Atlantis: Bermuda Triangle

Rating:
Summary: Interesting elements but a poor showing overall.
Review: This is the sequel to "Atlantis," the first foray into this odd mix of military battles, supernatural events, and mystical goings-on. I did like some of the basic premise behind the story line, with the tectonic fault lines. That was a clever addition to this kind of genre. The moving between time frames was pretty well done but the language was never handled right. Even in 999 CE you still felt like you were listening to people who were talking in 2001 CE. (Poul Anderson is an author who handled this kind of thing very well.)

My biggest problem with the first book was that Donegan did not even make a pretense of fitting his story within any sort of history on this planet - something these books generally do, at least to some degree. And in this book he has the same problems. His Khmer history is still off, as it was in the first book. He has Angkor Wat being built around 998 CE or before that. Wrong. It was built by Suryavarman II (who did not even begin his rule until 1113 CE). He has one character in 999 CE being from Angkor Thom, which was not started until the time of Jayavarman VII (between 1181 and 1218 CE). He also does the oldest trick in the book: high runes. Donegan says: "Modern scholars aren't certain where or how it originated, but they have noted some similarities between Viking runes and the runes used by other ancient cultures." The runic language, however, was created by the Teutonic peoples. The Teutonic Runic system was used by the Goths, the Visigoths, the Vandals and many other Teutonic Tribes of the era. The Visigoths are the ones that sacked Rome and thus it was also carried into areas like Gaul. The Norse/Vikings of the tenth through the twelfth centuries also used this type of languag as did the Saxons who invaded the isle of Great Britain. The problem is we know where it derived: the original Teutonic tribes. We know that the runic system was in use from approximately 400 CE to around 1200 CE.

Now I know many people might say: "Geez, lighten up! This is fiction." True - but the key to making good fiction about these alien encounter stories is at least getting some of the history right. In other words, take a few mysteries from the past and weave a story around them. Donegan's facts are in many cases wrong even about the established history of such things like I just talked about that it made it hard for me to suspend by disbelief, even for a work of fiction.

Donegan also screws up his physics. He mentions a "Cerenkov detector" and he says Cerenkov light is "produced when an electrically charged particle traveled through water." This is so patently wrong as to be laughable to anyone with even a little background in physics. (Cerenkov light is a consequence of the motion of a charged particle with a speed that is greater than the speed of light in the same medium. No particle can exceed the speed of light in a vacuum (c), but in materials with an index of refraction represented by n, the particle velocity v will be greater than the velocity of light if v > c/n. Not that difficult.) He also equates photons with gamma particles (at least in their properties) when describing one of his experiments. He also states that neutrinos were known as a fundamental building block in the 1930s. Not true. Wolfgang Pauli suspected its existence in 1930 but it was not found until 1956.

Forgetting all that for a moment: if you are capable of completely suspending any notions of a semi-realistic story and if you like alien encounter stories and are not worried about flaws in the basic research, you will probably really like this book (particularly if you liked the first one in the series). If you can put aside the various flaws in the book, you may still enjoy the story because there are a lot of interesting elements here. However, for me, I got the feeling that the author just wants to showcase as many oddities as possible in history and then sort of tack a story onto that. Normally I like that but the problem is that some of the "oddities" Donegan presents are not oddities at all when you do even the most minimal of research.

For some reason when I read "Atlantis" and now this sequel I just had a very time believing that this is the same author of "The Rock" and "Area 51." (Greg Donegan and Robert Doherty are the same person.) There are enough elements here to make the book minimally interesting. To alien buffs, they will like it no matter what. To those who may be alien buffs but like a little more brains to their stories, this one may fail to please. I give it three stars just because it did have some interesting elements in it that were a new addition to this genre.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting elements but a poor showing overall.
Review: This is the sequel to "Atlantis," the first foray into this odd mix of military battles, supernatural events, and mystical goings-on. I did like some of the basic premise behind the story line, with the tectonic fault lines. That was a clever addition to this kind of genre. The moving between time frames was pretty well done but the language was never handled right. Even in 999 CE you still felt like you were listening to people who were talking in 2001 CE. (Poul Anderson is an author who handled this kind of thing very well.)

