I like to go on trips, particularly overseas. This gives me the ability to write travel books—but moreover, I love adventure. I love to see the fantastic in the world in which we live. I’ve written other kinds of books that helped shape my writing style, including a kaiju novel series, which gives me a bit of a different approach than more encyclopedic travel writers. That’s what I try to bring to the table—the magic and esotericism in the world, presented like a pulpy Saturday matinee that you can enter yourself if you follow my travel tips.
I wrote...
How to Have an Adventure in Scandinavia: Norway & Denmark
Everyone wants to find something sensational on their next trip. How cool would it be to find dinosaurs? Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel captures the spirit of adventure into a realm unknown, a plateau hidden on the map where time has stood still since the Mesozoic. When traveling to a place of historic (or prehistoric) significance, what fun is it to consider what those things were actually like? You probably won’t meet a dinosaur in the 21st Century, but echoes of past titans still linger in the ancient corners of our planet.
Originally published serially in 1912, “The Lost World” is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic tale of discovery and adventure. The story begins with the narrator, the curious and intrepid reporter Edward Malone, meeting Professor Challenger, a strange and brilliant paleontologist who insists that he has found dinosaurs still alive deep in the Amazon. Malone agrees to accompany Challenger, as well as Challenger’s unconvinced colleague Professor Summerlee, and the adventurer Lord John Roxton, into the wilds of South America and the Amazon in search of Challenger’s fantastical beasts. There, cut off from the rest of civilization and high atop an isolated…
Momentarily leaving the fantastic behind, let’s look at a real-life adventure in a time when travel to Earth’s extremities was not as easy as it is today. Even a single century in the past, explorers like Amundsen endured great hardship trying to reach places like the South Pole. On a journey of relative comfort, consider what it might’ve been like with a slightly lower level of technology, and face a reminder that humans are not quite the masters of the world’s untamable elements that we may think we are.
The South Pole is a book by Roald Amundsen and it represents an interesting first-hand account of the Norwegian expedition's successful attempt to reach the South Pole in 1911. Amundsen spends a great deal of time talking about logistics and placing of depots in preparation for his polar attempt all the way from the preparation leading up to the initial sea voyage, the voyage itself and then the establishing of a camp at the Antarctic. Although they were lucky with the weather, and Amundsen attributed the success of the expedition to "good luck", it is obvious that the Norwegian expedition…
Kentucky is not a place many consider to have an adventure. Think again once you know what strange beasts lurk in its mountainous realms! Alex Gayhart is, full disclosure, a frequent collaborator of mine as an illustrator. Part of the reason I like working with him is that he understands that real life influences the fantastic because it’s often more bizarre than you can imagine. As a native of the state, his menagerie of invented Kentucky creatures draws from cultural jokes and hilarious satire in a way that makes one see myth in the most mundane places.
Have you ever wondered what creatures dwell in the FAR OFF land of KENTUCKY? No? TOO BAD!I and several NOW DEAD ASSISTANTS have made a comprehensive study of the BEAUTIFUL BUTMOSTLY HORRIBLE wildlife of these GREEN MOUNTAINS! See the CHESSYCAT with its TEETH! See the HILLED WILLIAM (HILL BILLY) and its GOAT-LIKE COUNTENANCE! See the REDNECK and its....REDDENED NECK! ALL OF THESE ABOMINABLE MONSTROSITIES AND MORE AWAIT YOU IN - HIGH STRANGENESS IN THE MOUNTAINS!
The Aswang mythology of the Philippines is fascinating and storied, a menagerie of creatures as horrific as any from Transylvania. This novel by a Filipina-Canadian author about a young man returning to his roots to find more werewolfery than he bargained for delves into its fascinating lore with cultural authenticity.
A teenage boy discovers family in the last way anyone wants to: as bloodthirsty monsters from the countryside.
Pablo Santos probably shouldn't try to crack the secret question to his dad's email account. Probably. But after getting into trouble in school yet again--for something that he swears wasn't his fault--he decides to run off to the countryside with his best friend, Rachel Ann, to discover the answer to such a mind-numbingly simple question: "Where was my father born?" Because Pablo knows nothing about his father and even less about his past.
Come and explore the Bicol countryside with Pablo and…
Described by author William Cope as a “road trip” story, the first Tyrantis novel is a fairly mundane and relatable narrative about a young woman’s trip across the United States of America with her close companion—a giant, fire-breathing dinosaur. Yes, this is a “kaiju” novel, and it’s one of the really good ones. It’s also a road trip story, a rollicking adventure through subterranean caverns, colonies of gigantic ants, and sights one might see on a drive across the 50 states. The combination of fantastic and mundane is exactly my jam.
It all begins with the Superquake of 1954, a geological calamity of unprecedented scope. Though this on its own is more than enough to shake humanity to its very core, what follows proves to be all the more terrifying - for soon colossal monsters begin emerging from the newly formed cracks in the earth’s surface. Impossible both in scale and durability, these titanic beasts prove to be far more than humanity can handle, and the end of civilization seems to be drawing near!However, there is hope! Within one of the newly formed caverns, a young paleontologist, Mina Lerna, discovers a…
Lena thinks she knows her future: in her small village, nothing much has changed for two hundred years. Women farm and fish, plant and harvest: a cooperative, productive, peaceful life. Until the day a soldier rides in, to ask the unthinkable of the women: learn to fight. Invasion is imminent, and the men alone cannot defeat them.
Maya, Lena’s partner, refuses. Going against the collective decision of the village means banishment. Will Lena decide to defend her home, or go with her love?
Journey with Lena as she makes this terrible choice, setting her feet on a path towards a…
"Fans of Guy Gavriel Kay will love Thorpe's work." Anya Pavelle
A B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree; Eric Hoffer Finalist, 2021; BBNYA 2021 Semi-Finalist
An Emperor's request. A lover's refusal. And a young woman who must choose between them.
Many generations past, the great empire from the east left Lena's country to its own defences. Now invasion threatens...and to save their land, women must learn the skills of war. But in a world reminiscent of Britain after the fall of Rome, only men fight; women farm and fish. Lena's choice to answer her leader's call to arms separates her from her lover…
The story of Scandinavia begins before recorded history, dealing with arcane mythologies and monstrous legends. My own story of visiting two of its countries lasted three weeks—but with the help of a veritable Viking army of locals and experts, I’ve undertaken a saga of my own. Like all of my travel books, this one emerges from an ethos that I don’t think most travel writers consider—what if a travel book were written like an adventure novel? The links between the two and the joy that comes from erasing the line between them are more significant than you may think.
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