[algernoninc]

i could use some help here ...

there is probably something in the backlog on this forum about this , but i don't have much time to browse during my 1 hour / week online, so maybe you have some hints:

the myth of atlantis is one of the most enduring and most influential of our heritage [the lost continent, the ark of noah, eldorado, shangri-la and so on] ...

What are the best books (history or fantasy) about Atlantis? I have seen the movies, including the latest Disney, but where are the sources (besides Plato Dialogues) ?

I know for a fact that there was a series in the sixties about atlantis surviving in a submerged volcano protected by a force field and about a submarine accidentally stumbling upon it, but I can't remember the title, or the author .

thankx :rolleyes:

[Khallandra]

I've only read one book with Atlantis in it "An Echo in Time" by Traci Harding. Though I vaguely remember another book but it's not coming to mind. Sorry.

[FicusFan]

I have several books to list. I also am interested in Atlantis so I have picked up books on the subject that look interesting. Turns out I haven't read most of them, so not sure how worthwhile they are.

The Fall of Atlantis by Marion Zimmer Bradley, PB
It is one of her early books. The one out now was printed in 1987. It isn't out of print but you may need to order it. It is ok, but not great.

Greg Donegan has a thriller type series using Atlantis. I think it is set in the modern day - becacause there is a submarine on the cover of one:

The books are: Atlantis, Atlantis Gate, Assault on Atlantis, Battle for Atlantis PB, I have not ready any of these.

Atlantis Found by R. Garcia y Robertson (the last name is: Garcia y Robertson if you are going to look it up on Amazon), PB
I think this is out of print, so you would have to get a used copy. It is a thriller, and has time travel back to the Bronze Age I think - but have not read it.

Atlantis Endgame by Andre Norton and Sherwood Smith, PB. It is part of something called the TimeTraders Series. I think this is the only book that deals with Atlantis. It was published in 2004, and is more SF as it has aliens. I also have not read it.

Lords of Atlantis by Wallace West, PB
Don't know anything about this one other than it is out of print, can't find any information on amazon, and I have not read it.

[Hobbit]

More recently there was the Clive Cussler book Atlantis Found (Not necessarily good; the Cussler's I've tried have read like quick two-dimensional technothriller.. can you take seriously a book with it's lead character called Dirk Pitt?); we've also got one due out any time here in the UK by David Gibbins called Atlantis - cover HERE (http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0755324226.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg) (which frankly looks like an attempt to cash in on the Da Vinci Code book - History's greatest Code has finally been broken... AGH. :( )

Depends whether you want books about the search and discovery of the lost city, or tales of living there....

Nice page HERE (http://www.occultopedia.com/a/atlantis.htm) which has links to books of fiction and 'fact'.

Hobbit

[Lowlander]

The Atlantis theme was very popular in the subgenre of
"Lost World-civilizations" that prospered between 1890-1940. That's why even in E.R. Burroughs Tarzan series the Atlantis theme is present (read Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar).

Probably the best novel written in this period was "The Lost Continent" by Sutcliffe Hyne (1899). Lin Carter published this book in the 60's as part of his Ballantine fantasy line. Excellent book : there are some fantastical elements but it reads like a historical account with great
detail.

Another series with a strong Atlantean theme are the novels by Jane Gaskell : Serpent/Atlan/City/Some Summer Lands.

I also read an interesting Atlantis anthology some time ago. It was edited by Isaac Asimov in the 80's and had Atlantis stories from Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Howard, Edmond Hamilton, Ursula Le Guin, Sprague de Camp, etc

[Eurytus]

Actually, as regards the Cussler book, whilst it is in the genre of Clancy et all and has an extremely badly named main character, the actual bits that deal with Atlantis are pretty damn good. I have read a great deal on the subject and Cussler has obviously done his research. The Atlantis depicted in his book is pretty much the one posited by Charles Hapgood and more recently by the Flem-aths. Also Hapgood's work on crust shifts factors strongly into the book's main plot. I enjoyed it. Mainly due to the Atlantis aspects I will admit, I have only tried one more of Cussler's books and could not deal with it, but its not bad.

As for "factual" books one of the best I have read is Gateway to Atlantis by Andrew Collins. Pretty deep and quite comprehensive. His location for Atlantis is the Bahamas and whilst I don't think he proves his point he does put forward a great deal of evidence that the Americas were known about and visited even before the Vikings.
There is a pretty good overview book by Colin Wilson (if I recall correctly) and plenty of others.
Obviously Donnely's "Atlantis" is the first book that really sparked the craze although many of its ideas are obviously wrong now.

Which books you like may well depend on which ideas for the location of Atlantis you find most favourable.
They range from;

The Bahamas : Collins
Mid Atlantic : Donnely and many, many others
The Indonesian continental shelf as was before the waters rose at the end of the last ice age
Antartica : The Flem-aths
Britain's continental shelf : various Russian scientists and thinkers
Tartessos (sp?) in Spain
Gades in Spain
Crete and/or Santorini
In the Black Sea
America itself
The Bolivian plateau
and doubtless many others.

[Sheets]

I also read an interesting Atlantis anthology some time ago. It was edited by Isaac Asimov in the 80's and had Atlantis stories from Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Howard, Edmond Hamilton, Ursula Le Guin, Sprague de Camp, etc

Yeah, Robert E. Howard's King Kull of Valusia series was set on the continent of Atlantis, and Edmond Hamilton also wrote a pulp series (not very highly regarded, from what I've read) called Elak of Atlantis.

Regarding Cussler, I haven't read his books, but I've always been under the impression that the inspiration for Dirk Pitt was old "hero pulps" like Doc Savage, so from that point of view I would imagine that the books are intended to be pretty outrageous and not to be taken too seriously :)

[algernoninc]

thank you all ... this site is better than encarta anytime ;)

i'll put the titles in my wishlist and then i'll go humt the amazon.com

i have read some cussler for want of something better and was thoroughly dissapointed. He basically writes the same book with the same personages and only changes the exotic locations. Jules Verne did it too, but with a lot more imagination and style.

[Khallandra]

Check out the new releases list as I saw a book titled 'Atlantis' in the new book area of my store. It looked more like a contemporary 'search for Atlantis' though

[jcdelatorre]

Well, I guess it would be in bad taste and extremely vain of me to include my book, Ancient Rising on your Atlantis list. :D

I haven't read many fictional accounts of Atlantis. I have no interest in Cussler's work so I never read Atlantis Found . Its part of the reason why I wanted to write a trilogy of them.

Some my favorite non-ficition books included Atlantis Enigma by Herbie Brennan. It reads like Science fiction some of the stuff he comes up with.

Atlantis, Insights from a Lost Civilization by Shirley Andrews isn't half bad either.

JC De La Torre
--------------
Author of Ancient Rising
http://www.delatorrewriting.com