Atlantis

Mathematicians hated Dan Brown’s novel “Digital Fortress,” claiming it wasn’t realistic enough to be believable. On that basis, archeologists should love David Gibbins’ “Atlantis,” touted as an underwater “Da Vinci Code.”
The cover art, subject matter, and author’s background offer great potential for historical suspense, and clearly Gibbins has the ability to deliver such a story.
Like “Da Vinci,” an ancient puzzle holds clues that point to a civilization considered only mythical, until archaeologist Jack Howard and his team break the code and discover enough facts to lead them on an expedition to find the lost city of Atlantis.
Quicker than you can say “Clive Cussler,” Jack and his team locate the exact locate of the sunken civilization, and fortunately, he and his team are experts in underwater archeology. They have all the latest equipment, miniature subs, robotic cameras, laser-driven cutting torches, sophisticated airlocks, and knowledge of all the current land, sea, and air-based weaponry.
That last bit comes in handy, since all sorts of weapon-toting adversaries are willing to do anything to steal away the find of the century.
If the story sounds a lot like Clive Cussler’s “Atlantis Found,” it may be because it is – the difference being Cussler’s typical over-the-top dialogue, and Gibbins’ writing that reads more like a tech-manual. Every character is an expert who explains everything in detail – Russian submarines, Greek hieroglyphics, Mediterranean hydrology – it doesn’t matter. Everyone gets a chance to stand on a soapbox to spell out what the obscure facts mean to the Atlantis search.
Unfortunately, too much of a good thing tends to work against the result, and while Gibbins writes with the authority of the Cambridge PhD that he is, too much of the novel reads like a professor’s lecture. “Atlantis” might be the perfect text for Marine Archeology 101.

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