Customer Reviews

The Adventurist: My Life in Dangerous Places

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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 !

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.

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.

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 and what 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 dissenters here.

Buy this book... Read this book... And be glad he's going there, and not you.

>>>>>>><<<<<<<

A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.

2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.

3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.

4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.

5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

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.

I'm also a fan of Robert Young Pelton's Dangerous Places Series of Books, but this book was a BIG Disappointment.The author was too busy displaying his EGO in this book. I also agree with the other reviewer that Robert Young Pelton could have been much more modest.

If you've read some of his other works...you'll love this one.

Here we get some background, some history, the "backstory" of how RYP came to be who he has been. The current and past flow wonderfully together creating texture and giving depth to this larger than life thrill seeker.

I still am amazed at some of the things he does in his other books - and continues to do - but it does feel like this book makes it easier to understand his rationale.

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.