Diana Gabaldon and Outlander: the basic poop

0810 Gabaldon shelf after upgrade
Originally uploaded by rooruu

This year has been full of Gabaldon words for me, revisiting the Outlander series in written text and the unabridged audiobooks.  So, if I've managed to get you interested, here's the basic poop and links to take you onward.

I blogged about my shelf of (paperback) Diana Gabaldon books back in August, and am extremely glad that I went ahead and ordered the hardbacks before the Australian dollar nosedived. Here's the upgraded shelf. I've read and reread these books in paperback, engrossed by the characters and stories and the world of them. I don't own a lot of hardcover fiction - most fiction in Australia isn't published in hardcover, unlike the US - so anything I do have in hardback is usually a firm favourite (or something like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, a shorter book that was published here initially in hardcover).

Candy commented on my last entry that my Gabaldon enthusiasm has finally borne fruit (ha! - I've lost count of how many people I've introduced to this engrossing series!) (and I've only had one failure. I won't mention that it's my dear mama, because she sometimes reads this blog) and she's invested in Outlander, asking what comes next?

Here's a visual record for you, Candy. And yes, there is an order in which to read them:

• Outlander (published in Australia and the UK as Cross Stitch)
  
• Dragonfly in Amber
  
• Voyager
  
• Drums of Autumn
  
• The Fiery Cross
  
• A Breath of Snow and Ashes
  

next, coming late in 2009: An Echo in the Bone.  There's a three to four year gap between each Outlander novel being published.

The Outlandish Companion covers the first four books; there is a plan for another volume, but that would likely be when the series is complete (at least two books away, Echo plus at least one more).  Some editions of this were titled Through the Stones.

A significant character from the Outlander series, Lord John Grey, appears in a separate series of shorter novels and novellas:

• Lord John and the Private Matter
  
• Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade
  
• Lord John and the Hand of Devils (which contains Lord John and the Hellfire Club, Lord John and the Succubus and Lord John and the Haunted Soldier)
  

With Cross Stitch, the text is slightly different to Outlander - one scene, and a few other small changes.  Now, by choice, I'd read Outlander.  Which you have to buy from The Book Depository (if you don't want to pay postage), or eBay etc, or a second hand bookseller, as the new book edition sold here as standard is Cross Stitch.

The audiobooks are available in two versions, and the only ones worth considering are the unabridged readings by Davina Porter for Recorded Books.  The abridged ones are as little as 25% of the original text (ie. 75% is gone) and these heavily butchered abridged ones are not worth bothering with, imho.  You can find the unabridged ones at Amazon and audible.com, with the unabridged Fiery Cross being the exception, only available to US purchasers from Recorded Books direct.  For me in Australia, audible.com, via a membership, was the cheapest way to obtain them, no postal charges and downloaded to iPod.  Of course, if you can find a local library with them, that's another option.

A graphic novel with a Jamie and Claire story taking place with the time span of Outlander is also in the works, likely to be published some time in 2009.  Diana talks about that on her blog and website.

• Diana's website is here: dianagabaldon.com .  You can sign up for email updates and listen to podcasts by Diana
  
• Diana's blog is here: Voyages of the Artemis
  
• Diana is a section leader at the Books and Writers Community (in the Research and Craft of Writing discussion forum), and also answers questions at the Diana Gabaldon discussion forum there.
  
• Another section leader, Karen Henry, blogs about things Outlandish at Outlandish Observations (thanks for this link, Janelle!)

(Entirely selfishly, while helping Candy I've given myself a one-stop location for the Diana Gabaldon links I use.  Ha! again).

* poop as in information.  No pejorative associations implied or intended.