Welcome to my Outlander Fan Website! The purpose of this website it to share my passion for this wonderful story with others. Whether you're a long time fan who has read all of the books, novels, novellas, and short stories, and seen all of the TV shows, or are brand new to this passion and have only seen a few of the episodes, I hope I've got something for you here.
This website is my love letter to Outlander! It is my FAVORITE series of books and favorite TV show of all time! I've read a bunch, and I've watched a lot of television in my lifetime, but NO STORY has ever moved me more than this one. I started watching the TV show first, then immediately bought all of the books and read straight through for about 2 months! Diana posted recently about the "remarkable" dedication of outlander fans, and it's true! When a creative person is greatly inspired by something, they can't help but create something! I'm a web developer and leather artisan, and I can't help but express my love for all things Outlander in various ways. Some are represented here.
Why do I love the Outlander story so much? First of all it is a huge, deep, emotionally charged story that spans decades and centuries! The two main characters are gorgeous but not egotistical. They have the most beautiful, loving relationship; they're soul mates! "Ye are Blood of my Blood, and Bone of my Bone. I give ye my Body, that we Two might be One. I give ye my Spirit, 'til our Life shall be Done. " They make me appreciate my own soul mate even more! It's not at all like your typical romance where the couple struggles to get together and their beginning is usually the end of the story. In Outlander, Jamie and Claire find each other fairly early on, and the story is their life, including all of the trials and tribulations along the way, with some huge surprises (that couldn't appear on network TV) and a lot of humor sprinkled in. It's very compelling story telling by a master storyteller, Diana Gabaldon, and Ronald D. Moore (showrunner) and company have taken on the monumental task of adapting Diana's story into a television show for Starz network. Unlike most adaptations, the author is pretty involved and very supportive, acknowledging that they're doing a supurb job of it, keeping as true as possible to the source material, yet throwing in a few surprises for us book readers to enjoy along the way.
What is SO compelling about this story? It spans almost the entire range of the human condition: love, joy, estacy, bravery, wonder, pain, depression, trajedy, heartache, hope, fear, loss, mourning, depravity, comedy, stubbornness, deceiptfulness, loyalty, honor, community, endurance... The list goes on and on! The characters (main ones anyway) are good people, but not perfect. The villain is horribly sadistic but not one dimensional. It's rich with complexity, conflict, drama, history, and intrigue, yet it stays focused on the central characters just living their lives as best they can. It's not sugar coated at all, nor is the sex or violence gratuituous, although there is a lot of both. The story tries to stay true and honest about how people behave and react in real world settings during challenging times, and it shows how they can change and adapt over a lifetime. There are a few mystical components (time travel primarily), but they are never the central storyline. What's life without a little magic in it? And the mystical aspects are minimal but drive the story forward. How else could Claire go from 1945 to 1743?
Why do I think the TV adaptation is so wonderful? It adds much more dimension to the original story! The supurbly talented actors embody their characters perfectly, and bring them to life before our eyes. And everybody else involved from the showrunner, producers, writers, directors, set designers, costumers, musicians, and literally hundreds if not thousands of people working diligently behind the scenes, all are top-notch and bring their unique skills to enhance the story. It is an adaptation, so there are differences, but short of having unlimited time and unlimited resources, which is impossible (no adaptation has that luxury), this one does a magnificent job of telling the Outlander story, and I believe the addition of their creative skills greatly enhance Outlander. If, as a book-reader, you expect everything to translate 100%, you'll be disappointed. But if you look at the TV show as telling our beloved story in a visual medium, you'll be thrilled with the results. I think it's a matter of managing your expectations. There is no one-size-fits-all in anything, and you can never please everybody all the time. But the makers of Outlander TV are greatly pleasing many, many people, just like the books do! Me included!
The only down side? The Outlander TV show is not available to everyone. I understand why, it is expensive to make and TV must be paid for either by businesses purchasing advertisements (free TV) or through cable or other subscription services (pay TV — we subscribe to the Starz network via Amazon Prime). But because it's not as easily available, many people still haven't seen Outlander. Average viewership is somewhere around 1.4 million per episode, and it's rising. Probably lots of people who do see it aren't being counted. I think there are lots of other positive signs: the Starz network is promoting it well (Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide covers and articles) and making it more accessible (via Apple TV App, and Amazon Prime), good recognition by critics and awards (especially if they are fan driven), lots of social media activity, and very generous actors, producers and writers who share a lot of information with fans. And then the fan community shares with their friends too. I think all of these things are raising awareness and bringing new viewers to Outlander, which is good. The more people who watch, the more profitable it is for the network, and the more likely we'll get more seasons!
