Pi Patel is an unusual boy. The son of a zookeeper, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of stories and practices not only his native Hinduism but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is 16, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship along with their zoo animals bound for new homes. The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450 pound Bengal tiger.

Out of the Silent Planet is the first novel of the Cosmic Trilogy, considered to be C.S. Lewis' chief contribution to the science fiction genre.

When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes its precious cargo - an unhatched dragon egg - fate sweeps Captain Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarified world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle.

Herman Melville is one of the greatest figures in literary history. His classic Moby Dick is generally considered the finest novel ever written by an American. Yet in Melville’s day, Typee was a far more popular book. Largely autobiographical, this classic adventure story is set in the South Seas, where a runaway sailor is captured by the Typees. Described as “a fierce and unrelenting tribe of savages," the islanders have no intention of letting their captive go.

The mutiny on HMS Bounty, in the South Pacific on 28 April 1789, is one of history's truly great stories - a tale of human drama, intrigue and adventure of the highest order - and in the hands of Peter FitzSimons it comes to life as never before. Commissioned by the Royal Navy to collect breadfruit plants from Tahiti and take them to the West Indies, the Bounty's crew found themselves in a tropical paradise. Five months later, they did not want to leave.

Michael Maloney reads Daniel Defoe's timeless tale of a man who has to use all his own skills to survive alone on an island. Robinson Crusoe has a great desire to see the world and, against his father's wishes, goes to sea. After surviving a terrible shipwreck, however, Robinson Crusoe discovers he is the only person on a deserted island, far from any shipping routes or rescue.

From the pen of one of the literary world’s finest explorers of the imagination, these classic tales of fantastical habitats and intrepid adventurers delve deep into every mysterious corner of planet Earth. Whether you’ve adventured with Verne before or are only just setting off on your maiden voyage, this collection encompasses the most extraordinary adventures the father of science fiction has to offer.

A match at bowls was being played in which Drake and other high officers of the fleet were engaged, when a small armed vessel was seen running before the wind into Plymouth Harbor, with all sails set. Her commander landed in haste, and eagerly sought the place where the English lord admiral and his captains were standing. He was master of a Scottish privateer, and he told the English officers that he had that morning seen the Spanish Armada off the Cornish coast.

Following the commercial and critical success of Typee, Herman Melville continued his series of South Sea adventure-romances with Omoo. Named after the Polynesian term for a rover, or someone who roams from island to island, Omoo chronicles the tumultuous events aboard a South Sea whaling vessel and is based on Melville's personal experiences as a crew member on a ship sailing the Pacific.

In the wild, unexplored coastal jungles of West Africa lives a wild human boy named Tarzan, the adopted son of a tribe of fierce almost-human anthropoid apes - but in reality, the unknown heir of a wealthy and titled English noble family. Then one day, a small party of American treasure-seekers is marooned on Tarzan's beach, including a lovely Baltimore belle named Jane Porter.

Natty Bumppo , one of the greatest heroes in American literature, is the rugged frontiersman of James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, a series of five novels that includes The Last of the Mohicans and The Deerslayer. Although it was the final volume to be written, The Deerslayer is the first in the chronology of Natty Bumppo’s life, depicting the character as a young man testing himself in the wilderness and against enemies for the first time.

Jack London worshiped strong and virtuous heroes, and his stories give great weight to the inevitable triumph of good over evil. His telling of the adventures of Humphrey van Weydon in The Sea Wolf is in keeping with this theme of moral man. His powerful and gripping saga of van Weydon's capture by a seal-hunting ship and the ensuing tangles with its dreaded captain, Wolf Larsen, makes this a classic American tale of peril and victory.

Set in the 19th century against a backdrop of island life and the vast surrounding seas, A High Wind in Jamaica is the gripping story of the Bas-Thornton children, whose parents send them back to England following a hurricane in the postcolonial Caribbean they call home. Having set sail, the children quickly fall into the hands of pirates. As their voyage continues, things take an awful turn

Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym is a realistic yet romantic nautical adventure about a young stowaway on the high seas. One day in 1827, Arthur Gordon Pym escapes his dreary life in New Bedford and hides on the Grampus, where he befriends the captain's son, Augustus. The two boys witness and participate in a dazzling series of adventures, including shipwreck, famine, rescue, and voyages all over the world.

After the Robinsons - a minister, his wife, and their 4 young sons - are shipwrecked on a desert island, they must adapt to their new environment, which includes exotic birds and animals, but none of the comforts they enjoyed in their native Switzerland. Without modern conveniences or even clocks and calendars, the Robinsons must use common sense to build a home, find food, and tame the island's wild animals.

Herman Melville is one of the greatest figures in literary history. His classic Moby Dick is generally considered the finest novel ever written by an American. Yet in Melville’s day, Typee was a far more popular book. Largely autobiographical, this classic adventure story is set in the South Seas, where a runaway sailor is captured by the Typees. Described as “a fierce and unrelenting tribe of savages," the islanders have no intention of letting their captive go.

