# Recommend me a book like an Indiana Jones movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 15, 2009, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-like-an-indiana-jones-movie/496564 "2009-05-15T20:20:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-like-an-indiana-jones-movie/496564/1 "2009-05-15T20:20:26Z")
Are there any good ones? I know there are many ‘Young Indy’ books and novelisations by Rob MacGregor. Have not been that impressed by them. Are there books by other authors that are action/adventure and as good as an Indiana Jones movie ( as good as Raiders or Last Crusade anyway)? ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-like-an-indiana-jones-movie/496564/2 "2009-05-15T20:30:41Z")
I’ve found that [James Rollins](http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/r/james-rollins/) novels have a sort of Indiana-y Jones-y feeling to them. Probably why he was chosen to write the novelization of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Not that I envy him that job. I’d have felt dirty… ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-like-an-indiana-jones-movie/496564/3 "2009-05-15T20:42:12Z")
If you want the non-stop over-the-top action, try Matthew Reilly. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-like-an-indiana-jones-movie/496564/4 "2009-05-15T20:48:24Z")
My daughter got me a book called **Adventure! Thrilling Tales of Discovery** , edited by John Richard Stephens. As you can tell from the cover, its trying to be Indiana Jones-esque [http://www.amazon.com/Adventure-John-Richard-Stephens/dp/B002048SDK/ref=sr\_1\_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242420195&sr=1-2](http://www.amazon.com/Adventure-John-Richard-Stephens/dp/B002048SDK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242420195&sr=1-2) There are some cute bits in there I’d never come across, and two stories by Ridyard Kipling. So get a copy of this book (or Stephens’ other collections) and follow up on any you like. **Roy Chapman Andrews** is thought by many to be a model for Indy. He wrote several of his own books about exploring the Gobi and the like (He lead the expedition that discovered protoceratops skeletons and the first dinosaur eggs, back in the 1920s, and he was later director of the American Museum of Natural History). I read two books of his when I was a kid. They were written for kids, but I think he wrote for adults as well. Of course, I have claimed (in a now-gone issue of **Teemings** ) that **Carl Barks’ Uncle Scrooge** stories were the _real_ inspiration for Indiana Jones. You could do a lot worse than going to the comic book store and getting reprints of Barks’ old Uncle Scrooge adventures. Or check out Don Rosa’s more recent **The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck** and its companion volume. > **[Disney Presents Carl Barks' Greatest Ducktales Stories Volume 1: Barks, Carl,...](https://www.amazon.com/Disney-Presents-Greatest-Ducktales-Stories/dp/1888472367)** > > Disney Presents Carl Barks' Greatest Ducktales Stories Volume 1 \[Barks, Carl, Barks, Carl\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Disney Presents Carl Barks' Greatest Ducktales Stories Volume 1 > **[The Life And Times Of Scrooge McDuck: Rosa, Don, Clark, John, Rosa, Don:...](https://www.amazon.com/Life-Times-Scrooge-McDuck/dp/0911903968)** > > The Life And Times Of Scrooge McDuck \[Rosa, Don, Clark, John, Rosa, Don\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. The Life And Times Of Scrooge McDuck > **[The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion (Walt Disney's the Life and Times...](https://www.amazon.com/Scrooge-McDuck-Companion-Disneys-Mcduck/dp/1888472405)** > > The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion (Walt Disney's the Life and Times of Scrooge Mcduck) \[Rosa, Don, Clark, John, Rosa, Don\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion (Walt Disney's... For that matter, there have been some pretty decent Indiana Jones comics. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-like-an-indiana-jones-movie/496564/5 "2009-05-15T22:31:49Z")
more votes for reilly and rollins. don’t forget cussler. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-like-an-indiana-jones-movie/496564/6 "2009-05-15T23:22:19Z")
I recommend the _Doc Savage_ series, written under the name Kenneth Robeson. Trust me–Indy & Doc probably were in the same fraternity in college. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-like-an-indiana-jones-movie/496564/7 "2009-05-15T23:31:33Z")
Indiana Jones is based on two people, really. One is the fictional character of Alan Quatermain, who was the hero of some [H. Ryder Haggard](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Rider_Haggard)novels such as _King Solomon’s Mines_. The prose is a little old, but the stories are ripping good yarns. The second, and more likely model was [Percy Fawcett](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Fawcett), British archeologist and explorer whose real-life exploits in the Amazon are nothing short of amazing. Read _The Lost City of Z_, by David Grann. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-like-an-indiana-jones-movie/496564/8 "2009-05-16T14:21:05Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > I recommend the _Doc Savage_ series, written under the name Kenneth Robeson. I hadn’t thought of that. Submarines, airships, '30s airplanes, and a really tough guy. I second your recommendation. Beware of the alligator suit, though. 🙂 And alas, there is a tinge of period racism. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-like-an-indiana-jones-movie/496564/9 "2009-05-16T14:39:28Z")
I’d vote for **Rollins** and **Reilly** as well… or maybe **Paul Christopher** , especially _Rembrandt’s Ghost_ (although it’s not the first adventure for the hero and heroine). _Napoleon’s Pyramids_ & _The Rosetta Code_ by **William Dietrich** are good too; sort of Indy/Flashman adventures during Napoloen’s Egyptian campaign in the late 1790s ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-like-an-indiana-jones-movie/496564/10 "2009-05-16T15:50:43Z")
Sort of kind of Charles Williams: > **[Charles Williams (British writer)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Williams_(UK_writer))** > > Charles Walter Stansby Williams (20 September 1886 – 15 May 1945) was a British poet, novelist, playwright, theologian and literary critic. Most of his life was spent in London, where he was born, but in 1939 he moved to Oxford with the university press for which he worked and was buried there following his early death. > Charles Williams was born in London in 1886, the only son of (Richard) Walter Stansby Williams (1848–1929) and Mary (née Wall). His father Walter was a journalist and foreign ... Religious objects are found and are fought over.