Time for an Adventure! - Recommend books

[hitmouse]

If we cando non-fantasy then for SF Jack Vance fits the bill with almost any of his novels , though you could try Planet of Adventure or the Demon Princes for starters.
Otherwise Sir Harry Flashman is your man.

 

[Boaz]

H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen is about an early '60's Pennsylvania cop blasted to an alternate earth... sort of A Connecticut Yankee meets John Carter.

 

[martin321]

I'm curious, why an abridged version of Les Mis? I've got an unabridged translation sitting on my shelf and I'll admit it's pretty intimidating. I've heard that there are some parts, particularly descriptions of Waterloo and the Paris sewer system, that really drag, but those parts don't sound THAT bad to me, or at least no worse than his peers' need to describe minutae (Melville and whaling...).

I read a version of Les Miserables that was only very slightly abridged by the translator. I really enjoyed it and think that it's definitely worth reading.

There are, however, a number of long digressions discussing Waterloo, convent life, and argot. These can all be skipped (if you find them boring) without affecting the story, except for the last chapter of the Waterloo digression (a few pages), which contains an important event for the plot.

 

[BAYLOR]

Magus Rex by Jack Lovejoy . This one is in the tradition of Jack Vance's Tales From the Dying Earth . Set in the distant future , a young man falls in love with the beautiful daughter of a powerful wizard who thinks this young man is not good enough for her, so the good intentioned controlling, overly protective father that he is, takes her into the distant past to where he thinks the smitten young man won't be able to find them, or so he mistakenly believes . This determined young man pursues them and what you end up with is a madcap swashbuckling. adventure across the eras of Earth's past , present and future. This book Is a fun read and at times hilariously funny .

 

[The Big Peat]

David Gemmell's books are what I thought of when I first read this thread. Granted, there's a certain veer to realm saving through the series, but they're all very adventure driven.

Any of the S&S classics might suit.

In a more modern context, maybe look at Jen Williams' books, which have a definite adventure feeling to ti. Second-hand recommendation, but Michael J Sullivan's books are meant to have a similar feeling.

And, on the off chance you don't mind comics, I think the Order of the Stick is a great humourous version of this - and its pretty much all online for free.

 

[Boaz]

@The Big Peat Totally agree with the Order of the Stick... there's some really funny stuff there. If you've never seen the DM of the Rings, I recommend that you do.

 

[BAYLOR]

I read a version of Les Miserables that was only very slightly abridged by the translator. I really enjoyed it and think that it's definitely worth reading.

There are, however, a number of long digressions discussing Waterloo, convent life, and argot. These can all be skipped (if you find them boring) without affecting the story, except for the last chapter of the Waterloo digression (a few pages), which contains an important event for the plot.

Great stuff.

 

[JJewel]

I am almost finished Niki Lauda the Biography (he was a Formula 1 Driver) and intend to re-read Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny next so i suppose i have to recommend that.