Here are 100 books that The Greatest Adventure fans have personally recommended if you like The Greatest Adventure. Book DNA is a community of 13,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Patrick G. Cox Author Of Captain James Heron First Into the Fray: Prequel to Harry Heron Into the Unknown of the Harry Heron Series

From my list on combining fantasy and social commentary.

Why am I passionate about this?

My great interests have been ships and space travel, and if one takes time to consider the similarities the parallels stand out. Ships, especially submarines, travel in a medium and through an environment that is hostile to human life. In space travel, the ‘ship’ becomes the only habitat in which we can survive for any extended period, leaving it without a space suit is a fatal move. I cannot claim to be an expert in closed environments, but it's a subject that has fascinated me throughout my life. Every ‘biosphere’ is unique and incredibly complex and depends on the symbiosis of an enormous number of living creatures right down to bacteria and even viruses. 

Patrick's book list on combining fantasy and social commentary

Patrick G. Cox Why Patrick loves this book

This is the story that first got me interested in science fiction. Of course, we now recognise some of the flaws in the science, but consider that at the time of its writing steam propulsion was still in its infancy, most ships were still built of timber, and Verne envisaged a ship capable of indefinite travel beneath the ocean surface – something not even possible until the advent of nuclear power almost a century later. Even today Verne’s vision and the story he wove around it can inspire.

By Jules Verne ,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 7, 8, and 9.

What is this book about?

First serialized in a French magazine from 1869-1870, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is an incredible adventure story that popularized science fiction throughout the world.

Professor Aronnax, a marine biologist, joins harpoonist Ned Land in search of a mysterious sea creature in the open ocean, only to discover that the beast is actually a submarine piloted by the enigmatic Captain Nemo. They are taken captive, thus beginning a strange undersea voyage from Antarctic ice shelves to the subterranean city of Atlantis, hunting sharks along the way.

With its sprawling, exotic plot and vivid descriptions, Jules Verne's epic underwater adventure…


If you love The Greatest Adventure...

Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

Book cover of At the Mountains of Madness

Elana Gomel Author Of Nine Levels

From my list on mountain climbing for non-climbers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I always want to be where I am not. This was why I read sci-fi and fantasy as a child. This was why I left the country of my birth and became a professional nomad. This is why I am spellbound by mountains I will never climb and oceans I will never dive into. Imagination can take you everywhere. It took me to the academy, where speculative literature became my scholarly field, and to the publishing world, where I am now getting ready for the launch of my eighth novel. When you are at home nowhere, you are at home everywhere–including on the summits of impossible mountains.

Elana's book list on mountain climbing for non-climbers

Elana Gomel Why Elana loves this book

I am not frightened by Cthulhu, the tentacled monsters waiting in the depths of outer space or the ocean. I am mesmerized by them. Lovecraft, often labeled a horror writer, is one of the greatest literary fantasists. His imagination is boundless, and he is as adept at describing strange new environments as he is at evoking a sense of cosmic dread.

This classic novel combines Lovecraft’s signature monsters with an incredible dreamlike atmosphere that grips you and does not let you go. When you stand at the summit of the Mountains of Madness and glimpse what lies on the other side, you are torn between fear and fascination. For me, at least, fascination always wins.   

By H. P. Lovecraft ,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked At the Mountains of Madness as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

At the Mountains of Madness is a science fiction-horror novella by American author H. P. Lovecraft.

An expedition to Antarctica goes horribly wrong as a group of explorers stumbles upon some mysterious ancient ruins, with devastating consequences. At the Mountains of Madness ranks among Lovecraft's most terrifying novellas, and is a firm favourite among fans of classic horror.


Book cover of The Lost World

Thomas P. Hopp Author Of Dinosaur Wars: Earthfall

From my list on sci-fi about dinosaurs and monstrous creatures.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been a fan of dinosaurs and other mega-monsters ever since I watched the original Godzilla movie as a kid. It scared me half out of my wits! There’s something about big, scaly, dangerous beasts that makes for a great adventure story. Add fascinating human characters and you’ve got my full attention. I started writing my Dinosaur Wars books precisely to fill the void where there are far too few stories of this type in current literature. Challenges between human heroes and giant beasts have been part of literature from the start, featuring dragons, titans, and ocean leviathans. I see my writings as efforts to continue that tradition.

