Opening Atlantis

Atlantis #1

by Harry Turtledove

"New York Times" bestselling author Harry Turtledove has intrigued readers with such thought-provoking "what if..." scenarios as a conquered Elizabethan England in Ruled Britannia and a Japanese occupation of Hawaii in "Days of Infamy" and "End of the Beginning." Now, in the first of a brand-new trilogy, he rewrites the history of the world with the existence of an eighth continent... Atlantis lies between Europe and the East Coast of Terranova. For many years, this land of opportunity lured dreamers from around the globe with its natural resources, offering a new beginning for those willing to brave the wonders of the unexplored land.

Genres: Alternate History, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy

440 pages, Hardcover

First published December 4, 2007

About the author

Dr Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced a sizeable number of works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.

Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.

Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within this genre he is known both for creating original scenarios: such as survival of the Byzantine Empire; an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II; and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by other authors, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War; and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme.

Reviews

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think this book is the one that is going to win new Turtledove fans.

It's not a bad story -- there's an eighth continent in the world, in the Atlantic Ocean between the continents of Europe and North America. Strangely, it remains unsettled until discovered by fishermen in the 1450s. The book introduces the original settlers, centered around the Radcliffe family from southern coastal England, and in later parts of the story cover piracy in the 1600s and imperial warfare between Britain, France and Spain in the mid 1700s.

I feel, however, that the the book is a bit of a hodgepodge, and does not hang together as well as much of Mr. Turtledove's other works. It doesn't really make clear why this "middle" New World, east of Terra Nova, develops the way it does, and that leaves a blank for those of us who like the "history" part of "alternative history".

[Gabi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to admit, couldn't see the point of this story. ^^'

[Emily Park · Rating 2 out of 5]

http://em-and-emm.blogspot.com/2011/1...

Harry Turtledove is most famous for his alternate history novels. In this book, the first of a trilogy, Turtledove explores the idea of an extra continent (or large island) in the Atlantic Ocean. Although this island is named Atlantis by its discoverers, it's not actually the lost Atlantis of legend. As you can see from the cover art above, Atlantis is basically the eastern United States, broken off from North America and now situated in the middle of the Atlantic. Opening Atlantis follows the Radcliffe family through several generations after the founding of Atlantis. The book is divided into three parts. The first part is set in the mid-1400s during the War of the Roses, and follows Edward Radcliffe and his sons Richard and Henry as they discover Atlantis and bring the first wave of European settlers to this new world. The second part is set about two centuries later, and follows the confrontation between Red Rodney Radcliffe (pirate) and his cousin William Radcliff (who changed his last name so as not to be associated with his pirate cousin). The third part of the novel follows Victor Radcliff a few generations later, as he witnesses mounting tensions between English, French, and Spanish settlers, as well as tensions between the Europeans and their slaves.

I'll start with the good things about this book. I really, really liked the setting. It was really interesting to see how this imaginary extra continent was different from the real geography of the eastern USA, and Turtledove clearly had a lot of fun inventing imaginary animals to populate this new continent. I enjoyed the descriptions of the new continent a great deal. I also liked how this imaginary alternate history still followed a lot of the major trends of real history, with the tensions between the different nationalities of settlers and the eventual tensions between the Europeans and their slaves. In Turtledove's alternate history, there were no native people living on Atlantis, but the European explorers did go over to the main part of North America and take some of those native people as slaves in addition to the slaves brought over from Africa. The book ended with the clear intention of moving towards total independence for the settlers of Atlantis, which is another historical detail that is interesting to examine next to the real historical events.

Unfortunately, the cool setting and interesting alternate history were not enough to make this book good. First of all, I am not really a big fan of the structure of the book. At 440 pages, when the book is divided into three separate stories spaced centuries apart, the novel is essentially composed of three novellas. I would have strongly preferred to have one longer story with richer detail and more realistic characters. I can see how Turtledove clearly wanted to hit certain parts of history, and if he wanted to stay in a trilogy format for the whole series, he clearly had to do some condensing somewhere. However, it would have been really easy to just make it a four book series by making the first and third parts of this novel into their own novels, and omitting the really pointless pirate part entirely. At less than 100 pages, the pirate part of the book did nothing for me, and it really only seemed to exist so Turtledove could have an excuse to write about pirates and prostitutes and sea battles with explosions.

