Islands Out of Time: A Memoir of the Last Days of Atlantis : A Novel

by William Irwin Thompson

Book by Thompson, William Irwin

Genres: Fantasy, Novels, Science Fiction, Fiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

William Irwin Thompson is an American social philosopher, cultural critic, and poet. He received the Oslo International Poetry Festival Award in 1986. He describes his writing and speaking style as "mind-jazz on ancient texts". He is the founder of the Lindisfarne Association.

Reviews

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I could give two and a half stars, that's closer to where I'm going with this review. Good but not too good, sometimes tedious but never tipping over into bad: an uneasy fusion of sci-fi, fantasy and New Age tract.

It's a fine line between a fantasy novel and a religious work; it's not hard to see that Thompson isn't improvising and imagining, so much as putting his own beliefs into a mythic framework. At first I almost put this book down- the opening is too weighted down by the pantheist/New Age talk of crystals and meditation and the cosmic phallus. Luckily, as the plot grows more involved, the characters differentiate themselves from archetype and author avatar, and things become more interesting. Not QUITE the novel I'd hoped it would be, but better than I'd feared it was.

[Jennifer Collins · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book attempts a great deal, but it falls far short of the author's lofty goals. As a reader who's always enjoyed reading about theories of Atlantis and also enjoys novels of all kinds--including both fictional memoir and fantasy--I thought this book would be right up my alley. Instead, I'm afraid I found the first half fairly boring--a sort of new age theory laden narrative that seemed to have little direction--and the second half somewhat more interesting, but not nearly enough. With flat characters, and little touchstone to reality that could make this more interesting in, at least, regard to theories of Atlantis, this book simply didn't have enough drive or narrative to justify the reading experience, let alone make it enjoyable.

Not something I'd recommend, I'm afraid.

[Roger Buck · Rating 2 out of 5]

How I once loved this author, who, it seems to me, traded in his Western Irish Catholic roots for the likes of Eastern Theosophy and Findhorn But I made the reverse journey to Thompson, I traded in my Eastern Theosophy, left Findhorn behind me and went to live in Ireland. I could not have done it however Meditations on the Tarot and today I cannot help but wonder where Thompson's immense intelligence and creativity might have gone had he discovered that book.

My journey from Findhorn to the West via Meditations on the Tarot and grace, sheer grace, is here: http://corjesusacratissimum.org/2013/...

[Carolina Velasco · Rating 1 out of 5]

boring, didn't finish.