One might think that, as two art forms whose primary purpose is usually entertainment, literature and cinema would be direct competitors. Instead, since the infancy of the Seventh Art, it has had a relationship with books that is far more akin to a deeply complementary symbiosis. Over the years, many great action movies have been based on equally great action books. However, “the book was better than the movie” being such a common thing to hear, it should come as no surprise that a few ultra-thrilling action books are better than any movie.
From modern masterpieces like Orphan X to foundational classics like The Count of Monte Cristo, these are action books which have proven to be immensely acclaimed, highly influential, and profoundly impactful as they have gotten older. Whether they’re pure straightforward action or combined with some other genre or subgenre, these eight books could very confidently be put side-by-side with even history’s greatest action films and still come out on top.
‘Orphan X’ (2016)
Gregg Hurwitz‘ Orphan X series is arguably among the best thriller book series of all time, and there are fans who would argue that it peaked with its first entry: the eponymous Orphan X, about a former government-trained black-ops assassin who breaks free from a secret program to become a rogue vigilante helping the desperate. Currently, there are plans to adapt the book into a TV series from studios Makeready and filmmaker Justin Lin‘s Perfect Storm Entertainment.
For people who prefer action novels that strike the perfect balance between high-octane set pieces and deep character-driven storytelling, Orphan X should prove to be absolutely irresistible. In a book, something that may take mere seconds in a movie, such as climbing a building or cracking a safe, can be described with such tactical precision that every line of every page is filled with heart-racing tension. This is one such book. All in all, Orphan X is among the most thrilling novels of the last decade.
‘Treasure Island’ (1883)
As fun and fresh as modern action books can feel, every true fan of the genre craves a good classic every now and then. As far as classic action-adventure books go, it doesn’t get much more fun or essential than Robert Louis Stevenson‘s Treasure Island, one of the most foundational works in the history of both pirate fiction and general adventure fiction. It’s about young Jim Hawkins, who finds a hidden pirate map and joins a seafaring expedition to find the buried treasure.
It’s such a tried-and-true premise that it may seem to those who haven’t read it that Treasure Island can’t possibly be all that entertaining by modern standards, yet this is still one of those adventure books more exciting than any movie. It’s a surprisingly raw and gritty swashbuckler with some of the best-written action of the whole 19th century, with Jim being an absolutely fascinating protagonist and Long John Silver being a far more compelling villain than most others from either literature or cinema.
‘Killing Floor’ (1997)
Nowadays, Jack Reacher is one of the most iconic characters in the modern history of the action thriller genre, and the Lee Child book series that introduced him to the world is just as foundational. It all started with Killing Floor, where Reacher is arrested for murder in a small Georgia town, only to discover that the victim is his brother and that the town is hiding a massive conspiracy. Everything that ensues makes this one of the most essential thriller books for everyone to read at least once.
It’s absolutely stunning that Killing Floor was not only Reacher’s first appearance, but also Child’s debut novel, because it really is one of the greatest masterpieces that action literature has thus far seen. It’s an absolute masterclass in building tension and narrative momentum with airtight efficiency, a visceral thrill ride which doesn’t pull any punches in its race to its adrenaline-pumping third act. The mystery and procedural elements here are significantly more important than the action scenes, but it’s all so marvelously written that it’s just as much of a must-read for fans of either genre.
‘The Terminal List’ (2018)
The first book in the ongoing book series of the same name, Jack Carr‘s The Terminal List was adapted into a Prime Video TV series of the same name, but there’s just no matching what’s easily one of the best action thriller books of the 2010s. Revenge thrillers are always fun to watch on the big screen, but the inherently stronger sense of intimacy that books are able to achieve often makes them better-suited for this genre. The Terminal List is no exception; its story follows a man who, after a military conspiracy gets his Navy SEAL platoon ambushed and his family murdered, plots to hunt those responsible down.