My biggest problem with the first book was that Donegan did not even make a pretense of fitting his story within any sort of history on this planet - something these books generally do, at least to some degree. And in this book he has the same problems. His Khmer history is still off, as it was in the first book. He has Angkor Wat being built around 998 CE or before that. Wrong. It was built by Suryavarman II (who did not even begin his rule until 1113 CE). He has one character in 999 CE being from Angkor Thom, which was not started until the time of Jayavarman VII (between 1181 and 1218 CE). He also does the oldest trick in the book: high runes. Donegan says: "Modern scholars aren't certain where or how it originated, but they have noted some similarities between Viking runes and the runes used by other ancient cultures." The runic language, however, was created by the Teutonic peoples. The Teutonic Runic system was used by the Goths, the Visigoths, the Vandals and many other Teutonic Tribes of the era. The Visigoths are the ones that sacked Rome and thus it was also carried into areas like Gaul. The Norse/Vikings of the tenth through the twelfth centuries also used this type of languag as did the Saxons who invaded the isle of Great Britain. The problem is we know where it derived: the original Teutonic tribes. We know that the runic system was in use from approximately 400 CE to around 1200 CE.

Now I know many people might say: "Geez, lighten up! This is fiction." True - but the key to making good fiction about these alien encounter stories is at least getting some of the history right. In other words, take a few mysteries from the past and weave a story around them. Donegan's facts are in many cases wrong even about the established history of such things like I just talked about that it made it hard for me to suspend by disbelief, even for a work of fiction.

Donegan also screws up his physics. He mentions a "Cerenkov detector" and he says Cerenkov light is "produced when an electrically charged particle traveled through water." This is so patently wrong as to be laughable to anyone with even a little background in physics. (Cerenkov light is a consequence of the motion of a charged particle with a speed that is greater than the speed of light in the same medium. No particle can exceed the speed of light in a vacuum (c), but in materials with an index of refraction represented by n, the particle velocity v will be greater than the velocity of light if v > c/n. Not that difficult.) He also equates photons with gamma particles (at least in their properties) when describing one of his experiments. He also states that neutrinos were known as a fundamental building block in the 1930s. Not true. Wolfgang Pauli suspected its existence in 1930 but it was not found until 1956.

Forgetting all that for a moment: if you are capable of completely suspending any notions of a semi-realistic story and if you like alien encounter stories and are not worried about flaws in the basic research, you will probably really like this book (particularly if you liked the first one in the series). If you can put aside the various flaws in the book, you may still enjoy the story because there are a lot of interesting elements here. However, for me, I got the feeling that the author just wants to showcase as many oddities as possible in history and then sort of tack a story onto that. Normally I like that but the problem is that some of the "oddities" Donegan presents are not oddities at all when you do even the most minimal of research.

For some reason when I read "Atlantis" and now this sequel I just had a very time believing that this is the same author of "The Rock" and "Area 51." (Greg Donegan and Robert Doherty are the same person.) There are enough elements here to make the book minimally interesting. To alien buffs, they will like it no matter what. To those who may be alien buffs but like a little more brains to their stories, this one may fail to please. I give it three stars just because it did have some interesting elements in it that were a new addition to this genre.

Rating:
Summary: And the war continues...
Review: This second novel in the series opens with the Dark Ones launching a missile with nuclear warheads against the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Once again we have a great book full of action, adventure, high tech weapons and past mysteries. Inside the book we follow TWO plot lines, one set in 999 AD and the other set in our own time. Vikings, nuclear powered subs and underwater pyramids are just SOME of the things you'll find within the covers of this great book.
Military thriller mixed with ancient civilizations and a evil alien race trying to destroy us. What more can you want?

Rating:
Summary: And the war continues...
Review: This second novel in the series opens with the Dark Ones launching a missile with nuclear warheads against the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Once again we have a great book full of action, adventure, high tech weapons and past mysteries. Inside the book we follow TWO plot lines, one set in 999 AD and the other set in our own time. Vikings, nuclear powered subs and underwater pyramids are just SOME of the things you'll find within the covers of this great book.
Military thriller mixed with ancient civilizations and a evil alien race trying to destroy us. What more can you want?

Rating:
Summary: Atlantis : Bermuda Triangle
Review: Very quick paced book and even better than the Donegan's first book "Atlantis". Looking forward to the next in the series "Atlantis: Devel's Sea".