Last of the breed is one of my favorite books!

'Kolimsky Heights' by Lionel Davidson my favourite adventure novel - amazon review below
"This is without question one of the best fiction books I have ever read. Right from the opening lines the plot develops in a very natural and mesmerizing way. It has all the elements of the best thrillers you have ever read and the intrigue of all the best spy novels. The writers skill is such that each character is believable and each twist of the plot engrossing. None of the action is outrageously over the top and as such it is all woven into a gripping and believable story written with immense story teller's skill.

and another fsvourite of mine - amazon review below

Ride the Wind by Lucia St. Clair Robson is a refreshing taleof true love set in the old west. The book is composed using various entrancing genres. For the adventure lover, historical fiction reader and for fans of romances-- this novel has it all. The book begins at Parker's Fort in the wilds of Texas, with young Cynthia Ann Parker, who is kidnapped as a young girl by the Comanche Indian tribe, on one of their many raids. Her captor, Wanderer, later becomes her one true love. Cynthia is accepted by the Comanches, is welcomed into their way of life, is bestowed with the name of Naduah, and is loved and respected by her husband, Wanderer, quite possibly the greatest Comanche war chief of all time, and the rest of the band. THe story ends tragically, carrying forever the story of an aching heart searching the plains of the midwest for its one true love, lost forever to another society and another culture...

Happy reading

Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (Brilliant on so many levels)
Dracula - Bram Stoker
The Coral Island - R.M. Ballantyne
The Lost World - A.C. Doyle
King Solomon's Mines - Rider Haggard

Adam

I bought R.L. Stevenson's Treasure Island at a charity store a couple of days ago and it is as thrilling as I found it when I first read it about 50 years ago. I must remember to pass it on to my 9-year-old grandson. It will be different from his beloved Harry Potter but just as exiting.

Hey, how about The Prisoner of Zenda? And I think there's a sequel, Rupert of Hentzau. You can't get any more swashbuckling than that! (And boy, were there a lot of swashes buckled ..... ;-) )

And how about that ol' stand-by, The Three Musketeers? (And yes, I like books with lots of swordplay)

dyno, check out Captain Alatriste, by Arturo Perez Riverte. Great swashbuckling, and overall a fun book. BTW its supposed to be a movie soon.

I adored The Prisoner of Zenda when I read it many years ago. Keep them coming, folks! I'm getting lots of reading ideas here.

Right! Actually, I'd say MOST of Perez-Reverte's books have some swashbuckling/adventure aspects to them. I've actually read Capitan Alatriste. Now I'm waiting for the English translations of the rest of the books in that series.

Hey, how about ......
Ivanhoe
Captain Courageous
Around the World in 80 days
Kim
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea
Mysterious Island
Journey to the Center of the Earth
The Man Who Would be King (The movie was great as well)
Jungle Book

For just pure adventure stories, you could try Edgar Rice Burroughs and his Tarzan series. His Mars series are fun to read but, to paraphrase a song I once heard, they're like greasy fried noodles -- they make you want to come back for more but you're hungry an hour later! ;-)

And yes -- Prisoner of Zenda was an adorable story! Great read ......

You would probably enjoy all the Horatio Hornblower books by C. S. Forester, which are so good that I save them to read while riding the exercise bicycle (when I really need the distraction). From there to MASTER AND COMMANDER and all the O'Brien sea novels is not very far, or you could go the other way and start reading the Sharpe novels, which were done as a series by the BBC starring Sean Bean (better known as Boromir). And then, from historical adventure fiction to space opera is not all that far a leap (you could take a sojourn with THE THREE MUSKETEERS), so you could read SHARDS OF HONOR by Lois McMaster Bujold. That gets you into the Vorkosigan novels, books that are as addictively close to crystal meth as you can get between covers.

Brenda

May I suggest Rafael Sabatini? His books are more 'high seas adventure' than 'survival', but they are well written and such good stories. "Captain Blood" is typical of his writing style, and widely available.

For survival, man-against-nature, you could try some of Farley Mowat's far North books. Some are funny, some tear your heart out.

