Customer Reviews

Atlantis Endgame: A New Time Traders Adventure

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

 

 

Atlantis Endgame (2002) is the seventh novel in the Time Traders series, following Echoes in Time. It tells the further adventures of Ross Murdock, his wife, Eveleen Riordan, and his partner, Gordon Ashe. It also adds a new character, Linnea Edel, an old acquaintance of Gordon.

In this story, Linnea has found an anachronistic earring with a modern jeweler's mark in a site on Thera, the probable location of legendary ancient Atlantis. While interesting in and of itself, it becomes extremely intriguing when found to be identical to an earring belonging to Eveleen. This existence of this object in ancient layers of soil suggests that it was lost circa 1628 BC, shortly before the island was destroyed by an huge volcanic eruption.

The Project suspects Baldie intervention in the eruption and intends to send a team back in time to investigate. The Russian time travel group cooperates with the Project to send a small ship with six agents aboard back to Kalliste, the ancient name of Thera before the eruption.

From there, they travel to Akrotiri -- the major town on the island -- where they discover signs of Baldie tech in the volcano vents both on land and in the sea. Later a group of Baldies are seen on the beach, apparently looking for indications of THEM. They also find a Baldie ship in the sea, but can't locate the Baldie onshore base. They do find a couple of Fur Faces, a alien sentient species encountered only once before; however, they do not seem to be allies of the Baldies.

The natives are anxiously awaiting word from their oracle, but nothing new has been spoken in the past few months. Some Kallistans have left the island anyway, terrified by the frequent earthquakes and the steam, smoke, ash and rock ejected by the volcano. Linnea claims to be an Egyptian Earth-Goddess priestess to infiltrate the Oracle's household and is there when the seer orders the evacuation of the island.

This novel is driven by the imminent threat of eruption, so is more like a hit and run than the almost leisurely exploration in the other tales in this series. The team are all disappointed by the lack of opportunity to study this almost unknown culture, but Linnea, the newcomer, is particularly frustrated by the time limit.

Recommended for all Norton fans and anyone who enjoys tales of ancient societies in a SF setting. For those who have not previously read this series, the initial volume is The Time Traders.

-Arthur W. Jordin

I wanted to like this book, and after the flawed but acceptable 6th installment in the series (Echoes in Time), by this same guest author, I had high hopes for it.

Unfortunately, very little about the plot of this book makes sense. It violates Norton canon for the series in several particulars, even points that Sherwood Smith had adherred to in the previous volume.

Throughout the series the Time Agents always discuss how careful they must be in the past so that they do not upset events leading to their own future, and indeed they discuss this, and think this, many times in this book. However, they splice that in with serious thoughts about saving an ancient civilization about to be destroyed by a major volcanic blast. One of the characters even thinks to herself, in consecutive sentences in the book, "I will only observe and learn what I can, without interferring. My mission is to save these people". ROFL Sadly, just pathetic. And in fact, the mission is to MAKE SURE that history is not altered and these people are NOT saved, and the character is WELL aware of that!

The characters seems to flip-flop back and forth between making sure the explosion occurs (their actual mission) and thinking that they have to save the civilization.

Somehow the star-faring civilization that has been their nemesis since Book One is now a time traveling civilization as well, which has never been the case thru six previous books. They also are from the 'future', but in the future, as we well know from SIX PREVIOUS BOOKS, all remnants of their civilization are ancient ruins!! Another LOL

So what else does this book have going for it, since any logic and continuity fails? Well, they go back in time to "Atlantis". (Not really, but evidently someone thought that putting that in the title was worth more sales). So maybe there is a charming period piece when the characters are in the past? Not really. The civilization they encounter is pretty drab and boring, and the characters have very little contact with it, at least that is described in any detail.

This is a rare book that I wanted to put down in the middle, in fact exactly at the point where I read the two sentence (para-phrased) quote noted above.

I'm writing this despite being a life long Andre Norton fan. Of course, Norton had nothing to do with this book other than having furnished the original premise and some of the characters decades ago. What we have here is Sherwood Smith not paying any attention to what Norton had revealed, nor even what Smith herself had revealed in book six!

There are MANY other logical impossibilities in the book than those I have already mentioned. Life's too short to list them all. Sadly, with seven books in the series, I'd have to recommend stopping after the second. Five books later I now wish that I had.

At a dig on the Mediterranean island of Thera, archeologist Linnea Edel finds a modern day earring buried amidst the ruins of artifacts from 1600 BC. Not knowing how the jewelry could be among these ruins, Linnea shows her anachronistic finding to her old friend Dr. Gordon Ashe, who is stunned by what she shows him.

Gordon shows the earring to his Time Patrol associates. Each reacts similarly that someone, probably the alien "Baldies," went back in time and disrupted the continuum. The team knows they must travel to Ancient Greece to Plato's Atlantis to ascertain whether the aliens are changing history by destroying a key link in the advancement of technology.

ATLANTIS ENDGAME is an exciting action adventure tale that never slows down for even a nanosecond. Andre Norton and Sherwood Smith cleverly use Atlantis as the latest base of operations of the Baldies that forces the chronology patrol squad to try to correct a seemingly minor anachronism that could snowball into the end of technology before it can begin on Planet Earth. Fans of the Time Traders series adventure (see ECHOES IN TIME) will want to travel along with Andre Norton and Sherwood Smith on this delightful trek in time.

Harriet Klausner

This book is an exicting story which moves at a brisk pace. But it is part of a series, and in this book the principle heavies are revised to be ecologists. It does not fir the earlier portrayals of the baldies at all!
In the first two books of the series the baldies were the (ruthless) dominant race of an interstellar empire. The revision of their charactor and motives does not fit the earlier books in the series. That was a very jarring element to me.
Even so, the book was an excellent read.

When archeologists discover a modern earing burried beneath tons of lava, they see an anomoly. Scientists at the time project see something different. A possible attempt by aliens to redirect human history, destroying the modern world. A small team of project agents are sent back to the ancient Greece of Minoan civilization--and Atlantis itself--to ensure that humanity's destiny is not subverted.

Before the ancient civilization of Kalliste was destroyed in a huge volcanic explosion, it had achieved technological levels not seen again until modern times. Clearly the world would have been transformed had it survived--but would the transformation have been for the better? Authors Andre Norton and Sherwood Smith add a degree of ethical complexity to a science fiction adventure. The project agents think that they are doing the right thing, but so do the two separate groups of aliens that they face.

The Time Traders series formed a part of many baby boomers introduction to science fiction and still holds power today. Norton and Smith's decision to add ethical complexity to the adventure gives strength to ATLANTIS ENDGAME. Young adult readers will find Norton and Smith's style to be approachable while more mature readers will find a deceptive intellectual subtlty. Emotional depths, however, are only hinted at.

I found the book looked like it just came off a brand new book store shelf. Andre norton SI/FI has always been my favorate.