Thomas' book list on sci-fi about dinosaurs and monstrous creatures

Thomas P. Hopp Why Thomas loves this book

In addition to his Sherlock Holmes mysteries, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s dinosaur adventure story delivers world-class excitement and deeply satisfying reading. Doyle’s story of explorers who find living dinosaurs in the Amazonian rainforest can hardly be matched for its originality.

I read it long ago and found it so memorable it was worth another read more recently. And I’m glad I did. The dinosaurs are portrayed dramatically, to say the least, but I was also impressed by rereading that the characters were quite ingenious. Professor Challenger, the expedition leader, is a gruff, highly irascible fellow, given to brawling as much as to debate. Ned Malone, newspaper reporter, and central “I “ character is a riveting taleteller and keen observer of dinosaurian and human nature.

By Arthur Conan Doyle ,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked The Lost World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 11, 12, 13, and 14.

What is this book about?

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…


If you love John Taine...

Book cover of The Tao of Poison

The Tao of Poison by Isham Cook,

A poisonous maiden, a Daoist sex cult, and a violent insurgency.

The polyandrous Yan family in China's rural Shaanxi Province takes in two carpenter brothers. When one brother is convicted of murder after killing their neighbor in a dispute, a constable threatens to expose the family's rumored polyandry and extorts…

Book cover of Triplanetary

Kyt Wright Author Of Sirkkusaga

From my list on science fiction and fantasy series that influenced me.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was born in 1957, the year the Space Race started when the USSR launched its first satellite and grew up with astronauts and cosmonauts on the TV. Yuri Gagarin and Gordon Cooper were familiar names to me as a child but I only really started to take notice as the Apollo programme ramped up. Science fiction influenced me at an very early age with books like Kemlo and Tom Swift and, having pestered my English teacher with my embryonic works decided at seventeen to write my own novel. Some years later and just short of sixty I finally wrote Sirkkusaga and now have seven published works out there - as well as two anthologies.

Kyt's book list on science fiction and fantasy series that influenced me

Kyt Wright Why Kyt loves this book

I read these as a young teenager and loved them, they’re star-spanning, rip-roaring tales of civilisations pitted against each other across the universe. Triplanetary is the first book of the Lensman series but we have to wait until book two; First Lensman, for the arrival of the titular characters.

The good guys (Hooray! Including Earth, of course) have an advantage in that certain of them have been selected by the Arisians to wear a device called the Lens - which allows them to harness their mental powers against the Boskonians (the bad guys - boo!), who are assisted by the evil Eddorians.

It’s all good fun, and I admit to the stories having influenced me slightly.

By E.E. Smith ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Triplanetary as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Triplanetary is a space opera by E. E. Smith. This is the original version first serialized in Amazing Stories magazine in 1934. Smith later reworked the story into the first of two Lensman prequels which was then published in 1948. Triplanetary covers an eons-long eugenics project of the super-intelligences of the Arisians an alien race breeding two genetic lines to become the ultimate weapon in their cosmic war with the Eddore.


Book cover of The Dinosaur Heresies

Mord McGhee Author Of Murder Red Ink

From my list on which spark the dreamer.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a decades-long collector of fossils & student of undiscovered and/or extinct creatures, I’ve gained traction in both fields on a professional level, which is what my spark ignited into. My choice for the final position could’ve been a tie between The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien, Roadmarks by Roger Zelazny, Farseer by Robert J. Sawyer, but since I could only choose 5 which sparked the dreamer.

Mord's book list on which spark the dreamer

Mord McGhee Why Mord loves this book

It is Bakker’s controversial rethinking of the lives and science behind earth’s prehistory. In his avant-garde ideas, Bakker proposes and answers questions of things like what these monsters are and how they defended themselves or hunted. He even spoke on how they might have reproduced.

It’s a book to create dreamers who can take the torch to shed new light on those questions we all share in common as members of humanity.

By Robert T. Bakker ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Dinosaur Heresies as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For over a century, dinosaurs have been thought of as plodding, dim-witted giant lizards too awkward and ill-equipped to survive the ravages of environmental change. Bakker offers startling new evidence destined to forever alter the perception of the much-maligned monsters, depicting them as never before imagined: hot-blooded, amazingly agile, and surprisingly intelligent. Illustrations.


Book cover of Damien's Quest

Kim Ann Author Of Where Do Dinosaurs Go on Vacation?