My next complaint is that I didn't really care for Turtledove's writing style a great deal. Stylistically, the book was nothing special, and there were a lot of places where I felt like something big was missing from the narrative. The dialog was mostly stiff and fake-sounding, with most characters sounding more-or-less exactly like the other characters. Also (this is completely a useless point, but still something that annoyed me), Turtledove used the word "squawk" too much. It seemed like every time a woman appeared on the page, she ended up squawking about something or squawking as she was startled or squawking as she fell off the bed. I don't know if the women in Turtledove's life are particularly squawk-y, but I found it kind of distracting, especially since there were very, very few women in the book at all.

Finally, the characters. Since no single character is in more than a third of the book, it was sort of hard to connect to any of them. Only two of them felt even vaguely real-ish to me (Edward Radcliffe and Victor Radcliff), but the majority of them seemed like caricatures (fisherman who pines for the sea, mountainman who pines for the mountains, pirate with a prostitute lover, etc). In addition to being flat and lifeless, none of them were very sympathetic characters. There were a few that I would probably be indifferent to, if I met them today, but most of them were kind of hateful. A great deal of this is probably due to Turtledove trying to keep them historically accurate, which unfortunately involves a lot of things like terrible racism (treating the "copperskins" from North America and the slaves from Africa like animals and expressing surprise that their rivals, the French and Spanish, were capable of being civilized). There was also a lot of really cavalier raping of the wilderness; at the beginning, men were slaughtering the giant birds of Atlantis just because they could do it easily, and they showed no remorse at basically devouring the new wilderness whole. Historical realism or not, my 21st-century brain has a really hard time connecting with these people, which made it sort of hard to care about whether they lived or died in their adventures.

In short, the premise of this book held a lot of promise and could have gone in interesting directions, had Turtledove chosen to format the book differently and develop the characters with more care. I still really like the idea of alternate history, and I still really like the island of Atlantis that Turtledove created, but I can't help but think that I'd rather read 440 pages of the giant birds that run around Atlantis, instead of bothering with the awful humans. I guess I'll stick with Eric Flint for my alternate history reading.

2/5 stars

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've only read three with this one of Harry Turtledove's gigantic back catalogue. I've had higly enjoyed the other two books, so only giving this 3 stars was a little disappointing. However I hope its not a common thing for me as I continue read his books. Can't love everything but really hope I'll enjoy many more

[Dj · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started off well even with the unacceptable premise of a huge land mass between Europe and North America not being 'discovered' prior to the time frame of the book. From what was implied but not actually stated it would seem to be around the time of the War of the Roses. But it bounces from one story to the next, not keeping it a coherent whole the only joining features are the same family is the foundation and the location. Each story changes the time frame and moves it forward dealing with issues that seem a little out of sync since they are taking place on the same massive landmass that wasn't found by accident/ or on purpose by all the sailors that roamed the Atlantic, like the Basque's who are suspected of fishing off the Grand Banks and not telling anyone about it, or the Vikings who told lots of people about Iceland, Greenland and even North America, although the last was written off as a fancy. Heck even the Irish should had a shot at finding it since they thought there was a paradise in that direction. The longer the 'story' goes on and the more often it changes the main character the less it works for the suspension of disbelief and the enjoyment of the fanciful situations.

[Lil · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have one word to describe this book. Rubbish!

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was surprised by this book. I hadn't heard anything about it and when I saw Turtledove, I expected something along the lines of his other books.

That's not what I got.

Some of the dialogue is awkward and the pace is uneven -- this isn't what I expected. Some of his phrasing is trite and has a contemporary feel, but it's peppered with the odd nautical or idiomatic expression that doesn't blend well with the rest. It seems forced, as if he's saying, "They'll find this little gem interesting, so I'll spackle it liberally through the pages."

I feel somewhat cheated in the way, with the breaking up of the book into sections, the storyline of interesting characters is abruptly truncated, rather than added to by successive chapters. All in all, it's enjoyable as a book, but a letdown as a Turtledove book. I'd reccommend it for a weekend read, but not as something you'd keep on your shelves.

[Jamie]

I started to read this book, but alas, I will not finish it. I cannot seem to get into the story, and even then, the story itself seems to be very boring. I do not want to waste my time on it as I have other more awesome books to read.

