List: 2023 Reading Challenge: Action Adventure
Ararat
"The thrilling tale of an adventure that goes awry. When a newly engaged couple climbs Mount Ararat in Turkey, an avalanche forces them to seek shelter inside a massive cave uncovered by the snow fall. The cave is actually an ancient, buried ship that many quickly come to believe is really Noah's Ark. But when a team of scholars, archaeologists, and filmmakers make it inside the ark for the first time, they discover an elaborate coffin in its recesses...and when they break it open, they find that the cadaver within is an ugly, misshapen thing...and it has horns. A massive blizzard blows in, trapping them in that cave thousands of meters up the side of a remote mountain...but they are not alone"--
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Marah Chase and the Conqueror's Tomb
"Once a rising star in the field of archaeology, Marah Chase is now a black-market treasure hunter, her services available to the highest bidder. But when she's caught "rescuing" relics in Syria before they're destroyed by war, an MI6 officer named Joanna Mason approaches her with an offer she can't refuse: help save the world or rot in prison. All Chase has to do is find Alexander the Great's lost tomb, recover an ancient weapon of mass destruction he may have used to conquer the earth, and destroy it before the bad guys can get it. Among those adversaries are a powerful church that believes in a forgotten epoch of advanced alien technology, the white supremacist thugs in its employ, and the rival archaeologist who recently left Chase for dead. Chase can't resist a challenge--or the British spy recruiting her. There's just one problem. If Chase has any hope of unearthing Alexander's tomb before the forces hot on her heels do, she'll need the help of the one person she's been afraid to see since her fall from grace: Zoe Forrester, the heir to a hidden journal that holds the key--and Chase's ex-girlfriend" --
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Kolymsky Heights
"Kolymsky heights. A Siberian permafrost hell lost in endless nigth, the perfect setting for an underground Russian research station. It's a place so secret it doesn't officially exist; once there, the scientists are forbidden to leave. But one scientist is desperate to get a message to the outside world. So desperate, he sends a plea across the wilderness to the West in order to summon the one man alone capable of achieving the impossible ..."
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Hero of the Empire : The Boer War, A Daring Escape and the Making of Winston Churchill
"At age twenty-four, Winston Churchill was utterly convinced it was his destiny to become prime minister of England one day, despite the fact he had just lost his first election campaign for Parliament. He believed that to achieve his goal he must do something spectacular on the battlefield. Despite deliberately putting himself in extreme danger as a British Army officer in colonial wars in India and Sudan, and as a journalist covering a Cuban uprising against the Spanish, glory and fame had eluded him. Churchill arrived in South Africa in 1899, valet and crates of vintage wine in tow, there to cover the brutal colonial war the British were fighting with Boer rebels. But just two weeks after his arrival, the soldiers he was accompanying on an armored train were ambushed, and Churchill was taken prisoner. Remarkably, he pulled off a daring escape-- but then had to traverse hundreds of miles of enemy territory, alone, with nothing but a crumpled wad of cash, four slabs of chocolate, and his wits to guide him. The story of his escape is incredible enough, but then Churchill enlisted, returned to South Africa, fought in several battles, and ultimately liberated the men with whom he had been imprisoned. Churchill would later remark that this period, "could I have seen my future, was to lay the foundations of my later life." Millard spins an epic story of bravery, savagery, and chance encounters with a cast of historical characters--including Rudyard Kipling, Lord Kitchener, and Mohandas Gandhi--with whom he would later share the world stage. But Hero of the Empire is more than an adventure story, for the lessons Churchill took from the Boer War would profoundly affect 20th century history"--
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Washington Black
Eleven-year-old George Washington Black - or Wash - a field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is intially terrified when he is chosen to be the manservant of his master's brother. To his surprise, however, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is intiated into a world where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human. But when a man is killed and a bounty is placed on Wash's head, they must abandon everything and flee. Spanning the Caribbean to the frozen Far North, London to Morocco, Washington Black is a story of self-invention and betrayal, of love and redemption, and of a world destroyed and made whole again. --
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Sting of the Drone
"In Washington, the Kill Committee gathers in the White House's Situation Room to pick the next targets for the United States drone program. At an airbase just outside Las Vegas, a team of pilots, military personnel and intelligence officers follow through on the committee's orders, finding the men who have been deemed a threat to national security and sentenced to death. On the other side of the world, in the mountains where the drones hunt their prey, someone has decided to fight back. And not just against the umanned planes that circle their skies, but against the Americans at home who control them. Clarke not only remains an active and respected presence within the national security community but also appears regularly as an expert commentator for ABC and other media. His insider's expertise is on full display in this breathtakingly realistic novel set within America's contentious drone program"--Provided by publisher.
