BOOK REVIEW

The Atlanteans: A Contemporary Novel
by: Dorothy Cora Moore

Category: Fiction
Publisher: iUniverse, Inc.
Hardcover, 442 pages, $34.95
ISBN: 059566735X

Atlantis has been the stuff of legend for decades. Imagine, an entire continent, an entire civilization that sunk into the sea in a cataclysmic disaster thousands of years ago. Historically unverifiable, this mythical land raises fascinating implications in today’s uncertain climate, both socially and globally. The Atlanteans is a spellbinding novel that deals intriguingly with just these questions.

The drama begins when Teddy Townsend a lawyer, and Ryan Stuart, a brilliant neurosurgeon, enter Teddy’s yacht, the Lady Leah, in a race from Miami to Nassau. That night, they become lost in a violent, mysterious storm. The following morning, still lost, Teddy and Ryan discover an island mostly composed of jagged rocks, and meet the mysterious, wraithlike Polaris, who, in an ancient chamber, introduces himself as a Magi of Atlantis. He warns them that mankind has reached a precarious stage in its development, and that consequences will be severe if it continues down its present path. Things get even stranger when Polaris shares with them a vision in which they view the adventures of two young men who have a lot in common with the yacht racers. As the vision progresses, Teddy and Ryan realize that they are the reincarnations of these two Atlantean characters. Horrified, they witness the sinking of the continent, the lives of multitudes snuffed out due to the machinations of a Hitler-like, evil magician named Merak.

After the Lady Leah is rescued, Teddy and Ryan read a newspaper article about an international committee of bankers with an accompanying photo of someone who looks suspiciously like Merak walking up the White House steps with the President of the United States. Merak’s plans to destroy the world are beginning to take hold, and it falls to Teddy and Ryan to defeat him before it’s too late.

Author Dorothy Cora Moore has created a suspenseful, fun-filled and interesting story in The Atlanteans. Although the plot takes a little while to set up, the story’s pace accelerates once Teddy and Ryan return home to Chicago and decide to take a stand against Merak. The relationship between the extremely neat and uptight Ryan and the more laid-back, family man Teddy is at once touching and hysterical. Add in Teddy’s slightly eccentric family, and the mysterious Mr. Chang, an investigator hired to help them solve the mystery of the current identity and whereabouts of the elusive Merak, and The Atlanteans takes off.

Aficionados of legends will find the blend of humor, suspense and mythology to their liking. The reader will love Teddy’s family, and it is the author’s gift that she makes the reader feel related to a unique and intelligent clan. The Atlanteans’s strong plot, interesting and sympathetic characters, and a storyline rich with the arcane legends of a lost civilization, are guaranteed to keep the reader’s interest well afloat.

Review by: Kathleen Youmans
5-Stars
ForeWord Magazine

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