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Women's Fiction
Lost Cities of Atlantis Ancient Europe & the Mediterranean (Lost Cities Series)

Lost Cities of Atlantis Ancient Europe & the Mediterranean (Lost Cities Series)

List Price: $16.95
Your Price: $11.53
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: He casts wide his net, perhaps overly so
Review: David Hatcher Childress has written a series of these books, and in this one, he tends to conflate and expand the Atlantis myth past the bounds of any possible credibility. Now, this is fine for me...I love insane speculation...but for those looking for reasoned, conservative exploration of the Atlantis myth, you might want to look elsewhere than a book that postulates that Atlantis was or is everywhere from Ireland to Turkey. The Hittities, the Harrapans, the Egyptians, the megalithic builders of Malta and the pre-Celtic inhabitants of Europe...it's as if David figures if he claims Atlantis was everywhere and did everything, eventually he'll get it right by sheer thoroughness.

This being said, I loved the book. I was a little sad that he didn't do more with events like the possible Hittite/Mycenaean connection to the Iliad and how that might have played out in the post Santorini Bronze Age Aegean, but that's a mere quibble. Just for postulating that the ancient Celts used a gold disc to fire a laser beam into a barrow, Childress earns my loyal readership. An excellent collection of fancies that may hold more truth than they appear to.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A Source of Disappointment
Review: Despite the careless editing of the previous entry in the "Lost Cities" series (Lost Cities of North & Central America), that book was interesting enough for me want to continue on with the series and buy this latest volume covering the search for Atlantis.

Well...the editing is back up to where it should be, but I find this book to be a bit of a letdown. Having read the entire series, I was already familiar with the rehash of information, and I wish that there was more narrative on the author's actual travel experiences. It also seems that the open-mindedness tinged with healthy skepticism in the earlier books has become less consistent. While David Hatcher Childress still professes to be unsure about some aspects of his research, he clearly has developed a set of beliefs out of the mishmash of theories, philosophies and spiritual concepts that he has studied over the last several years.

On a personal level, the most disappointing aspect is the author's own little holy war: blaming the Vatican as the cause of the Dark Ages and other assorted evils. His tolerance and acceptance of other religions becomes marred by more and more Roman Catholic-bashing as the series progresses. There is no question that the Vatican, like ANY OTHER POWERFUL INSTITUTION RUN BY HUMAN BEINGS, has been responsible for evil and destructive acts over the centuries. However, repeatedly describing the Catholic Church, ad nauseam, solely as an evil entity bent on squashing all the free-thinkers of the world seems like a nyah-nyah mentality better suited to a one-dimensional mind. Then again, as Childress himself has pointed out in earlier volumes, it's sadly easy to dwell on past transgressions and have someone or something to feel superior to...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fascinating quest for Sunken Cities
Review: From Turkey to islands in the Atlantic Childress takes the reader on a
search of sunken cities and the ancient techologies and cataclysms
that marked and struck Atlantis. However, recent evidence demonstrates
that the "island-continent" could not have been contained
within the Mediterranean or even in the nearby Atlantic.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fascinating quest for Sunken Cities
Review: From Turkey to islands in the Atlantic Childress takes the reader on asearch of sunken cities and the ancient techologies and cataclysmsthat marked and struck Atlantis. However, recent evidence demonstratesthat the "island-continent" could not have been containedwithin the Mediterranean or even in the nearby Atlantic.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Research and Recreation - A winning combination
Review: Great adventure. I envy the fun you apparently have while doing some very good research. Don't they call that self-actualization. Congratulations! I'm reading this for the second or third or fourth time. I'd like mo betta pictures if possible, but the information is compellingly accurate and thought-provoking. Keep traveling and writing.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: lost cities of atlantis and ancient europe and mediterranean
Review: i find it very intersting and it's indispensable for every body how want enter in the next century

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Mysterious World Recommended Book
Review: One of Childress' popular "Lost Cities" series, Lost Cities of Atlantis Ancient Europe & the Mediterranean covers the region in and around the Mediterranean Sea, with a special emphasis on cities and mysteries submerged beneath the waters of this vast inland sea. Calling himself a "maverick archaeologist", Childress is more of a researcher, historian, travel writer, and general raconteur rather than a a true academic archaeologist, making general observations based upon library research, study of local myths, legends, and personal anecdotes, as well as actual experiences visiting these sites. Childress is part of a growing trend in historical and archaeological studies towards the rise of independent researchers. These independents are men and women who have developed a distrust for "mainstream" academic archaeology, due to the fact that there is increasing evidence that the academic community is dismissing, ignoring, or even suppressing archaeological evidence that does not fit in with their preset theories. As a result, these independents have dismissed academe as largely irrelevant, and have gone out on their own to examine the evidence for themselves, usually at their own time and expense. It was this kind of passionate search for the truth about history and our origins that motivated similar men of the 19th century to develop the science of archaeology, a passion that motivated people of the 20th century like Childress, unsatisfied by the condescending, pat answers of academics, to take matters into their own hands. Now, in the 21st century, a growing chorus of discontentment with the academic archaeological establishment continues to erode their viselike grip on the truth of our origins, and the independents stand poised to wrest the sword of truth from the hands of those who seem only to be concerned about personal power, privilege, and social status. Lost Cities of Atlantis, Ancient Europe & the Mediterranean is a fascinating read, and a good addition to the Lost Cities series. It should make a great traveling companion for anyone traveling in the Mediterranean region, as well as a great read for the armchair archaeologist, or just someone who enjoys ancient history and mysteries.

Doug Elwell, Publisher
Mysterious World
http://www.mysteriousworld.com

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Entertaining & enlightening "journey through time".
Review: The author travels throughout the Mediterranean, Anglo-Saxon Europe and Africa, as well as the Canary Islands. You feel as if you're there traveling right along with him. OK, he's not always detailed, it's more a travelogue than a scientific examination, but, along with the fun, there's lots of historic information and mysteries I learned about that I didn't know about before. The book stirred up my interest in Atlantis and led me to want to do more study on the subject.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: who's the archeologist?
Review: The book makes a great read, same as DHC's other books of the "Lost Cities" series. Very entertaining, thought provoking, and well written. One thing though: I don't get why the author keeps calling himself "a rogue archeologist": someone has to explain to him what archeologists do. DHC is no archeologist, whatever he might think; he's a traveler, a gossip gatherer, and a free spirit, but all this has little to do with archeology. I enjoyed his open-mindedness, and the relativism with which he judges most of the theories and hypotheses considered. Going through his whole opus, I can't help noticing that this writer is a really great guy, and that his travel companions and friends must have been lucky to have met him, but archeologist? Please, give me a break. And use some proofreader, for the next edition.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A comprehensive overview of Ancient European sites
Review: This book actually covers more than the mediterranean area. It talks about prehistoric ruins throughout Europe and parts of the mid east. Many sites are familiar, but many more are ones the reader may not have heard of; the author has apparently visited them all. He writes with an easy readable style and includes the history, the legends and other pertinent information. Anyone going to Europe who wants to visit ancient sites should have this book, since it will tell you about ruins you may not know about. The author discusses the various theories about Atlantis with impartiality and ultimately gives his own views. But this book is much more than a treatise on Atlantis and the reader will find much food for thought. Childress also includes in the back of the book an extensive bibliography for further reading. All in all, a highly readable and well researched book.


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