Customer Reviews

Atlantis Rising

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

 

 

Inexplicata gives this book five stars (* * * * *)

About thirty years ago, a schoolboy walked into a local bookstore and noticed a misplaced book: a paperback with a Frank Frazetta cover had been inadvertently placed in the science fiction section when it should have been in the esoterica aisle (as it was called back then). Intrigued, he leafed through it and found himself spending at least half an hour reading at the store, too irresistible to put down. After buying it, he continued perusing its contents on the bus back home; the next day, the book accompanied him to school, where he read it during class time, keeping it from the watchful, restless eyes of the nuns at his school.

The book with the Frazetta cover was called Atlantis Rising, its author was Brad Steiger, and the inquisitive schoolboy was me.

Atlantis was always a name to charm anyone with an interest in antiquity, real or legendary. Comic books like Korg: 70,000 BC pitted cavemen against red-tunicked Atlanteans with high technology, Robert E. Howard's Conan The Barbarian was set in the centuries after the fall of Atlantis. Movies about Atlantis and its lethal death rays filled the afternoon hours: Captain Nemo found Atlantis; James Bond destroyed it in The Spy Who Loved Me. In the 19th century, supporters of the lost continent rioted in the streets for love of their idealized paradise. But all of these references were clearly framed in the realm of fiction. Atlantis Rising was the first book in paperback form to reach an audience who knew about Atlantis, but not nearly enough. A book that reach deep into the bag of mystery to give its readers a feel for the multiple and marvelous theories regarding the lost continent in what we tentatively refer to as the "real world".

It took Brad Steiger's gift of making the arcane accessible to the unspecialized reader, supporting his texts with facts, figures and dates, to make the drowned continent emerge from its watery grave on paper. A reader who might have heard of Ignatius Donnelly's Atlantis: The Antediluvian World was now treated to the prophecies of Edgar Cayce, the underwater research of Dr. Manson Valentine, the possibility of Atlantis still surviving in our day and age as an undersea civilization responsible for UFO phenomena, and the possibility that certain mystics among us were in touch - through what later became known as "channeling" - with entities from the lost continent. No longer was Atlantis confined to the sword-and-sandal world of Harryhausen's Atlantis: The Lost Continent (and its convincing ray gun) but a place, or at least a concept, approached by these multiple theories.


Particularly stunning was a chapter whose title still carries a distinctive ring in later years - "An Inner Earth Empire of Masters and Monsters." It is quite possible that to many readers, this was their first taste of the writings of Richard Shaver and theories involving the Elder Race and their descendants: the Apollonian Teros and the insanely Dionysian Deros, misguidedly using the "mech" of the Elder Race to cause mayhem among surface dwellers and further debase themselves. No concept or image could be further from the concept of a pseudo-Grecian Atlantis whose towers, brave warriors and fair ladies slipped into the drink after a storm that forever changed the world and made the Atlantic Ocean supposedly unnavigable for generations.

It's difficult to render an objective opinion on a work that has meant so much to so many over the past three decades, and is now available to a whole new readership thanks to Galde Press. My own reading of Atlantis Rising was set against the background of Puerto Rico's nearly constant UFO activity in the 1970s and the belief that the island was one of the remnants of the lost continent, a notion bolstered by the presence of the enigmatic mountain rainforest of El Yunque and the affirmations of many sensitives and mystics of its affiliation to the sunken continent. Human disappearances at this site, and the reports of impish beings, could easily feed into a belief of Dero mischief. The contemporary reader will be treated to theories and cases that go beyond the routine paranormal fare of ghosts and Roswell, and those who read it in the past may find themselves remembering concepts that faded from memory over the years under the weight of new information and insights.

The bottom line: if you are a student of the paranormal, read Atlantis Rising. If you are interested in the possibility of a pre-human civilization whose legacy surrounds us in the shape of inexplicable works of architecture and strange artifacts, read Atlantis Rising. If you are an enthusiast of the Atlantis of fiction, expand your horizons by reading this book and you may never think about comics, movies or boardgames the same way again. I can only hope that thirty years from now, some other young person sets aside whatever electronic entertainment the future has in store for them and comes across a copy of this seminal work. Read it and be enlightened!

