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Opening Atlantis (Atlantis, #1)
by Harry Turtledove
by Harry Turtledove
This is really three stories in one. Like Michener's epics, the book tells the story of the formation of an island's society by telling a series of stories about people discovering and living on the island. All the stories feature a main character from the Radcliffe (or Radcliff in some cases) family descended from the original main character.
The first story worked well for me. It is about a 15th century English fisherman who learns of a new land to the west from a Breton fisherman, and settles there. It's an alternate version of the way America was settled, enabled by the fact that the new land was in the middle of the Atlantic and so much more accessible than America really is.
The second story takes place a century or so later and centers around a group of pirates on the western coast of Atlantis and efforts by the English settlers to eradicate them.
The third and last story in the book brings us up to George III's reign, with a war against France (and against the French, slave-owning settlements in Atlantis).
I felt that as each of these stories came along the tale of Atlantis became more and more like the tale of the real US. Although the first two stories were directly tied to the fact that there was this new land in the middle of the Atlantic, the third could have just been set in colonial America that we know today.
In the next book, which I doubt I'll read, the colonies rebel against England. It sounds like it is just going to continue that trend.
Another thing that bothered me a lot about this book was the racism and sexism. Now maybe the author is just trying to reflect the society he depicts, but there is one main character in the last story, a freed French Atlantean slave named Blaise, who is often referred to by his skin color, and although he's depicted as being very smart, it seems to be that he is so in spite of his skin color, implying that the rest of the blacks aren't. And as for women ... this book completely fails the Bechtel test. Coupled with Turtledove's tendency to repeat himself unnecessarily, I can't recommend this book to anyone.
The first story worked well for me. It is about a 15th century English fisherman who learns of a new land to the west from a Breton fisherman, and settles there. It's an alternate version of the way America was settled, enabled by the fact that the new land was in the middle of the Atlantic and so much more accessible than America really is.
The second story takes place a century or so later and centers around a group of pirates on the western coast of Atlantis and efforts by the English settlers to eradicate them.
The third and last story in the book brings us up to George III's reign, with a war against France (and against the French, slave-owning settlements in Atlantis).
I felt that as each of these stories came along the tale of Atlantis became more and more like the tale of the real US. Although the first two stories were directly tied to the fact that there was this new land in the middle of the Atlantic, the third could have just been set in colonial America that we know today.
In the next book, which I doubt I'll read, the colonies rebel against England. It sounds like it is just going to continue that trend.
Another thing that bothered me a lot about this book was the racism and sexism. Now maybe the author is just trying to reflect the society he depicts, but there is one main character in the last story, a freed French Atlantean slave named Blaise, who is often referred to by his skin color, and although he's depicted as being very smart, it seems to be that he is so in spite of his skin color, implying that the rest of the blacks aren't. And as for women ... this book completely fails the Bechtel test. Coupled with Turtledove's tendency to repeat himself unnecessarily, I can't recommend this book to anyone.
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