I think I have posted some reviews about some of the books I have read in the past by Harry Turtledove. For those of you unfamiliar with him, he is basically the king of writing alternate histories. His stories are rich with description and a number of primary characters that expose the reader to what might have been no matter what the story is about.

This book is the first in what is expected to be a trilogy that centers around the lost continent of Atlantis. It is broken down into three sections, with each focusing on a different time period in the continent's history. Tying all of them together is the interesting Radcliff(e) family and its various branches.

The first tale focuses on Edward Radcliffe, an successful English fisherman from the town of Hastings, in the year 1673. He runs into a Breton (from Brittany, and independent country from France in this timeline)fisherman who brags about a wonderful fish catch he recently made. After promising to award the Breton a third of his catch upon arrival in the area, Radcliffe trails him to what turns out to be the virtual paradise of Atlantis. It does not take him long to decide that he wants to settle there, and he convinces his family and a number of other English families to join him. They found New Hastings and the basis for future settlements.

Two hundred years later, we lean that the family has continued to grow and prosper even as they have repelled the influence of the repressive British nobility. On the western side of Atlantis, pirates have settled into the beautiful cove of Avalon. As you can imagine, the respectable Atlanteans are not thrille by this, and the Radcliff(e) family is at the core of wdefining what will happen to the future of piracy on the island.

The final section deals with the fact that multiple nations have now settled people on the continent, including England, a now united France, and Spain, and there is going to be a fight for who will eventually gain ultimate control of the continent.

If you look at the book cover, yu will notice an interesting fact about the geography of Turtledove's Atlantis, and considering faultlines, it is one that could have been entirely possible. I wish I had been able to devote more time to reading this because I was really enjoying it, but I was so busy this weekend that I had to do it in fits and spurts. Ultimately, it was worth it, though I can't wait for volume two in the trilogy to come out!