Millions of people have thrilled to the adventure of young Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver since the publication of Treasure Island in 1883. It has been dramatized countless times since its appearance. Treasure maps marked with an X, schooners, the Black Spot, tropical islands, and peglegged sailors with parrots on their shoulders: All these stereotypes of the buccaneer tale were the invention of R. L. Stevenson. But make no mistake about it...this novel is a masterpiece of plot development, character study, and sheer writing skill.

From the pen of one of the literary world’s finest explorers of the imagination, these classic tales of fantastical habitats and intrepid adventurers delve deep into every mysterious corner of planet Earth. Whether you’ve adventured with Verne before or are only just setting off on your maiden voyage, this collection encompasses the most extraordinary adventures the father of science fiction has to offer.

In the wild, unexplored coastal jungles of West Africa lives a wild human boy named Tarzan, the adopted son of a tribe of fierce almost-human anthropoid apes - but in reality, the unknown heir of a wealthy and titled English noble family. Then one day, a small party of American treasure-seekers is marooned on Tarzan's beach, including a lovely Baltimore belle named Jane Porter.

Natty Bumppo , one of the greatest heroes in American literature, is the rugged frontiersman of James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, a series of five novels that includes The Last of the Mohicans and The Deerslayer. Although it was the final volume to be written, The Deerslayer is the first in the chronology of Natty Bumppo’s life, depicting the character as a young man testing himself in the wilderness and against enemies for the first time.

Set in the 19th century against a backdrop of island life and the vast surrounding seas, A High Wind in Jamaica is the gripping story of the Bas-Thornton children, whose parents send them back to England following a hurricane in the postcolonial Caribbean they call home. Having set sail, the children quickly fall into the hands of pirates. As their voyage continues, things take an awful turn

The mutiny on HMS Bounty, in the South Pacific on 28 April 1789, is one of history's truly great stories - a tale of human drama, intrigue and adventure of the highest order - and in the hands of Peter FitzSimons it comes to life as never before. Commissioned by the Royal Navy to collect breadfruit plants from Tahiti and take them to the West Indies, the Bounty's crew found themselves in a tropical paradise. Five months later, they did not want to leave.

Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym is a realistic yet romantic nautical adventure about a young stowaway on the high seas. One day in 1827, Arthur Gordon Pym escapes his dreary life in New Bedford and hides on the Grampus, where he befriends the captain's son, Augustus. The two boys witness and participate in a dazzling series of adventures, including shipwreck, famine, rescue, and voyages all over the world.

This riveting history is a firsthand account of the long and arduous search for one of the greatest explorers of the 19th century. Journalist and adventurer Henry M. Stanley was known for his search for the legendary David Livingstone, and their eventual meeting led to the popular quotation "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" A real-life adventure story, How I Found Livingstone in Central Africa tells of the incredible hardships - disease, hostile natives, tribal warfare, impenetrable jungles, and other obstacles - faced by a daring explorer. This must-have account also includes a wealth of information on various African peoples.

A sixteenth-century cryptogram spurs modern geologist Otto Liedenbrock to embark on the most remarkable human quest ever taken. With his nephew and guide, he leads the descent from a dormant Icelandic volcano into the unexplored realm beneath their feet. There, a vast subterranean ocean, prehistoric creatures, and natural phenomena are but a few of the wonders hidden from all but the boldest eyes.

The Swiss Family Robinson recounts the adventures of a father, mother, and four sons marooned on a tropical island. The story unfolds beginning with the tragic storm that claims their ship and the lives of the captain and crew, continuing with their own harrowing battle with the elements and dangerous landing on the remote island shore, and onward through their ingenious use of the materials at hand to survive.

A classic tale of adventure and survival, The Swiss Family Robinson has been a best seller ever since it was published in 1812, just over 200 years ago. Written by Swiss pastor Johann David Wyss, it begins with a shipwreck. A boat carrying a family of settlers to a distant colony is driven onto a reef just off an uncharted tropical island. The sailors desert the ship in lifeboats, leaving the family onboard.

In 1898, the British were building a railway line between Mombasa in Kenya and Uganda. At the Tsavo River in Kenya where a bridge needed to be built, the project was suddenly interrupted by two man-eating lions that targeted the camps of the workers. Over a period of nine months, the lions killed scores of people. These lions were deliberately hunting people, preferring humans over any other prey, and they seemed to have supernatural abilities in evading all attempts to stop them. Colonel J.H. Patterson, the chief engineer in charge of the project, finally managed to eliminate them.

Merle Johnson has here gathered together in one volume all of the nineteenth-century author-artist's classic pirate stories that had been scattered through many magazines and books. Well researched and with richly drawn characters, Pyle's work will appeal to students of history and adventure lovers alike.

In one of the most spellbinding accounts of men who go down to the sea in ships, the modern listener is given a seat in the whale boat of Owen Chase as he and his fellow crew and their captain make way in three boats after the wreckage of the Whaleship Essex. The account of how the Essex was wrecked inspired the infamous book Moby Dick and countless movies, including In the Heart of the Sea.