Rating: 
Summary: Great series.
Review: I have to admit my favorite parts of this and the last book were the past scenes. The Vikings and now the Romans seemed much more exciting than the present day material. I wonder what's up for the next book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not quite as good as the first two
Review: I picked up the first book in this series (Atlantis) in a airport last summer; on the return trip, I picked up the sequal because I was already hooked on the characters. I anxiously rated for the third edition but the character development just wasn't there. The characters we'd come to know -- Dane, Foreman, did not seem to play significant roles in this story and that was a disapointment. In addition to keeping a number of the characters from the previous 2 books, he added a whole new set---and it's a bit much to keep up with. He did work some factual events (Chernobyl, Ameilia Earhardt) into the story nicely -- which was a trademark of the previous books. I'll looking forward to the 4th installment because he did leave a few characters in jeopardy and I'm curious to find out what happens.
Rating:
Summary: Great storytelling
Review: I truly enjoyed the mixture of past and present in this story. I don't know who the fool is who posted two reviews, but he should write his own book and let's see if he gets every single thing right. He can't even post reviews right. I also liked the two previous books in this story, although the last two are superior than the first as they have the dual storylines.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, but...
Review: I've read all 3 books in this series. Mostly, I liked them. Unfortunately, I happen to have a technical education. When somebody is measuring the nuclear reactor output in milliwatts (you normally measure your wristwatch's battery output in these units), a great deal of the story's charm is immediately lost for me. And there are a few such little annoying technical screwups scattered across the three books. Most readers probably won't notice them (which in and of itself is quite sad), but to me they certainly stuck out like so many sore thumbs. Mr. Donegan is a West Point graduate, according to the footnote in his books. One would expect a little more attention to detail from a person wuth such background. How would he like to read somebody else's description of a battle scene in which a warrior primes a flintlock on his M-16 with black powder? Wouldn't it kind of spoil the fun, even if the rest of the description is quite brilliant?
Rating:
Summary: The "Ring of Fire"...
Review: In this third book of the series, the Shadow decide to focus on the Pacific Rim, attacking the volcanoes and fault lines that encircle the Pacific Ocean. But not if Eric Dane has anything to say with it. While he attacks the Shadow via the gate in the Devil's Sea, Ariana tries to find a way to stop the global apocalyse.
One again there are two timelines, but in this book they end up meeting as both teams, Eric with the Americans and Russians in our present and Falco, a gladiator, and a Roman legion in our past BOTH enter the gates in their part of history.
Now add Ragnarok (the Viking from book two), a group of 13th century Samurai, THE Amelia Earhart, a bunch of crystal skulls, the Russian Mafia and a dolphin named Rachel and you get a very fine piece of work, a military thriller mixed with an adventure story that you just CAN'T put down.
"We who are about to die, salute you!"
Only one mistake - thumbs DOWN means the gladiator lives, thumbs UP means he dies.
Rating:
Summary: The "Ring of Fire"...
Review: In this third book of the series, the Shadow decide to focus on the Pacific Rim, attacking the volcanoes and fault lines that encircle the Pacific Ocean. But not if Eric Dane has anything to say with it. While he attacks the Shadow via the gate in the Devil's Sea, Ariana tries to find a way to stop the global apocalyse.
One again there are two timelines, but in this book they end up meeting as both teams, Eric with the Americans and Russians in our present and Falco, a gladiator, and a Roman legion in our past BOTH enter the gates in their part of history.
Now add Ragnarok (the Viking from book two), a group of 13th century Samurai, THE Amelia Earhart, a bunch of crystal skulls, the Russian Mafia and a dolphin named Rachel and you get a very fine piece of work, a military thriller mixed with an adventure story that you just CAN'T put down.
"We who are about to die, salute you!"
Only one mistake - thumbs DOWN means the gladiator lives, thumbs UP means he dies.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Read
Review: The book had me hooked from when I first picked it up, the first two were good, but this one is unbeliveable. On e of the best books I've read lately
Rating:
Summary: Interesting read ... but same old stuff.
Review: This book is the third part of a series, "Atlantis" and "Atlantis: Bermuda's Triangle" being the other two of the series. In the last book the "Shadow" (read: the creepy aliens) attacked the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This time it wants the Pacific Rim. That alone is a farily unique take on the idea of aliens of some sort trying to take us over.You would think that this combined with the idea that the book starts out by taking us from the eruption of Thera, to Ameila Earhart's flight, to the Chernobyl disaster would make for a pretty good book. And I guess, in some ways, it does. In fact, of all the books I have to say that this one is probably the best if only because Donegan seems to have hit his stride. In my reviews of the last two books I pointed out how some of the history was wrong as was the physics, at least as it was stated. In this book there was very little of that problem - everything actually made sense. (The only problem is that, like in the last book, everyone in every time period talks exactly the same. There is no attempt to match the dialogue type to the period of time. There was some bad science such as some details of nuclear reactors and the idea of how dolphins evolved. Story-wise, this book is a logical progression of the first two and, in that sense, it remains true to form. I must say that in this book the skipping around between past and present made it very hard to want to concentrate on one particular time period. One odd thing that is not covered as well is what the rest of the world is doing while this Shadow destroys much of the planet. (In this author's other series, "Area 51," written under the name Robert Doherty, the existence of the aliens is revealed to the world at large and you know how it comes about. In this series that element is just sort of tacked on.) Also, the one thing I have said about all the books (and I think it holds for this one) is that the fantasy elements just do not work well with the more traditional science-fiction elements. Basically, the author is describing his book as a "military thriller" and, coupled with the science-fiction, that works. However, the fantasy elements (like Valkyries, seven-headed snakes, ley lines, crystal skulls, etc.) just do not fit at all. (For me, it would be like if mention is a made of a Star Destroyer or a warp drive in J.R.R. Tolkien's books.) I give it a three star rating because it does have some unique elements to the genre and the endings of the books are always fast-paced affairs. However, I have to say that there is also the problem (at least for me) that Donegan has really not explained anything about the "Shadow" or the "Ones Before." This makes it Book Three and we still really have no clue. That is a long time to leave your readers hanging. Mystery and suspense is one thing, but never getting to the meat of the story is another. There is supposed to be a fourth book in the series. I sincerely hope that the fourth one is the last one because I feel that this story has overplayed itself.
Rating:
Summary: Stan7's Thoughts
Review: This book is very involved. It describes a creature, that some people think is an alien, hidden deep in the Earth that is always trying to destroy it. I enjoyed the book because as it goes on it steadily breaks off into four individual stories. That's what keeps me turning the pages, to see what happens to each group of people. One of my favorite characters in the book is Eric. He is my favorite because he is calm, a leader, and is a great detective. Eric's special power amazes me because it is just like the Ones Before. That's another reason why I like the book, because Eric is down to Earth and tries to have as litttle causualties, even though it is war. But my favorite part in the book is when at the end all of the paths of history start to merge. I like how a book can come together like that.
Rating:
Summary: Vikings, Romans?
Review: This guy needs to write historical fiction. The modern technothriller stuff is good, but, man, I really got into the historical stuff. Falco is intriguing, especially when you consider this guy wrote this before Gladiator came out. I had to check him out and found out his real name is Bob Mayer. I bought a couple of his older books under his own name and enjoyed them also. Anywho. Good book.
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