Adrenaline 2002: The Year's Best Stories of Adventure and Survival

by Clint Willis (Editor)

The third edition of publishing's only adventure annual offers another terrifying and exhilarating collection of the journeys which define true adventure. As the literature of adventure continues to grow, the quality of the stories keeps climbing—as this year's collection bears out. Adrenaline 2002 includes writing drawn from the year's best adventure book titles, magazine pieces, and websites, such as Alexandra Fuller's account of growing up during Rhodesia's civil war, facing dangers that included spitting cobras and terrorists; Robert Roper's profiles of fearless American mountaineer Willie Unsoeld, including gripping accounts of his epic climbs; Hampton Sides telling the story of American and Filipino forces in WW II secretly rescuing the survivors of the Bataan Death March; and graduate student Kira Salak's tale of trekking into the heart of New Guinea in search of danger—and finding it. Together, these selections show that today's best adventure literature ranks among the best writing anywhere.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

369 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 2000

Reviews

[Andrew Burin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book. Good mix of stories new and old, told in 1st person and 3rd person, historical and modern-day. Thrill-ride.

[Brad Erickson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was real hit and miss. I thought the stories were articles and essays that had been published in magazines but that was only true in a few cases. A lot of the excerpts began in the middle of…something…then suddenly ended with no resolution at all. For example, The Custom of the Sea by Neil Hanson is a ghastly tale of the survival of five men from a capsized yacht that just…ends. You know someone survives to tell the tale, but who and how? Bizarre. 2.5 stars.

[Ben Tipper · Rating 1 out of 5]

A pretty shitty book. Not only were the stories not very inspiring and oftentimes poorly written, but they weren’t actually short stories at all. They were excerpts from larger works, and I thought the editor did a really poor job: both at selecting the stories in the first place and at choosing which segments to include. There were some abrupt, out of nowhere endings which felt unfinished that I didn’t like at all. Wouldn’t recommend; there are tons of other adventure stories out there and many of them are better then these.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yikes! Some people are way more adventurous than I! Found myself holding my breath during some of the stories!

[Midnight Blue · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had some really awe-inspiring and heart-rending stories, but it also had some slightly boring stories right along with them. Overall, it was well worth the read because of the gems it contains....

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exciting thrilling short stories - a few even touched on deeper topics beyond the fear and faith of each encounter. I few stories in this collection were not as great yet as a whole it was a book I had a difficult time wanting to put down. Usually, at least had to finish the story I was on!

[Universitybabe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the introduction to the book but found most of the stories lacking in either storytelling, or excitement.

[Marci · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not near as good as my Fathers stories of survival.

[Robin Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finally finished this. Very hit or miss collection. Some stories were mesmerizing, some were boring.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good vacation book. A few of the excerpts were interesting enough that I'll look up the full book for them.