“Mention My Name in Atlantis” by John Jakes. Daw Books 25 (1972). Paperback original. Cover art by Johnny Bruck.
“—Being, at last, the True Account of the Calamitous Destruction of the Great Island Kingdom, Together with a Narrative of Its Wondrous Intercourses with a Superior Race of Other-Worldlings, as Transcribed from the Manuscript of a Survivor, Hoptor the Vintner, for the Enlightenment of a Dubious Posterity – “ [Subtitle]
“The continent of Atlantis had troubles enough before Conax the Barbarian washed ashore. For Hoptor the Vintner, who considered himself a citizen of importance, things were going from bad to worse. The king was on his last legs, his generals were plotting, there were those scary lights in the sky, and Hoptor’s favorite girl was being put up for auction on the slave block.
“Then Conax, the self-styled king of Chimeria – a place nobody ever heard of – turned up at the auction with his broadsword, his barbaric manners, and his hair-trigger temper. That was the last straw. From then on Atlantis was doomed!
“John Jakes, author of Brak the Barbarian and many fast-moving novels of past and future, has written an uproarious cliffhanger that even Robert E. Howard would have approved . . . not to mention his legion of readers.” [From the back cover]
This novel by Jakes is a parody of the sword-and-sorcery genre, particularly of “Conan the Barbarian.” It’s a farcical tale about the destruction of Atlantis, as told by an accomplished pimp and con-man, Hoptor the Vintner. The character Conax the Barbarian is described as a “brainless hunk,” a “none-too-bright, broadsword-wielding barbarian chieftan,” whose arrival causes chaos.
The story combines heroic fantasy elements with ancient astronaut theories, including visiting aliens from the world of Zorop and flying saucers, all contributing to the comedic nature of the novel.
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John Jakes (1932-2023) was an American writer famous for both his historical fiction and his earlier works in fantasy and science fiction. He authored 18 consecutive “New York Times” bestsellers and is best known for his epic family sagas that integrate fictional characters with real American history. His style of writing led the “Los Angeles Times” to call him “the godfather of historical novelists.”
Among his best-known works are “The Kent Family Chronicles” (1974-1979), covering a period just before the Revolutionary War through 1890, written to commemorate the American Bicentennial; “The North and South Trilogy” (1982-1987), about the American Civil War that sold millions of copies and was adapted into a popular ABC-TV miniseries; and “The Crown Family Saga (1993-1998), American history in the early 20th century, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
In addition to his novels, Jakes also wrote a widely-produced stage adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”
[Note: We really can’t tell a book by its cover, nor can we pigeonhole the author.]
“Mention My Name in Atlantis” by John Jakes. Daw Books 25 (1972). Paperback original. Cover art by Johnny Bruck.
“—Being, at last, the True Account of the Calamitous Destruction of the Great Island Kingdom, Together with a Narrative of Its Wondrous Intercourses with a Superior Race of Other-Worldlings, as Transcribed from the Manuscript of a Survivor, Hoptor the Vintner, for the Enlightenment of a Dubious Posterity – “ [Subtitle]
“The continent of Atlantis had troubles enough before Conax the Barbarian washed ashore. For Hoptor the Vintner, who considered himself a citizen of importance, things were going from bad to worse. The king was on his last legs, his generals were plotting, there were those scary lights in the sky, and Hoptor’s favorite girl was being put up for auction on the slave block.
“Then Conax, the self-styled king of Chimeria – a place nobody ever heard of – turned up at the auction with his broadsword, his barbaric manners, and his hair-trigger temper. That was the last straw. From then on Atlantis was doomed!
“John Jakes, author of Brak the Barbarian and many fast-moving novels of past and future, has written an uproarious cliffhanger that even Robert E. Howard would have approved . . . not to mention his legion of readers.” [From the back cover]
This novel by Jakes is a parody of the sword-and-sorcery genre, particularly of “Conan the Barbarian.” It’s a farcical tale about the destruction of Atlantis, as told by an accomplished pimp and con-man, Hoptor the Vintner. The character Conax the Barbarian is described as a “brainless hunk,” a “none-too-bright, broadsword-wielding barbarian chieftan,” whose arrival causes chaos.
The story combines heroic fantasy elements with ancient astronaut theories, including visiting aliens from the world of Zorop and flying saucers, all contributing to the comedic nature of the novel.
--------------------------------------------------------
John Jakes (1932-2023) was an American writer famous for both his historical fiction and his earlier works in fantasy and science fiction. He authored 18 consecutive “New York Times” bestsellers and is best known for his epic family sagas that integrate fictional characters with real American history. His style of writing led the “Los Angeles Times” to call him “the godfather of historical novelists.”
Among his best-known works are “The Kent Family Chronicles” (1974-1979), covering a period just before the Revolutionary War through 1890, written to commemorate the American Bicentennial; “The North and South Trilogy” (1982-1987), about the American Civil War that sold millions of copies and was adapted into a popular ABC-TV miniseries; and “The Crown Family Saga (1993-1998), American history in the early 20th century, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
In addition to his novels, Jakes also wrote a widely-produced stage adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”
[Note: We really can’t tell a book by its cover, nor can we pigeonhole the author.]