[Trike · Rating 1 out of 5]

My god this was boring. I’m guessing this is an alternate Earth since I don’t know of a way the east coast of America could find itself in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Turtledove never fails in creating new and interesting alternate history worlds. He has a keen grasp of economics and warfare, and can paint a pretty good picture of how things might have gone.

He lacks, however, the human touch. None of his characters ever really feel 3-D. They are simply props used to illustrate the course of his alternate history.

In this book, for example, we are given three novellas set in the mid-15th, late 16th and mid-18th centuries in a world where the eastern seaboard of North America is actually an island in the middle of the Atlantic. (Continental drift split the continent down the Appalachian Ridge instead of the mid-Atlantic Ridge.) So discovery of this new world, named Atlantis, happens earlier and colonization proceeds faster since it is closer to Europe than North America is.

We see the interactions between the English, French and Spanish colonies, along with the eventual subjugation of the entire continent by the British at the conclusion of what we would call the Seven Years' War. And the campaigns and history are very nicely drawn out. But the actual characters we see the world through are... flat.

Which is where Turtledove always falls down. I still read his books because they give you a lot to think about. But it's important to be aware of this major flaw in an otherwise compelling author.

[Erinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to admit I was glad to be over with this book. The first part was really interesting when they were settling Atlantis . I enjoyed how the main character was always working towards preventing war. The second part was ok but not into pirates. The third part about war was just not as interesting. I think if I was a guy and into war stories and fictional history I would be really into this book. However, I was expecting something else with the title of Opening Atlantis. Something more science fiction.

[Nadienne Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

What if the entire Eastern Seaboard of North America, or rather a landmass roughly equivalent to the original Thirteen Colonies, plus Florida and Nova Scotia/New Foundland was actually an island continent in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, hundreds of miles of the coast of "North America" (named Terranova in this setting) proper? That is the underlying premise behind this novel.

Of course, as an island continent, Atlantis has its own unique ecosystem, different than that from the mainland, with large ferns, redwoods, and flightless birds aplenty (at least at first).

This novel is essentially divided into three main sections, in which we follow the exploits of the Radcliffe family (one of the original settler families). The first section covers the initial founding of a settlement on Atlantis in the late 15th century. The second section covers the conflict between civilization and piracy on Atlantis in the late 17th century (with familial rivalry in place). And the final section deals with the result of inevitable international conflict between England and France on Atlantis, with both English Atlantis and French Atlantis fighting each other in the late 18th century.

In each section, we mainly follow the action alongside a descendant of the aforementioned Radcliffe family. Although, in the third section we do reacquaint ourselves with the descendant of one of the original French settler families, as well (whom we briefly met in the first section).

I actually found this novel to be a thoroughly enjoyable read, much less dense than many other works by Mr. Turteldove and quicker to read, which may be due to the fact that we aren't trying to follow a cast of numerous characters in settings ranging across the entire world which seems to be his usual hallmark. The action is limited in character and scope to just a few individuals and a couple of settings. I won't say whether I find this a positive or a negative, as that is completely dependent upon your own likes, dislikes, and reading style, but it is different from what I've come to expect from Mr. Turtledove and does seem to make the reading go by much faster despite its 500+ page count.

I would very much recommend this novel if you are a fan of historical fiction, alternate history, or Mr. Turtledove in general. However, there really isn't a major "what if?" question in this novel that requires much in the way of speculation or suspending disbelief. It is almost just a retelling of American history in a different setting (so far...there are two other novels in the series).

[Stephen Stirling · Rating 5 out of 5]

great story

It’s Harry Turtledove at his peak. What more need be said? You can’t do better than that, can you at all?