My Outlander website: There is a lot of information on the internet about Outlander, but this website is my attempt to organize it in a way that makes sense to me. And I added a few little things that I think would be fun, like the Countdown Timer (if I know when the next show will air) here and on the Episodes page, the Bookshelf, Trivia Game (and individual Episode, Season, and Book Quizzes), and a dynamically generated Timeline based on details from the TV show, and if you've read any of the Outlander "Big" books (and other novels, novellas, and short stories), specify which ones and the dynamic Timeline will contain details based on them.
Beware, spoilers abound, and I've tried to place a spoiler alert banner on pages that may contain more information than you want to know. But I'm not 100% confident those banners are displaying everywhere they need to be. Will keep checking...
This website is a work-in-progress. It's not fully fleshed out yet. But there is a lot here already, and there is much more content to come as new content is released and as I have time to work on it.
So how is this website organized, and what can you do here?
It's all in the Boilerplate
The Boilerplate is the dark banner at the top of most of the pages. It has two links to the left, the logo in the center (with the navbar below), and two links to the right:
- The two links on the left of the Logo section are:
- Gaelic phrases . hover over the random Gaelic phrase and the translation pops up. Click on the gaelic phrase and a list of terms and translations displays (I'm adding to this list daily as well as I come across more Gaelic terms).
- Images . click a thumbnail of an image and a larger version of it will display in the main window below. Click on that image and the full size version of that image will display in your browser. You can cycle through all of the current season's images this way.
- The middle Logo section contains the logo image (which always links back to the Home Page) and the navbar below that, which contains:
- Home . this page
- Bookshelf . I had a lot of fun putting all of my books on an electronic bookshelf! Click on a book to open it up and look what's inside, like Summaries, Lists of Characters, Excerpts, and Chapters (need to login to access some of it). Click on the big book cover to be directed to Diana Gabaldon's website where you can purchase it and get a lot more information.
- Episodes . peruse the list of episodes and all sorts of information relating to them (including a count-down timer to the next showing on STARZ, if the date is known).
Each episode has a detailed synopsis (with links), at least one trivia quiz, links to podcasts, character pages, clips, gaelic translations, images, quotes, costumes, my notes on the episode, and a link to the IMDb page.
- Characters . learn about the cast of Outlander; find out more information by following links to their IMDb pages; also, if you've read any of the books, you can list all of the characters in the books you've read (login to specify which books you've read). Not complete yet, but a work in progress...
- Links . just my attempt to point you to more information out there.
- Quotes . explore some wonderful Quotes from Outlander!
- Store . I do have a small leather/costuming business called ABQ Leather and as a huge fan, I was inspired by this wonderful story to make some things. They are not officially licensed merchandise, just custom-made, one at a time, things you might like too (Claire's beautiful linen shifts, Ellen's pearl necklace, Jamie's leather sporran, Brian's leather coat (have the leather just need the time)...).
- Timeline . The Timeline displays dynamically based on the books that you've read, or if you haven't read any of the Outlander books yet, it uses information in the TV series. Whenever I come across information containing a date, I'll throw it in here. Work-in-Progress!
- Games . I couldn't resist creating a Trivia Game to test my knowledge and challenge myself to absorb more of the details from the books and TV shows. It is dynamically generated based on the inputs you give it, like how many questions you want in each game, what books and/or episodes are covered, and quizzes for each episode, season, and book.
- Art . I absolutely love the art that has been created by Outlander fans, and made a slideshow where you can loop through some of my favorite pictures.
- Feedback . I am interested in what you think. This is the place to give me feedback on this site, or ask questions, etc. ...
- The two random links on the right of the Logo section are:
- Character Images . click on a random character's icon image to open their character page. Not much detail there yet, but more is coming...
- Latest Outlander News . Here only the latest news item appears. Click on the title and you can see all news items in reverse cronological order.
Notes:
- About page numbers: All of the page numbers on this site correspond to the versions of the books that I have. Your versions may be different, so whenever possible, I try to give you the Chapter as well, so you can get close at least in figuring out where things are located.
- SPOILER ALERT! This website is full of information. If you haven't read all of the books or seen all of the TV shows to date, you may run into new infomation. Just be prepared and proceed accordingly.
- Costuming: I have a special interest in anything related to costuming, especially period pieces, and even more so if it involves LEATHER in any way. I am offering a few of the things I've made on my Store. Next up is Jamie's Season Two sporran (with a purse version too, like the Season One version -- my favorite purse).
- Feedback: If you have questions or comments about this website, feel free to Contact Technical Support.
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