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Rise of the Ancients #1
Ancient Rising: Rise of the Ancients Book I
A widower is set of on an amazing adventure by a man claiming to be a god. Like Indiana Jones meets Clash of the Titans , follow Dan Ryan through Egypt, Greece, and the Mexican jungle as he unlocks the keys to finding the lost continent of Atlantis and the Gods imprisoned there.
- GenresFantasy
320 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2005
4 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
J.C. De La Torre
15 books17 followersJC De La Torre is a speculative fiction author who lives in Wesley Chapel, Florida - a suburb of Tampa. De La Torre has written two critically acclaimed novels, the Rise of the Ancients saga, and Nightmares from Eberus - A Speculative Fiction collection. He also is a featured columinist for Bleacher Report on Tampa Bay sports.
De La Torre is married to his lovely wife, Rita, and their family consists of their Yorkshire Terrier, LeStat, and their two cats Artemis and Marius.
JC has a passionate love for speculative fiction, especially Science Fiction, Fantasy, Alternate Realities, and the Occult. His writing will include all of these sub-genres as well as other interesting excursions. His fast paced writing style and descriptive narrative has been compared to best selling authors Dan Brown and Clive Cussler. JC's work features action, adventure, horror, a bit of the supernatural, and essentially something for every one
De La Torre is married to his lovely wife, Rita, and their family consists of their Yorkshire Terrier, LeStat, and their two cats Artemis and Marius.
JC has a passionate love for speculative fiction, especially Science Fiction, Fantasy, Alternate Realities, and the Occult. His writing will include all of these sub-genres as well as other interesting excursions. His fast paced writing style and descriptive narrative has been compared to best selling authors Dan Brown and Clive Cussler. JC's work features action, adventure, horror, a bit of the supernatural, and essentially something for every one
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 16, 2015
There is nothing I like better than to explore a good fantasy adventure especially when recorded in stereo to bring the readers experience up close and personal to 'Ancient Rising' in audio book format. A scenic delight that sets sail to far off lands through Mexico, Greece, and Egypt. 'Ancient Rising' is the first installment in 'The Rise of the Ancient Saga' series.
Meet Dan Ryan, the main character who's family tragically died in a car accident and now, he feels that his life is over until an ancient messenger of God named 'Hermes' appears to him. The Gods have chosen Dan to find the lost world of Atlantis. This leads him on an adventurous exhibition to the Greek Islands where Hermes reveals to him the location of the lost ancient tablet. This tablet reveals clues that then leads him and his crew closer to finding the lost city (no spoilers).
A fast paced thrill seeking experience takes us listeners in search for Atlantis that grips a sense of well played imaginative proportion. The extremely talented voices of Joe Bevilacqua has an infectious attitude as he smoothly breaths life into an escapade of non-stop entertainment. Joe sets the scene for a performance of enhanced sound effects with the back drop of music scores that play an important role in this audio drama's success. He is an award winning radio theater personality who really shines with affluence with his unique and creative influence in 'Ancient Rising: Book 1'. Highly recommended.
Meet Dan Ryan, the main character who's family tragically died in a car accident and now, he feels that his life is over until an ancient messenger of God named 'Hermes' appears to him. The Gods have chosen Dan to find the lost world of Atlantis. This leads him on an adventurous exhibition to the Greek Islands where Hermes reveals to him the location of the lost ancient tablet. This tablet reveals clues that then leads him and his crew closer to finding the lost city (no spoilers).
A fast paced thrill seeking experience takes us listeners in search for Atlantis that grips a sense of well played imaginative proportion. The extremely talented voices of Joe Bevilacqua has an infectious attitude as he smoothly breaths life into an escapade of non-stop entertainment. Joe sets the scene for a performance of enhanced sound effects with the back drop of music scores that play an important role in this audio drama's success. He is an award winning radio theater personality who really shines with affluence with his unique and creative influence in 'Ancient Rising: Book 1'. Highly recommended.
May 15, 2009
This novel had such a great idea behind it, but unfortunately it was poorly executed. Besides the numerous spelling and grammatical errors the story progression itself seemed rushed and unimaginative. The characters dove underwater on three separate occasions and are attacked by sealife twice; I mean come on, a bull shark attack I can maybe see happening, but a giant squid?! And then were far too many "ah ha" moments where one of the characters knows exactly were to go. As far as the characters go, they all seem a little flat. They have almost no dimension to them. The only one that has any depth is the main character and the only reason for that is he is narrating what's going on; and even then he's not very consistent (misses/longs for his recently deceased wife and child one moment, in the arms and bed of another women the next.)
I gave this book a chance and actually finished it, but I will not be picking up the next one in this series.
I gave this book a chance and actually finished it, but I will not be picking up the next one in this series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 15, 2011
Ancient Rising is Book One in the Rise of the Ancients Saga and is an Fantasy Adventure Fiction.
