Customer Reviews

Atlantis: Bermuda Triangle

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

CIA agent Foreman meets with former Green Beret Eric Dane and apparent agent Sin Fen to discuss the Shadows. No one knows much about these invaders that try to enter the earth's surface through scattered gates such as those found in the Bermuda Triangle, Cambodia's Angkor, and Japan's Devil Sea. However, Forman worries that the enemy now possesses nuclear missile capability as the USS Wyoming vanished in the Bermuda Triangle gate.

The Shadows send nuclear missiles that strike the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where two tectonic plates lie. Apparently, the Shadows plan to cause pandemic destruction to a degree that the planet has not felt since the collapse of Atlantis in 10,000 BC. Dane and Fen must find the long lost "shield" that will protect the planet if humanity is to survive an enemy that wants to end mankind's reign.

ATLANTIS: BERMUDA TRIANGLE is an exciting military science fiction work that will please fans of non-stop action thrillers. Though Greg Donegan adds a little bit of this mythology and that myth into his mix, the tale remains entertainingly fun as long as the reader allows his or her credibility to be parked on the sidelines. Action, action, and more action is the theme of this plot as Dane and his forces try to stop an enemy whose long term strategic vision (thousands of years) is the mass destruction of Homo sapiens.

Harriet Klausner

I've always loved Doherty's books. And this book, Atlantis - Bermuda Triangle - has a great storyline.

Here's the problem - it is unbelievable how many spelling errors there are in the Kindle version of this novel. I'm not exaggerating when I say that you can hardly get through 3 pages on-screen without finding one. Now, I'm no professional proofreader (maybe I should be), but that many errors is inexcusable. It completely disrupts the flow of the book, your brain having to decipher what in the world you just read.

And twice, believe it or not, the book had the wrong character talking! In a conversation between Dane and Sin Fen, all of a sudden Ariana was speaking, even though she wasn't in the "scene." Then it reverted back to Sin Fen. The second had a recently-dead captain speaking (about himself, I might add), then reverted back to the one that the reader KNEW to be alive and in the current conversation. I mean, c'mon, proofreaders...seriously?

I'd recommend this book to Doherty fans, but be prepared to jump through some mental hoops as you navigate the ungodly amount of errors.

This series has had kind of a rough time here on the review boards. While I can understand why some have been disappointed and mostly agree with those who endorsed it I am still left with the feeling that everyone has rather missed the meaning and the meat of the story...
IT'S ABOUT WAR. It's about why we fight, how we do it, what it takes to keep on fighting and, in the end... that war across time, distance (both geographically and spiritually) and culture links us all in the greater struggle of trying to determine whether what we are fighting for is as meaningful, or is even for the reasons, that we think. From the Vikings and the Druids, to the Romans, Custer's Last Stand and the bloody fields of Gettysburg... the human condition seems to play itself out, for good or ill, on the battlefields we engage on. Granted, this plays out via a story that traces a group of people fighting an "ultimate" battle of sorts against a great foe of this planet whose attacks on humans spans a multitude of Earth timelines that go from Atlantis to the not-so-distant future. But, unlike many others, I never felt locked into the idea that it was THIS particular story that was the one that really mattered. In my mind, it was this part of the story that is used to demonstrate how TRULY IMPORTANT the other stories really are... And ironically, this would not have been a topic I would normally have been drawn to. I like science fiction and enjoy a good battle in a well-written story. But, for example, I stay away from The Honor Harrington books because I'm just not that big a fan of the battle scenes. But the Atlantis series was able to draw me in as if I could actually have been there. And because I have some knowledge of the battles G. Donegan recounts and some understanding of the men involved in them, I felt almost intimately connected to what was happening. Without doubt, I enjoyed the series and I also think I'm going to do some reading on the history of some of the battles and then go back and read the series again. Which, in my mind, makes the series quite successful!...... Are there some problems with the evolution of the story line? Probably. Does it end abruptly, and without some of the details all neatly resolved? Yes. But I think it's our job as the reader to determine what is important to come away with and WHY what we take away is important. It's not what you'd expect..... But isn't that a good thing? IMHO, it is!

;-)

This is the sequel to "Atlantis," the first foray into this odd mix of military battles, supernatural events, and mystical goings-on. I did like some of the basic premise behind the story line, with the tectonic fault lines. That was a clever addition to this kind of genre. The moving between time frames was pretty well done but the language was never handled right. Even in 999 CE you still felt like you were listening to people who were talking in 2001 CE. (Poul Anderson is an author who handled this kind of thing very well.)

