what is the lord john gray series?
is a subset of the main outlanders series, centering on lord john grey, a major supporting character from the main series.
Some years ago, I was invited to write a short story for a British anthology: historical crime stories. “Well,” I said to the editor, “it would be an interesting technical challenge, to see whether I can write anything under 300,000 words. Sure, why not?”
You are reading: Outlander books in order
well, the first obvious question was: what or who to write about? I didn’t want to use the main characters from the outlander series for this story because, due to my peculiar way of writing, if I were to incorporate any significant event into this story (and it would have to be, to be a good story), that would make the event an obstacle in the growth of the next novel.
“but”, I thought to myself, “there’s lord john, right?” Lord John Gray is a major character in the Outlander series, but he’s not on stage all the time. and when he’s not… well, he’s clearly living his life and having adventures elsewhere, and he could write about any of those adventures without causing complications for future novels. Beyond that obvious advantage, Lord John is a fascinating character. he’s what I call a “mushroom”, one of those unplanned people who appear out of nowhere and walk away with whatever scene they’re in, and he talks to me with ease (and wit).
He’s also a gay man, at a time when being gay was a capital offense, and Lord John has the most to lose if he’s found out. he belongs to a noble family, he is an officer in his majesty’s army and loves both his family and his regiment; disclosure of his private life would damage, if not destroy, both of them. consequently, he constantly lives in conflict, which makes him deeply entertaining and easy to write. so i wrote the short story, titled “lord john and the hellfire club”, for the british anthology.
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well, it was a good story; People liked it, but just as word was spreading among us, the anthology went out of print (it was called Past Poisons, edited by Maxim Jakubowski, for those curious bibliophiles). however, people kept asking me about the story and I thought, well, I enjoyed writing it; maybe I should write two or three more articles on lord john, just when time permits…and when i have a handful, we could publish them as a book, and all the lord john fans could easily get the stories.”
so I did that. I began writing the second Lord John story after returning from a book tour, as a way to relax into my writing routine, and continued to work on it, picking up with one hand while picking up the threads of my novel with the other. .. and six months later, he was almost done. well, at this point, i left for another book tour, in the uk, and stopped in new york on the way, to have lunch with my two literary agents.
I was telling you about everything I’ve been up to, and casually mentioned that I’d almost finished the second lord john story. “uh?” they said. “how long is this?”
“Well, I knew you’d ask,” I said. so I checked last night. it’s about 85,000 words; maybe I need another 5000 to wrap it.”
The agents looked at each other, then back at me and with one voice said, “that’s the normal size of books!”
“I thought it was a short story,” I said.
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“well, it’s not,” they said, and proceeded to take it off and sell it everywhere. the publishers were delighted. “it’s a gabaldon book we weren’t expecting, and it’s short! can she do that again? they asked excitedly. to which my agents, who are very good agents, replied “of course he can” and got a contract for three lord john gray novels.
now the lord john books and novels are, in fact, an integral part of the larger outlander series. However, they focus (not unreasonably) on the character of John Grey, and since Lord John is not a time traveler, they tend not to include time travel as an element. they’re structured more or less like a historical mystery, but (like everything else I write) they include the occasional supernatural or other wacky element. (yes, they do have sex, though I don’t really find that unusual) and reference events, characters (particularly jamie fraser), and situations from the outsider novels.
In terms of chronology, the Lord John books fall during the period covered in Voyager, while Jamie Fraser was a prisoner at Helwater. So if you’re wondering where to read the Lord John books along with the larger series, you can read them anytime after Voyager.
in terms of additional chronology: in addition to the three lord john novels under contract, i have also written several novels for various anthologies. Three novels (two previously published and one written specifically for the volume) are contained in a book titled Lord John and the Hand of Devils, while two other novels have appeared or will soon appear in anthologies. the original short story (“the hellfire club”) preceded the first novel and, just to confuse, the novellas are between the novels.
The books and novels are stand-alone and can be read separately in any order. however, if you want to read them in strict order, here it is:
- “lord john and the hellfire club”, a short story. Originally published in Poisons Past, ed. maxim jakubowski. collected in lord john and the hand of demons.
- lord john and the private affair, a novel.
- “lord john and the succubus”, a novel, originally published in legends II: Short Novels from the Masters of Modern Fantasy, edited by Robert Silverberg. collected in lord john and the hand of demons.
- lord john and the brotherhood of the sword, a novel.
- “lord john and the haunted soldier”, a novella. published only in lord john and the hand of devils.
- lord john and the hand of devils, a book-sized collection of three novellas: “hell-fire club”, “succubus” and “ haunted soldier .”
- “lord john and the custom of the army,” a novel, originally published in warriors (volume 1), edited by george r.r. martin and gardner dozois.
- the scottish prisoner, a novel. published on November 29, 2011.
- “lord john and the plague of zombies”, which is also titled “a plague of zombies”, a novella. appeared in these strange streets, edited by george r.r. martin and gardner dozois, published in october 2011.
The following are excerpts from the web pages of each of the Lord John novels and stories:
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