You Should Be Reading the 'Outlander' Books in This Order

Elle

6 hours ago

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When Outlander first hit screens in 2014, it entranced a huge audience with the story of Claire Randall (Caitríona Balfe), an English woman who travels in time from 1945 to 1743. Over seven seasons, fans have fallen in love with the series—and its steamy central romance—which will bow with its eighth and final season in early 2026. A prequel series, called Outlander: Blood of My Blood, is out now.
But the Outlander story started with Diana Gabaldon's 1991 novel of the same name. It sparked a nine-book series, followed by additional novellas, short stories, and eventually the beloved Starz TV series. (Gabaldon has also announced a tenth book, A Blessing for a Warrior Going Out, which does not yet have a release date.) Are you ready to jump deeper into the Outlander world? Here's where to start.
This short story prequel takes us to France in 1740. Years before he meets Claire in Outlander, a young Jamie and his friend Ian become mercenaries.
The story begins in 1946, when Claire Randall and her husband Frank, who spent World War II apart, take a vacation to Inverness, Scotland. While looking for plants, Claire comes across a circle of ancient stones on the hill of Craigh na Dun. She walks through a large stone and is suddenly transported to 1743, where she's labeled an outlander, a foreigner. She's walked into a land at war and faces tremendous danger, but finds protection from the Scottish warrior James Fraser, and falls deeply in love with him.
Gabaldon's second Outlander book starts in 1968, with Claire back home, where she has a daughter and has been married to Frank for years. After Frank's death, she brings her daughter Brianna to Scotland to meet with the historian Roger Wakefield, who she hopes can tell her what happened to soldiers after the real-life battle of Culloden, which occurred in 1746. While searching for these answers, Claire shares painful and shocking parts of her life with Brianna and explains what happened to her in the second timeline after the events of the first book.
In this novella, we turn to Hal Grey, the brother of Lord John Grey, and Minnie Rennie, the woman that he will one day marry. Minnie runs a rare book business with her father. She's in London both working and secretly looking for her mother, whom she's never met, when she stumbles into Hal, who is mourning his wife and unborn child, and they develop an instant connection.
Jamie lives and he's desperately searching for Claire and her baby. Claire and Brianna are living in Boston and Brianna now knows that Jamie is her biological father. When Claire finds out that Jamie did not, in fact, die in the battle of Culloden and is still alive 20 years later, she must decide whether to leave her life with her daughter and return to the 1700s to find him, not knowing if she ever will.
Drums of Autumn picks up where Voyager left off. Having reunited, Claire and Jamie are in the American colonies, where they are building a cabin for themselves in North Carolina. She has left Brianna, who remains in the present day. Brianna learns that a dangerous historical event is coming towards her parents and decides to go back in time to save them, and Roger Wakefield, the historian who loves her, follows to save her.
In the fifth Outlander novel, Claire, Jamie, Brianna, and Roger (now Brianna's husband) are all together in 1771 North Carolina, facing down the coming Revolutionary War. They live on Fraser's Ridge, a 10,000-acre land grant that Jamie was given in order, alongside many other families. Because of Claire's knowledge of the future, she and Jamie know that the war is coming and when Jamie is asked by the British government to form a militia to quash a rebellion, he understands how dangerous the situation has become.
It is now 1772 and the signs of war are becoming increasingly apparent, as tensions are heating up and violence is increasing. Claire is working as a healer, and her abilities have led some to become suspicious of her. Jamie is receiving increasing pressure from the British government to further the king's agenda while secretly knowing that their cause is a losing one.
When An Echo in the Bone opens, Claire and Jamie still know that the Revolutionary War is coming but have no idea of how they will fare or which side Jamie will choose: the British, who he knows will lose, or the Colonies, which would pit him against his secret son. In the 1970s, where Brianna and Roger have travelled with their children, they are living on Jamie's family's estate. Through letters written by Claire, they are piecing together the mysteries of their family.
In 1778, Claire, believing that Jamie was killed in a shipwreck, has married Lord John Grey. When Jamie returns, very much alive, he's angry to learn that his best friend has married his wife. His comeback surprises everyone, including Lord John Grey's son, who learns that Jamie is his biological father. Brianna and her family's peace in the 1970s has ended with the kidnapping of her son and Roger's quest to find him.
As the devastation of the Revolutionary War continues, Claire and Jamie have been reunited with Brianna and her family and are rebuilding after the crisis of the past few years. There is fear that the war will ravage Fraser's Ridge and Brianna wonders: Was it a mistake to leave the safety of the 20th century to be with her parents in one of the most dangerous periods in American history?