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Opening Atlantis by Harry Turtledove In this alternative history, Atlantis is a sizable land mass that sits in the Atlantic ocean between England and Terra Nova. Multiple generations of the Radcliffe family are followed in this book, starting in the 1400s during the War of the Roses. In Part 1, Edward Radcliffe and his family are the first Englishman to settle in Atlantis. Part 2 is set a few generations later. The family has split and William Radcliff wants nothing to do with his pirate cousin Red Rodney Radcliffe. Part 3 makes another jump in time and we follow Victor Radcliffe as his society comes to terms with slavery.
There was much to enjoy about this book. First, I really like how the author took this mythical land and made it a real place on the map, one to be discovered and settled in the 1400s. Since Atlantis has been isolated from other land masses for some time, there are some interesting critters. My inner biologist reveled in these details. Also, the flightless birds of various sizes made it easier for the new settlers to gain a foothold, the birds being easy to catch and cook. Yet there are some dangerous beasties as well, ones that can tear out a man’s vertebrae!
Since the book is divided into three parts, it was more like reading three novellas set in the same land but during different time periods. Since I wasn’t aware of that going into the book, I think I got the most attached to Edward and his two sons, Henry and Richard, from Part 1. They make the discoveries, set the sailing route to and from England, and also negotiate the first settler rights of the land. Also, this was a time of exploring the land and getting to know the wildlife, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
When we get to Part 2, Red Rodney’s daughter, Ethel, is the character that stole the show. She’s being raised by a roguish pirate and has aspirations of captaining her own pirate ship when she is grown. In fact, she is the only female character of note in the entire story. There are a few other ladies that get names; a few even get a few lines. While Ethel is a thoroughly enjoyable character, she doesn’t make up for the very obvious lack of integral female characters for the rest of the book.
Part 3 takes on a pretty serious subject: human slavery. Victor struggles with what he knows of slaves and former slaves he has befriended and what he knows about the economics of the day. Victor truly believes that Atlantis cannot continue to be a financially independent country without slavery to run the plantations that make up the backbone of economy. The author doesn’t turn a blind eye to the nastier side of slavery but he also doesn’t revel in the brutality of the subject.
Throughout the three parts, Atlantis is not solely British. The Spaniards and French also find their way to the large land mass and make settlements of their own. Eventually, there are clashes. Some of these rivalries are continuations of European wars; some of them are purely Atlantis squabbles. These interactions were mostly interesting and only sometimes got a little unwieldy, and hence, a little boring.
The Narration: Todd McLaren did a good job. He had distinct voices for all the male characters and the few female characters that had lines. His various accents were well done. His voice for Ethel was great!

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is boring. It's not the most boring in the world, but that's the one word I use to describe it in a nutshell. After the first third of the book, I realized it would not be about Atlantis in any kind of science fiction-y way -- no mysterious humanoids, no aliens, no lost civilizations, just an undiscovered island with new plant and animal life. It basically reads like an in-depth history book with some dialogue and a decent amount of amusing passages. I hope this isn't spoiling anything; actually, I hope it helps this novel get the audience it deserves.

I believe that a more thorough knowledge of pre-Revolutionary War American history would have helped me enjoy this book more.

It was clear to me by the third section that Atlantis is a clear parallel to America (known as Terranova in this book). This section of the novel takes place during the French and Indian War, and Atlantis' outcome is similar to America's in that the French settlements were basically turned over to the English. So why does the novel even bother taking place in Atlantis? I think simply having the book take place in North America would have not disappointed those of us that were hoping for science fiction.

History buffs may really enjoy this book with it's obvious parallels to history. I, on the other hand, was expecting monsters or aliens, and was left dissatisfied upon finishing the novel.

[Dave · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, a little over a month later I tried to come back to this book and pick up where I left off deep into section 3.

No dice, tired of it after finishing the final 3 pages of Chapter 23. Pulled the bookmarker out and chunked it into the resell bag. A fist ever for any Harry Turtledove speculative fiction.

Far to grand in it ambitions? I don't know but this book really started to suffer from a disconnect after the first generational skip and the second did not improve at all.

In section three harry loses touch with his grand history and starts to write too much from a eye-level account of a small unit tactician. There is no story here at all, no peoples or culture, just a roving band of backwoods warriors that seem to travel the length and breadth of this fictional island continent at will despite moving on foot in 18 Century fashion.

Buh-bye...

[Cynthia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually like alternate-history books, but this one disappoints. It's actually fantasy to me. Plus I usually like this author, but didn't like the style this time around. It wasn't clear to me what the change(s) were to history except for the existence of Atlantis - which you know about from the title - maybe I just don't know enough detailed history, but that was frustrating. Some of the characterizations were very well-done, and some of the plot suspenseful, but unfortunately that portion was less than a third of the whole book. I liked the second and third sections less than the first; they seemed to move alternately too quickly and too slowly through time and events. Then the ending came suddenly, the book just seemed to have stopped. Oh well.