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Small Game
"A gripping novel about a survival reality show gone wrong that leaves a group of strangers stranded in the northern wilds"--
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The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi
"The first book of "a new trilogy of magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one woman's determined quest to seize a final chance at glory--and write her own legend ... Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean's most notorious pirates, she's survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural. But when she's tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she's offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade's kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family's future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God's will. Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there's more to this job, and the girl's disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there's always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power ... and the price might be your very soul"--
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Predator
One of the most formidable fighters in the world, ex-SAS warrior and former private security consultant Major Hector Cross has survived explosive tangles with depraved enemies - warlords, pirates, and arms dealers--from the Middle East to the heart of Africa. Now, Cross must take the law into his own hands once again to stop a vengeful old enemy who has resurfaced and hunt down a deadly new nemesis in pursuit of global domination.
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The Blue
"They found paradise... what would they do to keep it? [A] spine-tingling adventure novel about a group of friends whose journey around the world on a yacht turns from a trip to paradise into a chilling nightmare when one of them disappears at sea. Lana and her best friend Kitty leave home looking for freedom-- and that's exactly what they find when they are invited onto The Blue, a fifty-foot yacht making its way from the Philippines to New Zealand. Manned by a young crew of wanderers, The Blue is exactly the escape they are looking for and the two quickly fall under its spell, spending their days exploring remote islands, and their rum-filled nights relaxing on deck beneath the stars. Yet paradise found can just as quickly become lost. Lana and Kitty begin to discover that they aren't the only ones with secrets they'd rather run from than reveal. And when one of their new friends disappears overboard after an argument with the other crewmembers, the dark secrets that brought each of them aboard start to unravel"--Amazon.com.
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The Treasure of the Black Swan
"Based on historical events, this gripping graphic novel chronicles the fierce physical, legal, and political battles sparked by the discovery of an ancient underwater treasure. May 2007. The American treasure-hunting company Ithaca Deep Sea captures the world's attention when it uncovers a priceless shipwreck. But just as Ithaca's swashbuckling leader begins to boast about its plunder, clues emerge suggesting that the sunken ship may have played a pivotal role in Spain's cultural history. Thus begins a legal and political thriller, pitting a group of idealistic Spanish diplomats against a rich, ruthless, and powerfully connected treasure hunter, in which vital cultural heritage and hundreds of millions of dollars hang in the balance. Weaving threads of Tintin-inspired seafaring adventure, political intrigue, tense courtroom drama, and a bit of tender romance for good measure, internationally acclaimed cartoonist Paco Roca and writer Guillermo Corral have crafted a truly cinematic graphic novel"--
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7 Deadly Wonders
A prediction that promises ultimate power to whomever restores the Golden Capstone, an ancient Egyptian structure that protected people from global flooding before it was broken and scattered by Alexander the Great, prompts a brutal competition.
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Cinnamon and Gunpowder
In 1819, kidnapped chef Owen Wedgwood transforms meager shipboard supplies into sumptuous meals at the behest of his kidnapper, pirate queen Mad Hannah Mabbot, while she pushes her exhausted crew to track down a deadly privateer.
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Proxima Centauri. [Vol. 1]
Teenage wizard adventurer Sherwood Breadcoat is trapped on Proxima Centauri, a manufactured dimensional sphere 4.243 light-years from Earth. Looking for escape and a way back to his brother, Sherwood also has to deal with his confusing emotions, alien creatures and all sorts of fantastic dangers.
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Spear
"The girl knows she has a destiny before she even knows her name. She grows up in the wild, in a cave with her mother, but visions of a faraway lake come to her on the spring breeze, and when she hears a traveler speak of Artos, king of Caer Leon, she knows that her future lies at his court. And so, brimming with magic and eager to test her strength, she breaks her covenant with her mother and, with a broken hunting spear and mended armour, rides on a bony gelding to Caer Leon. On her adventures she will meet great knights and steal the hearts of beautiful women. She will fight warriors and sorcerers. And she will find her love, and the lake, and her fate"--
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Stone Cross
"In a remote Alaskan village, Deputy US Marshal Arliss Cutter searches for a stone-cold killer amid a hotbed of corruption, lies, and long-buried secrets ... Winter comes early to the rural native community of Stone Cross, Alaska--and so does hunting season. Caribou and moose are a major source of food through the long, dark months ahead. But Arliss Cutter has come here for a very different game. A federal judge is receiving death threats and refuses protection. Cutter and his deputy Lola Teariki have been assigned to shadow him on his trip to this icy outland to make sure that he's safe. But they quickly discover that no one is ever really safe in a place like this. And no one is above suspicion. When Cutter and Lola arrive, the village is already gripped with fear. A young couple has disappeared from their fishing lodge, just eight miles upriver. Their handyman has been found dead, next to a crude drawing of a mysterious symbol. To make matters worse, a dense fog has descended on the region, isolating the town from civilization. With the judge's life still at risk, and two people still missing, Cutter and Lola have their work cut out for them. But navigating the small-town customs and blood-bound traditions of this close-knit community won't be easy. When the secrets come out, the deadly hunt is on because in Alaska, nothing runs colder than blood."--
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The Adventures of John Carson in Several Quarters of the World : A Novel of Robert Louis Stevenson
"The young Robert Louis Stevenson, living in a boarding house in San Francisco while waiting for his beloved's divorce from her feckless husband, dreamed of writing a soaring novel about his landlady's adventurous and globe-trotting husband--but he never got around to it. And very soon thereafter he was married, headed home to Scotland, and on his way to becoming the most famous novelist in the world, after writing such classics as Treasure Island, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Kidnapped. But now Brian Doyle brings Stevenson's untold tale to life, braiding the adventures of seaman John Carson with those of a young Stevenson, wandering the streets of San Francisco, gathering material for his fiction, and yearning for his beloved across the bay. An adventure tale, an elegy to one of the greatest writers of our language, a time-traveling plunge into The City by the Bay during its own energetic youth, The Adventures of John Carson in Several Quarters of the World is entertaining, poignant, and sensual"--
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The Age of Daredevils
By turns a family drama and an action-adventure story, The Age of Daredevils chronicles the lives of the men and women who devoted themselves to the extraordinary sport of jumping over Niagara Falls in a barrel--a death-defying gamble that proved a powerful temptation to a hardy few. Internationally known in the 1920s and '30s for their barrel-jumping exploits, the Hills were a father-son team of daredevils who also rescued dozens of misguided thrill seekers and accident victims who followed them into the river. The publicity surrounding the Hills' spectacular feats ushered in tourism, making Niagara Falls the nation's foremost honeymoon destination, but ultimately set Red Hill Jr. on a perilous path to surpass his father's extraordinary leaps into the void.
