Originally published in the '90s, Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander book series has proven to be widely successful. Then following the Starz TV show adaptation, it became even more popular in spite of the occasional liberties the show takes from the books.
That said, Gabaldon’s themes on time travel, romance, and historical drama are far from unique as there are other book series that deal with them. While some were arguably influenced by Outlander, a few preceded it. So while waiting for Outlander’s fifth season and Gabaldon to write the final book of the series, here are some similar books to check out.
10 Knight Errant
Named after a type of character found in medieval literature, this 2001 novel by R. Garcia y Robertson not only has time travel elements but also romantic themes. Additionally, it’s the first in a trilogy of books with the same name.
Like Outlander, the main character is a woman, only she’s American instead of British. Yet the story begins with her traveling from America to England to surprise a lover, only to find him married. Dismayed, she goes hiking by the England-Wales border and comes across an actual knight from the War of the Roses period in Britain.
9 The River Of No Return
One of the ongoing mysteries in the Outlander series is the presence of Jamie’s ghostly apparition in Claire’s time, which fans continue to debate to this day. But what would happen if someone like Jamie ended up in the present?
The River of No Return, written by Bee Ridgway, elaborates on this scenario by telling the story of a man named Lord Nicholas Falcott, who presumably dies during the Napoleonic Wars. Instead, he actually ends up in present-day London and becomes a member of the Guild. Consisting of wayward time travelers like himself, none of them are allowed to return to their own time period, a rule that Nicholas challenges.
8 My Name Is Mary Sutter
Those who commended Claire for her skills as a doctor and bringing progressive ideas about medicine to 1700s Scotland might enjoy My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira. While it doesn’t have any time travel involved, it is a historical drama with a strong female lead.
Set during the Civil War, a New York midwife named Mary Sutter Eager decides to pursue her dream of becoming a surgeon by heading for Washington, D.C., to tend the wounded. In the process, she earns the admiration of two surgeons named James Blevens and William Stipp. But things get complicated when she’s asked to help deliver her sister’s baby.
7 The House On The Strand
Published in the late '60s, this Gothic tale by Daphne du Maurier is basically the male equivalent to Outlander. Only instead of magic, the method of time travel involves drugs.
To elaborate, the novel begins with family man Dick Young being offered to look after an old house in Cornwall, England, for a professorial friend of his named Magnus Lane. In addition, he gets to test a drug that Magnus created which allows him to travel back to the Fourteenth Century. But as Dick becomes more involved in the lives of the people living in that time, the more addicted to the drug he gets.
6 A Place Called Freedom
Since Season 4 of Outlander takes place in North Carolina, which was a British colony, it was interesting to see a British take on early North American history. A Place Called Freedom by Welsh author Ken Follett takes a similar approach.
Only instead of focusing on the Jacobites, the novel concentrates on a type of serfdom among coal miners that existed during the Eighteenth Century and the tensions it created. In the midst of this, a young Scottish miner named Mack McAsh becomes a working-class leader. Then he gets framed for a crime and forced into indentured servitude at the British colony in Virginia.
5 The Night Mark
In most stories revolving around time travel, there are usually two methods: Physical transportation or mental occupation. That is to say, the traveler either goes to another time period in person or their mind drifts into the body of someone from that time period. While Outlander fits the former method, The Night Mark by Tiffany Reisz suits the latter.
After losing her former husband and divorcing her current one, The Night Mark’s protagonist Faye Barlow decides to do some photography in South Carolina to get her mind off things. Then after almost drowning, Faye wakes up in the body of a woman from 1921 who looks just like her.
4 Green Darkness
Because our minds are highly developed, they are capable of a lot of things, including a form of time travel. Known as Chronesthesia, it’s a heavily debated phenomenon where a person’s mind drifts into the past and/or future.
There is even a method of hypnosis called Past Life Regression that can supposedly revive memories from another life, which is explored in Green Darkness. Written by Anya Seton, it’s about an American woman who marries a rich British man but all is not well. So a Hindu mystic is brought in and the woman’s mind drifts to a past life in 1500s England that parallels her current one.
3 The Time Traveler’s Wife
A popular work of fiction, this novel by Audrey Niffenegger not only won two major book awards but also earned a feature film adaptation. For those who aren’t familiar with it, the story is about Henry DeTamble, a librarian who can spontaneously time travel.
Explained as a genetic disorder, this makes life difficult for him and his wife, Clare, whom he sees at different points in her life including when she was a little girl. While the film adaptation was given mixed reviews despite being faithful to the book, there is currently a TV show version in the works.
2 Into The Wilderness
Part of what makes Claire and Jamie’s relationship special is not just because they’re from different time periods but also of ethnicities who have historical tensions with each other. An American equivalent to this kind of relationship can be found in Sara Donati’s historical fiction Into the Wilderness.
Set in the late 1700s, it tells the story of an Englishwoman named Elizabeth Middleton who moves to a small town in New York to start a school for children of all races. There, she meets Nathanial Booner or, as the Mohawks call him, Between-Two-Lives since he was raised by them despite being white.
1 Saving Grace
Not to be confused with the book of the same name by Jane Green, Julie Garwood’s Saving Grace takes place in England during the Thirteenth Century. Its central character is sixteen-year-old Lady Johanna, an English lady who has recently become a widow.
However, King John of England wants her to marry again despite her vow not to. As an alternative to John’s choice of husband, Johanna is offered to marry her foster brother’s friend Gabriel MacBain. A Scottish laird, or someone that owns a large estate in Scotland, he turns out to be rugged but surprisingly tender as Johanna discovers.
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