[Brian Maicke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't think I will continue with the series. I had high hopes for the premise (What if Atlantis existed?) but rather than a traditional Atlantis with a lost civilization type story, it is simply an island that has not seen any human settlements in its long history.

The history story itself was somewhat interesting but moved slowly in places. The division of the book into three sections separated by generations was reminiscent of Steven Saylor's Roma, but did not seem to work as well. It was hard to feel a sense of continuity between the sections and made the book feel even slower in places.

Not a bad read for an alt-history fan, but I don't think I'd recommend it to a general audience or to someone with an interest in Atlantis type stories.

[Joanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, my family brought this to me to read in Russia, and they based their decision to bring this on "What Jo will like reading, but not be too committed to to bring home." Exactly. It's an alternate history of the New World, but doesn't seem to differ enough from the actual history of North America to make it innovative or even that interesting. It jumps around, chronicling the descendants of the "first settlers" in the mid-1400's until the eighteenth century, but the style is such that I neither feel for the characters nor care about what they do.

[Sulivan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish this book was better, because the premise was very interesting: an alternate history starting in the 15th century, as if there were actually a continent in the Atlantic between North America and Europe. The book is interesting...but in my opinion just not very well-written.

Yeah, having finished it that pretty much sums up my opinon of this one.

[Bobbi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Difficult to relate to the characters. Storyline is there, but too hastily assembled. Hard to plow forward when my emotions are left roadside. I think this author had a couple hits, then phoned this one in.

[Clay Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting story about discovering a new world

[C. Simpson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Especially after listening to Turtledove's The Guns of the South, this Goodwill find did not quite live up to my expectations for alternate histories. After that previous Turtledove book, I thought that Turtledove's strength was simply introducing an unexpected disruption into historic narratives, in a fresh, well-researched, and believable style. In The Guns of the South, that device for disruption was largely technologic (a series of tools), whereas in this novel, it was largely geographic (a much closer new world discovered and settled by European powers well before America was.)

However, this book lacked an anchoring depth provided by well-researched, actual historical figures (such as Lincoln and General Lee in The Guns). Turtledove not only has these historic figures engage with his chosen disruptive device, but rather infamously (for modern sensibilities, that is) allowing them to speak in their own words, pulling from their private journals and writings, and believing them to be real, sincere characters. While Opening Atlantis featured some historical figures such as Edward IV and Charles Cornwallis, they are sparsely mentioned and distant from the story's setting and plot. An exiled Richard Neville gets a bit more screen time, but his character feels stereotypically flat, fat, and vicious, a 'noble' completely unable to appeal to residents or readers of Atlantis.

Where this book had the potential for depth was in following families through the exploration and colonization of Atlantis, with each part many generations apart, and the book itself spanning several centuries. But, the continuity between the family lines feels lacking, limited to passing references, outside of some similarities in disposition, and ultimately failing to build on previous character's contributions.

In short, despite my affinity for Opening Atlantis's themes of exploration and colonization, there are few deep fictional or historical characters to root for, leaving me wishing I had just read a good adventure story. I don't expect this book claim valuable shelf space, nor do I expect to continue this particular trilogy, despite the next one being set up for an American revolution. But, I might revisit other Turtledove books that more prominently feature dynamic historical characters.

[Walt Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Turtledove is very much a historian--but deals in alternate history in most of his books. The "alternate" in this case is an Australia-size eighth continent about a third of the way from North America to Europe, first discovered in the 15th century by some Breton cod fishermen (truly discovered in this case. not colonized) who've found a great new fishing ground. No indigenous people, lots of novel but plausible plants and animals.

In the first third, the continent's (or fishing ground's) location is divulged to an English fisherman for the price of one-third of a boatload's catch. That section, set around 1450-1470, deals with early settlers--in this case, not settling for religious reasons but either as fisherfolk (and supporting folks) or folks who just want to be left alone.

The second portion jumps ahead two centuries and deals with some differences among the groups from England, France and Spain who've settled in the north, center and south of Atlantis, and the arrival of a British Lord who decides he should be the Lord or King of this self-ruling place. Notably, descendants of the first fishermen (both Breton and British) continue to factor into the story.