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The Judge Hunter
"London, 1664. Twenty years after the English revolution, the monarchy has been restored and Charles II sits on the throne. The men who conspired to kill his father are either dead or disappeared. Baltasar 'Balty' St. Michel is twenty-four and has no skills and no employment. He gets by on handouts from his brother-in-law Samuel Pepys, an officer in the king's navy. Fed up with his needy relative, Pepys offers Balty a job in the New World. He is to track down two missing judges who were responsible for the execution of the last king, Charles I. When Balty's ship arrives in Boston, he finds a strange country filled with fundamentalist Puritans, saintly Quakers, warring tribes of Indians, and rogues of every stripe. Helped by a man named Huncks, an agent of the Crown with a mysterious past, Balty travels colonial America in search of the missing judges. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Samuel Pepys prepares for a war with the Dutch that fears England has no chance of winning"--
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The Kill Switch
Recruited by Sigma Force to extract a Russian pharmaceutical magnate, who holds the biological key to a new weapons system, from Siberia, former Army Ranger Tucker Wayne and his military working dog Kane must solve an ancient mystery before the modern world suffers a fate worse than death.
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The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King : A Novel of Teddy Roosevelt and His Times
"Beginning with his sickly childhood and concluding with McKinley's assassination, the novel positions Roosevelt as a "perfect bull in a china shop," a fearless crime fighter and pioneering environmentalist who would grow up to be our greatest peacetime president. With an operatic cast, including "Bamie," his handicapped older sister; Eleanor, his gawky little niece; as well as the devoted Rough Riders, the novel memorably features the lovable mountain lion Josephine, who helped train Roosevelt for his "crowded hour," the charge up San Juan Hill. Lauded by Jonathan Lethem for his "polymorphous imagination and crack comic timing," Charyn has created a classic of historical fiction, confirming his place as "one of the most important writers in American literature" (Michael Chabon)"--
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The Silver Spider : Who Will Claim the Prize?
A mountain of treasure in Panama: whose will it be? In 1667, a Spanish soldier makes a startling discovery. A vast treasure -- or a curse? Two centuries later, Charlie Parker, engineer and adventurer, voyages to Central America to build the Panama Canal -- and engage in a few extracurricular activities in his spare time. A Pair of modern-day sailor find more adventure than they bargained for when they unravel a cryptic tangle of clues. Have they inherited incredible riches -- or just big trouble?
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The Trident Deception
"The USS Kentucky--a Trident ballistic missile submarine carrying a full complement of 192 nuclear warheads--is about to go on a routine cruise. Not long after it reaches the open sea, however, the Kentucky receives a launch order. After receiving that launch order, it is cut off from all counter-orders and disappears into the Pacific while it makes the eight-day transit to the launch site. What the Kentucky's crew doesn't know is that those launch orders haven't actually come from the U.S. government"--Provided by publisher.
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Three Hours in Paris
"Three Hours in Paris is the story of Kate Rees, the young American markswoman who has been recruited by British intelligence to drop into Paris on the dangerous business of trying to assassinate the Fuhrer. A country girl from rural Oregon - a grieving widow with no spy training but a vendetta and a lot of gumption - now has the state of the entire war in her hands. When the hit goes badly wrong, Kate is on the run for her life - all the time wrestling with the suspicion that the whole operation was a set-up."--
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Throne of the Crescent Moon
Three superheroes in the Crescent Moon Kingdoms bound together by a series of magical murders must work together in a race against time to prevent a sorcerer's plot from destroying the world.
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Gideon's Sword
"At age 12, Gideon Crew witnessed the brutal murder of his father. More than 20 years later, Gideon gets his revenge. But then a mysterious witness steps forward to confront Gideon on his crime---and offer him the chance of a lifetime"--Provided by publisher.
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