Customer Reviews

Shadows on the Aegean

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Suzanne Frank could very well have rested on her laurels after writing the phenomenal tale of the Exodus from Egypt in Reflections in the Nile. Instead, the second book in her trilogy presents a fresh world with just as much wonder and history-questioning theories.

Journey back to Ancient Atlantis, the doomed society of hedonism and scientific advancements. Cheftu and Chloe are forced to take on new struggles as they are faced with a civilization on the brink of collapse. What is their purpose? And will their love survive the temptations of the sensual lifestyle around them?

A wonderful read..a perfect excuse to call in sick, stay home and read.

I have read the first two books of the Trilogy and I am officially hooked. The research that has gone into writing these stories is very impressive but the story moves along without getting totally bogged down in historical details. I would highly recommend this series to those who enjoy historical romances and but they definitly will also appeal to mystery buffs (like me). Thank you for a good read.

Wow, I just finished the book and all I can say is wow. This book was totally cooler than the first. (I did not even know it was possible.) After they had just reaquainted, I was just dying to find out what was going to happen next. The last/middle section where Chloe and Cheftu were hardly mentioned kind of bored me. I practically screamed with anticipation while reading the last page and the epilogue. I nearly died when I found the ending was more so twisted than the first. I relaxed when I read the inside cover which states "She is currently working on the third book in her time-travel trilogy, Sunrise on the Mediterranean." Now I must wait in anguish to quench my anticipation.

After reflecting on the Nile during the Exodus, time traveler Chloe Kingsley is elated to be going back to the future accompanied by her Egyptian lover Cheftu. However, she quickly realizes that this is not Kansas, let alone Dallas, as she finds herself occupying the body of an Atlantis priestess at the Cybele Oracle in Crete with Cheftu nowhere in sight.

Though she is not sure why she is here, Chloe knows that a catastrophe is soon going to destroy the most advanced civilization of the ancients. Cheftu arrives as an Egyptian emissary in what is either a cosmic joke or a great coincidence. However, unbeknownst to the chronological-crossed lovers, they are intimate players in what will ultimately become the world'd mythos.

The second novel, SHADOWS ON THE AEGEAN, in J. Suzanne Franks' time travel trilogy is a great novel that brings to life the legend of Atlantis in a creditable and most logical manner. Like its predecessor, REFLECTIONS ON THE NILE, the story line is fast-paced, action-packed, and loaded with legendary prose that turns the book into a sure classic. Throw in two fabulous protagonists and a wealth of wonderful support players and readers of historical romance will frankly demand the final book in the trilogy see the sunrise in 1998 rather than wait another year.

Harriet Klausner

Frank develops a story around the history and legends of Atlantis. She ties together various threads of pre-history and early history, including Egypt, pre-classical Greek civilization and proto-Hebrew culture.

She sets the book in the time of the Great Famine, when the biblical story places Joseph the son of Jacob in Egypt as the Prime Minister. She reckons the pharaoh of that period as Senwosret III, the last king before the Hyksos dynasty established by invaders from the East. Frank weaves a story of cultural and language history that is exciting and stimulating, as well as vivid in bringing out the strange, erotic, profligate and idolatrous character of the early Hellenic peoples.

Her motif is the real society from which the later Olympian myths of the Greek gods developed. This is a fascinating aspect of the story as she portrays how the pagan, superstitious culture of a real, understandable people trying to deal with a precarous natural setting became legendary due to the destruction of their culture by a cataclysmic earthquake and volcanic explosion that destroyed the whole character of the Aegean.

She provides great detail of the technology and social structure to account for the information in Plato's account form ancient times, supplemented by later Roman writers. She provides insights into the character of the ancient Mediterranean world, and its links with the Semitic cultures.

One novel aspect she includes in her tale is the inclusion of Egypt as a vassal of the Empire of Aztlan, which ruled the northern Mediterranean areas associated with Greek culture. Other writers reckon Joseph and the story of the migration of Jacob's family into Egypt occurred in during the Hyksos dynasty, and present evidence that this was facilitated by the Hyksos being Semitic.

She places Atlantis [Aztlan] in the Aegean as the isle known today as Santorini. It appears she is following an earlier very popular view among scholars. A related book, by an archaeological historian, Andrew Collins, purposes an alternative that Atlantis was indeed, as earlier thought, a western island continent on the American side of the Atlantic.

Oh, and for added excitement, in this book she accounts for the ancient tales of Vampirism (porphyria) shared by the ancient Greeks and Egyptians, as well as forms of spongiform encephalitis, a true epidemic of the time.

A seredipitous bit of information about this book is that the author is from Dallas, Texas, the area where I stay and call home when I am not in Africa.

I first came across this book while I was in my public library one day. I was searching for a good book to read while at the beach. The cover immediatly grabbed my attention and after reading the inside flap, I knew I had to read it. The imagery that was mixed into the stroy was incredible. I became intrigued by the theory which Frank offers as to the mysterious demise of the lost Empire of Atlantis. The detail in the story was exquisite and beautiful and I found myself wanting to be there with Chloe and Cheftu! I reminded me of Jean M. Auel's Earth's Childrens Series and was just as satisfying. I would recomend it to anyone, anywhere, anytime!!!

Finding the lost civilization of Atlantis and actually becoming a part of its community should make for tantalizing reading, but somehow this is not the case for this book. Cheftu and Chloe are intersting characters, but you would have thought that after their adventure in the first book of this series that they had learned to trust one another. Not so--through a series of misunderstandings, the two characters continue to make faulty, illogical moves that, I suppose, enable the author to write extra steamy love scenes that detract rather than add to the plot. Otherwise, the ideas of connecting Atlantis with the Aztecs and Stoker's obscure Scholomance reference in Dracula, while having the pantheon of Greek gods and goddesses rely on an immortality elixir invoked by the Mormon Urim and Thummim are intriguing ones, but they are presented as almost asides, not the mind-boggling conundrums they should represent. The author does not flesh them out enough, but instead concentrates on exemplifying Chloe's running and emergency skills and Cheftu's prowess in bed. For me, the last straw was expecting me to think it was cute that Chloe, great artist that she is, was responsible for the famous boxer boy painting found by Marinatos in the tepha covered ruins of Akrotiri on Santorini. Come on, give me a break!

Of all four books in this time traveling series of Chole and Cheftu, this was my personal favorite. I found the story to be a fascinating glimpse into the ancient world with its rituals and customs. Some of the rituals however were a bit too graphic and un-necessary but I don't want to spoil anything by saying too much. Although you don't have to read Reflections in the Nile first, I would suggest that you do only to get a better understanding of the characters and their motivations.

This is a wonder love story betwen Chloe and Cheftu. I couldn't wait to find out what they had gotten int and how they would get out of it. I coundn't put it down, I read the whole thing in one night! Ms. Frank make history come alive and you don't even realize you are learning. I can't wait for another adventure with Chloe and Cheftu.

Thought I could put this down. Should have learned my lesson with Suzanne Frank's first novel. Dinner burned again. I was captivated by her descriptions and story. The characters of Chloe and Cheftu become so real, I almost expect to meet them for a cup of tea--and I miss them in between books. You will find yourself learning much about history within these pages. Ms. Frank must have spent large portions of her days in a library--but she's a gifted story-teller who never makes it sound like a history lesson. Suzanne is a lovely person, as charming as her main character, and a gentle, disarming soul. She's made of the stuff that will sustain her through many novels--so much more the blessing for us. Renee Prindle-Jones, Host of Books in Review, CC Television, Fort Worth, Texas