Ancients

Ancients by David L. Golemon
St. Martin's Press, 2008

Mass Market Paperback , 480 pages
Event Group Series #3
ISBN-13: 9780312942861

recommended (if you are reading the series)

Synopsis:

Eons before the birth of the Roman Empire, there was a civilization dedicated to the sciences of earth, sea, and sky. In the City of Light lived people who made dark plans to lay waste to their uncivilized neighbors using the very power of the planet itself. As the great science of their time was brought to bear on the invading hordes, hell was set loose on Earth. And the civilization of Atlantis disappeared in a suicidal storm of fire and water…
Now history threatens to repeat itself. The great weapon of the Ancients has been discovered in the South Pacific, and it is being deciphered by men of hatred who want to unleash hell on Earth once again. This time, it’s up to the Major Jack Collins and the Event Group—comprised of the nation’s most brilliant minds in the fields of science, philosophy, and the military to find the truth behind the world’s greatest unsolved myths—to end the cycle of destruction. Meanwhile, the seas rise, the earth cracks, and entire cities crumble to dust as the evil plan mapped out thousands of years before begins to take shape…

My thoughts:

Ancients by David Lynn Golemon is the third book in his Events Group series. (The previous two Events Group novels are Event and Legend.) This time the Events Group is fighting an organization of mysterious people who trace their ancestry back to Atlantis. This secret organization of Atlanteans has discovered an ancient secret weapon and is using it in an attempt to take over the world.

If you enjoy action/adventure novels that have elements of science fiction, you are likely already reading this series. These novels are all about escapism and entertaining us. Of the three novels, however, this is the weakest. There seems to have been less care taken to follow history and any basis in science this time. The real star is the many armed conflicts with the bad guys. While Ancients does seem much more formulaic than the first two novels in the series, there is a surprise ending this time.

Character development, such as it is, relies on the reader having read the first Event Group novel, Event, since the main characters are developed to a much lesser degree in Legend. In Ancients it is just assumed you know the recurring main characters. It's not a good assumption to make. Additionally, the Atlanteans also lack development and believability as villains. If they already had the influence behind the scenes as written, they could have taken over without their secret weapon.

Setting aside the problems with this third Events Group novel, I would say that Ancients definitely passes the test as an entertaining novel. It would be a good airplane book.

Recommended (especially if you are following the series - not as a stand alone novel)

Event (just the synopsis and quotes)

Legend

Quotes:

13,000 BCE

The council elder sat alone in the darkened chamber. His mind focused on the empire's dire situation and the harsh judgment that history would render upon his great civilization. opening, prologue

"There is a reason why the gods have made he blue diamond so hard to find - it may generate more power to the Wave from the stored energy of light, heat, and the very electricity generated by our very own bodies. As I said, it's uncontrollable." pg. 4

Vienna, Austria: June 1875

"Yes the artifacts were found by you. But you are being shortsighted in thinking this is, but an archaeological find. It is much more than that, can't you see? Give me two years, that is all I ask, then you may go public with what you found in Spain. After all, it was I who led you to the papers of Caesar, without which you never would have narrowed the search enough to find the treasure." pg. 25

Within minutes, word spread over the newswires that an 11.8 earthquake had rocked North Korea, the largest earth movement ever recorded. Immediately calls were sent into North Korea requesting that humanitarian forces be allowed to cross the border and land in ports for assistance to their people. However, the requests from frantic neighbors and other nations of the world went unanswered. They were informed, however, that the Communist military of Kim Jong Il had gone on full alert and division upon division had started to assemble at rallying points near the border.
The first strike of Thor’s Hammer had sounded, and the world was stunned by its power. pg. 52

Finally, the earth became still.
Above, the supposed off- course commercial jetliner turned away after overflying a fifty- mile- long line of recent oil- well excavations that had gone unnoticed in the previous weeks just inside the Iraqi border.
The second strike of Thor’s Hammer was complete, and the chess game had begun in earnest. pg. 55

Housed along with the military and science teams that made up the secretive Event Group were secrets that the world had mostly forgotten or that lived on only in folklore and legend. Behind thousands of banklike vault doors and inches of reinforced steel, the secrets of world history, once buried in time, were studied and cataloged. The charter of Department 5656: to make sure mistakes and civilization-altering moments from the past were never again repeated. pg. 69