Battle for Atlantis [Paperback]

Greg Donegan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 3, 2004

Traveling through different dimensions--where Washington, D.C., is desolate and Nazi swastikas fly from the Eiffel Tower of modern Paris-ex-Green Beret Eric Dane and his Navy SEALS must take the fight to humanity's most ancient enemy-to save a dying planet...

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (February 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425194531
• ISBN-13: 978-0425194539
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,215,386 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nuggets of Good Amid Disappointment, February 9, 2004

By 

M. Keck (Upper Midwest) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Battle for Atlantis (Paperback)

I'll be frank: The conclusion to Greg Donegan's "Atlantis" series of books left me less than satisfied.

I did not appreciate having to wade through pages and pages of battle re-enactments (this time Gettysburg 1863 and southern Africa 1879) that had no surprising or "wow, gee-whiz" effect on the plot. The readers by now know that the crystal skulls are powered in unique ways, having learned this from previous novels. So why waste the time to devote a third of the concluding novel to battle re-enactments? Methinks the author has a penchant for writing about historical battles, and the "Atlantis" series - particularly the last two novels - were simply nice vehicles for partaking in this hobby of his. Hey, that's great, really. But I'm here to read about Atlantis, not Custer's last stand. Not about the machinations of Gettysburg. If I want that, Donegan, I shall gladly choose from one of the historical texts on my bookshelf.

Another impression I had was that Donegan seemed to be writing in a hurry, almost as if he wanted to get the "Atlantis" series over and done with so he could move on to other things (the Noseferatu series by Robert Doherty [aka Donegan] comes to mind here). Donegan spends a lot of time building up the Shadow over the six-book series, only to tie up their entire storyline in a span of 20 to 30 pages. I don't know if the words I'm using are conveying my meaning - basically, I felt the conclusion came way too abruptly.

All the negative stuff aside, I did appreciate a few things in the concluding book of Donegan's "Atlantis" series.

One, I enjoyed the alternate timeline set in 2078. Why did I like it? Because it was original. Donegan actually had to think about the environs of this timeline, rather than simply using an old battle (i.e. Gettysburg, Custer, etc.) to frame it with. In other words, he couldn't pull a history book out of his back pocket and go from there. He had to use his imagination.

Secondly, I rather enjoyed who the Shadow turned out to be. I would have liked to have had the opportunity to read more about them, and how they became so evil.

Thirdly, the role of cetaceans in the "Atlantis" series of books is pretty neat, although I did have a rather hard time suspending disbelief during some scenes. Nonetheless, it mostly "clicked" with me, if you get my drift.

Overall, I'd recommend this novel to anyone who's read the series so far, simply to get closure. If you're new to the series, rest assured that the first four novels are very good. It's up to you if you want to delve into the series after that point, knowing the last two novels aren't as strong (in my opinion, of course).

M. Keck

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nothing new. Story ends., April 30, 2004

By 

SouthernFried "southernfried" (San Antonio, Tx) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Battle for Atlantis (Paperback)

I have read all the Area 51 and Atlantis series. I gotta admit, this was the most disappointing book of 'em all.

Remember how the crystal skulls were charged during the previous book during Custers last stand? Well, we have 2 more of those things going on here...we need more charged crystals. One during the civil war, and one with a Zulu war. At least a 3rd of the book was a re-enactment and buildup of those 2 conflicts, similar to the Custer thing in the previous book.

I completely skipped them. Finished the book in about 2-3 hours. I knew what they were going to do, and unless you just want to read some history of the civil or Zulu war... the planning, execution, etc. of those battles was completely irrelevant to the story. They need charged skulls, and they need serious battles to get them. Just go to the battles and do it. I want to get involved in the storeyline of the shadow and us, not the civil war... That's why I've been reading the books.

Well, as you guessed...they finally (about 20 pages from end of book) get their charged skulls from those battles. Use up the charge in about half a page, do their thing in about 15 pages (wont tell u exactly what it is), and the book ends.

Extremely abrupt and unsatisfying ending. I found myself about 20 pages from the end thinking, they are going to have to continue this, damn.

Nope, story ends. Almost threw the book across the room. Never been so happy skipping such a large part of a book in my life. I have to give Donegan (or whoever he is) credit tho. He made it easy to skip. Each timeline chapter was well marked. Made it easy to skip civil war and zulu chapters...even tho, I found myself at the end pretty quick. I'd give him a half a star for that...but, they don't seem to give half stars here. I decided to round down, instead of up.

I woulda given this 1 star...but, the concepts and ideas portrayed in this series were pretty interesting. There was a future timeline portrayed in this book that was interesting as well.

Not worth your time. Really.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mostly repetitive and weak, August 2, 2004

By 

Dana - See all my reviews

This review is from: Battle for Atlantis (Paperback)

This is the final book in the Atlantis series by Greg Donegan/Robert Doherty etc. It is better than the previous, but weaker that the first ones.

1. It is nice that we finally find out who the Shadow and the Ones Before are. The Shadow identity was more or less expected by now, but the Ones Before were a nice surprise. The revelation takes place about 1/2 through the book and doesn't come quite as the surprise it should have been.

2. The ending feels rushed, very rushed. There is no emotional impact, despite the sacrifice of several characters.

3. Endless time spent in battle reenactments, as the other reviewers pointed out as well. Also, the first chapter is a repetition of the ending of the previous book... I skipped all those.

4. No character development and no strong characters. I enjoyed very much the book (don't remember which one in the series it was, though) with the viking and the Santorini (?) priestess. They were people you could care about, whose actions and sacrifices touched you deeply. The same is true for the book which featured the Spartan king Leonidas. But by this last book, the method of using istorical characters is overused and boring.

So, it could have been much better, if the whole series had been 2 or 3 books shorter.