It’s one of the best action book masterpieces of all time, hugely elevated by Carr’s 20 years of experience as a Navy SEAL sniper and officer. His lived experience oozes through every page with an unmatched level of realism and highly functional prose, with violent action scenes that are every bit as brutal as any die-hard fan of military action books might hope. It’s a conspiracy thriller that strikes the perfect balance between slow-burn storytelling and explosive combat set pieces.
‘Patriot Games’ (1987)
English-language literature doesn’t have very many action heroes more iconic or popular than Jack Ryan. The CIA analyst’s first appearance came in 1984’s The Hunt for Red October, but it’s Tom Clancy‘s second book in the series, the prequel Patriot Games, that’s the character’s first chronological appearance in the aptly-named Ryanverse. It’s one of the best thriller books of the 1980s, where Ryan thwarts a terrorist kidnapping of the British royal family in London and thus becomes the prime target of a vengeful Irish splinter group.
It’s a techno-thriller classic that has long been regarded as a blueprint for modern spy fiction, and as exceptional as the 1992 movie adaptation starring Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan may be, there’s virtually no action movie better than the original Clancy novel. With the book placing readers directly inside Ryan’s fascinatingly tactical mind on top of the suspenseful, high-stakes action scenes, you get a faultless balance between emotional weight and non-stop excitement.
‘Red Rising’ (2014)
It’s usually contemporary thrillers that fans of action literature end up leaning more toward, but those who like to experiment with books that combine action-heavy narratives with other genres—such as science fiction—ought to consider Pierce Brown‘s Red Rising essential reading. It’s the first chapter in the book series that carries its title, which itself is one of the best sci-fi book series the world has seen in years. Red Rising follows Darrow, a Mars miner who’s a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. After his wife is executed, he infiltrates the ruling Golds in order to destroy their oppressive society from within.
It’s one of those sci-fi books that are perfect from cover to cover, a modern classic which critics have compared to the likes of Suzanne Collins‘ The Hunger Games and George R. R. Martin‘s A Song of Ice and Fire. Hollywood has been struggling to adapt it for years (the film rights having most recently been acquired by Paramount Pictures, with Francis Lawrence set to direct), but there simply aren’t any sci-fi action films any better than Red Rising. Intimate in scope, vast in scale, and brutally kinetic in its action scenes, it’s a true must-read for action book lovers.
‘I Am Pilgrim’ (2013)
Time and time again, screenwriters have proven themselves to be perfectly capable of writing novels as exceptional as their scripts. Case in point: Terry Hayes‘ I Am Pilgrim, one of the best fiction books ever written by a screenwriter. It’s about the eponymous retired US intelligence agent Pilgrim, who’s pulled back into service to track down a radicalized terrorist engineering a massive bioterrorist attack to destroy the United States.
It’s one of the greatest espionage thrillers of the last couple of decades, and even though fans would like to argue that the story is so vast that it’s practically unfilmable, Hollywood has been trying to get a film adaptation done for years. Spy thriller fans who prefer books rather than movies usually favor the level of detail and intricate intimacy that novels offer, which, in all fairness, is unmatched. Indeed, I Am Pilgrim is such a massive and methodically written gem that it’s hard to think of any action flick (including those written by Hayes himself) that’s better in any substantial way.
‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ (1846)
Alexandre Dumas‘ The Count of Monte Cristo isn’t only one of the greatest revenge thrillers ever written, but arguably one of the most historically important blueprints for any and all revenge, survival, and action-thriller books written since its publication. Its story, which is such a classic that it should need no introduction, is about a wrongfully imprisoned sailor who escapes and discovers a hidden fortune, returning years later as a mysterious Count to ruin the lives of the men who betrayed him and got him locked up.
It’s easily one of the best historical adventure books of all time, one so immensely influential and so perfectly written that anyone with the ability to read, regardless of which genres they typically enjoy, should experience it at least once in their lives. But where many 19th-century thrillers and action-adventure books have gotten much less exciting with age, The Count of Monte Cristo hasn’t. Almost 200 years after its publication, it’s still more sprawling, emotionally engaging, morally complex, and masterfully written than any feature film in history.
