The Adventurist: My Life in Dangerous Places

By Robert Young Pelton

Book Overview

The Adventurist is one man's story, a story that will change the way you think about travel, survival, where you have been, and where you are going. Enter the world of Robert Young Pelton (if you dare), adventurer extraordinaire, author of Come Back Alive and The World's Most Dangerous Places (required reading at the CIA), and host of his TV series, Robert Young Pelton's The World's Most Dangerous Places. A breakneck autobiography, The Adventurist blasts across six continents and spans four decades of hard-core living with its dispatches of mayhem, adventure in exotic locales, survival against formidable odds, memories of the pivotal events, and memorable portraits of the people that have shaped Pelton's obsessive spirit. Be shelled with the Talibs on the front lines of Afghanistan; hang out with hit men and rebels in the Philippines; survive a plane crash in Borneo; narrowly escape a terrorist bombing in Africa; dance with headhunters in Sarawak; crew with pirates in the Sulu Sea; explore the events that led Pelton to his unusual calling (including how he honed his survival skills at "the toughest boys' school in North America"); and, perhaps most important, discover Pelton's secret mission--to understand the hearts and minds of the people he meets. The Adventurist is a real book about the real world, an inspirational read that takes you places you might never willingly go.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0767905768
• ISBN13: 9780767905763
• Release Date: June 2001
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.61 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Fun

Great for a book you're just going to keep by your bed and pick up every so often. The short stories are just enough to get your imagination going. The author does a great job of making you feel like you're experiencing the locations as he did.

One of the most exciting books I've read

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.

An extraordinary adventure

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 !

Some comments

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 experiencesEach 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.

Awesome! Dangerous! Written for the adventurists out there

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!