Atlantis Gate By Bob Mayer is very full of action, and is an excellent continuation of his Atlantis trilogy. I would recommend starting at the beginning with Atlantis, then reading Burmuda Triangle, then Devil's Sea, and then this one--Atlantis Gate. The story is far fetched, but hey, this is science fiction! It's a magnificent journey into another realm. I was so captivated, I read it in a few sittings.
In 1962, Poet Robert Frost hears mysterious voices, tries to warn the President Kennedy of the dangers of the Shadow before dying in a mysterious nuclear attack.
In 480 BC, King Leonidas leads his 300 Spartans on a dangerous mission to hold against the Persian army. Accompanying him is a Priestess who has another agenda, to save the world from the Shadow.
In present time, the Shadow is once again threatening the world and Eric Dane must travel to the space between and work with Amelia Earhart to discover how all of these time-lines matter to stop the attack
As improbable as all these plots sound, the author makes it work. Mayer has a particular talent for mixing historic fact with fiction—in this case science fiction. A multi-genre writer, all of Mayer's works are rooted in history, the kind of writing that sends readers like myself back to the history books to read more about the events he describes. His description of the battle of Thermopylae, though fictionalized, provides a realistic view of Spartan life and tactics.
Somehow this author takes all of these time-lines and manages to converge them together in a highly engrossing story. Surprisingly, even with all the times, the book is easy to follow and makes one interested in the actual history of these times. Although a bit far fetched Sci-fi (what Sci-fi isn't?), it still manages to hold my interest four books into the series.
This fourth entry was very well written with a fast paced interesting storyline. The author had numerous characters in various historical times going in severl story lines that merged at the end of the book. The characterization is really quite good for a science fiction action novel. The main character--Dane--is immensely likeable, and he's surrounded by other interesting characters. The parallel story line between the distant past and present made the book even more fascinating to me. There's also plenty of scientific fact and theory interspersed for plausibility.
I did enjoyed reading the book, but with so many characters I found myself lost or confused several times while reading. There are many characters to keep track of and I believe this book builds on previous books, so if you want to read it, I would suggest starting at the beginning of the series.
Overall I thought it was a good book. I like historical fiction (and can't get enough of stories involving Grecian heroes) but the time travel aspect just wasn't doing it for me. I found the book interesting but not enough where I would go back and read other books in the series.