Want it all -- thrilling adventure, survival, treasure hunting? I highly recommend "The Ring of the Slave Prince" by Bjarne Reuter. (for what it's worth, I tried another of Reuter's books and didn't care for it at all)

>Now I'm waiting for the English translations of the rest of the books in that series.

The second one is out, called Purity of Blood, is out. I have in on my TBR shelf, haven't gotten to it yet. I loved Club Dumas. Besides the adventure, there is a scene in it that describes every booklovers nightmare

Great! I was looking for something to read this weekend -- I guess it'll be Purity of Blood! ;-)

I loved the Hornblower books when young, and my brother has read all the Patrick O'Brian books and has lent them to me.
How about the adventure stories by John Buchan? The Thirty Nine Steps seems the most popular, and has had many films made of it. Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household, The Four Feathers A E W Mason, Beau Geste by P C Wren.

Are any such books being written today? Where are the strong silent types righting wrongs, rescuing maidens in distress without taking 'advantage' of them, standing up for the 'little man', fighting for the honour of their country?
Are these outdated values?

Does anyone remember reading the books of Samuel Shellabarger? The two that come to mind are "Captain from Castile" and "Prince of Foxes". I remember reading those as an adolescent and have often thought of revisiting them to see if they still hold up as an adult read. There's always H. Rider Haggard's Alan Quartermain books, too.

As far as survival tales go, there is always Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe"

"man against nature"....

"And I Alone Survived" - Lauren Elder

"Gorillas in the Mist" -Dian Fossey

I second the Farley Mowat books. Look for some of my favourites: Lost in the Barrens, Never Cry Wolf, People of the Deer.
Dorothy Dunnett writes swashbuckling historical fiction: The Lymond Chronicles and The House of Niccolo series. She's not for the faint-hearted, however, as her books require the reader to make a time and thought investment. Well worth it, though.

The only book I can think of not mentioned is The Tracker by Tom Brown but it's definitely different than The Scarlet Pimpernel stories, which I love! Also, you might like Girl Of the Limberlost; it has a lot of natural elements going on and is romantic like the Scarlet Pimpernel stories, some of my favorites, btw.

Thomas Costain's The Black Rose.

Thanks everyone. Wonderful suggestions! Some of these I have read, but I'll be checking out the rest. This should set me up for the summer.

I'll make a suggestion of my own now: Winterdance by Gary Paulsen. He has written books for older children, but anyone would enjoy Winterdance. It's a story of his experience developing and racing a dog team. If you like the Iditarod, you'll like this book. Some of it is very funny. Last of the Breed is really good too.

My entire family went on a trip to China a couple years ago, and the more foolish among the party brought along books by Amy Tan. I was smart enough to bring something quite different, INTO THIN AIR by Jon Krakauer, the ultimate modern survival nonfiction. (The best -historical- survival nonfiction is THE WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD by Apsley Cherry-Gerrard.) It was about a hundred degrees in central China, with 99 percent humidity, so it was very refreshing to read about miserable mountainclimbers freezing to death at the top of Mt. Everest. In the end everybody borrowed the book from me.

Brenda

Mmm, not sure how foolish that is - I often bring with me (or find) a book about the place I am visiting. It gives some connection for me, that I can't explain (that being said, I stopped reading Tan after her first two books. I can think of a few other authors I'd choose instead)

dyno, let me know what you think. I have several books to read next and am thinking that might be a good one, esp as the first one is coming out in film in a month or so.

Cindy --

Well, I finished Purity of Blood and it's not a bad read. Some of the prose is, for lack of a better term, kind of Gothic or almost 19th century in style. However, given that the narrator is supposedly an old man reflecting on his early life in 1700s Spain, I guess it's forgivable.

I still think that Perez-Reverte's other books are better. The books in his Alatriste series are nice, quick reads but they're not as complex nor as enticing as his previous works. Yes, there is mystery, sword fights, evil villains, and damsels who may or may not be in distress, but they're kind of shallow compared to his more fully developed or, better yet, better developed works.

Still ..... they're nice reads for a weekend night when it's cold and blustery outside.