The Southeastern Mass. Reader’s Advisory Roundtable (SE-RART) met Thursday, December 7, at the Thayer Public Library in Braintree to discuss the Adventure genre. The benchmark title was your choice of a novel by Clive Cussler. Many of us read Treasure, Sahara, or Raise the Titanic! – all novels featuring Cussler’s best-known manly hero, Dirk Pitt.
We talked about characteristics of the Adventure genre, in general, based on our supplemental readings:
- Saricks, Joyce. The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction, 2nd ed. Chapter 2: Adventure, pp. 15–33
- Saricks, Joyce. Getting Up to Speed in Adventure Fiction (NoveList)
We discussed key elements of adventure fiction:
- Fast pace, often short time span
- Story focused on action and life-and-death situations, often a mission, usually a happy ending with order restored (“Romance for men”)
- Identifiable hero, likeable and extremely capable
- Detailed settings, often foreign places, often include maps
- Tone often dark, due to danger, but humor can lighten tone
- Language usually colorful, often with military jargon, makes reader feel involved
“Cinematic is a term often applied to Adventure story lines…These are stories made for the big screen, with larger-than-life heroes on seemingly impossible missions, often striving for the ultimate goal of making the world safe, if not actually saving it through their efforts. As in Romance and Suspense, readers expect a happy ending.” – The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction, 2nd ed.
We talked about the Clive Cussler benchmark titles that we read and answered “yes” to most of these questions, except for the last one:
- Did the book you chose have a one-word title?
- Did the story have a hero on a mission?
- How does Dirk Pitt set the standard for the typical Adventure hero?
- Was the action in the book over-the-top?
- Were there exotic locales, foreign countries?
- Any female characters play an important role in the story?
Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt character was described by the group as having a strong moral code, natural leadership ability, and unerring intuition. Also very smart and brilliant at tactical maneuvers – always a step ahead of everyone else in figuring out what the enemy/villain will do next.
We also talked about book covers of adventure fiction and Maggie’s theory that blues and greens predominate, while warmer colors (red, orange, yellow) would indicate the book was geared more towards thriller readers.
Second titles have been posted; it’s OK to submit yours still, if you forgot! Second titles in the Adventure genre that we read and talked about in terms of reader’s advisory appeal factors – frame, tone, pacing, plot/storyline, characters – included the following:
Phantom by Ted Bell
Columbus Affair by Steve Berry
Origin by Dan Brown
The Bear by James O. Curwood
Beautiful Sacrifice by Elizabeth Lowell
Altar of Eden by James Rollins
Missed the meeting? View the agenda which also lists additional RA resources we talked about.
Please register online for the Wed., February 7th meeting, 10am-12pm, at the Attleboro Public Library to talk about Historical Adventure. New members are always welcome to jump in at any point in the year.
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