Comments on: REVIEW: Atlantis Unmasked by Alyssa Day

By: votermom

votermom — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:58:02 +0000

I haven’t read this but I’ve read the 3 previous Atlantis books, and recently I got hooked on JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series (after getting over my initial wincing over all the random “h”‘s)
Is it just me or are there a lot of parallels in the two series?

By: Irene Chandler

Irene Chandler — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:15:09 +0000

For some reason I thought Anubisa was of Egyptian descent.

Because Anubis is an Egyptian god. (Actually, Anubis is the Greek version of the name, but it’s also the one everyone knows.) And despite being a death god-’with a jackal head-’he wasn’t evil. He was a guardian and a guide, responsible for getting souls safely to Osiris’s domain (heaven, for all practical purposes). It bugs the heck out of me when people assume he must have been a bad guy because he was associated with death. The ancient Egyptians didn’t think that way.

Of course, the Egyptians thought that even destructive gods were a natural part of the universe.

Irene

By: nutmeag

nutmeag — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:10:25 +0000

Thanks, Jane. You confirmed my fears. I <3 Atlantean mythology (Stargate rocks my socks), so I read the excerpt for this one. Even in those few paragraphs, I noticed the info-dumping and switch between modern and old world phrasing. Despite my mythology love, I don't think I could get through the issues this book has. **sigh**

Anyone know of any good Atlantean books?

By: Jane

Jane — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:56:54 +0000

@Laura Vivanco No, there wasn't every reference to such a thing. Grace was a "descendant of Diana" which is a phrase used about 20 times in the book. It was kind of a paranormal soup. For some reason I thought Anubisa was of Egyptian descent. Here from the glossary of terms:

Vampires-'an ancient race descended from the incestuous mating of the god Chaos and his daughter, Anubisa, goddess of the night. They are voracious for political intrigue and the amassing of power and are extremely long-lived. Vampires have the ability to dematerialize and teleport themselves long distances, but not over large bodies of water.

By: Pamela Turner

Pamela Turner — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:26:41 +0000

The Greeks did have vampire legends, though. "Greece is one of the oldest sources for the contemporary vampire legend. Ancient Greek writings record the existence of three vampirelike creatures - the lamiai, the empusai, and the mormolykiai" (The Vampire Book). According to this same source, the Lamia "was loved by Zeus, the king of the Greek gods." Predictably, Hera "took out her resentment by robbing Lamia of her children." As a result, "Lamia retired to a cave from which...she took out her anger by killing offspring of human mothers..."

By: Jackie Barbosa

Jackie Barbosa — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:37:50 +0000

I have no earthly idea how Day handled the mythology/backstory for her book. My suspicion, based on what I’ve read about the plot/storyline is that it would be a wallbanger for me, but that’s mainly because I don’t see Greek mythology going with shapeshifters and vampires and all that sort of stuff very well. But that’s just me. I’m a purist.

By: Laura Vivanco

Laura Vivanco — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:47:09 +0000

Even for gods and goddesses I thought this was really quite rare. In any case, is that how she managed it in the back-story of this book?

By: Jackie Barbosa

Jackie Barbosa — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:36:13 +0000

Even if she was called Artemis, I'd still be wondering how a virginal goddess managed to produce any descendants.

Parthenogenesis aka virgin birth. In Greek and Roman mythology, gods and goddesses gave birth parthenogenically (w/o sex) on a fairly regular basis. In fact, both Athena and Aphrodite were motherless, having sprung directly from the head (Athena) and semen (Aphrodite) of Zeus.

By: Laura Vivanco

Laura Vivanco — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:19:58 +0000

would be losing track of the plot wondering why Diana (a Roman goddess) is thrown into the mix- Atlantis is usually considered pre-classical Greek.

Even if she was called Artemis, I’d still be wondering how a virginal goddess managed to produce any descendants.

By: DS

DS — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:59:33 +0000

I read the plot summary and I knew I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t read something that was just going to annoy me because I would be losing track of the plot wondering why Diana (a Roman goddess) is thrown into the mix– Atlantis is usually considered pre-classical Greek. But I guess that goes with why the heroine has the name Grace (Latin) rather than the Greek form of the name. And Anubisa? Honestly, the Egyptians did not feminize a name by adding “a”.

So I think I’m not going to subject myself to nitpicking the poor book to pieces since the summary alone makes me want to bang my head against the wall.