Mercenaries of Atlantis

by Nick Cole, Chris Pourteau

Bronze Age Sword and Sorcery meets Military Fantasy in a lost world of long ago…Flying Ace Mason “Mace” Dickson was once a legend among fighter pilots. Now, in his middle years, that storied life is a distant memory—until NASA drafts Mace for a black book flight test. He’s transported to a strange world forgotten by time, where he wakes on the desert sands of a bloody battlefield. In this land, warfare isn’t fought from the skies at a distance. It’s vicious and hand-to-hand, and arcane spells can kill a man just as quickly as spear or sword.

Mace is pressed into service as a slave for the Black Legion, a renowned company of mercenaries under the banner of the splendid Atlantian Army of the West, currently besieging the fabled City of Serpents. The Legion is the tip of the Atlantian spear aimed straight at the heart of the power-mad Thuman Evol, who marshals red sorcerers, armored war-dinosaurs, and a host of grim fighting men to oppose them.

Out of his depth, Mace is trapped in a no-holds-barred contest of gritty grunt infantry, massive war machines, and strange sorcery, where the soldiers, NCOs, and battle captains of glorious Atlantis fight the enemy and sometimes one another for eternal honor, glory, and ultimate power.

In this brutal world, ruthless circumstances force Mace to face at long last his inner demons. Inspiring him to persevere is the burning desire to return to his family for one more second chance at redeeming a life he once surrendered to fading glory and the bottle. But first he must survive the crucible of deadly magicks, backstabbing intrigues, and the utter savagery that is the lost world of Atlantea...

First, Mace must live through hell...

549 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 9, 2025

About the author

Nick Cole is a working actor living in Southern California. When he is not auditioning for commercials, going out for sitcoms or being shot, kicked, stabbed or beaten by the students of various film schools for their projects, he can often be found as a guard for King Phillip the Second of Spain in the Opera Don Carlo at Los Angeles Opera or some similar role. Nick Cole has been writing for most of his life and acting in Hollywood after serving in the U.S. Army.

Reviews

[Daybreak · Rating 4 out of 5]

the book is well written and edited and in it's core tells a really compelling story but it got buried beneath all the little problems that came up.
first, there are so many secondary character povs that is mind blowing and Author keeps switching between them so many times that it just killed the story, specifically when it's about to get interesting BANG! we get a switch and all the adrenaline fades and the thread of interest gets lost specially toward the end of the book.
second, story takes a lot of time to start properly about 40% of the book passed before mc go his shit together and stopped being miserable. it could have been more compressed and on point.
third, any action takes a paragraph instead of a sentence so the whole thing feels bloated and not fast enough so much that I just wished they get on with it and i skipped whole lot of flashbacks to search for the lost thread of interest.
overall score 3.5 this could have been a masterpiece but it's just ok.

[Reid Clayton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary writing duo

It’s hard to recall when a 500+ book went so fast only to realize the reality of having to wait for the next chapter. For fans of war, especially the Vietnam and GWOT veterans, while a fictional place (and perhaps time), the camaraderie, espirit de corps and battle scenes will be all too familiar. The ending of this book and the harbinger for the rest of the adventure will also, be hauntingly familiar. Thank you Wargate Books for being the lone survivor of warrior tales.

[William Newbury · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting story

Cool story. Liked the view do the “rocket man” and becoming a soldier. Would be interesting to be thrown in that situation. From the high, to the low to the mid. I was intrigued.