From my list on for dinosaur fans.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a children’s book author that writes fun, colorful, imaginative books that help children develop a love of stories. My passion for books started at a young age, as one of my favorite things to do was visit the local library with my mom. I have had a lifelong passion for writing and began writing poetry books at nine years old for my school library. I started writing and publishing children’s picture books professionally and founded my publishing company, Lucky Four Press, LLC, in 2019. I hope you enjoy these dino-tastic books I recommended!

Kim's book list on for dinosaur fans

Kim Ann Why Kim loves this book

A cute book by Jake Evanoff about a young cave boy, Damien, and his friend Trey the Triceratops.

The characters are both relatable and fun. During the story, the pair set out to discover the truth about Damien’s past without much thought about what trouble they might get into. It is an exciting adventure story about friendship, family, and acceptance.

A perfect bedtime story for dino-loving kids.

By Jake Evanoff , Nino Balita (illustrator) ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Damien's Quest as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

He's set out with his best pal to find the place he came from. On his quest to uncover the truth, will he discover something even greater?Nine-year-old Damien loves spending time with the triceratops that took him in, especially his friend Trey. Yet he can’t help but wonder if he truly belongs with them. So one night after everyone has fallen asleep, he decides he’s going to find out once and for all with Trey’s help.Stopping at nothing to reveal the truth, the brave duo search everywhere they possibly can; from the highest mountain tops to the deepest caves. But…


If you love The Greatest Adventure...

Book cover of Big Ideas... For Small Businesses: Simple, Practical Tools and Tactics to Help Your Small Business Grow

Big Ideas... For Small Businesses by John Lamerton,

Big Ideas… for Small Businesses is a straight-talking, no-nonsense guide to growing a small business without sacrificing your lifestyle. Written by a former civil servant turned entrepreneur, the book challenges hustle culture and instead champions the idea of an "ambitious lifestyle business" - one that provides freedom and financial stability,…

Book cover of Dino Deegan and the Unpleasant Class

Kim Ann Author Of Where Do Dinosaurs Go on Vacation?

From my list on for dinosaur fans.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a children’s book author that writes fun, colorful, imaginative books that help children develop a love of stories. My passion for books started at a young age, as one of my favorite things to do was visit the local library with my mom. I have had a lifelong passion for writing and began writing poetry books at nine years old for my school library. I started writing and publishing children’s picture books professionally and founded my publishing company, Lucky Four Press, LLC, in 2019. I hope you enjoy these dino-tastic books I recommended!

Kim's book list on for dinosaur fans

Kim Ann Why Kim loves this book

A great book with a wonderful message and beautiful illustrations by Dr. Robyn.

The book takes place in prehistoric times and has fun dino details on every page. The main character, Dino Deegan, has trouble making friends, but goes through a transformation throughout the story which is very cleverly visualized as he changes colors at the end.

This should be a classroom tool to teach children about friendship, being kind, and including others in the fun.

By Heather E Robyn , Zoe Mellors (illustrator) ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dino Deegan and the Unpleasant Class as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 7, 8, 9, and 10.

What is this book about?

When you see another person being treated unfairly, what do you do?

Days at school are tough for Dino Deegan. Being included at recess is his dream, but his claws are so big that they get in the way, and other children and dinosaurs bully him for it.  

"Your claws are too sharp to join in our games,"
they said as they pointed and called Deegan names.
"You're creepy and odd," they yelled, and they jeered,
and poor Deegan thought, "This is just what I feared."

But wait! There's a new kid in class. She introduces herself to Deegan as…


Book cover of Tyrannosaurus Hex and the Unluckiest Day Ever

Kim Ann Author Of Where Do Dinosaurs Go on Vacation?

From my list on for dinosaur fans.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a children’s book author that writes fun, colorful, imaginative books that help children develop a love of stories. My passion for books started at a young age, as one of my favorite things to do was visit the local library with my mom. I have had a lifelong passion for writing and began writing poetry books at nine years old for my school library. I started writing and publishing children’s picture books professionally and founded my publishing company, Lucky Four Press, LLC, in 2019. I hope you enjoy these dino-tastic books I recommended!

Kim's book list on for dinosaur fans

Kim Ann Why Kim loves this book

Mr. Jay is a wonderful author and master of rhyme.

In this story, Anda, the T-Rex is convinced she is hexed, why else would she have such bad luck? With the help of a friend, and a positive attitude, she soon learns that anyone can make the best of a situation. The colorful illustrations and fun rhymes help bring the story to life.

