Action and adventure fiction is the epitomy of escapist reading. Browse all our articles, starting with the most recent, featuring books that contain elements of action and adventure, whether it is travel, charting new frontiers, hunting down others or being hunted themselves. Often there is some sort of peril to evade, mystery to solve and/or justice to deliver.
Recent stand out reads in this genre for us include The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang, Stuart Turton’s The Devil and the Dark Water and TJ Newman’s Falling, and then of course you can’t go wrong with the iconic bestsellers Life of Pi by Yann Martel, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy. All these novels are guaranteed to entertain. There is a book to satisfy everyone’s quest for adventure from the safety and comfort your favourite reading chair.
The Chicken Thief Synopsis : Alois is The Chicken Thief, an intelligent young man impelled into a life of crime as a means of survival in southern Africa. The political climate is turbulent, with the current President experiencing lagging popularity,…
The White Tiger Synopsis Meet Balram Halwai, the ‘White Tiger’: servant, philosopher, entrepreneur and murderer. Balram, the White Tiger, was born in a backwater village on the River Ganges, the son of a rickshaw-puller. He works in a teashop, crushing…
The Five Greatest Warriors Synopsis IT BEGAN WITH SIX STONES Jack West Jr and his loyal team are in desperate disarray: they’ve been separated, their mission is in tatters, and Jack was last seen plummeting down a fathomless abyss. IT…
This was my first outing with Cara Black and her feisty protagonist Aimee Leduc. Based on the obvious success of this series, Murder in Passy being the 11th instalment, and the Parisian setting, I had high hopes.
In Started Early, Took My Dog Kate Atkinson has plumbed literary depths uncommon in the mystery and crime-detective genre.
Aronson’s simple story telling provides the reader a quick and easy read with just the right mix of technical explanation, humourous observation and personal philosophy.
Of Love and Shadows Book Review: Isabel Allende’s memorable novel switches from heart-stopping action to magical moments of reflection.
The Big Ask as with other titles in Shane Maloney’s Murray Whelan Series is a wonderful mix of thrilling action and caustic wit.
Murray Whelan is an underdog who seems to just get up everytime life knocks you down. He makes mistakes – big ones – but he inevitably figures out a way to deliver a bit of his own Robin Hood justice to those who mistake him for a patsy.
Paul Murray had attempted to explore so many deep concepts in Skippy Dies and I’m just not sure he quite pulls it off. Although undeniably impressive, the goal may perhaps have been a tad lofty?
This novel operates on many levels, many of them in very dark places of the human psyche. Everything is put under the microscope — the themes of ‘coming of age’, differences between men and women, right and wrong (ethics), perception versus reality, love versus dependence….. with an undercurrent of existentialism.
There is so much packed into this novel that I won’t even try to explain the plot line because I wouldn’t do it justice. Suffice to say this darkly satirical novel was a pleasure to listen to. Narrator Paul Bhattacharjee’s delivery finds just the right balance – playing up the deadpan and ironic humour to great effect while reserving a poignance for elements intended as deeper social commentary.
If you are after a literary masterpiece, this is not the book for you. Bestselling author Richard North Patterson is a crafter of plots rather than prose. If you are in the mood for an edge of your seat courtroom drama with gritty wartime reflections, familial deception and a little romance thrown in, In the Name of Honour ticks all these boxes!
The Life of Pi novel, Yann Martel’s debut, truly deserves the accolades it has received. I was thoroughly engaged and entertained by this tale. Read my full review including some memorable book quotes below and we answer your burning question – was Life of Pi based on a true story?
The Six Sacred Stones is action-packed and an enjoyable read but has Matthew Reilly bitten off more than even he can chew this time?
Jack West Jr., the seemingly invincible defender of the free world and all round nice guys’ peace and solitude on his farm in outback Australia is rudely interrupted by an army of invaders one morning. This sets in motion the coming together of all our favourite characters that helped Jack save the world last time in The Seven Ancient Wonders – Pooh Bear, Wizard, Stretch, Sky Monster, Lily and Zoe.
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest, the finale of Stieg Larsson’s groundbreaking Millennium Trilogy wholeheartedly deserves its place amongst the bestselling crime fiction of this decade.
The action begins swiftly, exactly where Larsson left readers in the cliffhanging ending of The Girl Who Played With Fire.
Irresistibly irreverent. The title of Carl Hiaasen’s novel Sick Puppy, says it all really. Having just come from reading some dystopian fiction, this novel’s black humour was a real ‘cleansing of the palate’ for me. While black humour is not everyone’s cup of tea, I think Hiaasen does in his novels what we all wish we could do in everyday life once in a while – say what we really think, politically correct or otherwise!
Matthew Reilly’s Hell Island was originally released in 2005 for the Australian Books Alive initiative. The novella was given free with the purchase of any novel or book that was part the extensive Books Alive range, selected specifically to encourage reading…
