Rating: 
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 !
Rating: 
Summary: What a ride....
Review: By the time I finished 'The Adventurist', my eyes hurt, my head hurt, my back hurt - all for the simple reason that I had to read the book all in one sitting. I felt that I had jumped aboard a Range Rover with bad shocks and no seat cushion and had been driven a thousand miles in a pot hole strew gravel road by a mad man who didn't even know what a brake pedal was, let alone how to use it. If you are looking for an easy feel good read, pass this one by. If you are looking for disturbing, gritty, make you think twice, give you bad dreams roller coast ride, this is it. There are no apologies in this book. It's not a Starbucks latte; it's a can of instant Folgers and a tin cup, and it tastes better because of it. Is Mr. Pelton egotistical? I didn't think so. Arrogant? Probably. Wouldn't you be? But he tenders that with a dry sense of humor and a surprising amount of compassion. I ended the book wanting to know - what happened next? I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the story doesn't end. And this time when the Range Rover comes to pick me up, I'll get in, sit down, shut up and hang on - and remember to bring a cushion for the seat.
Rating: 
Summary: The Reason Ghostwriters Exist
Review: Having enjoyed immensely Pelton's prior work, The World's Most Dangerous Places, I was thoroughly disappointed with The Adventurist. As another reviewer aptly noted, Pelton's latest book was a rambling 220-page self-aggrandizing press release. Worse yet, the prose is very choppy (jumping abruptly from narratives about the front lines of Afghanistan to discourses about his stunted childhood) and lacks compelling detail. Just when a narrative starts to become interesting, it simply fizzles out. In short, The Adventurist is a collection of short, disjointed passages that bluntly, flatly, and shamelessly portray the author as an intrepid hero, as opposed to a woven narrative that describes the author's experiences and allows the reader to form his own opinions about the author. The Adventurist would have been better served by a ghostwriter with a sense of literary style.
Rating: 
Summary: good material marred by poor writing
Review: I could even forgive the ego if the writing weren't so dreadful. For me, the fact that he adores his wife and beautiful twin daughters makes up somewhat for his arrogance, but nothing makes up for this writing which makes the Let's Go guides look like Flaubert. Plus, the editing was weak in that we jump ALL OVER the place with no logical starts and finishes. I enjoyed all the travelogues (even though I hate that present tense stuff -- I see the lion, it moves towards me) but just as you're getting into the Talibans, boom, you're in Borneo. I feel like I read the first half of 30 short stories. Plus, a book like this with not ONE map seems a shame since Pelton has visited some great places. What was the publisher thinking not to include maps. Though I enjoyed the stories and even the parts about the author's upbringing (I didn't find much egoism here), this book falls short in the adventure genre since so many others write so much better.
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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: Pelton Outta Control!
Review: I have a hefty amount of admiration for Robert Young Pelton: not only is he a guy who gets to go to all the places I'd like to see, but he's a pretty talented writer with a nifty wit as well. So what's my beef with this book then? It seems like RYP admires himself equally well. To his credit, he never actually comes out and says so; nevertheless, his overly florid prose gives the secret away. While there is some great writing in this book (most of which has appeared before in his Dangerous Places books, see below) there are far too many passages that reek of an author out of control. Where was the editor on this book? I have no problem with the content here: the biographical passages describing his youth are just as compelling as his travel stories. It's a great story... I just wish he had written it with the same modest restraint that characterizes his other work. For his great stuff, pick up a copy of The World's Most Dangerous Places (preferably the new edition.) Required reading for the enlightened traveler and citizen of the 21st century.
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Summary: Awesome! Dangerous! Written for the adventurists out there
Review: I think the author has once again reshaped how books are written and used. Just like DP created a new type of book that appeals to students and professors, mercenaries and missionaries, The Adventurist is the ultimate video snapshot, snapshot, MTV book. He combines powerful images of places few humans have survived with ideas that are frightening and make you think hard about life is really about. The pages and words blast at you. Yet there are times when Pelton shares his fears and dark secrets. It is just like traveling with Pelton. Some readers want this to be a normal book, to have everything Pelton has seen or done spelled out for them. But Pelton is not a normal person. He is an Adventurist someone who goes where others fear to. Pelton does what Hemingway, poetry and rock videos did so well. Recreate the expereince and affect to make you feel it as deeply as he was affected. How else could you meet assassins,killers, mujadins, pirates, warlords, celebrities, cowboys, indians and even his classmates this close, this real and this powerfully? I will never forget his description of his young classmates screaming in the woods, the deaths of 12 of his school members, the freezing death and bringing back to life of a 16 year year old. This book is not about Pelton, it is a collection of powerful snapshots of people and places. it is a lesson in what life and death has to offer. Rock on RYP!
Rating:
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.
Rating: 
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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