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73 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Lacks Turtledove's Usual Appeal, December 5, 2007
This review is from: Opening Atlantis (Hardcover)
A few years ago, a friend introduced me to early Turtledove, the Videssos series. Since then, I have read every one of his works, even those now out of print. It was therefore a matter of natural course that I pre-ordered this book.
The title of the first book of the new trilogy, Atlantis, refers to an eighth continent discovered in the Atantic. At some time in the past, the eastern portion of North America split away, and was therefore discovered much earlier, shortly before the War of the Roses. Different nationalities settle, conquer the land, and eventually bring their homeland differences to Atlantis. It is a strong premise.
Of my collection of 69 Turtledove works, this was the fourth in which I actually skipped and skimmed my way through the middle. The key events were entirely predictable, the writing tired, the subplots meandering. His tendency toward repetition was unedited.
If you are new to Turtledove, I would recommend instead his classic work "Ruled Britannia" or "The Guns of the South." If you are experienced in the ways of the Turtledove and are looking for a fresh read, I would recommend you track down the out-of-print "The Two Georges" or "A World of Difference." Both are outside the mainstream and are excellent.
Would I have read this book, given what I now know? Absolutely. I don't intend to miss a one. Would I recommend this book to someone who had not already read all of the other Turtledoves? Absolutely not. Look to his better works.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad, but not up to the usual standard, December 20, 2007
This review is from: Opening Atlantis (Hardcover)
Harry Turtledove has gone out to milk the alternate history cash cow once again. I can hardly blame him. It makes him money and, to a great extent, he's the best in the business at it. Which is why I was somewhat let down by this book.
I went into this story with high expectations. An 8th contenient in the middle of the Atlantic? Full of exotic beasts? The Brits are the first to colonize it? This could get interesting!
What we get instead is an extension of the War of the Roses, a re-tread of every pirate story ever written, and the French and Indian War taking place on Atlantis. None of this is really bad, per se, but it wasn't what I'd hoped for.
Also of note is the fact that for an alternate history, there's not a lot of alternate. One would think the presence of this land would change the weather patterns somewhat, but apparently not. Also, though the point of departure is in 1451, European history seems to flow pretty normally. We still have a Charles on the throne of England in the 1600's, and someone who is obviously George III on the throne during the 1700's. One would think things in Europe would get butterflied a bit more than that.
Plus it's quite clear that Atlantis is being set up as an analogue of America. I'm sure that in the sequel we'll see some sort of revolution against England, and probably a civil war over slavery.
Surprisingly, the book also doesn't include a map, which would have been very useful. I know roughly where Freetown, Hanover (Stuart), and some of the other towns are in relation to each other. Perhaps in the sequel we'll get one.
Still and all, this was a good read, but not a great one. It does do a sufficent job of setting up the next book or two in the series, and I do look forward to reading those. But I can't help but think there could have been something more here.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
What if there had been another continent in the Atlantic ?, January 13, 2009
This book kicks off yet another "alternative history" series from Harry Turtledove which is actually a slightly different rewrite of real history.
The basic premise is that there is another small continent or very large island in the middle of the North Atlantic, with massive natural resources, and which at the time of its' discovery by European fishermen in the late middle ages (in the 15th century) had no indigenous human population.
The new land, named Atlantis after the legendary lost continent, is fertile and quickly settled by British settlers, along with French, Spanish and Dutch settlements. The continents which we call North and South America are found a few years later at about the time they were really discovered, and named "Terranova" (e.g. "New Land"). Their history from that point, judging by tangential references in the book, appears to follow roughly the same track as in real history. But the main emphasis is on the story of the first three hundred years of the colonies in Atlantis.
In form this book consists of three linked novellas set at the time of the Wars of the Roses, 17th century pirates and buccaneers, and the Seven Years War respectively. Each tells of a key stage in the development of the colonies in Atlantis, as seen through the eyes first of Edward Radcliffe, who founds the first English settlement in the new land, and his descendants.
Turtledove once wrote that alternative history provides a "funhouse mirror" through which we can take a different perspective on real history. He has put this into practice: others have described his novels as having taken their plots from actual events but with different historial and fictional individuals and races playing the same roles.
For example, in his book "In the presence of mine enemies" a Third Reich which had won World War II eventually collapses in exactly the same way that the real Soviet Union collapsed. Similarly, Turtledove's massive eleven-book saga which begins with "How Few Remain" tells the dystopian history of a world in which the Confederate States of America initially won independence and survived for nearly a century but followed almost exactly the historical course which in the real world led to Nazi Germany adn the holocaust (subtext "Don't kid ourselves that we're superior - it could have happened here.") Other novels retell the story of historical conflicts like the American Civil War (Sentry Peak et seq) and WWII (the Darkness/Derlavi series) in worlds where technology is based on magic rather than engineering.
In the same way, the first three hundred years of the history of Atlantis in this book is remarkably similar to the history, up to the end of the Seven Years War in the mid 18th century, of the thirteen colonies which were to found the United States of America a few years later. This isn't really a completely different history, it's an alternative way of describing the historical background of the USA up to about two decades before the Declaration of Independence. The seeds of future conflicts - potential arguments between English settlers and the British crown, plantations in the south of Atlantis (originally created by the French and Spanish) which use slave labour - can also be seen in the novel.
It seems that everything Harry Turtledove writes these days gets praised by some of his fans and flamed by others who hate it. Although "Opening Atlantis is not a work of absolute genius like "The Guns of the South" or "The Two Georges," this book is IMHO one of Harry Turtledove's better novels. I liked the characters, I thought the action was well paced, the descriptions imaginative, the sequence of historical events broadly plausible. And he keeps his tendancy to repeat things too much reasonably well in check.
A sequel "The United States of Atlantis" has recently come out and I am looking forward to reading it.
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