By Jay Miletsky , Gary Wilkinson (illustrator) ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Tyrannosaurus Hex and the Unluckiest Day Ever as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For Anda, the T-Rex, nothing is going right! After a simply awful day, she's convinced that a horrible hex has given her the worst luck ever! But she soon discovers that bad luck is simply a matter of how you look at things.

A fun day of playing the jungle goes terribly wrong after Anda trips and falls over a tree trunk. That's followed by a long lone at the ice cream parlor, where they run out of her favorite flavor! Then, as if all of that wasn't bad enough, it starts to rain! There can only be one explanation:…


Book cover of A Dinosaur Made Me Spill: A Water Cycle Adventure

Kim Ann Author Of Where Do Dinosaurs Go on Vacation?

From my list on for dinosaur fans.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a children’s book author that writes fun, colorful, imaginative books that help children develop a love of stories. My passion for books started at a young age, as one of my favorite things to do was visit the local library with my mom. I have had a lifelong passion for writing and began writing poetry books at nine years old for my school library. I started writing and publishing children’s picture books professionally and founded my publishing company, Lucky Four Press, LLC, in 2019. I hope you enjoy these dino-tastic books I recommended!

Kim's book list on for dinosaur fans

Kim Ann Why Kim loves this book

This is one of my favorite books by Carla Jansen and one that both kids and adults will enjoy.

Great illustrations, wonderful rhyme, and adorable diverse characters, including a dinosaur. It is a story of friendship that also shares facts and information about the water cycle. It is a very entertaining and educational book. Homeschoolers and children that are interested in dinosaurs and science will love it! 

By Carla Mae Jansen , Natasha Kostovska (illustrator) ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Dinosaur Made Me Spill as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Award-winning:
★★★★★ 5 Stars on Readers' Favorite: "...a clever introduction to evaporation, precipitation, freezing, and cloud formation..."
★★★★★ Project We Love on Kickstarter: "...brilliant examples of creativity..."

How did an ancient dinosaur wreck a modern-day tea party? Find out in A Dinosaur Made Me Spill, a hilarious, science-filled adventure through time! Popular with kids, parents, and teachers!

✓ Introduce the water cycle with dinosaurs!
✓ Cruise through ancient oceans, prehistoric skies, and more!
✓ Perfect for dinosaur-lovers, classroom teachers, and homeschoolers!
✓ Watch out for splashes and skinks along the way!
✓ Discover how friendship and humor can fix things…


If you love John Taine...

Book cover of Sexy Selfie Nation: Standing Up for Yourself in Today's Toxic, Sexist Culture

Sexy Selfie Nation by Leora Tanenbaum,

The problem is not with the actions young women take but with the toxic, sexist conditions they are responding to.

Tanenbaum found, based on six years of interviews with young people ages 14-30, that young women are navigating a culture littered with gendered dress codes, revenge porn, and sexually explicit…

Book cover of Dinothesaurus: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings

Steven Clark Cunningham Author Of Dinosaur Name Poems/Poemas de Nombres de Dinosaurios

From my list on dinosaurs with poetry, pop-up, and paleontology.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am, like so many other young people (yes, I still think of myself as young!), fascinated with dinosaurs and prehistory, and have been for as long as I can remember. What I really find interesting and engaging is the combination of the fact that they do not exist anymore and therefore are otherworldly with the fact that they are real and actually of this world!

Steven's book list on dinosaurs with poetry, pop-up, and paleontology

Steven Clark Cunningham Why Steven loves this book

What I really love about this book is the use of poetry and original and engaging illustrations to invite kids into reading. My favorite poem is “Barosaurus,” which does a particularly good job of inviting the young readers to engage their imagination with the book. While not my favorite Douglas Florian book, it is, like the other books from this very talented author and illustrator, well worth the read!

By Douglas Florian ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dinothesaurus as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 6, 7, 8, and 9.

What is this book about?

This book is full of dinosaurs,

Both carnivores and herbivores.

You'll find a big Iguanodon,

As well as a clever Tro-o-don.

There's Spinosaurus and T. rex,

Plus plesiosaurs with giant necks,

And others from an ancient age.

Want to learn more?

Then turn the page!


Book cover of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Book cover of At the Mountains of Madness
Book cover of The Lost World

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