The third jumps to the 18th century, when the reasonably-independent Atlantis communities become embroiled in a French/British war.

I read some of the earlier reviews before deciding whether to write a review. For me, Turtledove's style is appropriate, and I appreciate the historical plausibility. I found myself engrossed and look forward to the two other books. (I'd read one other Turtledove novel, but not one of his multivolume alternative histories. That will change.)

[Nathan Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many of us remember what we were taught in school about Columbus, the Mayflower, and the subsequent settling of the vast, untracked wilderness of America by Europeans. And we may also remember that crushing WTF moment when we later learned that most of that was not just incorrect, but downright wrong on so many levels. In this novel, alternate-history master Turtledove suggests what might have happened had a sliver of the New World actually been unpeopled, and how history might have progressed both differently and yet recognizably. While his writing style doesn't always mesh with me--as I found to my disappointment in his Supervolcano trilogy--I remained fascinated by his worldbuilding and his grasp on how history tends to pivot in the real world. But also like the Supervolcano novels, I often had trouble rooting for his protagonists--even though this time, I think part of the point was that every family tree has multiple black sheep and that even our real-world Founding Fathers weren't necessarily good guys. I "read" the audiobook, which seemed like a collection of novellas spanning two-plus centuries, each of which I felt almost could have been a novel on its own had it been fleshed out more.

[Eric Leeson · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a way, an idealized version of the colonization of the Americas. A separate continent that encloses the original Thirteen Colonies, completely uninhabited by Humans; it is colonized, fought over and carved into separate states with European origins. These then war and fall under the power of the British crown, just as in history. All without the genocide of a native human population.

Slavery still exists, tribes and nations from both the Americas and Africa populate the plantations of the South and provide the lifeblood of trade. No one thinks this is unfair, nor unjust as money is the object of everyone's desires.

I found this story entertaining, if not very original. The only major difference being that the human cost of colonization, while still significant, would not be as destructive as in true history. I am unsure if I will continue this series. Only time will tell.

[HeyT · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this more than I did because the author seems cool enough on socials but this felt very long and drawn out. It's basically three novellas tied together by generational lines of one family with part two taking place 100 years after part one and part three 200 years after part two. Basically the premise is that there is a strange land mass in the Atlantic ocean between Europe and North America with creatures that are both different and similar to those we know of in the real world. Alternate histories are all well and good but there is definitely some jarring 'realism' that creates uncomfortable reading when confronted with things like racism and antisemitism. Most of the characters are slightly flawed so there's no true 'good guys' because every one is definitely more gray. Overall, I would not have read this if it was not on the SFFBC backlist and I can't say I would recommend it to anyone.

[Bau Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Opening Atlantis is an intriguing book that pretty much takes a reimagining of the settlement of the Americas and throws it on this island. All for a third of a boatload of cod. Either way, this book covers a whole lot of ground, picking up three specific time periods primarily following the Radcliffe family as they first sail over from England, then defend their new home. I do like that we do get some of those historic themes like slavery and nationalistic loyalty, but some of the individual character motivations leave a lot to be desired.

For those of you who like reading alternative history, with a little bit of speculative ideas thrown in, then you should check out this read. Just be sure to be in the mindset to do so, or else the read will be slow going.

[Terynce · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book because of the title. It's not at all related to the stories of the lost continent. That's not necessarily a negative, but wasn't at all what I was expecting. What started as a story of exploration and newness became an expository story of the struggles of war. A few choice lines and clever criticism were sprinkled throughout, but by the time war was declared the entire story became a lot less interesting in my view.

I borrowed the second book from the library at the same time as this one, but I think it's going back. I'm just not engaged enough.

[Erick Mertz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Turtledove writes to the tightest formula, 20 page chapters, breaks every 6-7 pages. His style is drumbeat tight, no variation, no experiments. It’s almost ordinary.

I like the first Atlantis installment, highly recommended for anyone who likes alternative history. The appeal in this, like any Turtledove book, is the imagined wrinkles in history. Plenty of historical fact meets historical fiction. It’s a bit light, but sufficient.

I do like that this book took on a single family history, for the most part. The alternative historical account is more digestible that way.