Adult Reading Round Table Genre Boot Camp  •  Adventure

Adventure DEFINITION: Adventure novels typically have fast-moving plots, exotic settings, and larger-than-life heroes. The hero is involved in death-defying activities: gun battles, car chases, sneak attacks, etc. The stories can be set at any time during the last several centuries. Corsairs may be replaced by submarines, but the formula remains the same.

Classic Authors: Max Brand, C. S. Forester, Zane Grey, H. Rider Haggard, Louis L’Amour, Jack London, Alistair MacLean, Patrick O’Brian, Rafael Sabatini

CHARACTERISTICS:  Adventures are fast-paced, plot-driven tales that showcase the heroic actions of likeable characters who follow their own moral code.  They are typically the gripping story of a group of people (usually male) who have a big problem to overcome (such as war, hardship, or a physical confrontation of some sort) and must work together as a team to resolve it.  Adventure stories provide thrills, but differ from ‘thrillers’ in that there are rarely plot tricks and twists and there is no uncertainty about the outcome. Justice will prevail and the good guys will win.  Adventure fiction usually features a great deal of daring physical action and the characters tend to be stereotypical, and not realistic.

APPEAL:  Many are military in setting, and appeal to anyone who has served in the military, or did not and but enjoys the vicarious experience of reading about people who did.  They have a larger-than-life cartoon quality that makes them entertaining.  Some exhibit a high level of violence which may or may not be appealing, and since they are fast-paced, they are often quick, satisfying reads that don’t involve a tremendous investment in time and emotion. Since they are often set in exotic locales, they also appeal to readers who like to ‘visit’ unusual places.

READERS:  It would be wrong to assume that only men read adventure stories, although, traditionally, the adventure genre has been viewed as men’s fiction.  Anyone who enjoys a good story with a somewhat predictable and unambiguous ending may enjoy an adventure story.  The sensitive reader may not care for some of the more intense and violent sorts of adventure stories, however, and the rather cavalier and shallow characterization of women in many of the stories is off-putting for readers who notice it and are offended.

SUBGENRES:  Historical military, contemporary military, western, globetrotter, traditional intrigue (spy) disaster and storyteller are all forms of adventure stories. 

TOP AUTHORS: Dale Brown, Clive Cussler, Bernard Cornwell, W.E.B. Griffin

TRENDS:  The thriller genre is overtaking and absorbing the classic adventure genre.  Younger readers and a world influenced by the events of 9/11 and the Da Vinci Code have made the adventure genre seem dated and quaint for some.  Perhaps the most obvious example of this is the retreat of the Western as a viable subgenre of adventure.  Some analysts believe that the thriller is the new adventure.  Authors such as Preston Douglas, Lincoln Child and John J. Nance who are often described as adventure writers may, in fact, be writing thrillers, by definition, not adventure fiction.  [See the Thriller handout for possible insight into overlap and genre blending]

REFERENCE BOOKS:  Gannon, Michael B.  Blood, Bedlam, Bullets, and Badguys: a readers’ guide to adventure/suspense fiction.  Libraries Unlimited, 2004.

PUBLISHERS:  Most mainstream publishers have published adventure fiction

MAGAZINES:  Many existed in the fifties and sixties but have ceased publication.  The more recognizable include Argosy, Real, True, Saga, Stag, Swank and For Men Only. 

Prepared by Debbie Walsh
September 2007

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