#i've just had a very braindead week & i've been a bit lazy

[the--highlanders]

Hi :) favourite 2 era books? (im looking for some to read and you seem v knowledgeable about them lol) thank you :)

hey!! honestly I'm not sure that I'm super knowledgeable on two-era books?? I feel like there's a WHOLE bunch I haven't read. but I'll have a go!! & if anyone else wants to add on more recs then please do <33

the roundheads is my personal fav - it's a no-aliens historical with two, jamie, ben, and polly finding their way through 1600s london, & honestly the plot has always been secondary to the character moments crammed into it, especially with two and jamie. if you've ever seen people talking about them going to a frost fair, this is the book it's from. it's a good read as a whole but also for going back and reading specific cute/funny scenes imo

the wheel of ice is also good (though it does have two referring to jamie as 'boy', which. always throws me off every time I read it ngl gfdjskh). the overarching plot is pretty standard iirc, but again there's a bunch of cute moments (including some parental stuff with two and zoe), so it's a fun read!!

if you're just looking for stuff to read in general rather than new content specifically, I'd also recommend reading the target novelisations! they're not always perfect, and I find that they struggle with writing jamie a lot?? idk I find that some of them make him dumber and. hm. hypermasculine in a way he's not on screen, if that makes sense. but also sometimes they add a bunch of background detail to the stories and especially the secondary characters, which can be fun! like, iirc the underwater menace novelisation gives ara (the servant girl they befriend) a whole backstory with her father having opposed zaroff), which just adds a nice bit of depth to an otherwise pretty bare-bones character.

but in terms of written content my go-to is usually the big finish short trips books. which may be somewhat harder to find (I saved my copies literal years ago, so idk how available they are these days?), but definitely worth it if you can get hold of them! something about the format of short stories on specific topics seems to push them into being a lot more character-focused than some of the novels can be, and doing some interesting/thoughtful stuff. there's quite a few of them, though not all of them have two-era stories - some of the ones with the most memorable two-era stories for me are:

destination prague - my all-time favourite for personal reasons but also because I genuinely think the stories in this one SLAP. there's two two-era stories in here, both of which are probably 6b (in the sense that they're not explicit about it, but two and jamie are travelling alone, and I think thematically/character-wise they work best there). they both deal a lot with grief and how two in particular copes (or doesn't cope) with it. and they're super easy to read through a two/jamie lens if that's your thing!

the quality of leadership - jamie meets william wallace. what more do you need to know. slightly dubious historical content aside, this is a GREAT jamie character study, having him deal with meeting one of his heroes and being disappointed - imo it really gets into what jamie values and admires in people, and there's a Lot to get into there. there's also another two-era story in this (with jamie, ben, and polly) which I haven't read in ages but which I think has some really good ben and polly characterisation, so I've been meaning to reread!

life science - if you enjoy victoria, read. the. age. of. ambition. I am absolutely unable to be normal about this story I swear to god. just. the image of jamie being unable to shoot someone and victoria having to step in and do it for him. it's also got a bit of victoria backstory which is always fun

but there's a whole bunch of others!! ranging from 'two takes zoe to work at a soup kitchen over christmas' to 'jamie gets turned into a literal bear'. so, you know, probably something for everyone's taste.

back to actual novels for a second - I wouldn't necessarily recommend the indestructible man unless you're prepared for something REALLY heavy (like, 'this feels more like a dark au than a doctor who novel' sort of heavy). it occupies this weird space between 'this has so many two/jamie moments' and 'this needs to come with about 50 different trigger warnings'. but if you're into that sort of thing, it's there!! & I would not recommend combat rock at all, it's just. a racist sexist mess from the bits I've seen. absolutely not worth it