Jul 8 2009
REVIEW: Atlantis Unmasked by Alyssa Day
Dear Ms. Day
It’s tough for a reader to jump into the middle of a series. Atlantis Unmasked is the fourth book in the Warriors of Poseiden series. Reading the first three was too intimidating in terms of a time commitment. and I fully acknowledge that this book would probably have worked better for me if I had read from the first.
Alexios is a battle scarred Atlantean who fights for Atlantis to be lifted out of the sea. He apparently longs to claim Grace, a leader of rebel forces. Grace was an Olympic caliber swimmer who lost her brother to a vampire attack. She left her training as a swimmer to become a soldier in the human/shifter army.
Grace is no ordinary human, though, she is descendant of the Goddess Diana. (This makes me think that her Olympic status was a little unfair. It would be like allowing the drugged up athletes to compete against the non drugged up athletes).
Alexios is determined not to let Grace know that he wants her until he lets her know that he wants her. Originally I thought he didn’t want to reveal his inner desire for Grace because he wasn’t ready for that move; because he was filled with personal agnst against forming attachments. But then, without any discussion of the why he’s all of a sudden ready to jump her bones, he informs her that he needs a little chat with someone else and then disappears into the mist. Alexios has sworn vows which he thinks impacts his ability to act on his desire for Grace.
There is a great deal of worldbuilding that goes on but often in the form of info dumping. For example, there is a scene toward the middle of the book where the goddess Anubisa, an evil one, appears before Vonos, the head of the vampire contingent, and spouts off why she had she released Alexios and the danger of Justice escaping and the curse that might come to him if he used death magic to escape.
The good thing is that the book moves along. The Altanteans are working hard to make a prophecy come true of having Atlantis rise out of the sea. The goddess Anubis is working to defeat the Atlanteans and Vonos just wants power. The Fae get involved because without humans and shifters, the balance of power will be affected and this adversely affects the Fae.
There are some funny exchanges, particularly between the male characters. One thing really struck me, though, was the inconsistent use of olde worlde language and modern speak. Alexios often exlaims or in his internal monologue "by the gods" or "by Poseidon’s balls" or "what in the nine hells does that mean" or some other Atlantean phrase but in normal dialogue says things like "I wouldn’t mind learning a few of your other party tricks, either. That energy syndrome toss, for example." or "Nice of you to finally make an appearance." or When Alaric pays for something (or tries to) using old gold coins. I felt like these century old people were either indocrinated into modern life or they weren’t and the attempts to straddle both periods were jarring.
At times, I felt that the ongoing storyline that is binding this series together took precedence over the romnance between Grace and Alexios. If a reader enjoys the ongoing storylines this book has a good one. For the romance, though, it’s not as vibrant. I felt like I had been missing part of the emotional conflict that took place between Alexios and Grace and I wondered if it took place in previous books. It’s almost more of an urban fantasy with a romance thread than a true paranormal romance. C
Best regards,
Jane
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Jul 08, 2009 @ 14:59:33
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.
Jul 08, 2009 @ 15:19:58
Even if she was called Artemis, I’d still be wondering how a virginal goddess managed to produce any descendants.
Jul 08, 2009 @ 15:36:13
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.
Jul 08, 2009 @ 15:47:09
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?
Jul 08, 2009 @ 16:37:50
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.
Jul 08, 2009 @ 17:26:41
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…”
Jul 08, 2009 @ 17:56:54
@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:
Jul 08, 2009 @ 22:10:25
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?
Jul 09, 2009 @ 00:15:09
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
Jul 09, 2009 @ 15:58:02
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?