Product Description

Archaeologist Jack Howard is a brave but cautious man. When he embarked on a new search for buried treasure in the Mediterranean, he knew it was a long shot.

When he uncovered a golden disc that spoke of a lost civilization more advanced than any in the ancient world, he started to get excited.

But when Jack Howard and his intrepid crew finally got close to uncovering the secrets the sea had held for thousands of years, nothing could have prepared them for what they would find ...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #202203 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

About the Author
David Gibbins has worked in underwater archaeology all his professional life. After taking a PhD from Cambridge University he taught archaeology in Britain and abroad, and is a world authority on ancient shipwrecks and sunken cities. He has led numerous expeditions to investigate underwater sites in the Mediterranean and around the world. He currently divides his time between fieldwork, England and Canada. This is his first novel.

Customer Reviews

Theory & basis very good, dramatic writing very poor
Here we have a classic case of an author wanting to jump on the pseudo-science and pseudo-history bandwagon that started with Michael Crichton and has been accelerated by Dan Brown.

Author David Gibbins is ostensibly an expert in the field of underwater archeology. It shows, too. If you can last the book out, the historical hypothesis seems to be very well researched and presented. Like the hijacked "Bloodline" theory in DaVinci Code, Gibbins has taken a scientific theory and presented it in a fictional context by dressing a story around it.

Sadly, this is no way to write a novel - especially if your writing talents are as obviously unrefined as those on display in "Atlantis". The characterisation is awful, the book is very badly paced - jumping from high tension to relaxed academic argument from page to page. Worst of all are the action sequences and the relationships between the characters. In the latter case, the players appear like the cast of a very poor James Bond copy (the locations are no better)it is eyeball-gougingly awful to have to read the sections concerning the female lead. The chief protagonist too, is straight from a b-rated 1960s spy thriller.

The nail in the coffin has to be the action. Whilst I have no doubt that Gibbins is an expert in his academic field, he clearly knows nothing about military matters, and has not bothered to research them properly. Some of the action sequences go beyond the point of ridiculous and enter the realm of the absurd. Particular gems include firing a sniper rifle from the cockpit of a moving helicopter (by the pilot, no less!)and goons that react to the sound of a dead goon's rifle being dropped, but not to the gunfire that killed him.

I give this 2 stars rather than the 1 star it is begging for, only because as a concept, Atlantis is not bad. The storytelling and characterisation are nothing short of laughable. Don't buy.

Worst buy of the decade
I fell for this in the airport. Love diving, love Atlantis. What could possibly go wrong? Everything. It seems as if the book was never edited. The plot is inconsistant and unbelievable, the characters never come to life and/or are completely based on clichés. The guy had a one great idea, but he did not have what it takes to follow it through and cheap as this book was, it was a complete waste of money.

Not all bad
I bought this book thinking it would be similar in reading to Dan Brown style books. It is similar.

On the downside, my mind has drifted on many occasions due to the author putting far to much description on the technology used by the characters, than into the characters themselves. I'm not interested in reading an entire page about mini submersible subs and how various attachments can be used and what purpose they provide, with a final line telling me which attachment is being used.

If there is anything that is found in the story or the author feels needs explaining, rest assured, one of the characters is gauranteed to know everything about that subject/item, and they then go on to explain it in every detail. Cheers for that info.

In all honesty, a story that could have had an awful lot of potential, and to those of you who want to know an awful lot about artefacts and the finding of artefacts this is the book to read. Unfortunately from my point of view the trivia is boring, but i am determined to finish the book as on the whole the story is so far good. I just keep falling asleep mid chapter, which brings me on to one final point, the chapter structure appears to be almost random, and each chapter feels very long (possibly due to the boring trivia).