‘Atlantis Revelation’ has little lasting value

  There are fast-paced thrillers, and then there are fast-paced thrillers — stories that go by so quickly you wonder what the heck happened.
  “The Atlantis Revelation” is one of those thrillers. You can read it during your one-hour lunch break at work (seriously) and completely
forget what happened by the time dinner rolls around. These types of stories are the Skittles of the modern thriller genre. It’s a big,
tasty sugar rush at the beginning, but you’re bonked an hour later. Deeply satisfying and memorable, it is not.
  Since the release of Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” several years ago, many authors have tried to capitalize on the “secret prophecy” story line. The stories usually go like this: A scientist/professor (usually American) tries to reveal a conspiracy and stop the bad guys from unleashing a secret weapon (usually acquired through deciphering a mythical code) that may have catastrophic global implications.
  Some of these stories are good (especially from Steve Berry), but many are not. “The Atlantis Revelation” falls into the latter category. Author Thomas Greanias apparently likes the Atlantis mythology and has incorporated it into his last two novels (“Raising Atlantis” is the first). But this story has so little plot and character development that I found myself yawning and wondering what I was going to read next. Even the “secret prophecy” intrigue isn’t all that exciting. Of course, there are explosions, fights and historical tidbits thrown around like footballs at an NFL practice.
  It’s fun on one level, but it has little lasting value.
  Here’s the story line from the news release sent with the book: “The adventure begins with the wreckage of a sunken Nazi submarine and a shocking legacy of Hitler’s quest for Atlantis. Archaeologist Conrad Yeats discovers in the ruins of the Third Reich the key to an ancient conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of every major government. Suddenly, Yeats is plunged into a deadly race across the Mediterranean, hunted by the assassins of an international organization that will stop at nothing to ignite global Armageddon and revive an empire. And only Serena Serghetti, the beautiful Vatican linguist he loved and lost, can help him save the world from the Atlantis Revelation.”
  ’Nuff said.