Opening Atlantis

by Harry Turtledove

Book Overview

Atlantis lies between Europe and the East Coast of Terranova. For many years, this land of opportunity lured dreamers from around the globe with its natural resources, offering a new beginning for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451461746
• ISBN13: 9780451461742
• Release Date: December 2007
• Publisher: Roc
• Length: 440 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Fun to figure out parallels with "real" history

I found this to be an excellent retelling of the history of the discovery of America setting the eastern seaboard as a continent separated from North America along the Mississippi valley and the St Lawrence, (from the map on the cover). It takes its starting point as the spreading of the word about the cod banks off the eastern coast as early as the mid-fifteenth century. It has been established that the English, French, Breton and other codfishermen had discovered the Newfoundland banks at least by the 1450's, but because they were a source of wealth noone let anyone else know about them if they could help it. Because of the nature of the catch, land bases had to be set up to cure the catch, and it is believed by many historians that those bases would often last for years with the fisherman doing the curing spending several seasons at a time there. If the word of the fishing banks had spread, the English, French or Bretons would have been credited with the discovery of America, and not the Spanish, which would have eliminated Spain's hold on the monopoly to control the exploitation of the new continent sooner. In placing the eastern seaboard separated as its own colony, Turtledove has added the isolation and different flora and fauna on the new continent like the separate evoltionary path found when Australia was settled, along with the problems of introducing non-native species to a virgin ecology. The one thing that would help, as others have noted, would be to have some maps showing Atlantis, at different times in its development. This would also help to show if the cover art is Turtledove's image of Atlantis, or someone from the art department of the publisher's idea.

HT - Book 1 Atlantis Series

Turtledove keeps putting out more and more alt history series...and they are all good. This book is no exception. Tells of different generations of the same family. Book1 of 2 published to date. Next book is US of Atlantis

Atlantis revisited

This is an alternative history of the propagation of English, French and Spanish peoples into the New World, a different New World than our own. His presentation of the process of change over the first several hundred years is interesting, seen through the eyes of those who lived through them. Quite good.

A Fantasy & Alternate History Fan

I am a Harry Turtledove Fan and greatly enjoy his writing and story lines. This was an interesting new twist for Harry and develops well. My only beef with Harry is that he has too many projects going at the same time and has left us waiting long periods of time for sequels. But in his defense, he is a great writer and very productive. I believe fans will enjoy this alternate world he created.