-- Scott Corrales, INEXPLICATA
The Journal of Hispanic Ufology

I've come to count on one thing these past ten years...every time Brad or Sherry Steiger release another book, I'm in for several subsequent nights of sleep depravation.
Republished from it's original release in 1973, and with a new forward by Frank Joseph, "Atlantis Rising was, and still is, one of the premiere texts on any theory about the lost continent of Atlantis. At the time of it's original writing, I was a boy growing up in very rural Arkansas, and the only exposure I had to this was on one of the three channels we were able to receive...documentaries by Rod Serling, and just about to be fired up, the legendary series "In Search Of..." At the time, I had a passive interest in the esoteric, but 15 years later (and to this day), it would change into a life consuming quest, after rudely being plunged into real-life paranormal events that continue to this day.
I've always had an interest in Atlantis and USO's (Unidentified Submerged Objects) ever since my first summer job three years later, as a bait boy on my uncle's commercial fishing vessel. The open seas are a strange place, and seeing as we've explored a pitiful fraction of what lies under our oceans, combined with stories reaching back to the beginning of written history, you can't help but feel there is some truth to the stories of Atlantis (not to mention with all the evidence that points to prior civilizations and the fact that our civilization exploded out of nowhere).
If you've ever wondered about Atlantis, this book just about covers it all...possible high civilizations prior to academically accepted history, ancient sea exploration and explorers, early historical teachings, the extra-dimensional connection, inner earth, the occult version, Edger Cayce and the view of the rise of Atlantis in regard to Armageddon. As usual, Brad's clear readability and excellent categorization makes all these topics easy to follow and understand, and leads us to formulate many of our own questions and theories. Again, remember that this is a reprint from 25 years ago...when originally published, the only other books in it's category were "Chariots of the Gods" and books on the Bermuda Triangle, so also remember that this information was incredible and clear for the time of it's original publishing.
Looking over several reviews of Brads books, there is also something I must make clear...all the scathing reviews I see seem to mostly come form "academic know-it-alls" If you are looking for purely scientific write-ups, this material is not for you. Brad relies, and is one of the best at what has become a lost art...pure journalism. Research, gathering stories and material, and presenting them without cramming them down your throat with lofty opinions...he presents them for you to decide (what to think of them). His purpose is just to make you think, and he does that very well. Remember how I opened this review, knowing that when I pick up a Steiger book, that I'm in for several nights of sleep depravation? It's because I'm about to be presented with material not only hard to put down, but that I know I'm going to stay awake long hours pondering and formulating my own theories, and "Atlantis Rising is no exception!

Brad Steiger is one of a handful of writers in this difficult field who is able to keep a clear head, tell a great story, and inspire a person to think for him or herself. He has elegant common sense and is a man who writes very, very, well. Many people have borrowed his research and ideas and then written poor imitations of the original work. This is the real thing. If you haven't read this book yet, be sure to do so.

This book was okay. Brad Steiger isn't my favorite author, and a lot of his books are from the 70's.

I came across Brad Steiger in Fate magazine, and I was studying Fate due to my interest in Fortean phenomena. My educational and professional backgrounds are post-grad engineering, so I am a bit more pragmatic than most. However, I try to keep an open mind; science has not yet explained "it all".

Understand that Steiger's approach is entirely anecdotal. Details are stilted, and his leaps of fantasy are legion. He begins with a specific intent and thesis, and all that follows is tailored to fit.

However, it is certain that Earth has hosted advanced civilizations in the distant past. There is no way in Hell you will convince me that slave labor enabled the Egyptians to erect the pyramids. Furthermore, there is no proof whatsoever, that the great pyramids were intended as a gravesite for pharoah.

Whether Lemuria and Atlantis ever existed is not really answered in this book. Solid evidence is lacking. While there may be mythological references to Earthian roots in the Pleiades or Andromeda constellations, again, where is the proof, or at least, corroboration? You may not necessarily want the beast fully fleshed out by an author, but you at least expect the bones, framework to establish a mind excursion. Steiger manages only to provide vapor. He is a good storyteller, for certain; you may want him around a campfire. Don't make him your only reference into the unknown.

At best, this work is entertaining, and thought-provoking for those readers who are in Steiger's fold. The open-minded reader will require many more facts before mind-bending over ante-deluvian civilzations. Steiger lacks the research skills of a Linda Moulton Howe, and the absence of documentation and corroboration overwhelm his writing talent.

For a much more scholarly approach, please check out the books of Glenn
Kimball. He has taken a methodical, deeply researched study that anyone should appreciate. Now this material is thought-provoking.

Again, buyer beware. Steiger's stories translate well as magazine articles, but lack substance when expanded into book format.