Charles Ardai is the editor of The Adventures of Gabriel Hunt

When the famous modern-day explorer Gabriel Hunt approached me about editing a line of books that documented his globetrotting exploits, I told him I'd be glad to do it, as long as it acknowledged the history of the genre of which it was part.  I didn't want to pretend that he was the first man ever to break the seal on an ancient tomb or unearth a lost artifact of awesome power or snatch survival from the jaws of death.  He pointed out that there was a difference between having done these things in real life and only having done them on the printed page, as such fictional adventure heroes as Allan Quatermain or Professor Challenger or Doc Savage had, and I conceded that Mr. Hunt had a point (and the scars to prove it).  But I insisted that his readers would want to know where a man like him came from: After all, without having read about Quatermain and Challenger and Savage as a youth, would Hunt grown up to become Hunt?

Finally, he agreed to the notion of my providing a suggested reading list, of works of adventure fiction that I believe will leave you very nearly as short of breath and eager to read more as Mr. Hunt's own stories of his adventures.  Think of them as appetizers, if you will, leading up to the main course—or as entrees leading up to dessert, if you prefer.  Either way, you are in store for some mouth-watering adventures indeed.