special to have had the opportunity to work on. 

If you choose to watch the show, I must warn you that the last two episodes of season 1 are tough to watch, and fast forward if you must, but DO continue watching into season 2 – it is well worth it.