Jack Howard is a marine archaeologist and along with a number of his friends and colleagues is lucky enough to discover the key to the location of what most people would consider a myth. Unfortunately they’re not the only ones. So the adventure begins with a race to the prize before piracy, terrorism and even nuclear warfare rob the world of a wonderful discovery.

Unfortunately the book was very hit and miss for me. For example excitement would build, the team diving in unfamiliar waters, not knowing what they were going to find and then suddenly the author would give long descriptions consisting of an awful lot of technical jargon and diving know-how, and to a non-diver like myself the whole thing became a little tedious and annoying. I just wanted to know what happened next.

Also a lot of the story line was based on happenstance, the right people being in the right place at the right time with access to the right equipment. The dénouement was predictable too, based again on a twist of fate, so was pretty much of an anti-climax.

As the author is himself a marine archaeologist of some note it seems likely that he may have been hampered by his own expertise. In my opinion an average book, the material was there but unfortunately it wasn’t used to the best advantage. ( )

Pitoyable!

Having read "Crusader Gold" of 2007 before, I thought his first book might be better, but: Disappointing; inconnuous plot with pseudo-historical lessons, endless descriptions of divers gear, revival of the "cold war" of the 70s in the form of Russian mafia, brutality and the leading characters preferred commentary being "Bingo!", this book will not stay in my possession. ( )

What could have been a fantastic read turned out to be dull and boring. I found it very hard to keep turning the pages. I found that the author went too much into detail about artifacts etc and took the reader away from the main plot. ( )

A disappointing read. From the description on the cover, I was expecting a Da Vinci Code type mystery set around the discovery of Atlantis. It got off to a good start. Although the characters were not great, and the plot was a bit unbelievable, the historical puzzle-solving had me hooked.

However, the main bulk of the book was filled with an action adventure with a bunch of terrorists. It was poorly written - far too much overcomplicated description and complicated terminology that simply didn't add to the story and slowed the whole thing down. I had to force myself to finish the story.

If this is the sort of action adventure that you look for in a book, then you may like it. But for history fans like me, it just lengthened the book unnecessarily.

My recommendation: read The Sunbird by Wilbur Smith instead. ( )