My biggest problem with the first book was that Donegan did not even make a pretense of fitting his story within any sort of history on this planet - something these books generally do, at least to some degree. And in this book he has the same problems. His Khmer history is still off, as it was in the first book. He has Angkor Wat being built around 998 CE or before that. Wrong. It was built by Suryavarman II (who did not even begin his rule until 1113 CE). He has one character in 999 CE being from Angkor Thom, which was not started until the time of Jayavarman VII (between 1181 and 1218 CE). He also does the oldest trick in the book: high runes. Donegan says: "Modern scholars aren't certain where or how it originated, but they have noted some similarities between Viking runes and the runes used by other ancient cultures." The runic language, however, was created by the Teutonic peoples. The Teutonic Runic system was used by the Goths, the Visigoths, the Vandals and many other Teutonic Tribes of the era. The Visigoths are the ones that sacked Rome and thus it was also carried into areas like Gaul. The Norse/Vikings of the tenth through the twelfth centuries also used this type of languag as did the Saxons who invaded the isle of Great Britain. The problem is we know where it derived: the original Teutonic tribes. We know that the runic system was in use from approximately 400 CE to around 1200 CE.

Now I know many people might say: "Geez, lighten up! This is fiction." True - but the key to making good fiction about these alien encounter stories is at least getting some of the history right. In other words, take a few mysteries from the past and weave a story around them. Donegan's facts are in many cases wrong even about the established history of such things like I just talked about that it made it hard for me to suspend by disbelief, even for a work of fiction.

Donegan also screws up his physics. He mentions a "Cerenkov detector" and he says Cerenkov light is "produced when an electrically charged particle traveled through water." This is so patently wrong as to be laughable to anyone with even a little background in physics. (Cerenkov light is a consequence of the motion of a charged particle with a speed that is greater than the speed of light in the same medium. No particle can exceed the speed of light in a vacuum (c), but in materials with an index of refraction represented by n, the particle velocity v will be greater than the velocity of light if v > c/n. Not that difficult.) He also equates photons with gamma particles (at least in their properties) when describing one of his experiments. He also states that neutrinos were known as a fundamental building block in the 1930s. Not true. Wolfgang Pauli suspected its existence in 1930 but it was not found until 1956.

Forgetting all that for a moment: if you are capable of completely suspending any notions of a semi-realistic story and if you like alien encounter stories and are not worried about flaws in the basic research, you will probably really like this book (particularly if you liked the first one in the series). If you can put aside the various flaws in the book, you may still enjoy the story because there are a lot of interesting elements here. However, for me, I got the feeling that the author just wants to showcase as many oddities as possible in history and then sort of tack a story onto that. Normally I like that but the problem is that some of the "oddities" Donegan presents are not oddities at all when you do even the most minimal of research.

For some reason when I read "Atlantis" and now this sequel I just had a very time believing that this is the same author of "The Rock" and "Area 51." (Greg Donegan and Robert Doherty are the same person.) There are enough elements here to make the book minimally interesting. To alien buffs, they will like it no matter what. To those who may be alien buffs but like a little more brains to their stories, this one may fail to please. I give it three stars just because it did have some interesting elements in it that were a new addition to this genre.

Prior familiarity with other 'Atlantis' titles is not required for a quick and easy introduction to this latest, which tells of regions on Earth where 'gates' are portals through which alien beings can attack the planet. A scientist searches the past to unravel the key to these gates and entities in Atlantis: Bermuda Triangle, a fast-paced action story which keeps the reader guessing until the end.

I can't believe I invested the time to read the second book in this series. It is a time waster, but hard to put down. I'm fighting off the urge to continue reading the rest of the series, but I know I'll regret wasting the time if I give in. Ugh!

I have downloaded all the Atlantis Series on my Kindle. Read them one right after the other. The story line is fantastic. Really makes a person think. The writing is top notch. Mayer certainly knows how to tell a good story. The characters are rich and really fly off the page. I couldn't wait to get to the next one in the series.

If the author could get past describing every little nook and cranny of everything in the book and get on with the story I might actually finish this book-- kindle version. I guess for those who are science/technology buffs this could be fun but if you just want a good entertaining read forget it.

Kept me from getting bored, book is a great read if you keep your mind open to possibilities.

I enjoyed reading the Atlantis series, although at times it seemed to drag a bit but overall a great read. Good for passing time.

I picked up the first book on a whim. I wasn't expecting much after the first couple chapters, but the further thru the book I read the more I couldn't put it down.

This installment in the series I didn't want to stop reading from the moment I opened it up. After the first book, you already knew most of the characters in te book, and the flow interweaving past to present was a great touch. I can't wait to get the next book and so forth until I finish the series.

I highly suggest this book to anyone, as long as you read the first book beforehand, otherwise this book wouldn't make a lot of sense.