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Summary: One of the most exciting books I've read
Review: A real page turner. I love the way the stories are organized. The chapters don't seem connected but as the book progresses his autobiography unfolds. Some people find it annoying, but I found it intriguing.
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Summary: An extraordinary adventure
Review: A very cinematic, powerful journey through one man's life. Powerful, exotic and enligtening. Those who enjoy the detached stories of Sebastian Junger or the vicarious quasi adventure from Outside, Mens' Journal, Vanity Fair might find this life a little intense. An existance were Pelton has real consequences of being thrust into the front lines, deserts, jungles and rebel camps. Those who know Pelton's book The World's Most Dangerous Places will quickly realize that the Adventurist might be the Dangerous journey of all. It will truly change the way you view your own life. The Adventurist is filled with nuances and clues to what makes Pelton tick, but they are equally relevant to anyone who wants to know how to overcome fear and attack life. Better yet is the deep understanding he brings to the amazing list of people he meets and befriends. Anytime you think life is dull or whine about why you can't be like Pelton...just pick up the Adventurist. A book you can read again and again. Stay alive Pelton we need you leading from the front !
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Summary: Insight Into What Makes Pelton Tick
Review: I first discovered Robert Young Pelton in the pages of Blue Magazine, of which he is the Editor-at-Large where he writes about his travels to Algeria, Afghanistan, Indonesia and the like. Pelton goes where the journalist fear to tread, and he does it as a tourist! He is the writer of a travel book called "The World's Most Dangerous Places," where he reports on what the traveler needs to know about traveling in the world's hottest war zones and civil wars. He even reports on places here in North America. He has met and broken bread with both sides of the conflict in Afghanistan to better understand who they are andwhat they are fighting for. He considers himself a student of human nature. In "The Adventurist," he gives us a glimpse of what it is like to be Robert Young Pelton. How his childhood help shape the man that he is; how his early endeavors in Advertising, Marketing and Publishing help him find his true calling in life; how is earliest adventures have given him the experience and the insight to not only get killed in these hot zones, but to actually meet some of the people that have to live under these conditions on a daily basis. Ignore the other reviews' cries about his ego; Confidence and Ego are what one needs to go and do some of the travels that Pelton has undertaken and accomplished. Some of the text of this book appeared in his travel book and in Blue Magazine... writings praised by some of the desenters here. Buy this book... Read this book... And be glad he's going there, and not you.
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Summary: 1000 short stories
Review: I was very disappointed when reading this book. In fact I never even finished it. It contains only one-pager short stories about tiny episodes in RYP's life, mixed with tiny short clips about his childhood.
Don't waste your money.
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Summary: The interesting stories that could have been
Review: I'm a traveller and enjoy travel writing. I thought I would like this book, but didn't. 'Disjointed' seems to best describe it. The author spends only a page or two describing places and events before popping off to someplace new. These one to two-page vignettes lack a sense of flow, lurching from one event to another, neither beginning nor concluding. This choppiness made it difficult to truly understand the depth, or escence, of the places he'd visited.
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Summary: Oh yeah!
Review: Mr. Pelton is incorrect. The World's Most Dangerous Place is around you when you're looking for trouble. Walk into a 7-11 with a pistol and you'll realize what I mean. He's looking for a high in his book without participating. Never happen. Pelton, you have to cross the line. Readable though, in a pedestrian sort of way.
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Summary: Good on ya Pelton!
Review: Never mind what the stuffy wannabe literary critics have to say, Pelton writes about reality, and if you can't handle that, it is not a book for you. The people that have written negative reactions to the book obviously never left their home state or town for that matter. Pelton composes a fast, choppy, in your face yarn that will have you anxious to reach the next page...I highly recommend this one!
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Summary: Almost great
Review: Pelton has ventrued far and wide, to a self-reported selection of more than one hundred countries. Surely, in such extensive journeys he should be able to present new stories when he publishes new books. I bought this book looking not only for an autobiography, which was slow and repetitive about childhood and shallow beyond that, but for more adventures. When I realized that some of the longest stories in the Adventurist were stories that I had already read in World's Most Dangerous Places it disappointed me. Also, the book attempts to be artistic and creative by bouncing between stories much like The Things They Carried, but this fails in that sense. Here it is just slightly annoying and fairly useless. It could have been used well as a juxtaposition between similar phases of his life, but it didnt work as it should. The book is good, just dont expect too much.
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Summary: Awsome!
Review: RYP is an awsome writer. I first learned of him when researching stuff about other countries. This was the first RYP book that I read, and I truely love it.
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Summary: Some comments
Review: The Adventurist is an attempt to define a life in the way it is remembered, not an attempt to explain it in a traditional literary style. I think that Dangerous Places created a new genre in travel and to me The Adventurist is a new type of autobiography. (After all I am only 45!) When, or if, I am 80 I will have the grace and perspective to put my life to paper in the traditional manner that people expect. But for now The Adventurist mirrors my life..fast, hard and face forward. Nothing really introspective or sentimental about it. Just a continuous volley of, people, places, emotions and experiences Each episode in the book reveals a clue or an influence much the same way I remembered it. Each chapter is linked to the next by a subtle clue. The tone. length and content of each chapter has a purpose. The entire book is, to me a complete journey from abused child to adventurer. When people ask why, I simply say; feel the characters in the book, put yourself in my head, listen to what they have to say. Give weight to the simple words and statements. Then you will feel a part of what has shaped me. What I would like to point out is that how many people never even notice that the book is not about me. It is about the people, events and places that have shaped me. Not one person has ever commented on the dozens of fascinating characters that exist between the covers of The Adventurist. They expect it to be "I went here, did this and then I went there and did that" That would be the ultimate ego trip. For now I focus on introducing people to other people and making them think about the world outside their door. Why do people search for story arcs, false modesty, happy endings, clean cut transistions and nice easy to understand scenarios. Life on the edge can be confusing, short and without sense. To me a life lived well is a series of short intense events with no clear ending or beginning. The only structure comes from the way each event or person has changed your life.If life was really the way some people want this book to be, it would not be an adventure, it would be...well, fiction. For now I am thrilled that The Adventurist has turned out to be a litmus test for the adventurous. You get it or you don't.
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