Adventure Novels

[J Imler]

Recently I noticed the book, The Long Walk, in a thread with a holiday flyer linked, or an older catalog maybe. I'm enjoying the true story. Years ago, I was at Bike, Book, & Hatchet and Grant recommended In the Heart of the Sea and a book about the Galveston hurricane. And one other I just remembered The Devil in the White City.

I've enjoyed reading most of these types of books, that involve adventure/danger/even death, like Into Thin Air.

Would anyone care to share any other novels that you'd recommend as the darker months loom?

Thanks!

[Michael Williams]

Hey J,  Into the Wild is a good one( same author as Into thin Air).  One of my all time faves is ‘ The Golden Spruce’.    -Mike

Sent from my iPhone

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/4f736262-709c-4fd8-b8e4-c60515385364n%40googlegroups.com.

[steve bishop]

Hi

Steve (UK) here.

Touching the Void by Joe Simpson (non-fiction)

The film is gripping, true to the story and very realistic- the book is even better.

In 1985, two young climbers, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, set out to be the first to reach the summit of the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. They succeed, and the two embark on the treacherous descent down the mountain -- only to meet with disaster when Simpson breaks his leg in a fall, leaving Yates to lower him the rest of the way with ropes. When a storm threatens both their lives, Yates must decide whether to cut the rope and risk Simpson's likely death.

No spoilers here...the story is only just beginning!

Enjoy...

Steve 

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/A887A13B-6102-4845-A266-148FDA501BB3%40gmail.com.

[Curtis McKenzie]

The Endurance by Alfred Lansing. 

Curtis

El Cajon, CA

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/791440608.1127519.1635134256244%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Eric Floden]

This one

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Years_Before_the_Mast

[Eric Marth]

The examples you list aren't novels (which are fictional stories) but instead narrative non-fiction accounts of true adventure. 

Other non-fiction adventure stories I'd recommend involving people up against death and disaster: 

• The Lost City of Z by David Grann
• Survival of the Bark Canoe by John McPhee
• Thunderstruck and In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larsen 
• And I Alone Survived by Lauren Elder and Shirley Streshinsky
• The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger 
• Between A Rock and A Hard Place by Aaron Ralston 
• Bling Descent by James Tabor
• Endurance by Alfred Lansing gets a +1 from me 

Adventure novels, more broadly speaking: 

• The Martian by Andy Weir
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
• A River Runs Through It by Norman MacLean
• The Great Leader and The Big Seven by Jim Harrison
• Flashman series by George McDonald Fraser 
• Patrick O'Briend's Aubry-Mautin series (Master and Commander, etc.) 

On Monday, October 25, 2021 at 11:15:29 AM UTC-4 ericf3 wrote:

This one

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Years_Before_the_Mast

[Mike Godwin]

Lands of Lost Borders is a fun bikey read, by Kate Harris

Mike SLO CA

[Patrick Moore]

I know many don't shop at Amazon, but I figure that out-of-copyright classics on Kindle are legitimate. Many are very, very cheap if not free. I recently spent ~$34 and got about 15 books, some adventure stories including a digital 4-pak by RL Stevenson, of which I'm now re-reading Treasure Island. I have to say that reading quality trash is a hellofalot better than reading cheap trash like David Baldacci.

Likewise, but a year or so ago, I got the collected works of Rudyard Kipling and many Jack London novels, not to mention 2 or 3 collections of long-forgotten sea adventure stories. Joshua Slocum, tho' that's history. And besides adventure, lots of poetry, Dickens and Tolstoy--but my stomach for novelistic drama is much smaller than 40 years ago; I prefer thoughtless adventure stories like Treasure Island and, I recall here, RLS himself described TI as, to paraphrase, "An uncomplicated story with no literary complexities for boys." But girls may like it too.

Both Alices, Waugh X 5, and many more.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/4f736262-709c-4fd8-b8e4-c60515385364n%40googlegroups.com.

--

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

[Patrick Moore]

Oh, and Two Years Before the Mast too. A good one -- + 1.

[Karl Wilcox]

'The Long Walk' has been identified as a fictional account by the BBC and others-- I enjoyed reading it very much, but, in retrospect, learning that it is largely if not entirely fictional, I have no desire to re-read it.  As a historian, I can assure you that while an oral history can be very interesting, it is not generally regarded as reliably accurate.  In my research, diaries or chronicles are highly prized; memoirs not so much.  'The Long Walk' is probably fabricated (no corroborating voices or documents).

A good read that was written at the time of the event and has been corroborated is, 'No Picnic on Mt. Kenya'... a group of Italian POW's escape their camp in order to climb Mt. Kenya.   

[Patrick Moore]

One more, foolish to forget it as I'm reading it now: The History of the Conquest of Peru by William H. Prescott; I also have his History of the Conquest of Mexico. These were written IIRC in the 1840s, but Prescott is truly a professional historian using scrupulous research in the Spanish colonial archives. He also has a very keen critical eye and a very eloquent literary style, precise but very, very engaging -- wonderful. It has been over 40 years since I last read these and I'm glad I found them again on Kindle.

Of principal interest, to me, though is his thorough and careful description of the ancient Andean and Mexican civilizations -- polity, economy, arts, transport, military and religious as well as architectural and urban--that, with the Maya and Olmecs and others that only recently have been found by archeologists were in many respects bigger and better than European cultures of the time. He makes much of conquistadors' amazement at their size, sophistication, and beauty -- not that material civilization is the ultimate criterion of human development (the Sioux or Masaai were hardly savages).

[velomann]

Most of what's mentioned here so far are not novels but non-fiction. If you're loking for "novel" ideas, several years ago I read through all 20.5 of Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturin series (the movie Master and Commander is based on 2 or 3 of the early books). It's the best historical fiction I've ever read, and over the course of the series a remarkable portrayal of an unlikely friendship. I found the sailing/naval battle details fascinating, as well as the politics of Napoleonic Europe of the early 19th century. Recommend.

Mike M

[Karl Wilcox]

An excellent couple of mountaineering narratives (non-fiction) are Herzog's 'Annapurna' and 'Minus 148: The First Winter Ascent of Mt. Mckinley'.  And, then, of course, there is the incomparable 'Mawsons Will' (1912 Antarctic exploration/survival story).  And, also, Ernest Shackleton's amazing survival story (also Antarctica).  

On Sun, Oct 24, 2021 at 7:15 PM J Imler <imle...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Michael Williams]

One more recommendation:   Finding Everett Ruess.   

Sent from my iPhone

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CADftY8i3EnBfnB5B%3DP%2BwM%2B3FZqcNCq9AG_iGYUXQfYmW-OLXdw%40mail.gmail.com.

[John G.]

Another +1 for Patrick O'Brian. If you're not sure about Aubrey-Maturin, check out Voyage to Samarkand.

Rosemary Sutcliff wrote a bunch of classic historical adventure novels for kids in the 50s and 60s. They're quite textually sophisticated and much more complex than today's YA. Well worth a read.

The Long Ships by Frans Bengtsson is funny and terrific.

Kidnapped is just as good as Treasure Island. Check out the audiobook.

A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush is classic adventure nonfiction. 

[Patrick Moore]

Oh, very much +1 for O'Brien. His works (like John Le Carre's) really amount to minor literature, so well does he depict character and the way it drives action and reaction, for his technical knowledge of fully-rigged sailing (he has been praised for accuracy by sailors, apparently), and his light but compelling style with a tongue in cheek quality that does not diminish the drama. 

Le Carre's earlier works, particularly the Karla Trilogy and up to about Absolute Friends. I don't think his earliest or his later books are as good. And you can find the BBC's excellent dramatization with Alec Guiness; far better than subsequent adaptions, IMO.

Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series. Cornwell is not at all as good as O'Brien or Le Carre, but he's good enough historically and literarily; but avoid his medieval stuff that is just psychologically and emotionally anachronistic; people didn't think like that in the "dark" or middle ages. And since characterization drives plot and action ...

BBC or some British TV company dramatized the Sharpe series and did it well.

MacBeth. MacBeth is a very modern character, but one that fits with the chronological setting as someone who bets his soul on advancement only to see it, very consciously and clearly, all slip through his fingers despite horrible crimes committed to preserve it, and he can find no other recourse than to continue pursuing his destructive course.

Enough literary criticism. But there is so much good adventure fiction available.

Patrick Moore, who was raised without TV in various places by a MLS mother and a father who at one time managed the Library of Congress's Stack and Reader Division before managing some of the library's overseas offices.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/f3fb4483-6d72-44ce-b622-03e2cefdb1e6n%40googlegroups.com.

[Nick Payne]

+3 for Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturin series. I have them as physical books, bought over many years as the series was published, as eBooks on my eReader, and quite a number of them also as audiobooks from Audible, read by Ric Jerrom - I listen to those in the car.

Nick

[Ryan]

+ 4 for O'Brien...reading Tim Winton The Shepherd's Hut  right now...have read others...terrific writer...Nick, maybe you've heard of him?

[Nick Payne]

Tim Winton - yes, I've certainly heard of him, I've read most of his books; we grew up in the same place (Perth, Western Australia), and he writes about the places I know. In Cloudstreet, the very street I used to live in gets a mention. Of his books, Dirt Music is probably my favourite.

[Ryan]

Now that's interesting that you grew up near him. Just finished Shepherd's Hut which I almost regretted
. That's a test of a good book...when you wish it wouldn't end. I've read Dirt Music...definitely want to read more

[Patrick Moore]

Moving from novels written to novels dramatized, one more series I can wholeheartedly recommend, as long as we agree that whodunits with action are adventure, is the A&E Nero Wolfe series produced in 2001 and 2002. 

Generally, I avoid American TV crime and spy and generally mystery and thriller dramas because, at least as I see it, the Brits just do them so much better in adaptation to stage, characterization, casting, sets, etc. But one glaring exception, for which I am very proud to be an American, is this Nero Wolfe series, where Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton do for this series what Alec Guiness did for the dramatization of John Le Carre's best novels, the Karla trilogy: when you think of the character you think of the actor and you can't get around doing so.

As of 10.28.2021, still available full-screen on Youtube and, if watched on Duck Duck Go, sans advertising interruptions.

The dramatizations are good enough to make me want to seek out the novels.

FWIW, my brief impressions of earlier dramatizations makes me want to avoid all but this ~2000 adaptation.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/4f736262-709c-4fd8-b8e4-c60515385364n%40googlegroups.com.