On the day that Dan Ryan is visited by the Greek God, Hermes, he is sure he is losing his mind. Recently widowed, Dan believes his grief may be hindering his sanity. As Hermes explains to Dan how the ancient Gods are not dead, but are trapped on the mythical island of Atlantis, Dan is sure he has gone completely crazy.
Having not much left to live for, Dan agrees to head to Akrotiri in order to find a leading Atlantean archaeologist there who would be better able to help his quest. Convincing Professor Theoden Constantopolus wasn't too hard, the Professor needs funding and Dan seems to have an unlimited source of it.
After Dan meets the Professor's granddaughter, Mina, he believes that the journey may be worth the while after all. As their friendship grows, Dan becomes to realize that Mina may have some dangerous secrets and Dan fights his growing attraction to a women so soon after his wife's death.
As the group follow the trails lead by Hermes, they have to uncover the clues at each of the locations, Egypt, Spain and even Atlantis before time runs out. And they are not the only group looking, another archaeology group wants the power and prestige that will come from finding the lost city and nothing will stand in their way to get it.
I thought this was a well presented book. I loved the historical aspects of Atlantis that was shared with the reader and I enjoyed the final location of where Atlantis could be found. I was VERY pleased to see that the author didn't place it in Crete and clearly understood Plato's account and planned its location accordingly. Without ever disclosing a destination; your imagination is left to locate Atlantis.
I had mixed feelings about Dan, sometimes I liked him and sometimes he was unappealing to read. I did not like his romance with Mina, especially when you read how long has passed since his wife's death. It was almost disrespectful in nature. I'm not even sure why a romance was needed in this book, not all books require such and it just didn't work for me.
I was able to predict the outcome of the ending, if you read between the lines one can easily glean the situation that is about to occur. I would have liked to have seen more of Hermes, instead of him popping up just when it was needed.
I liked the suspense and the adventure the author wrote. It kept you turning the pages to find out more and I found it to be an easy read. I read it in a few hours and found it to be entertaining.
I would give this 3 and a half stars out of five. I love the concept of the story and that the setting is Atlantis but I truly had problems with Dan and his "adventures" with Mina. I also had issues with the wisdom and logic that the group incorporated, it seemed to come to quickly and I would've liked to have seen more depth in the explanations and advancements they completed.
If you love Fantasy Adventure then you will enjoy this read and look forward to continuing on with the saga. I know I am looking forward to the next segment and see what the outcome of Dan's choices have left the world to live with.
On the day that Dan Ryan is visited by the Greek God, Hermes, he is sure he is losing his mind. Recently widowed, Dan believes his grief may be hindering his sanity. As Hermes explains to Dan how the ancient Gods are not dead, but are trapped on the mythical island of Atlantis, Dan is sure he has gone completely crazy.
Having not much left to live for, Dan agrees to head to Akrotiri in order to find a leading Atlantean archaeologist there who would be better able to help his quest. Convincing Professor Theoden Constantopolus wasn't too hard, the Professor needs funding and Dan seems to have an unlimited source of it.
After Dan meets the Professor's granddaughter, Mina, he believes that the journey may be worth the while after all. As their friendship grows, Dan becomes to realize that Mina may have some dangerous secrets and Dan fights his growing attraction to a women so soon after his wife's death.
As the group follow the trails lead by Hermes, they have to uncover the clues at each of the locations, Egypt, Spain and even Atlantis before time runs out. And they are not the only group looking, another archaeology group wants the power and prestige that will come from finding the lost city and nothing will stand in their way to get it.
I thought this was a well presented book. I loved the historical aspects of Atlantis that was shared with the reader and I enjoyed the final location of where Atlantis could be found. I was VERY pleased to see that the author didn't place it in Crete and clearly understood Plato's account and planned its location accordingly. Without ever disclosing a destination; your imagination is left to locate Atlantis.
I had mixed feelings about Dan, sometimes I liked him and sometimes he was unappealing to read. I did not like his romance with Mina, especially when you read how long has passed since his wife's death. It was almost disrespectful in nature. I'm not even sure why a romance was needed in this book, not all books require such and it just didn't work for me.
I was able to predict the outcome of the ending, if you read between the lines one can easily glean the situation that is about to occur. I would have liked to have seen more of Hermes, instead of him popping up just when it was needed.
I liked the suspense and the adventure the author wrote. It kept you turning the pages to find out more and I found it to be an easy read. I read it in a few hours and found it to be entertaining.
I would give this 3 and a half stars out of five. I love the concept of the story and that the setting is Atlantis but I truly had problems with Dan and his "adventures" with Mina. I also had issues with the wisdom and logic that the group incorporated, it seemed to come to quickly and I would've liked to have seen more depth in the explanations and advancements they completed.
