Review - Mention My Name in Atlantis by John Jakes
John Jakes is best known for his historical fiction. Back around the time of the American Bicentennial, his Kent Family Chronicles were bestsellers. Big, thick books chock full of encounters with famous personages, colorful characters, sex, violence and vivid descriptions of the tastes, smells and textures of America's past, the series comprised eight volumes when all was said and done. The original intent was to chronicle the adventures of the Kent Family, whose progenitor, Phillip Kent nee Phillipe Charbaneau, was the illegitimate son of an English lord, from Phillip's immigration to the American colonies through the Bicentennial celebration of the United States in 1976. Jakes didn't quite get that far. The adventures end, as I recall, before the Great Depression. Still, the series was an impressive accomplishment, and Jakes is a master of descriptive storytelling and quirky characters. The Kent Family Chronicles was made into three syndicated TV movies, and his later, unrelated Civil War series, which began with North and South, touched off a highly-rated network mini-series about ten years later.
Before he hit it big in big, fat historicals, though, John Jakes wrote westerns, science fiction and fantasy (specifically sword & sorcery) in thin little packages. I stumbled across one such thin little package at my favorite used book store back in October, and finally sat down to read it right before the stress of three conventions in a row turned my brain to corn mash, which my nephew and some of his friends then scooped out and distilled into whiskey.
Mention My Name in Atlantis was originally published in 1972, replete with cover art depicting a naked redhead astride a tentacle, looking down as a hooded executioner waves an axe in her general direction. I didn't get this cover, more's the pity. It has only a tangential relationship to the contents, but it's impressive as a piece of exploitation and objectification, anyway. The cover on my copy is one designed to attract readers of the Kent Family Chronicles, with one stalwart blond hero staring nobly out at the audience, as did the protagonists of each volume of the Bicentennial saga. He's flanked by a vaguely Mediterranean-looking oily character and a beautiful woman. It's less interesting than the nude redhead, but it probably sold a lot of books to fans of the historicals.
This book, however, shares very little with Jakes' more celebrated works. Not that it's not a perfectly enjoyable little story, but it's told too quickly to allow Jakes room to develop the texture of his narratives. It leads me to believe that Jakes is an artist who needs a big canvas in order to really show his talent. There are only two characters herein with any real personality: Hoptor the Vintner, the narrator of the piece, and the aged king of fabled Atlantis. Neither are people I would invite to sit opposite me at a table where I was conducting job interviews, but at least they had personality. The stalwart hero on the cover is Conax of Chimeria, a barbarian king from a northern country who is shipwrecked in Atlantis, and hates it there. The beautiful woman is Hoptor's employee, a "vintner" being a clever word for "pimp" in Atlantis. She wants to quit working and marry Hoptor. No one's quite sure why, least of all the Vintner himself.
As Hoptor begins his narrative, Atlantis is still dry land, and they have a culture he's proud of. Everyone in the city owes Hoptor favors, and he enjoys doing more favors all the time, so that the list of those who owe him continuously grows. The books title comes from the fact that Hoptor repeatedly tells acquaintances to "mention my name," wherever they're about to do business, because everyone knows and owes him. Hoptor seems well aware that he has little redeeming social value. He measures his worth by the number of people who come to him because they need a deal brokered.
But Hoptor runs afoul of the authorities, illustrating how vulnerable one is in a political climate ruled by what Ayn Rand called "the Aristocracy of Pull." He loses his prized best courtesan and falls into the company of Conax, after which he, the girl and the barbarian are all arrested and sentenced to death. Then the aliens land.
As they do.
The aliens are perfectly nice, um, people, who are just looking for more of their "sacred fuel" to power their spaceship and take them home. SPOILER ALERT: The sweet, purple liquid which powers their ship turns out to be wine. Hoptor brokers yet another deal.
My only real complaint about this fun little story, aside from not being long enough for Jakes or a regular Jakes reader to sink his teeth into, is that Conax is pretty much a piece of furniture. He just doesn't get to wreak enough havoc. When the book s dedicated to Robert E. Howard and features "Conax the Chimerian," I expect more of a Conan parody than this story actually delivers. Apparently, in a review, Lester Del Rey said he was against the entire idea of humorous sword and sorcery. Frankly, I don't think any other kind would hold my interest. I can't even make it all the way through a Gor book.
A good piece for Jakes completists, and anyone looking for a light adventure with the trappings of myth.