Mention My Name in Atlantis
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A courtesan for hire, a brainless hunk, and alien invaders combine to bring about ancient history’s most momentous catastrophe in John Jakes’s hilarious take on the fall of Atlantis For centuries the mystery of the lost continent of Atlantis has intrigued mortals everywhere. Who lost it? Where did it go? At last the truth is out—or at least the truth according to Hoptor the Vintner, respectable Atlantean wine merchant and not-so-respectable pimp. According to Hoptor, the blame for Atlantis’s destruction can be placed squarely on the incredibly broad shoulders of Conax the Chimerical, a none-too-bright, broadsword-wielding barbarian chieftain. Conax washed ashore just as Atlantis’s ruler was losing his health and his grip on the kingdom, creating chaos throughout the island. Now things were really about to go south. All of a sudden Hoptor had a lot more to worry about than how to silence the unrelenting nagging of Aphrodisia, the beautiful, strident prostitute he had promised to marry in a moment of weakness. Now the ever-resourceful, vino-loving procurer of female flesh was being called on to possibly save the world as well as his own skin—which would prove to be no small feat, with Conax mucking up everything he touched in his inimitable fashion. And then there were those strange golden discs flying high above everybody’s heads . . .
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2.5 stars
Hoptor, procuror and nominal vintner to the Atlantean nobility, runs into difficulty with a delivery, difficulty that only increases with the arrival of Conax the barbarian, and some tall, blue-skinned aliens with mysterious ships.
I first encountered John Jakes through his brilliant Secrets of Stardeep, a first-rate young adult SFF story. Some time later, I found On Wheels a projection that's still interesting in the US' auto-focused culture. By that time, though, Jakes had gone on to his highly successful historical novels, and left SFF behind.
Not all of Jakes' SFF was good. Sadly, that's the case with Mention My Name in Atlantis. It's a farce with the best of intentions, wrapping together Atlantis, Conan, and UFOs, with some of the feel of Martin Scott's later Thraxas series. Scott, however, does it better. Mention My Name simply isn't very funny. It has plenty of useful material, but it doesn't build to very much. Hoptor is amusing, but only mildly. The best scenes are those with Conax, when Jakes pokes fun at Howard's over-muscled barbarian king. Overall, some of the scenes are good, but the plot is thin, and the ending an afterthought. It feels like just what Jakes describes in the introduction - something tossed off to amuse himself, but not really worth a larger audience.
Mildly amusing, but Jakes has better books, and Martin Scott's Thraxas series does this same thing better.
NB: Received free copy from Net Galley.