If you love Fantasy Adventure then you will enjoy this read and look forward to continuing on with the saga. I know I am looking forward to the next segment and see what the outcome of Dan's choices have left the world to live with.
April 2, 2008
Dan Ryan is an acclaimed writer of an apocalyptic series of books. His wife and daughter are his life but writing is his air. Once immersed in his writing all else is soon forgotten. While completing his latest novel, Dan once again was lost in his work when tragically his wife and daughter were killed in an accident. Too late, Dan realized what his family meant to him and became hopelessly lost in grief.
At the lowest depths of his grief, a bizarre series of events began. A strange man claiming to be the Messenger of the Gods, Hermes, insisted that Dan was the key to Atlantis. This man claimed that not only would the writer help find Atlantis but also bring the lost continent back to the surface.
Ancient Rising has a good deal of action, intrigue, and ample twists and turns melded into the story of Dan Ryan coming to grips with his new existence. Finding the lost continent of Atlantis and bringing it to the surface is an extraordinary task but what happens next. I look forward to finding out in the next two books of this trilogy.
At the lowest depths of his grief, a bizarre series of events began. A strange man claiming to be the Messenger of the Gods, Hermes, insisted that Dan was the key to Atlantis. This man claimed that not only would the writer help find Atlantis but also bring the lost continent back to the surface.
Ancient Rising has a good deal of action, intrigue, and ample twists and turns melded into the story of Dan Ryan coming to grips with his new existence. Finding the lost continent of Atlantis and bringing it to the surface is an extraordinary task but what happens next. I look forward to finding out in the next two books of this trilogy.
August 22, 2010
I liked this book and the next one. Imaginative, classic alternate history type stuff, but a fun read. There is one gratuitous sex scene that I found out of place and frankly annoying. I am looking forward to seeing where the series goes!
August 26, 2010
Not a bad story for a free book for my Nook. The only thing I didn't like was that the story stopped in the middle of the story, and you had to start the second book. The second book was free too, though.
July 19, 2017
The book itself was pretty decent. There are aspects that, if nurtured a little more, would have made the story flow more smoothly. The ending seemed a bit rushed, comparatively speaking. But, overall, good. Good enough that I am looking for a copy of the second book, and looking into J.C.'s other works.
The audio book, though. It was hard to get through. I appreciate the fact that he is trying to do a one-man theater version, but Joe was trying way too hard. Using computer modulation for many of the voices, some were extremely high or low, to the point of being unintentionally comedic, and then just annoying. And seriously, Joe...we really don't need sound effects when a couple of the characters were making out.
The audio book, though. It was hard to get through. I appreciate the fact that he is trying to do a one-man theater version, but Joe was trying way too hard. Using computer modulation for many of the voices, some were extremely high or low, to the point of being unintentionally comedic, and then just annoying. And seriously, Joe...we really don't need sound effects when a couple of the characters were making out.
May 26, 2011
When I review books, they always start out with five stars -- and I see what happens from there.
J.C. De La Torre has a fascinating speculative fiction idea, with an author getting involved in an archaeological team studying Atlantis. When Hermes shows up (and speaks some bad, Harry Potteresque fake Latin instead of either the real deal or Greek, which bothered me) and starts providing clues for the team to raise the lost city, things should get interesting.
I really liked the concept of this book, but found myself distracted by poorly rendered dialect (Glaswegian is *difficult,* admittedly, but it is not rendered at all correctly here -- if you can't render dialect, don't try) and some egregious errors of fact in terms of archaeological process (like shining bright lights on ancient documents ... which is destructive).
With a bit more research, this book could have been outstanding. I just had a hard time getting past the issues that bothered me.
J.C. De La Torre has a fascinating speculative fiction idea, with an author getting involved in an archaeological team studying Atlantis. When Hermes shows up (and speaks some bad, Harry Potteresque fake Latin instead of either the real deal or Greek, which bothered me) and starts providing clues for the team to raise the lost city, things should get interesting.
I really liked the concept of this book, but found myself distracted by poorly rendered dialect (Glaswegian is *difficult,* admittedly, but it is not rendered at all correctly here -- if you can't render dialect, don't try) and some egregious errors of fact in terms of archaeological process (like shining bright lights on ancient documents ... which is destructive).
With a bit more research, this book could have been outstanding. I just had a hard time getting past the issues that bothered me.
November 2, 2014
I listened to the 3D audiobook experience and it was definitely an experience, an experience in pain. The narrator used all kinds of weird voices (many of the male characters seemed to be related to Darth Vader) and while some of the 3D sound effects were entertaining most seemed fake and annoying.
I can't say I really liked the story either.
I can't say I really liked the story either.
Read
September 12, 2016DNF
April 14, 2013
not that big of a story
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews