Adventure - From My Armchair

Adventure or thriller - how do you define it?

"The adventure novel is a literary genre of novels that has adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, as its main theme. Adventure has been a common theme since the earliest days of written fiction.

Indeed, the standard plot of Medieval romances was a series of adventures. Following a plot framework as old as Heliodorus, and so durable as to be still alive in Hollywood movies, a hero would undergo a first set of adventures before he met his lady. A separation would follow, with a second set of adventures leading to a final reunion. Variations kept the genre alive.

From the mid 19th century onwards, when mass literacy grew, adventure became a popular subgenre of fiction. Examples of that period include Alexandre Dumas, pere, Jules Verne, H. Rider Haggard, Emilio Salgari, Louis Henri Boussenard, Thomas Mayne Reid, Sax Rohmer, Edgar Wallace, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, and Robert Louis Stevenson..

Adventure novels often overlap with other genres, notably war novels, crime novels, sea stories, Robinsonades, science fiction, fantasy, and Westerns. Not all books within these genres are adventures. Adventure novels take the setting and premise of these other genres, but the fast-paced plot of an adventure focuses on the actions of the hero within the setting." (source Wikipedia)

I have a number of authors that I follow, picking up their books as I find them. I enjoy the chase to "save the world" or the breathtaking actions taken by the hero under daunting circumstances. And quite often, just the puzzle presented joined with the "what if" premise that can often be used in today's work. Here's a few that are in my stack, waiting to be read (or re-read):

BLASPHEMY by Douglas Preston ( of the Preston & Child writing partners)

The world's biggest supercollider, locked in an Arizona mountain, was built to reveal the secrets of the very moment of creation: the Big Bang itself. The Torus is the most expensive machine ever created by humankind, run by the world's most powerful supercomputer. It is the brainchild of Nobel Laureate William North Hazelius. Will the Torus divulge the mysteries of the creation of the universe? Or will it, as some predict, suck the earth into a mini black hole? Or is the Torus a Satanic attempt, as a powerful televangelist decries, to challenge God Almighty on the very throne of Heaven? Twelve scientists under the leadership of Hazelius are sent to the remote mountain to turn it on, and what they discover must be hidden from the world at all costs. Wyman Ford, ex-monk and CIA operative, is tapped to wrest their secret, a secret that will either destroy the world…or save it. The countdown begins.

BATTLE CRY by Leon Uris

They came from America's cities and farms and reservations -- boys who became men under the withering fire of a bold and terrible enemy. In Pacific killing zones called Tarawa and Guadalcanal, they stared into the savage face of war and did not flinch. In their country's most desperate hour -- in the blood, anguish, and terror of combat -- they would grow to be comrades, soldiers, heroes, Marines. This is their story.

I read this book during my high school years -- I was totally enthralled with it and it remains one of my favorite books to this day.

THE SANCTUARY by Raymond Khoury (This one was recommended to me by a friend)

More than 250 years after a pretender marquis escapes the decimated palazzo of his vengeful prince, an army unit in Baghdad has just discovered an underground lab filled with victims of strange, deadly experiments. The doctor heading the lab has escaped, leaving behind a single clue--what appears to be an ancient snake symbol. As the secrets of the symbol are slowly revealed, the human race faces its greatest crisis.

KCs Kozy Korner

http://www.kcskozykorner.net