A Voyage Beyond Reason

An Epic of Survival Based on the Original Journals of Benjamin Wade

Fiction - Adventure
378 Pages
Reviewed on 08/30/2020
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite

A Voyage Beyond Reason by Tom Gauthier is the fictional retelling of Benjamin Wade's kayak journey based on the journal entries fashioned by Wade himself. Gauthier explains that he found the entries hidden on a cliff in Colombia and was so moved by Wade's story that he wanted to share it. In 1996 Wade left Southern California to embark on a 6,000-mile journey over six months in a solo kayak. With limited supplies and limited knowledge of what he might expect to find and experience, Wade traversed the coast of South America. Along the way, he battled the elements, sharks, hostile weather conditions and people, and physical and mental fatigue that gave way to some of the story's most harrowing points, but also some of its most uplifting. Gauthier narrates Wade's story in the third-person from Wade's point of view and with the inclusion of his subject's journal entries.

Anyone who watches reality television will know Benjamin “The Dragon Slayer” Wade from his wild stunts on the Survivor Series. Much of what Wade professed of his experiences on the show was found to be either embellished, impossible, or unverifiable, with his penchant for bombastic storytelling making him one of the most hated villains in the show's history. When reading A Voyage Beyond Reason, one has to push away their personal feelings and, if they've read it, the details Wade wrote in his own autobiography, No Turning Back. Tom Gauthier expressly states that this novel is a work of fiction and his execution of it from a literary standpoint is very well done. The writing is clean and tight with an insightful nod to its subject but taking on an authentic life of its own. Gauthier injects humanity into a man that few might see otherwise, using the journal entries—however sketchy their credibility may be—to weave a tale of adventure with the panache of a seasoned writer. In my estimation, that makes Tom Gauthier the true hero and Voyage Beyond Reason worthy of a read.