Customer Reviews
So boring it made me angry - By: NoWireHangers, 23 May 2008 
I had read some of the negative reviews about this book, but it sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a chance anyway. I made it about halfway through before I gave up, angry for having wasted time & money on it. And I almost never give up on novels.
The premise is interesting, but instead of telling the story, Gibbins wastes too much time on irrelevant technical details. Gibbins clearly knows what he's writing about & has some good ideas, but he doesn't know how to tell a story. This is the most boring novel I can remember. It kept my interest for about 100 pages. After another 80 pages or so I was hoping the pace would pick up & halfway through I gave up. In fact, because I sometimes suffer from insomnia, I tried to use it instead of sleeping pills, but it only made me angry by how boring it was.
My recommendation is: Trust the bad reviews on this one & don't waste your time & money.
Hampered by own expertise? - By: Jacquie Reaville, 19 May 2008 
Jack Howard is a marine archaeologist & along with a number of his friends & colleagues is lucky enough to discover the key to the location of what most people would consider a myth. Unfortunately they're not the only ones. So the adventure begins with a race to the prize before piracy, terrorism & even nuclear warfare rob the world of a wonderful discovery.
Unfortunately the book was very hit & miss for me. For example excitement would build, the team diving in unfamiliar waters, not knowing what they were going to find & then suddenly the author would give long descriptions consisting of an awful lot of technical jargon & diving know-how, & to a non-diver like myself the whole thing became a little tedious & annoying. I just wanted to know what happened next.
Also a lot of the story line was based on happenstance, the right people being in the right place at the right time with access to the right equipment. The dénouement was predictable too, based again on a twist of fate, so was pretty much of an anti-climax.
As the author is himself a marine archaeologist of some note it seems likely that he may have been hampered by his own expertise. In my opinion an average book, the material was there but unfortunately it wasn't used to the best advantage.
Clever choice for a title, hence the star! - By: R. Waite, 04 Feb 2008 If you are at alll interested in ATLANTIS, this is NOT the book for you! This book is about AK47's, hyperbaric bombs & a main character that is always only inches or seconds away from instant death. Having read this book I am no better informed of the Atlantis myth than I was before reading it.
If you happen to like books involving AK47's etc., then this is still not the book for you.AVOID!
Could have been so much better - By: Mark Mcclelland, 07 Oct 2007 I think the real problem with this book is that it's Gibbins first. He seems more interested in showing the reader what an excellent & knowledgeable archaeologist he is in respect of his subject matter. This is to the books detriment as there are long explanatory passages highlighting tjhis knowledge that slow down the flow & pace of the book. In agreement with other reviewers, the characters are very two dimensional & very generic. I had the very real feeling that Gibbins & Jack Howard are one in the same. On the plus side, the historical facts & perspective were interesting & the introduction of the submarine as a plot devise had some merits. The publishers & editors must take some responsibility for these flaws, as there is always a balance to be struck with a book of this sort between th action & the historical facts or views. Above alll with alll books in this genre the reader needs to remain engaged, entertained & anxious to turn the page, & this didn't quite make the grade.
Entertaining but flawed adventure tale - By: Seamus Martin, 04 Sep 2007 
This is quite an entertaining adventure story based on the search for the lost city of Atlantis. The author takes us from Ancient Greece & Eqypt to the politics of the present day Mediterranean & the former Soviet Union. The plot is historicallly plausible, but on many occasions we became so bogged down in the technichal jargon of marine archeology that my eyes began to glaze over. Also the villain is a one dimensional meglomaniac akin to an enemy of Batman or a spoof of a James Bond baddie. I found the ending predictable & disappointing.
