Audiobook: Outlander, Part 1
Section: 00:00:00 – 01:44:30 (= almost the end of Chapter 2)
Listened to: in my car, driving to a work meeting, the office and back home
“Disappearances, after all, have explanations. Usually.”
The end of the prologue gives me the chills, every time.
Claire remembers her Uncle Lamb and her childhood.
The fact that this reminds me of Indiana Jones proves that I’m such a child of the 80s :-)
Claire’s parents died in a car accident, when she was 5 years old.
Mmmh, did they, really? By now, especially after reading “The Space Between” I’m not so sure about anything which we have learned about the past of these characters. Maybe they also just disappeared? Or is there solid proof that there was a car accident? Or maybe I’m just paranoid ;-)
Frank sees the strange Scot standing below Claire’s window.
When I read Outlander the first time I only knew that she would travel back in time and meet Jamie, but had no idea of the rest of the story. So, of course when I read this part for the first time I already thought that this Scot was Jamie and I remember being confused when it turned out that he could not travel through the stones. I thought Diana Gabaldon had just dropped that scene from her “canon” later on, because I had no idea how it could be explained. She comes up with an – supernatural, I admit – explanation in a later book, but I’m still on the fence about what to think of that explanation. Sometimes these ideas feel like a cop-out to me…
Claire’s first visit to the stone circle.
She remembers her visits to Stonehenge and I realize that I don’t have a memory of ever have visited it myself, even though I think my family stopped there on our way to Wales (or back home) once. But I was only 5 years old, or maybe even younger, and that excuses the lack of memory, I think. It could be interesting to visit it one day though, but not on of the Fire Feasts.
Meeting Roger and seeing his family tree / Frank’s refusal to adopt.
I had almost forgotten, that wee Roger already made an appearance in this first book. The family tree made me wonder if Diana Gabaldon had deliberately included all that because she knew where she wanted to take the story in book 2? She always says she’s not much of a planner and her stories just happen the way they happen, but I’d still like to know. The same goes for Frank’s refusal to adopt a child, if Claire might not get pregnant. Did Diana already know that he would later adopt a child as his own, even though it’s not related to him?
Mrs. Graham reading Claire’s palm.
Spooky! I remember that thought from the first time I read it. I also remember getting excited because the conflict of the two men Claire would love/marry became evident. And by then I hadn’t even “met” Jamie yet. I also kind of picture Maggie Smith as Mrs. Graham by now, even though I think she’s much too tall and she’s not a Scot. But she’d be a nice guest star for the TV show :-)
The trip to Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle
Made me fondly remember my trip to the same place in August 2012. Urquhart Castle is definitely worth the visit. So many nice memories…
And tomorrow Jamie will make his first appearance. Yay! It’s almost pathetic how excited I get whenever I read or listen to that part. But he’s my favourite guy in fiction, so all excitement is allowed, I’d say…