Should you read the Lord John Grey books before later Outlander books?

Lord John Grey grew from a side character in the Outlander books to gaining a whole story of his own. He’s the only side character so far to gain his own book series—there are other characters who have short stories.

The books mostly take place during Voyager, set between Ardsmuir closing down and Jamie going back to Scotland. This does mean that Jamie pops up now and then. There are also storylines in the books that are mentioned later on. Should you stop reading Voyager and jump straight into the Lord John Grey stories?

You’ll understand a little more in Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone

It was only in Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone that I realized I would have appreciated knowing Lord John Grey’s story more. Up to that point, there was enough mentioned to just guess storylines. We didn’t really need all the details. Although, when Percy showed up in Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, I do admit that it would have been useful to know the full backstory between him and John.

Diana Gabaldon does a good job of making it so you get the basic details of previous stories. The idea is to make the later books accessible as the first book to read. However, there are a lot of details missing, especially in John’s life.

One of the big ones for me was the mention of Thomas Byrd. I had no idea who that was and didn’t really care until I started reading the Lord John Grey books and got to know his character.

There’s a little more apprehension in the Lord John Grey books

By reading Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone first, I already knew that Byrd was around. When it comes to a specific moment in The Scottish Prisoner, it meant that I didn’t feel too much worry. There would have been much more apprehension at that point of the story had I not known anything.

So, it could be worth reading the Lord John Grey books first. This gives you the plot in order that it happens chronologically, taking out some of the spoilers given to you later on in the main storyline.

The Lord John Grey books aren’t necessary to understand the Outlander books

You don’t miss too much if you don’t read the Lord John Grey books first. Yes, there are some elements I wish I would have read first, but I didn’t feel like I was completely missing the story. There was enough there to understand things, and it actually made me want to get to know Lord John Grey more.

It’s not until Written in My Own Heart’s Blood that you’ll start to see John’s storyline come out. Up to that point, you can keep reading the main Outlander books anyway. Maybe jump between the two books before you get to the eighth one.

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