My new year’s
resolution is to definitely read more and get more book reviews published. The first
four reviews of this year date back to my holiday in June last year so it’s high time
to crank up the output on book reading. Anyway, that’s enough about me. Let’s
talk about David Gibbins’ first book, Atlantis.
There’s a
semi-interesting story behind this one. I got a book called Gods of Atlantis from a charity book
thing at work and after reading the opening and doing some research, I found
out that it was the fourth or fifth book in a Jack Howard series. I didn’t like
the idea of starting part way through a series, so I got Atlantis and the two follow up books to bridge the gap.
Atlantis follows the story of Jack
Howard and his buddy Costas as they go in search of the legendary missing city.
What follows is a tale of mystery and intrigue with a beautiful girl thrown
into the mix. Naturally Mr Howard beds the girl, as it seems that all these
sorts of books have to follow the same pattern of male, physically able protagonist
has to bed the girl otherwise it’s not believable? I dunno.
One thing
that came through the narrative a lot was Gibbins’ overwhelming need to explain
everything. There are pages upon pages of exposition with literally zero
urgency as characters will just spontaneously divulge every piece of
information they know about the subject in question. Jack is easily the worst
at this as he seems to know everything. I get that it’s a device to make the story
work but it’s crazy how much he knows about everything and how there is seemingly
time for everyone to stand around talking when there is a race against time to
stop the bad guys destroying Atlantis.
The writing
itself it actually very clean and well done and Gibbins structures his
characters well. While I make fun of the fact that Jack Howard gets the girl in
typical fashion, it’s at least structured in a way that makes it logical and
there is a relationship development piece. This in comparison to Lee Child
where the sex happens because the girl is hot.
In terms of
things that stood out, there was one on page 352 that got my attention. The
sentence talks about how there were low chances against surviving which on a
read back, made me think it was saying there was a low chance of death… which I
didn’t think was the intention of the sentence.
There was
also a reference to ‘one giant step’ which made me cringe as it was a glaring
similarity, and probably deliberate one, to the moonwalk. It just felt a bit
out of place it a book that wasn’t at all cliché at this point.
There was
one minor point when the quest for Atlantis starts by having a camel falling
down a hole to uncover an Egyptian tomb. It’s described as a coincidence… I’m
not sure how a camel falling in a hole and discovering a tomb is coincidence –
more like blind luck. Which is not the same thing.
Atlantis is a solid adventure story and
despite what I’ve said about the explaining, it’s necessary and helped me
invest more in the story as you join the characters in their excitement of
discovery. There is also a lot of action too, but it suffers from the same
problem as other books where it’s 480 pages long and the last 40 pages are
pretty much where everything happens.
Atlantis by David Gibbins was published
by Headline in 2008. RRP £8.99
(Paperback)
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