Addicted to adventure fiction?

Eagle of the NinthBrought up on Treasure Island, Children of the New Forest, The Eagle of the Ninth, the Narnia books, it was hardly surprising that I developed a taste for adventure, spy and thriller books.

I did enjoy Heidi, What Katy Did and Little Women which were recommended reading for little girls at that time, but apart from Heidi who had ‘spirit’ and Jo in Little Women who showed independence, I thought the characters were a bit soppy.

I didn’t read Mallory Towers, but preferred Jennings’ school adventures. My reading heart was captured by Violet Needham’s Stormy Petrel series and then I discovered The Prisoner of Zenda

I graduated to The Saint series by Leslie Charteris, the Angélique series which I thought were rather daring, Baronness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel, wartime adventures like Ill met by Moonlight and Ice Cold in Alex, the James Bond series and I absolutely adored Modesty Blaise.

 

 

More contemporary choices include John le Carré, Tom Clancy, JD Robb and the peerless William Boyd’s Restless. Historical whodunnits like Lindsey Davis’ Falco and Flavia series, Rory Clements’ Shakespeare investigations, Steven Saylor’s Gordianus, C J Sansom’s Shardlake are firm favourites.

Modern adventures

 

And two more heroines whose adventures I loved:

I’ve left out the other genres I read – I’m a huge fan of Georgette Heyer’s Regencies and any amount of other historical, thriller and science fiction –  but there just isn’t space here.

But why thriller and adventure fiction?

Escape, excitement, different worlds, different experiences that I could enjoy while I was going through the business or ‘normal’ life. Given my penchant for reading about uniformed forces of law and order/imperial agents/secret orders and derring-do in general, is it any wonder I put on a uniform myself and did all sorts of interesting things as a consequence?

Well, I think you can see where the Roma Nova adventure thrillers may have come from…

 

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers –  INCEPTIO,  PERFIDITAS,  SUCCESSIO,  AURELIA,  INSURRECTIO  and RETALIO.  CARINA, a novella, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories, are now available.  Audiobooks are available for four of the series. NEXUS, an Aurelia Mitela novella, is now out.

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r. You’ll also be first to know about Roma Nova news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.

8 comments to Addicted to adventure fiction?

  • We have the same addiction. My taste was never exclusively or even primarily historical. I liked intrigue, adventure, espionage combat.and of course, as a major crimes prosecutor, crime.

    • Alison

      Don’t we love reading about the ‘bad guys’, villains and traitors? All from the safety of from our armchairs. 😉

  • Oh, such similar tastes, Alison! I absolutely adored The Children of the New Forest. I’m a little older than you (ahem!) so I was a big Enid Blyton and Arthur Ransome fan. If you liked The Scarlet Pimpernel, you would have enjoyed the Roger Brook stories by Dennis Wheatley. His hero was very similar to TSP and there was a whole series of them.

    • Alison

      How on EARTH could I have forgotten to list Roger Brook (or Roger de Breuc)?!?
      Wonderful stories. And I also loved the Gregory Sallust series. Happy days.

  • 87% different from my own childhood reading matter, Alison. Maybe it’s the reason I don’t write thrillers and adventure stories. But you’ve introduced me to the Roma Nova series and I love them!

    • Alison

      Haha! Well, I probably have a shallower mind and greater restlessness than you, Fenella. 😉

  • I was interested to see how many books in your list were among the ones I read. I can remember reading as many Angelique books as I could find. That’s how I’ve always liked my heroines.